July 11, 2009 Georgian Bay

Well, we didn't get to the North Channel, bad weather. Is it July in Canada? The weather has been bad, probably one of the worst months of July in the last 20 years.

The first picture is Shirley painting, she spent about 10 hours in that one spot. I warned her about pulmonary thrombosis and she started exhibiting symptons at about hour 9. She is ok now.

We got as far as Killbear Marina, near Parry Sound and stayed for 3 days due to high winds. From there we went to Henry's Fish Restaurant and stayed for 2 days and then headed back to Victoria Harbour with a stop at Frying Pan Bay.

Even on a boat with limited storage, Shirley made me wait for her to get dressed. Oh well.

The last 2 pictures show Shirley and more of her artistic pursuits, painting the name of our boat on our dinghy. DASUS is made up of the first letters in our children's names, David and Susan. She used her own "happy font". Very nice.

July 9, 2009 Preparing for Bay Port Rendezvous

We are planning on joining a group from Bay Port Yachting Centre that will travel from Midland to Killarney with numerous stops along the way. There is an information meeting on July 10 with departure planned for July 11.

Mar 6, 2009 Punta Gorda to Toronto

Alas, my Florida boat trip is over. I am flying from Orlando to Toronto. The check in was the most efficient I have ever seen. Just gave them my passport and they took my luggage at the curb and gave me my ticket.

The weather is again beautiful. No pictures because there is nothing interesting, just highways and airports. Oh but wait, upon reviewing yesterday's pics, I noticed that the small boat with the bird might be interpreted as showing a fake bird. Here is another pic taken as the bird got a little spooked. It did not leave the boat, just flapped its wings to maintain its balance.

We didn't get to Stuart Florida as originally planned but I got a good feel for traveling parts of the Great Loop. Not so crazy about the rivers and the Gulf Crossing. If Shirley and I take a long boat trip, it still might be the Loop or maybe just going down the East Coast to Florida and then across to the Bahamas or maybe we will just cruise in the lakes in the summers. Time will tell.

In the meantime, it will be good to get back home, to all the things that I am familiar with. And with the weather starting to warm up, I should be able to get our boat ready for Georgian Bay in April. Toronto in the Spring time, ahhh.

Mar 5, 2009 Punta Gorda Florida

Another beautiful day.

The sunset is from yesterday.

The mast on the sailboat has a visitor, how did he get up there?

I played golf today, the course was much better than the last one. Take a look at the picture, they use a pond for their driving range.

The small boat has a visitor, a small bird that stayed on the boat for the whole time that I saw it. I don't know if the people on board knew about it or not but it was definitley not a pet.

The large blue boat is a 61' Marlow Explorer. Very nice.

Mar 4, 2009 Venice to Punta Gorda Florida

Beautiful day on the water, calm and sunny. More dolphins (I could almost touch them), birds and boats. The birds are Ospreys. The boat is an expensive and very fast Viking Sportfisher, notice the lack of railings on the bow, these guys are macho. The best photo is of the discarded crab pot. Pam and I are making good progress with our campaign to save the crabs. People are getting the message and cutting way back on their crab consumption and the crab killers are just dumping their crab pots rather than recycling them or getting rid of them properly. They are very bad men, very very bad men.

Ok Doris and anyone else, find the quote and where did it come from?

Mar 2-3, 2009 St Petersburg/Venice Florida

Played golf with John yesterday and arranged for my flight back home on Mar 6.

Shirley was stuck inside of Charlotte with those T.O. blues again. She had to sleep on the floor of the airport and wait for standby flights. Not a good end to a very nice trip.

Just a lot of scenes of traffic today plus a picture of some of the homes on the intracoastal waterway. These are not the biggest or best homes but they are so numerous along this stretch that I included them. Also, a person could get some good sitting done at any one of them.

Do you know the song that is (cleverly) hidden in the above?

Mar 1, 2009 St Petersburg Florida

There seems to be a Manatee living near the boat at the St Petersburg Municipal Marina. It is a big one and it has barnacles on its back. Yech.

Dropped Shirley off at the airport and she handled her ticket using the e-ticket facility and then she connected to the airport wi-fi using my laptop. Shirley is computer literate.

On the way back to the boat, I played golf at a local Muni in Tampa. It only cost $24 including a power cart. Too good to be true? Yes, it was a cow pasture. Won't do that again.

Feb 28, 2009 St Petersburg Florida

The church I referred to yesterday is shown in one of the photos. It is octagonal which is unusual for a Catholic Church.

And now friends, I have a special treat for you. We have a guest blogger who may be known to you. Please welcome the lovely Shirley Fish. She has been here for a week and is really enjoying the weather. She will be leaving tomorrow so this will be her only contribution. I'm sure it will be memorable.

Thank you for that kind introduction Fred. I am most honoured to be given this blog writing opportunity! Today we experienced some of the cultural wonders and fun activities of St. Petersburg. We said goodbye to our visiting manatee and took the $.25 trolley to each event. We started at the Saturday morning market in the famous baseball Al Lang Field where I hid out in the batik booth while Fred encouraged people to boycott the crab killers. Then, Susan, we moved quickly to the Museum Of Fine Arts to see the amazing works of such painters as Renoir, Monet, Rodin and American works by Whistler, Inness and Wyeth among others. Here we also enjoyed Albrecht Durer's works which included "The Rhinoceros (1515)". The Salvador Dali Museum beckoned us to see Dali's paintings inspired by my friend Freud and his artistic fascination with the female form and the spiritual power of women. We also saw his hanging egg womb painting.

Lunch at Grazzi and a tour of the aquarium completed a busy day. I shall miss my time in Florida and the wonderful warm weather, but I look forward to Fred joining me at home shortly.

Feb 27, 2009 St. Petersburg Florida

Just 2 photos today as I have some important info to report. Very unusual tree in one and the other is a public restroom. Why you ask. Well, the builder was involved in a dispute during the construction of a church, St Marys. He was quite upset and unable to get satisfaction through negotiation or the courts. He got his revenge by buying up a piece of property and building a smaller version of the church to be used as a public restroom. It became known as St Johns.

Now for the important issue. You may have noticed that I have been including clever slogans at the bottom of my blogs for the past few days. "Save the Crabs", "Don't eat the Crabs", "Crabs are bottom feeders" etc. The reason for this is that if you eat crabs, people will fish for crabs using crab pots. Crab pots are little cages that the crabs crawl into and can't get out of. The pots or cages sit on the bottom of the Gulf attached to a rope or line with a small buoy or float so that the crab killers can find their cages. There are literally thousands of crab pots in the Gulf. It makes it very difficult to navigate, you have to avoid the crab pots or you could get one tangled up in your props and then you are dead in the water. This could result in an expensive and dangerous tow and/or expensive repairs to props, shafts, struts etc. Crab pots are not good. You may think that I want you to stop eating crabs just to make it easier to go boating. Wrong, I am a friend of the crabs. Most people don't care about crabs because they are ugly. Not me, I care about the crabs. If crabs were as cute as baby seals, there would be a huge outcry against crab pots, but oh no, crabs are not cute and nobody cares. Well that is all about to change. I have been in touch with Pamela Anderson and she and I are going to launch a major campaign to "Save the Crabs". Get on board now, you don't want to be on the wrong side of this one.

Feb 26, 2009 Tarpon Springs to Clearwater Beach Florida

Wonderful day on the Gulf. A few derelict boats, some white sand beaches at Clearwater Beach, some very nice sand dunes and birds waiting for food. They will put up with very close contact with humans for food.

Crabs feed on the bottom, don't eat crabs.

Feb 25, 2009 Tarpon Springs Florida Part 2

High tide made it a bit difficult to get on and off the boat. Jump Shirley, jump.

Another shot of a Pelican on the piling next to the boat and a shot of the sponge dock area.

Crabs have feelings too.

Feb 25, 2009 Tarpon Springs Florida Part 1

Hi Mom.

Tarpon Springs claims that it is the sponge capital of the world. At least it is a little more civilized than some of the other places we stopped. There are a couple of views from John's boat, one from the cockpit and one from the bow.

Don't eat the crabs.

Feb 24, 2009 Crystal River to Tarpon Springs Florida

Another bird, another Dolphin, ho hum. Really, they are very interesting.

I have included a few photos of the (my) lovely Shirley. My daughter will get mad if I use "my". In one, Shirley doesn't quite get the "I'm the king of the world" pose and in another she is looking pensive while looking at the Gulf, on the flybridge.

Because of low tide, we were forced to leave at 11 AM which meant that we would arrive in Tarpon Springs after dark, something we wanted to avoid. But Shirley saved the day with her very clever use of the spotlight. She's the best.

"Save the Crabs"

Feb 23, 2009 Crystal River

Started the day with a visit from Mr. Murphy, he was very interested in the outboard engine on the dinghy. You can see John working on it. We made a few trips to various shops and finally John made what we hope will be the necessary repairs while I went to the airport to pick up the lovely Shirley.

There is a pencil fish in one of the photos, no explanation necessary.

A Great Blue Heron that I met in Georgian Bay visited me and posed for a photo.

And as I promised, I have better photos of the Manatees.

Life is good.