We are waiting at Naples for the Gulf winds to die down.  Saturday was a bit on the windy side.  According to the weather reports, the winds were gusting at 20 miles an hour. Even docked in a marina we still hear the winds howling and feel the boat moving a bit.  Me… I went and got my hair done; then we went out for lunch. It is funny, we always stumble into things. Today it was a farmers market.

I took this photo for Brian & Melanie They have a bee farm in Ohio. This honey made me think of you two.

This market had it all, baskets of shrimp, Star fish, Grouper, Lobster. Some even came along with a Christmas bow on them. LOL

I went to Gloss Salon here in Naples. I had an appointment with Nadia Aleksen Hair Designer. She was just amazing. And the Salon was so bright & clean.  I had a cup of tea whole she processed my hair.  I was so happy when I left. 239-263-8050 The price was not bad either. I paid the same I would have in Michigan. Nadia wrote down the product she used. So when I go to get my hair done again, the next stylist will know what product I am using.

We had lunch at Jane’s Restaurant.  But it was really breakfast for us.

 

On Sunday, we were able to take the jet ski out on the Old Inter-coastal Waterway.  It is just to shallow for Beauty. We will have to take the Gulf from now on.  The sad thing is yesterday we saw two dolphins one had its fin bend over the other one looked like it had been through a prop of a boat.  That is so sad. We found a beach on the ICW. On the other side of the beach was the Gulf. all within walking distance. It was a bit chilly. With the winds, we had to wear wet suits.

As the day went on more and more boats came out. Theses two pontoon boats provide various delights from soda pop to beer to food. I had a Grouper fish sandwich and Bryce had a hotdog. LOL

We found a small sand crab walking sideways.

We explored a bit and drove the jet ski over to Marco’s Island to check-out the buoys and entrance way into the cut. We are planning to go to Marco Island tomorrow if the winds settle down.  It’s time to get moving again.

After getting back to the City Docs. Bryce put new dutchmen lines on Beauty and adjusted the brushes on the autopilot actuator.  We then  headed into town to get an ice-cream. I got one scoop of butter pecan and Bryce got a waffle cone with chocolate ice-cream. We then strolled down to the beach to walk on the pier. As soon as we hit the beach my shoes came off my toes needed to feel the sand between them. LOL

As we approached the pier I suggested we put our shoes back on. I am scared of fish hooks getting caught in my feet. When I was a young girl that happened and it did’t feel good. Now, get this….Bryce caught a fish hook in his shoelace as we were walking.

I have to leave this town.. After that ice-cream we stopped to have a pizza. It’s funny; we keep searching for a thicker crust pizza and just cannot find one. Thin crust is just too thin down here. It’s like just eating the toppings without a crust. We found this Italian restaurant Barbatella. Awesome friendly waiter he was great.

Happy Holidays….from us to you🌲

 

I couldn’t believe my eyes, let me start from the begining. Bryce asked me if I wanted to walk into town to get an ice-cream.  Hum..that sounded so good. He took my hand and off we went for our evening delight. It was a short dark walk along the sidewalk to town. I was getting a bit worried that just maybe there was no night life here. We kept walking. Finally we could see the lights. As we approached main street, we both looked at each other and started laughing. It was eye-opening beautiful. People gather from all over to see the city streets fill with SNOW….Yes..I mean snow…LOL Above all the street lights they had snow makers. It was so pretty to see. People danced and kids made snowballs bands played.  It was an exciting night.

OH.. little town of Bethlehem comes to my mind when I look at this pic…

It is hard to believe that this snow is the only snow some children have ever seen.  Actually.. the snow is very fine bubbles.  Light and fluffy.

The music was good. I enjoyed watching the dancers.

We found an ice-cream place. The calories.. Oh… No…But yes, my fitness Pal Friends.  It was a bit much.. but the lemon ice cream added an odd flavor.  Bryce’s waffle cone was scrumptious.

We had the opportunity to meet some great new friends. It all began when Jeff started asking me about my great looking desert. He even offered to get a spoon and share it. I just laughed. That is how our evening went with the  4 of them. They were just a joy to spend time with. Jeff & Sheri Ponyslo and Tom & Bev Carocci. We had a great time with you. Thanks!!

After over ice-cream we had to get some more walking time in to wear off the calories. The snow machines ran out but the lights were fantastic.

Back at the City Doc Marina we took a few minutes to enjoy their lights also.

We have been missing our jet skis.  And exploring on a 5 mph dingy is excruciatingly slow.  So earlier, that morning  we took a 15 mile bike ride and ended up at Florida MotorSports. We spoke with a young man by the name of Jared Hamilton. He was so pleasant to talk to. Not knowing what to do for Christmas, we decided to buy a Sea🐬Doo Jet-ski. They delivered it to the launch ramp next to the city docks.  We decided to get only one right now because we have to tow it behind the boat. Now we can do some exploring!!!! Merry Christmas Honey😘💨

We can’t thank you all enough for sharing our dream with us.

Merry Christmas to you and your families🌲

We made it to Naples!! Across the Gulf. It was an awesome day. We saw sea-turtles , dauphines, and Lots and lots of crab pots. No joke.. was like sailing through a maze of tiny buoys. LOL   We ended up with winds from the south at 5-10 miles an hour. Almost no waves.  Wind was on our bow/nose; so the sails stayed down. We could of tacked but we were told by Boat US we needed to be in the channel by 4 or pass by Naples by due to the Tide switching direction. We figured we better not play around. Tow Boat US told us to watch out for depth… stay to the right near the red buoys..  to stay away from shoaling on the green side. We had 10 feet coming in. That was perfect!  Here is a picture coming up to the Fort Myers Beach bridge headed out to the Gulf.

Two guys were watching us pass under the bridge it was 65 feet and we are 60 Feet you could hear one guy say “Holy- Sh#t” I think they thought we were going to hit.

The birds are waking up…  They are stretching their wings.  Another picture of the bridge.

Bryce was looking over the side of the boat when  he noticed a sea turtle.

We were visited about 4 times by the dauphins. They always make me grin.  Here we see his tail as he dives down.

Here is a photo of the tiny crab pots buoys.

I didn’t realize I needed to put on sun tan lotion and sun burned my belly.  It was so calm, it could be Lake Erie on a windless day.

Yeah… He has on his lotion.

Here is the Channel headed into Naples. Bryce hailed a charter boat coming out of the channel in regards to the depth and where to go.

We had an hour ride after arriving into the channel to get into the City docks where we are staying. We had a slip until the 27 of Dec, so we could/might stay and celebrate Christmas here. The question is can we mentally stay here that long. LOL

I was so proud of my husband today! After we pulled in, we needed to get diesel fuel; so he fueled up.  The lady on the docks gave us our slip and said  maybe you should go bow it in. Bryce went and looked at the dock. It was one that the dock is a finger dock. We needed to go stern in or I would not be able to get off the boat. She said that she would meet us here to help us. That was nice. As Bryce was going in to the dock. She said I see you must have a bow thruster. I said nope. She said I see.. twin engines?? I said nope.. Just a Husband who knows what he is doing.  It was a tricky maneuver in close quarters.

After we settled in, we took our bikes out and headed into town. We found this nutcracker now, I don’t know witch one is the nut!!LOL

This tree is so pretty

A man was driving around with a deer head next to him dressed like Rudolph.

I just love Palm trees.  They are all over.

We went out for dinner and had a pigeon cross over my feet.LOL I relaxed with a strawberry daiquiri.

Another day full of sun…..Winds are blowing from the East today but will blow from the South at 15 knots tomorrow.  So our anchorage needs to protect us from the south winds. Staying in the channel is important. Here is a good idea how shallow it is on each side. I noticed this sand bar with the local birds enjoying a day at their beach.

We were just enjoying our day when out of the Mangroves on our port side came this car ferry backing into the ICW. It sure is a good thing Bryce can maneuver this boat or they would have taken out our bow!

The sad part is the ferry only turned to the other side of the cannel to let the cars off. Maybe 200 feet. The captain really needs to pay attention. Another boat might not of gotten out of his way.

The homes seem to appear out of top of trees and around the corners on this route. I think the one with the mint green top in the center is my favorite here. When they finish building it will be nice. We also noticed a lot of the houses have shades over their windows to kept the sun out.

Well, we made it to Boca Grande Bridge. This is another swing bridge, but if you look closely it is two swing bridges together. They only have to open the lower one if the boats are low enough to fit under the second bridge.  We are much too high.  The issue we had was the first bridge: the light gray one on the bottom, only opened partially.  Hardly leaving room for a wide of a boat to go through. It is a good thing they have a South bound and north bound side.  

This is what the Boca Bridge looks like when it’s open. Although it looks like a enough room it has no room for errors. The lower bridge could take out one of our speaders.

Looking backwards a smaller sailboat followed us through.

Looking in front of us their was a third bridge!  Quite narrow, but this one has had its center removed so boats can go through it. It looks like they are leaving it here for a fishing pier.

We anchored at Punta Blanca Island near Boca Grande Pass just off the channel. The Depth was 10.5 high tide and 9 low tide. We were protected from the south winds.

Ding Darling Bay

The following day we headed to “Ding Darling Bay” near Fort Meyers Beach. What a nice place to anchor. We anchored in 10.5 feet and never saw less the 7.5 feet during the low tide. We spent two days here waiting for the right winds to cross the Gulf again. Out mast is to tall so we cannot go any  further in ICW at this point. We need to make a 30 mile crossing to Naples Florida.

I am at the helm again. Bryce is pulling up anchor to head to the Ding Darling Bay.

 

While Cruising the GICW we were passed by the Lady Chadwick vessel.  They are looking for dauphines. They waved and talked to us for a few seconds.

We had to pass under power wires a bit scary but they are a 100 feet tall so there is plenty of room.

Our sunset after anchorage in the Ding Darling bay. 

The next morning after work we explored in the dinghy. The water was clear in the shallows.

Boy oh Boy the fish just don’t stop jumping. And the birds nose dive right into the water. It is so funny to see. I only caught one jumping but most f the time 20-30 fish are jumping and the birds like to fly over them and pick out there dinner.

Look at the birds causing the fish to jump.  When the birds flew low over the water, the fish would jump up!! So strange..

 

It’s to bad Bryce doesn’t eat fish.

We dingyed into the mangroves and noticed birds resting in the shade.

We noticed the Star fish under water.

Look how big these birds are. I could ride on one they are so big.

Well we are headed back to Beauty now.

Our shadows silhouette the sand under the water.

Fort Meyers Beach

Great anchorage! Well it has been eight days at anchor. Now time to head in and get supplies. We are headed to Naples in the morning.

Boy, I would have to call today a day of bridges! Another day of sunshine. We pulled up anchor from Little Sarasota Bay and headed into Lemon Bay. We came upon our first swing bridge Blackburn Point Swing Bridge it opens on signal. We only waited a few minutes for the Bridge Master who was a young women to open the bridge. When I first noticed the bridge opening my heart started pumping out of my chest. I could see a person standing on the bridge that didn’t make it across before the Bridge master open the bridge. As we motored closer, I then realized the Bridge master was opening the bridge from upon the moving bridge itself.

The current was a tad strong going through here our speed dropped a by about 2 mph. I turned to watch the swing bridge close and noticed the cute Standup boards and other things (on the left) one could rent here if they wanted to enjoy the water playground.

It is just amazing how our view changes as we past under or through each bridge. You can see how strong the breeze is today by looking at the palm trees. 16 knots today on the GICW.

Instead of boring you all with all the photos here is a list of the bridges we went through.

Bridges

• Blackburn Point Swing Bridge : Opens on Signal
• Casey Key (Albee) Bascule Bridge: opens on Signal
• Hatcheet Creek –Bascule Bridge: On the hour and every 20 minutes
• Venice Ave-Bascule Bridge: Open on signal and on the hour & half hour
• Circus (Tamiami) Bascule Bridge:Opens os Signal
• Manasota Beach Bridge Bascule Bridge: Opens on Signal

This is Pelican Alley: Just passed the Casey Key Bridge.

This is really an interesting area. At this marina you just call and they take your boat out of the rack with a forklift and place the boat in the water.  This looks like a great Idea to keep the ultraviolet  rays and salt off your boats. 

This was a cool bridge I thought. This is the Venice Ave. Bascule Bridge. It has two sides to open.

It funny how the channel is continually changing. Now it is looking like we are back out on the rivers. On each side of this channel are bike paths. We waved to the bikers as they peddled by.

Now this has to be one of the most expensive mobile home parks that I have seen. They even have a marina.

Boaters pass us on a regular basis. We have yet to figure out the local hot spot.

Our Picture Of The Day 

We noticed a sunken sailboat just off the ICW.  A power boater went by and yelled…”Don’t let that happen to you!!!”

When I came back into the cockpit to sit in my chair, guess who I found relaxing in it! LOL

We anchored for the night in Lemon Bay. We took a dinghy ride down a near by canal. We were surprised by how narrow they are.

I found a palm tree with coconuts 

For all our sailboat buddies. We anchored  in Lemon Bay, just off the ICW in 8.5 feet of water.

Have a great day everyone.

 

What a ray of Sunshine! As we travel the GICW our view of the Lakes and Channel are just stunning.  We decided to follow the ICW from Tampa Bay to Charlotte to get a feel for the area.

It appears we have found out where the rich people live. I thought, I would share some photo of homes with you. We saw our first sea turtle but neither one of us was fast enough to grab our camera before he/she disappeared. LOL  This is my favorite house. You would be able to see the hurricane from any direction. 

The view of the homes are stunning. Look at the birds. What a view they have from their homes.

Yes, Great view..What to buy a house? The one next to the white one is for sale.

Okay, I like the sea horse. Look at how low the property is. They must get flooded during heavy storms.

Well, I forgot to share these two pictures with you. I don’t know if any one of you have seen the series “Two Broke Girls”. But we were out for a bike ride in St. Petersburg and noticed this cupcake store. The series is about two waitresses broke and looking for a way to make money. Max has the ability to make cupcakes to die for and Caroline came up the idea to open up their own business still waitressing. Anyways it’s just a TV show that makes me laugh. This cupcake store in St. Petersburg is also owned by two girls. I thought what a coincidence.  We both had a cupcake.  Bryce had “Forget Love, I’d rather fall in Chocolate”.  I had “Better Thans”.

Yesterday, we also said good-bye to Ken & Cari they were anchored next to us in Sarasota Bay. They were chock full of knowledge on the local areas and the Bahamas. Thank you for sharing with us Ken & Cari.

For any one who is following us on the ICW The Stickney Point Bascule Bridge (Sarasota) is under construction. You must be patient! The Bridge Master has to wait for the construction crew to give him permission to open the bridge.

The Bridge Master hailed us on the VHF and said he could only open the west side of the bridge. Yep.. that made us both a bit nervous. No room for a wake to hit us or our spreaders and shrouds would hit bridge.

The power boat let us pass through first. A big thank you to them.

As many of you know, one of our favorite things to do is set the auto pilot and enjoy the view crossing Sarasota Bay.

Bryce is getting an early Christmas gift from the weather man. He looked at the forecast and hasn’t stopped smiling.

Have a great day everyone.

What an amazing morning, the weather is perfect for us today. I took my coffee up on bow while Bryce finished up working. I couldn’t believe the view as I sipped my coffee; I watched the dolphins pass by us. They always make me giggle. We have heard several people talk about the abandoned boats anchored off the shorelines in Florida. I am not sure if this is an abandon; but no one came to it in 24 hours and windows appear broken out of it. Actually, there are three boats that looked deserted. I wonder; if a boat is truly abandoned, are they up for grabs? And if so how does one know for sure? I guess that is a story within its self!

After Bryce finished up we took a dinghy ride into the shore. It sure was pretty. The Manatee River sure is nice. Our anchorage was near the Emerson Point Park; our water depth was 10 feet. Across the bay from us was De Soto National Memorial. We could see many sailboats anchored there also.

The clock is ticking so if we were going to pull up the hook. It was that time. So I batten down the hatches and off we went.  We decided to take a slow relaxing cruise down the ICW rather than a 60 mile passage in the gulf. The ICW Channel is a bit narrow in places. There really is no room for errors sense there is only a few feet of water off each side of the channel.  On the other hand, it is well marked.  We were passed by this fishing boat that was headed into Tampa Bay. 

We had our first opening bridge to wait for on the ICW Anna Maria Island Bridge. She opens on the signal except at 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Anna Maria Island Bridge opens on the hour and every twenty there after. Opens Jan 15 to May 15 6:00 a.am. to &:00 p.m. on the half hour. We called a head on the VHF and spoke with the Bridge master and he was so nice. After all the Locks we’ve been through it seemed odd to wait for a bridge. LOL

Just hop-skip and a sail was our next bridge Cortez Bridge. You could see it from the Anna Maria Island Bridge. There are boats anchored on the East side and West side of the bridge. Also looks like two marinas too. We watched the jet skiers wishing we had ours with us while waiting for the bridge to open.

This is one of the marinas near the bridge. The bridge opened and we passed through. The bridge master waved to us as we passed through the Cortez Bridge.

The channel had a great view of homes and boats passing by.

As soon as we anchored for the night, we jumped into the dinghy before sunset to see the Mangrove trees or shrubs. Their roots are out of the water. Mangroves trees are salt-water tolerant trees they live in harsh coastal conditions. I find them interesting. The view was just so neat. It looks like a maze built with Mangrove shrubs.

There is another sailboat anchored near us. Ken & Kari they are sailing on a Hunter 37. They seem like a very nice couple. We are going to visit with them again tomorrow.

We are both anchored in 10 feet of water just where the channel widens up to the Sarasota Bay.

Have a great day everyone.

After spending eight days in St. Petersburg, it was time to say goodbye. This was our first prolonged stop and is a must see to anyone in this area. Don’t sail past it; pull in. What a great night life. We walked in the park traveled up and down the streets but most important we laughed and enjoyed every minute.

This coming weekend starts the Christmas light parade from the boats. We will miss this parade but really needed to get Beauty back on the open seas.

We had a great time for our last night. We went to Del Mar Gastro Lounge on Central Ave for a beer & wine and a bite to eat. Courtney was our waitress earlier  when we stopped in for a drink. Later that night, she was there with friends and it was awesome to visit with them. Keep your bike up right Courtney!

This is Caddy’s On Central, we didn’t fill-up there but it looked like a great place to stop for a cold one🍺. The mural was so neat to look at as you’re walking down the street.

Finally we called it a night and headed back to the marina. As we walked through the gates we noticed a gathering of people at the Christmas tree area so we stopped and share a few laughs before heading back to the boat.

Until  we meet again St. Petersburg & St. Petersburg Municipal Marina 🙋🏼

Her sails are up again

Beauty now has her wings back up and is as Beautiful as ever. It was so nice and warm that I had to pull out pinky my little pool. We soaked our toes and of course I had to sit in it just to say I did. LOL

As we enjoyed the view from the bow, we were once again visited by dauphins. They always put a smile on my face.

 

We have the possibly of storms rolling in this weekend so we will take the ICW for a bit. Then go back into the gulf do some sailing. Thank- you  all for following us. We are anchoring near Emerson Point Park in the Manatee River for the night.

Here is an updated view of our adventure so far⛵️

 

Friday was an amazing night. There were people gathered from all over on the first Friday of every month to enjoy all the restaurants and bands in the streets.  Its called “First Friday”. If the restaurants don’t have tables out on the side walks they will on this Friday. The band was great.

 

Meeting new friends is always a blessing. Minna and I had a great time talking. Patrick was a hoot too. They are not a couple just two new friends too.   The race car history was explained to us by the gentleman in the red shirt.  Unfortunately, between a bit too much beer and the excitement of the moment I missed his name.

This is a picture of a present opening. It was really cool to see.

Women Who Sail Breakfast

On our way into St. Petersburg, I was invited to attend a gathering hosted by “Women Who Sail” for breakfast Saturday morning. They had a guest speaker: Sally Gardiner-Smith. She is young girl who sailed from Main to the Bahamas. She shared her trials and tribulations. She was just 19 and graduated high schooling wanted to do this trip before she started college. Sally is the young lady in the dark hair sitting at the table. With her, was another young lady Kris in blue who organized this event. 

After the breakfast we headed out to watch the Christmas parade. The streets filled with folks from all over. The couple standing next to us was from Germany.I really liked the carriages & horses

Gingerbread houses and many other types of floats joined in on the fun

This has to be the longest parade! We enjoyed over two hours of it.LOL

Later that evening we had the opportunity to join some new friends who treated us to diner.  Ana & Eidrian Garcia; some of the best people we will ever meet.  We had met them a few nights prior.  We were all looking at the christmas lights and we struck up a conversation. They also invited their long time freinds Bill and Mariam to diner with us.  It was a memorable evening.  We ate at Birchwood and later took the elevator to the canopy to enjoy a view of the city.  Ana and Eidrian in the center.  It was the highlight of the weekend.

While here in Florida we rented a car. Sunday, Bryce took me over to Cocoa to visit my sister Janette. Keegin is so cute. He is my sister’s youngest grandson. It was just perfect timing that her daughter Megan & boys flew in from Michigan and Katie flew in from Arizona. Our brother Joe and father John joined us too. What a great day. Janette just had her pool redone with new pavers laid inside a new screened in area. Looks really nice.

We went over to see the Atlas rocket launch at 4:45 p.m on Cocoa beach. It was taking supplies to the international Space Station. We had a great time but the clouds rolled in and blocked the view of the rocket.  We heard it though!!

We have really enjoyed our visit here in St. Petersburg. Tomorrow we are sailing out and headed to Sarasota.

 

Wow…Talk about taking your breath away. As we were only a few miles away from The St. Petersburg Municipal marina, I was looking into the water. At first I thought someone dropped a pad of paper into the water because papers were floating around us. I went back and told Bryce look at all that paper. He looked down and said Beauty that’s not paper; those are sting-rays. I don’t ever recall seeing any before; but I am sure that I must have. Pretty-cool. I went back up and set on the bow to see if I could see any other interesting things. I looked at my phone. I was happy to be near internet again.  I clicked  on my FB notifications Bryce your not going to believe this… I was just invited to Women Who Sail breakfast on Saturday from Sailing @ Cruising on FB. He said I should go even without thinking about it. I just might.

My photo of the paper floating

We arrived at the Marina’s diesel dock. we knew we were getting really low. She took 36 gallons of fuel and she has a 40 gallon tank. The young man at the pump asked if we were staying here. I explained that I didn’t know. We needed a reservation and that their reservation team hadn’t called me back yet.  He asked the length of our boat and how long we would be staying. I went on and gave him all info. The next thing I know we were greeted very nicely  by a very nice guy who gave us two options. He explained to us that this is a busy week due to the Saint Petersburg boat show and all the activities  on on this weekend in St. Petersburg. We got a slip!! I think because we are here for a week.

Look at the salt film on the enclosure; it looks dirty so it must get clean.

What a difference in temps we have gone from the 30-40 at night to 70’s Bryce hasn’t stopped smiling yet!  We had been running the heater in Pensacola.  Now we are running the air conditioner in Saint Petersburg.

We have a date night to night👏🏽 well we were so tired after docking up I passed out and slept until the next morning. On our adventure over here our generator belt broke so after Bryce was done working we went for a 5 mile walk to the auto part store and they didn’t even have the belt! LOl We must of just needed the walk. Some of you might not know this but a few weeks ago I broke my toe. The baby one. It still looks like a balloon. I had to remove my shoes to finish our walk. It better get better fast I have a lot of walking to do👟

Our view as we walked out of the marina, We can walk to everything. Food stores and lots of shopping.

We stopped for breakfast at Cassis what a great way to start a day. The lovely lady sitting behind us holding her granddaughter is Barbara. We enjoyed talking to her and her husband Dave and daughter Emily. They are boaters too and were a wealth of information to us. Thanks for sharing with us Dave & Barbara.

I found this tree very interesting.

Oh my…every where we looked on the ground in front of us and along the fences were lizards.  This guy stopped and posed for us.

Look even this bird is checking out what hotel to stay at.  The marina has a park within it that is quite cool.  At over 600 slips, this is a big marina.

Our view of Beauty from the fuel docks & the entrance to the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina. Fisherman were dropping nets and pulling up a net full of something.

George has a new friend.  This is Ringo, the marina cat.  Be sure to stop and say hello to him!

Date Night

A walk through the Christmas lights in St. Petersburg

The lights are so beautiful & now I am missing our grandchildren.

 

We stopped to have a beer on our way back to Beauty at Frescos restaurant just outside the marina. It looks odd but see the face in the sail mast? That is our waiter taking our oder.