Getting ready for the dinner tomorrow, climbed into our dinghy and headed for the Publix here in Clearwater, they have a dinghy dock and Steve bought me a fold up crate with wheels and it works great when we take the dinghy to get food or whatever. We fired up the intimidating Yamaha  2 HP engine and off we went. Looking to our right as we got into the water to our surprise was our good friends Pam and Jim, he has a 5HP engine and left us in the dust, NASCAR for dinghys, Whoo Hoo!! We got to the dock tied off and we were on our way to the grocery. Inside the store was worse than NASCAR or worse than rush our traffic in Atlanta! No offense but people from up North have no sense of humor and actually think they are the only ones in the store. I keep forgetting the Snowbirds have come down to invade Florida, its that time of year. So i geared up my buggy and cleared a path to whatever i needed tried to hurry and ran to the checkout counter where Steve who runs great interference was holding me a spot, luv that guy! Finally out of the store we got our groceries back to boat and just took it easy for the rest of the day. Worked on cleaning boat and just enjoying the rest of the day! Stay tuned! Sorry i forgot this day and posted it it late!!

Good Morning blog viewers hope your having a great day. Steve and I had breakfast at the sunset cafe this AM and are awaiting a ride to the fleamarket in Largo.It is very cold here in Clearwater, under armor cold this AM for me. Well we didn’t make it to the flea market but we did go over to the beach with our boat neighbors. Michigan State and South Carolina are having the Outback Bowl. The Big 10 and the SEC football game at Tampa Bay is Tuesday. They had a huge pep rally at the beach today. We got to see the Michigan State marching band and cheerleaders perform on the beach. Of course Steve caught us beads being thrown out into the crowd. 🙂 The marching band was awesome and they all put on a great show! The beach was so crowded that i had to hold my camera up above my head to take pictures. For several days we have seen big buses in town and now we know it is all the Michigan fans and SC fans. The place is crowded without a doubt! Waiting everywhere to eat is commonplace now. I downloaded a book today called.”A Sail of Two Idiots” the true adventures of a newbie sailor that just took off into the ocean. Should be interesting!! Our friends Pam and Jim went sailing today and she did well, she was worried about sea sickness. The waves were rolling today too! Steve is making us Italian chicken with macaroni and cheese. He is a great cook with the grill! Loving every minute of our adventure and can’t wait for more. Our new icemaker is working great and we are thoroughly enjoying it.

Captains Log: Ready to go sailing, watchng weather for good sailing days!!

Well i am starting our blog early today. We got up early this AM cooked bacon and eggs and i went running while Steve cleaned the outside of the boat. I came back petted Scooby the dog and went to take a shower (no one knocked today) came back and cleaned the inside of the boat.We are waiting on Steve’s mom and David to get here so we can go out. Will right more later. Steves mom and David showed up we went to eat at Crabby Bill’s and went to Target, wes marine, and Home Depot. Our ice maker quit and we have to exchange it.I love the ice maker it is going to be sadly missed being used when we hit the Gulf hopefully we can use it. We later on went to Clear Sky cafe. It was a great day. Hope everyone out there has a great day tomorrow. Captain Steve and Denise signing off.

CAPTAINS LOG: Cant wait to get back out on the ocean!

TGIF everyone! Started the day with an early morning laundromat clothes washing day. Half way through Steve came up to check on me and we made plans to stay in and do absolutely nothing but enjoy each others company catch up on some reading and cross stitching. We grilled out lemon pepper chicken for lunch with macaroni and cheese and watched Gold Rush for a while. It is cold and rainy outside, we love to listen to the rain hit the top hatches on the boat. It is not too cold for tourists, I cannot believe the amount of people that all of a sudden showed up here. The snowbirds have arrived I already wish they would leave. Trying to take a shower in the private marina shower you have to get in with a key. Someone kept knocking on the door while i was showering, the sign on the door says, Public bathrooms inside, showers for marina guests only”. As i left i heard a lady say “finally”,  the door automatically locks and you need a key to get in. Her husband said to her as i heard her try to open the door, “those are private showers the bathroom is on the inside” WOW do snowbird people know how to read? .Make fun of my accent but at least i can read!  Little Rudy (the Yorkie) was in the store today and just wiggles when i go in. My little friend David got his bicycle for Christmas his mom said and he was at home today playing with it and his other toys he got for Christmas. Well it is getting late and the rain is making me sleepy, everyone have a wonderful night.Captain Steve and Denise out!

We got up to the early dawn shining through the porthole at the head of the bed at 7 AM. I got ready and went running and Steve hung out on the dock with the other sailors, these guys get up before the break of dawn and stand on the dock with coffee in hand or just standing talking. I ran down the dock across the bay bridge and along a paved runway along the main drag. I just realized that Clearwater is a really neat place on the side i am at. We saw a 2 dolphins at the dock today just playing like kids in water. They cut the water like a hot knife through butter with the sun gleaming on their smooth sleek backs. The pelicans continue their dive bombing into the bay for fish, 3 pelicans fighting over a fish reminds me of the three stooges. One pelican caught it one grabbed it then another one grabbed it with neither of the three willing to relinquish a hold. The smallest lost out an the other two fought over it for about 5 minutes the smartest one finally jerking his head and turning away the victor! Fish constantly jumping in the bay at the docks. I tell you these fisherman are hard core, rough seas don’t even stop these guys from paying big bucks to fish all day. There has only been one day the huge fishing boats did not go out, i think it was extremely high waves from the weather front coming through. They were out this AM with all the winter gear they could wear, with fishing poles in hand (sorta like my nephew David-i think he would fish in the middle of a hurricane) 🙂 Back to our day! I went to take a shower after run and making breakfast for Steve and myself, Oatmeal bacon and eggs. I have found that a big breakfast keeps us from starving until lunch. Sitting in boat our friend Pam called and asked if I wanted to go shopping, and of course i said o yes!. Pam is a Nurse who worked first response team on a helicopter and then she went to traveling nursing and i am glad or i wouldn’t have met her! We went to a mall i had been wanting to go to for days and didn’t even know thats where she was going i was so excited. I love crafts and had wanted to go to Micheals whew hoo. Bought some more cross stitch stuff and went to Lowes next door to buy nylon chord for knot tying on the boat. I will take some pics when i learn my knots well. Went to Verizon to find out nothing was wrong with my phone. the screen went out i could still answer calls but couldn’t see anything. I tried the two buttons and it didnt work went to Verizon and the guy pushed the two buttons and it worked. Anyone else run into this problem? After that i walked back to Ulta where Pam was having her hair done, taking my life in my own hands crossing Gulf to Bay road. Hey i had the light to walk and cars were turning into me not caring if i had the light or not i was fair game on that road. I did make it and did not become part of the Porshe SUV that wanted me bad, LOL. I found Pam getting her finishing touches and i tested out colognes and perfumes while i waited. Well Pam looked beautiful and we headed for her hotel to pick up some stuff and head back to tha Bahama Sports Bar for something to eat and meet Steve and Jim.We took a detour thru the hood to miss the Tampa traffic and made it finally! As we walked in we saw half the dock was there too! Plus a new couple who have the same boat Steve and i was going to buy first. A 36 foot cruiser by Carver. After some good sweet potato fries and a salad we headed back to boat by dinghy. Several places in Clearwater offer a dinghy dock to boaters who don’t have a car. We are loving it here and having a great time. Will write more later Captain Steve and Denise signing off. 🙂

Today we got up Steve ate some cereal and I went running on the beach. The wind was so strong blowing sand i ran in the breakers ( talk about resistance). By the time i was finished i had sand all over me and my tennis shoes were full of it. Luckily its warm. The wind is so strong we just stayed in watched it rain and slugged out in the boat. Later on we jumped in the dinghy went to a sports bar to eat and hit the Publix around the corner for basics. I love my pull crate it is so easy. Had a fun time keeping the dinghy on the right path in the strong winds. Enjoyed the day! I hope every one had a great day also!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!  Steve was up and helping our boating neighbors work on their boats at first light, Jim was putting an antenna for cable on his boat by climbing his mast. There is a neat seat that you put on your halyard and pull yourself up the mast to work on it or add neat stuff, :-). I got up and cooked us pancakes, bacon and eggs in my little cast iron skillet. Cleaned the boat and started cooking my famous (lol) sweet potato souffle. I got to use my oven for the first time, glad we got that propane leak fixed or we could have become a beautiful huge firework. Never mind sinking we are just gonna blow ourselves up! Steve and i took a shower and headed to the dock gathering for Christmas dinner. Lou let us use his cruiser to put food on his deck and we all got our food sat on deck in folding chairs or deck chairs and ate told stories and just enjoyed each others company. We have met some great people here, my sister Paula has a double here. The weather started to get a little chilly with the wind blowing off the water. The temperature has been in the 70s today was around 70-75 dropping into the 60s later in evening. Its 65 right now at 8:35 PM. It has been sunny in AM although the sunrise isnt as pretty as it is when there arent so many buildings around. The birds are so neat here standing around on one leg waiting on the fishing boats to come in. We were eating on the dock today when one of the huge fishing boats for hire came in and the seagulls and pelicans all left their rooftops and poles to chase the boat all the way in to the dock 🙂 we call them the welfare birds, always looking for a handout! LOL It has been a great day, I am trying to catch up on blog and Steve has downloaded an audio book on his phone. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day!! MERRY CHRISTMAS AGAIN!!

Steve and I got up early this AM and i headed to the washeteria to take care of the clothes, halfway thru the drying cycle Steve busts in catches me eating a coconut chocolate pattie and says, “Jim and Pam are going to flea market how much time do you have left?” I told him that i need 45 minutes on drying and would wait to wash the last load until we came back home. So we took off to the Pinellas county flea market. We have never seen so much stuff WOW. Table after table of fruit, vegetables, fruit, herbs etc. This place is huge, we came in to the outside market with app 8-10 rows of tables filled with whatever at least  100 yards long. After that we bought a hot dog and went in to the enclosures which in each large area there was live entertainment, the restrooms had attendants that worked for tips,(needles to say the bathrooms were spotless and the attendant was very efficient. It would take two days to go thru this place plus after the enclosures were more tables outside on the other side of the buildings. Junk never ending!  I think i found the new Wal Mart. After almost running thru it we left and came back by Target to try and find a portable icemaker for the boat. Luckily it was on sale the shelf was empty but they had some in the back YEAH! Jim and Pam invited us to the boat for burgers and fries. Jim has a boat called an Island Trader, it has hand carved doors with dragons and oriental carviings, there is a hand carved dragon on the bow of his boat starboard and port! Look up the boat online they are beautiful. It is a 1980’s model and from what i learned the best sailboats are not normally the newest ones. Craftsmanship means a lot i have found out. Anyway we got into our dinghy which is an adventure in itself. I have to climb down off the bow of the boat holding on to the handle on the deck of the boat and perching precariously on one foot in the dinghy for balance and jumping into boat while maintaining enough balance not to tip dinghy over, or just fall off the side and in to the cold bay water, OOOOSSSHHH! Well into the dinghy without incident and revving up our Yamaha and into the wild blue yonder out to the Eros II for burgers and home fries. Jim used to own several restaurants and i cant wait for meal. Our dinghy has no lights so we have to be very careful even though the boat is not that far away the big boats come in and out of the bay all day long. The waves hit our dinghy and bounce us around like a piece of styrofoam on the water. The waves bouncing up over the bow a little bit is fun. Bobbing like a fishing bobber we finally made it to Jim’s sailboat and tied it off climbed the ladder to the deck and crawled over the pads that cover the helm seats. Jim has a center enclosed console on his boat with seats all around the wheel. Small wooden doors that lead down to a large salon with a walk thru kitchen ( all down one wall ) behind that is the big master berth and bath. Also past the salon is another berth and second bath. It is all beautiful wood. We had a wonderful time. We played with the cats and one of them is huge like Garfield. They are both brothers and 9 years old. After our wonderful meal we hopped back into the dinghy and made our way back to the Thingamajig. The water looks beautiful and it feels great out here in the water. Moonlight gleaming on the water making the waves look etherial. Loving this life couldn’t ask for more. Thanks to Steve I am the happiest woman in the world right now. I wish my son Daniel could be here too. After climbing back on the boat with the dinghy moving back and forth i managed to pull myself up on the deck. tied up the dinghy so Steve could climb aboard. His “pirate beard” is coming along fine. My own pirate! Everyone have a great day!

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Sunday was a whole new set of issues. I went to CVS pharmacy to pick up some things and walked in the boat and asked Steve did he smell propane? He said no and i said check the bedroom, he immediately went outside and turned off the propane. Micheal (a sailor down the dock) came by and they started going over what would cause the leak to smell in the aft berth and how to find it. Steve got some soapy water and found the leak at a fitting by the tanks.  Steve fixed the leak and then we discovered that the bilge was a little full so we started bailing out the bilge to a completely dry state to see how much water was coming in and from where. So let me put this simply the boat ended up looking like a salvage boat because we had the complete bed including mattresses pulled up and in salon with the complete salon floor on the deck outside. I got a bucket of water and cleaned every one of the hull openings. I still had stains under the floor from the ocean crossing pineapple juice incident! So we dried up every bilge area and also cleaned the water out from under the bed. We still have to fix the ladder leak. Needless to say Steve and I were filthy and damp and worked all day on this project. Boats are not all pleasure just like a car or a house work has to be done and boat maintenance is constant. Esp in sea/salt water. We received a text from Jim and Pam to come eat they had cooked us a southern meal! We were totally exhausted but could not say no. Especially when someone cooks a meal dedicated to the south. The meal was off the hook and it was so nice to sit at a well placed table. We thanked our hosts and proceeded to head back to the Thingamajig foe some well needed rest.

Today we woke up ate pancakes, bacon and eggs performed morning duties and were invited by Jim out to his boat for burgers. Jim had a boat called an Island Trader, it has hand carved doors with dragons and oriental carviings, there is a hand carved dragon on the bow of his boat starboard and port! Look up the boat online they are beautiful. It is a 1980’s model and from what i learned the best sailboats are not normally the newest ones. Craftsmanship means a lot i have found out. Anyway we got into our dinghy which is an adventure in itself. I have to climb down off the bow of the boat holding on to the handle on the deck of the boat and perching precariously on one foot in the dinghy for balance and jumping into boat while maintaining enough balance not to tip dinghy over, or just fall off the side and in to the cold bay water, OOOOSSSHHH! Well into the dinghy without incident and revving up our Yamaha and into the wild blue yonder out to the Eros II for burgers and home fries. Jim used to own several restaurants and i cant wait for meal. Our dinghy has no lights so we have to be very careful even though the boat is not that far away the big boats come in and out of the bay all day long. The waves hit our dinghy and bounce us around like a piece of styrofoam on the water. The waves bouncing up over the bow a little bit is fun. Bobbing like a fishing bobber we finally made it to Jim’s sailboat and tied it off climbed the ladder to the deck and crawled over the pads that cover the helm seats. Jim has a center enclosed console on his boat with seats all around the wheel. Small wooden doors that lead down to a large salon with a walk thru kitchen ( all down one wall ) behind that is the big master berth and bath. Also past the salon is another berth and second bath. It is all beautiful wood. Pam (Jim’s woman) was there and we had a wonderful time. We played with the cats and one of them is huge like Garfield. They are both brothers and 9 years old. After our wonderful meal we hopped back into the dinghy and made our way back to the Thingamajig. The water looks beautiful and it feels great out here in the water. Moonlight gleaming on the water making the waves look etherial. Loving this life couldn’t ask for more. Thanks to Steve I am the happiest woman in the world right now. I wish my son Daniel could be here too. After climbing back on the boat with the dinghy moving back and forth i managed to pull myself up on the deck. tied up the dinghy so Steve could climb aboard. His “pirate beard” is coming along fine. My own pirate!

CAPTAINS LOG:  Get a dinghy motor you can manage with more than 2 horsepower if you can.