LAST PORT OF CALL

We arrived back at Indiantown yesterday about 3pm.  It was a nice run from Stuart and the private dock we had stayed for 3 days.  Before we departed Stuart we sat on the sundeck and watched a herd of dolphins play in the canal behind the boat.  It seemed like they were all coming to say goodbye.  Even Lifestyle II has been exceptionally good.  We have not had one flame out in the last week.  I think at last I found the air leak.  I had rerouted a fuel line while in Sarasota and I think that was the problem. The generator even started without objection. The temperature is great, the wind is easy and cool and even the flies have taken a vacation.  Denniese claims credit for the absence of flies  She says it is the bags of water she hangs by the doors.  It must work because the flies are gone and other people in the marina have adopted the practice of hanging water bags over the doors.  So what now?  We have spent the last couple of days cleaning Lifestyle II and meeting with the people here in the Marina.  We have signed up for the maintenance program to look after the boat while we are away and by the way,,, we listed her!!  We are both sad but we know it is the right thing to do.  Even Maggie seems sad.  We are going to miss this wonderful boat and all the great memories she brought to us.  She is a great craft much better that the Captain and crew and hopefully someone else will get just as many fond memories from her. She is in great shape and could do the loop again tomorrow if needed.  As far as the loop.... We traveled over 5,000 miles at 6 miles per hour.  We saw the Statue of Liberty from our boat, we crossed open water and visited far away places that we would never thought of visiting without our little boat. We even visited a few places that we don't ever want to return to like New Jersey and the Upper Mississippi River. But this is our last port of call and a great time to say goodbye and thanks.  Mike, Denniese and Maggie Mae

Day one as Gold Loopers

Well, we slept in.  The first time in over a year that we didn't have rush to meet a schedule or repair something or go shopping or do laundry. The private dock where we are staying is so nice with lots of extras and a great view. We enjoyed a quiet breakfast and then started on getting the boat in a state where we could leave it for a while.  Denniese has to go back to work so we can pay for all this fun.  We put the dinghy on the roof and tied it down securely and did a lot of cleaning and packing.  Denniese had time to fix a real meal and we watched the sun go down and walked the dog, just like normal people do. Tomorrow we will continue with the packing and cleaning.  Wednesday, we will move the boat to a fresh water location about 20 miles from here. Thursday, we will get everything ready to move off and Friday, Robert will bring our car over.  We are a lot like a turtle on a fence post, we didn't get there without a lot of help.  Thanks to all the folks that helped us along the way, the folks that took up the slack at home and the angels that God delivered to us in real times of need. 

Gold Flag

We crossed our wake at 1500 hrs today. We had a good day departing from Indiantown this morning about 1030. It was windy and lots of boat traffic in the afternoon but when we were over the spot we departed from May 3, 2011 we stopped the boat dropped the anchor and had a celebration.  It has been almost a year and over 5,000 miles.  We had a glass of wine and gave Maggie a fresh chew stick and then went to the bow of Lifestyle and changed the white flag to a Gold flag ssignifying that Lifestyle II has completed the Loop.  Thanks to all who helped along the way.  We have met some wonderful people and seen so many exciting and beautiful places. We will continue to write the blog until we move off the boat, maybe next week.   God Bless, Mike, Denniese and Maggie Mae.

No Gators!!

We are now out of the Okeechobee Lake and docked at a really nice marina at Indiantown.  We are about 22 miles from crossing our wake in Stuart, FL, but the real disappointment is we crossed the Okeechobee Lake and did not see one alligator.  We didn't even see a turtle.  Where are all the reptiles.  We did see several Iguanas while at Clewiston. I'm wondering where are all the gators? Maybe the Iguanas are eating them.  OK so much for my disappointment.. The morning started off with "LittleMan"  (the dockman) explaining to me how I could easily turn my 40' boat around in a 45' canal with a wind blowing at about 20kts.  I told him we are a single screw and have no bow thruster.  We discussed the the maneuver for about ten minutes before I finally did as he said and it worked,  nothing like local knowledge.  Our next challenge was to get a swing bring open.  After several calls we found out the operator worked at the bait shop and had to walk to the bridge and then hand crank it open. The good news is we made it to our destination today, Indiantown marina!  What a great spot! Ann and Tony the owners, helped us with our dock lines and we were sitting on the aft deck drinking wine at 1700.  Great planning by the Admiral.  Crossing the lake was a bit bumpy so we are happy to be here. Next stop is our ceremony to be held in Stuart just 22 miles away.  If the pic makes it, it is of the hand crank swing bridge.  Stuart, Florida Next!!

Clewiston

We officially entered Lake Okeechobee today at 12 noon. We are skirting the south rim of the big lake in mostly 11' of water.  The wind has been up today and other boaters say the interior of the Lake will be rough for a couple of days.  The south rim is ditch or canal that runs beside the lake. We were looking for a free dock space like last night but turned into Roland and Mary Ann Martins Marina and Resort.  We were looking for the free dock when "Little Man" a local legend among dock line handlers spotted me and called me on the VHF.  I didn't answer so he hollered at me and told me to keep coming he had a spot for. The cut back here is about 45' wide so I could not turn around and we ended up parked behind a palm tree and a large Banyon tree for shade.  After parking in the sun yesterday we were ready for some shade.  We hooked up power and then noticed we were only about 50' from the Tiki Bar which of course advertises live music Fri and Sat night. Well it has to be  better than trucks.  We are still about 70 miles from crossing our wake but on schedule to be there Sun A/N. Enjoy you space!!

Where Are we?

Have you ever heard of LaBelle, FL?  We left Cape Coral this morning after a night of getting bounced around by a thunderstorm that passed over around midnight.  We had some good winds but very little rain.  We were in the dock so all was OK and no damage was done.  We made the scheduled opening of the W.P. Franklin Lock at 1100.  There were 5 boats in the lock and it took only a few minutes to raise the water 2ft.  We cruised at about 7mph and arrived at our destination about 2pm.  LaBelle has a free dock next to a bridge that every truck carrying fresh oranges out of South FL must pass.  Although it is noisy you can't beat the price.  The little town is nice and has a few amenities.  One was a coffeshop with fresh pastries. As the sun goes down and the temps drop it seems we can appreciate LaBelle, my Bell, a little better.

Picnic Island

Tuesday April 3, 2012 we departed maybe the best spot along the West Coast of FL near Englewood Beach.  We pulled up the anchor at 0930 and headed south. Our goal was to make it to Ft Myers but we saw another nice anchor spot about 2 hours out of Ft. Myers and dropped anchor in 10ft of water behind a little sandy island named on the chart as Picnic Island.  Several boaters stopped by but come sunrise Wednesday morning there was only a sailboat and us. The waters were calm enough for me to row ashore and walk Maggie until she had all the vinegar out of her.  We enjoyed a nice night with lots of stars and a bright moon.  This morning we continued and found a city marina at Cape Coral.  We were tied to the dock by 1030 and enjoying lunch on the aft deck at noon.  We saw a sign  that said they would have a sundown celebration this evening on the beach that we may join. Tomorrow we start the canal into Lake Okeechobee, going East. We start off by going through a lock.  The first this year and the first since the Tombigbee.  All is well. 

Little bit of Paradise

We departed late from Sarasota Yacht Club because we needed some fuel.  If you think gas prices are high you would flip if you had to purchase 80gals of marine diesel. The only good thing is maybe it will last us till we get to Stuart.  Did I tell you we decided to go to Stuart FL instead of Key Largo.  We hope it will save a little time since we are running short on time.  Waiting for a good weather window to cross the Gulf has put us behind.  We got away from the dock just before 10 this morning and by 10:30 we had run aground.  The good thing about running aground in FL is you can usually back off.  That's what we did and so we turned back into the channel and took off. We had great weather and arrived at the perfect anchor spot, in a little cove of mangroves with a few houses and only one block from the Gulf.  We set the anchor and rowed over to a path that took us to the Gulf.  We rowed because I have not had any luck repairing the dinghy motor.  Anyway, we took Maggie to see the Gulf.  She hates it!!  She is a scent dog, a land dog and only stays on Lifestyle II because we are there.  If the picture downloads you will see the choke chain tight as she pulls away form the water.  We still love her.  This place is great.  Off to Ft Myers tomorrow.  God willing the motor keeps going. 

Sarasota Yacht Club

We departed Gulfport this morning (Sunday) and motored past the Sunshine Skyway Bridge across wide Tampa Bay.  As we entered the Manatee River,  we saw the boat traffic was the most active we have seen in months.  Everyone who owned a boat or knew someone with a boat was on the water.  We had one go-fast boat do a "S" turn in front of the boat in front of me.  As slow as we go we just watch and hope no one bangs into us. We motored past the Ringling Estate, which has the old mansion and a fine arts museum.  Denniese plotted a good course and we pulled up at the docks of Sarasota Yacht Club at 3pm.  We secured the boat and celebrated with a glass of wine on the aft deck.  Sarasota Yacht Club has one of the newest and finest clubhouses in the nation.  The club itself was established in 1926 and has even had members associated with the America's Cup sailboat racing. 
We had supper in the clubhouse dining room with a spectacular view of the inlet and downtown Sarasota.

We returned to the boat and the real world with work that needed to be done to the dinghy and fuel that needed to be transferred. Tomorrow, we continue South toward Ft. Myers.  If the picture downloads, it is of the clubhouse.

Goodbye to Ralph and June

We dinghied Ralph and the luggage to the dinghy dock and then I returned to get the rest of the crew. Ralph and June were scheduled to be picked up at the local restaurant, O'Maddy's at noon.  Gulfport was having a street fair so we all had time to visit some of the venders.  Before departing the boat and saying goodbye the Captain officially promoted Ralph and June from Swab to Mate. And well deserving they were!!  After the van picked them up Denniese, Maggie and I visited more venders and had a veggie panini at an outside restaurant.  We enjoyed watching the people and dogs on parade past our table.  My friend Robert called and said a storm was heading our way.  We walked back to the dinghy dock and guess what??  The dinghy motor would not start.  A local marine policeman was nest to us and he towed us back to our boat just as the storm started.  We watched as a sailboat drug anchor and floated past us.  We felt good about our anchor so we took the opportunity to take a nice nap with the wind and ran.  Sooo nice!!  Later as the skies cleared we cleaned and I worked on the dinghy motor but no luck.  Tomorrow we will worry about that,, Scarlett.....

Goofport

We departed Tarpon Springs Thursday March 29th. Our destination was Gulfport, which is on Boca Ciega Bay next to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Before we left Tarpon Springs we boated around the Sponge Docks and saw sponge divers cleaning the recently picked sponges.  It was a beautiful morning and Ralph and June had a pleasant experience on open waters. We were not long before we were in the intercoastal waterway and driving the boat behind condo's and nice homes.  Our first flameout occurred not lone after we were in sheltered waters.  We had several flameouts but Denniese and I were able to get the engine running within a minute or so each time.  We arrived in Boca Ciega Bay and Gulfport just about time to serve wine.  We set the anchor and motored to the city dock and walked to a local restaurant named O'Maddeys.  We had some great pasta and Maggie enjoyed eating with us outside. We walked the little city and found an ice cream shop which not only served good ice creme but made a fresh pot of coffee for me.  Friday morning we started to raise the anchor and the engine died.  Instead of doing our flame out procedure we just decided to stay put on anchor and enjoy the day.  We dinghyed ashore and walked into town and come back on board for supper.  The wind had picked up and I let out a little more rode.  I watched a dinghy float by and tried to make the owner aware the his dinghy has come loose but was unable to raise him.  Later a good Samaritan caught up with the dinghy and brought it back but to the wrong boat.  So we watched the drama unfold but it was fun. Ralph and June depart tomorrow for TN. Tonight should be good with a nice cool breeze.  The pic is of the dock and town building at Gulfport.

New Back Yard

We departed Carrabelle on schedule Monday morning at 8:00am. Ralph and June helped us with the dock lines.  Lifestyle had been in that one spot since December 6, 2011.  We enjoyed our stay and got some work done and also visited home during Christmas.  It was a good stay but we had been waiting for a good weather window to make our crossing to Tarpon Springs and Monday was it.  The trip is 135 miles plus some time at each port.  We had planed about 30 hours but were hoping for less.  The weather was good, although we got bounced around and had to tie the dog down for most of the trip.   The Gulf most always has rollers or slow moving waves that bounce off your boat when you least expect them.  Once during the trip I went below and discovered most of the drawers open and chairs tipped over.  That happens even after we put everything away and lock down as much as we can.  About 6 hours into the trip everything was going so well when without warning the engine stopped.  We did our "bleed the engine drill" and had it working within a few minutes only for it to fail again shortly.  After several tries to make it stay running I went to the back up fuel delivery system, jerry jugs.  I was ready with them but the jug  only ho1ds 1 1/2 hours worth  of fuel.  So every hour and half all night long I was refilling jerry jugs and keeping the engine going.  We arrived at Tarpon Springs and tied up to the dock at 10:30.  That's about 26 1/2 hours of boating across the Gulf.  Our new back yard is almost as quiet as Carrabelle but with lots of boat traffic. We will do the tourist thing after we take care of the boat and get some rest.  For now we are just sitting on the aft deck looking at our new back yard.

The Forgotten Coast

The Pan Handle of Florida is called the Forgotten Coast.  It is so different from the rest of the the coast of Florida that it could be called the Easy Coast. We see a few wave runners, a few fast noisy boats but mainly its easy going.  Saturday morning we drove to Panama City Airport and picked up Ralph and June Vaughn. We then drove back to Apalachicola for a street fair and lunch.  We had a great fresh sea food lunch with lots of conversation.  We ate at BOSS OYSTER where Ralph and I grossed out the ladies by eating some of the fresh raw oysters.  The town has a very active downtown with most of the stores open and offering local art and tourist items. A wine tasting started in the late afternoon and local musicians started close to sunset. The weather was perfect and we walked over the downtown and stopped at a lot of stores and even purchased a few trinkets. Ralph has done professional writing for years and I ask him if he would follow this paragraph with his impressions of his visit. We are still on schedule to depart for our crossing to Tarpon Springs Monday morning.  Ralph and June will follow with the car.  Mike

Some folks say that Florida is famous for sunshine, scenery, seafood, and of course sand.  We have enjoyed a good dose of those attributes...and more.  The best part of our trip is spending quality time with Mike and Denniese.   Sunday morning we attended worship service at First Baptist Church in Carrabelle and were blesssed through singing and preaching.  Afterwards, we ate lunch at a small restaurant near the beautiful Carrabelle Bay.  The food was great but the fellowship was better; capped off with a young singer who sang one of our requests -- Wind Beneath My Wings.  I think June suspected that I am crazy when I suggested that Carrabelle might be a good retirement village with its oneACE Hardware store, a grocery store and a Dollar General.  With the seafood restaurants and the beautiful water, what could a person ask for in retirement?  Thanks to Mike and Denniese for letting us tag along.  Of course, Denniese is the admiral; Mike the captain; June and I are swabs.  (Ralph)

Carrabelle Police Dept.

Chores almost all done we walked into town. We found a great little cafe named Carrabelle Junction and had a fresh made sandwich.  I had a wonderful veggie with sprouts and avocado, onion and tomatoes.  Best I have had in a long time.  Denniese had the Italian hoagie.  Ronnie, our friend from ACE Hardware was having lunch and joined us.  He is getting married early in April and spending his honeymoon in Gatlinburg.  We enjoyed sharing stories about Tennessee. We finished off our lunch with a old fashion chocolate milkshake. We walked back to Lifestyle II about, two blocks, and stopped at what is labeled as the world Smallest Police Station. It is a pay phone booth, but Maggie enjoyed the shade of the tree next to it.  The afternoon was spent relaxing and visiting with our only neighbor.  Wayne is refurbishing an old Carver but in another life was the Capt of the Chattanooga River Queen tourist boat.  The weather forecast is still good for a crossing Monday.  Stay tuned!!

Dollar General Super Store

Carrabelle has no Walmart super store but it does have a Dollar General that sells canned goods, milk even cartons of ice cream.  I call that a Dollar General Super Store.  We visited it today and came back to the boat with a car load of stuff.  I don't know what we are going to do with all the stuff since we are not going to be here long enough for a garage sale.  Anyway, the slow moving front is moving out and by Monday we should have weather fit for crossing the Gulf.  Our weather expert say it will be a good day for crossing.  Ralph and June are arriving Saturday and we are going to enjoy some of the local events. Robert sent me a notice that Apalachicola is having an event this w/e so we will drive over to check it out. Ralph and June will move our car to the Tampa area when we depart and meet us down there. Denniese finished cleaning the upper helm and I cleaned the bilge. She also did laundry. I stayed in the bilge. The laundry and the upper helm turned out better than the bilge but she said she would give me another chance. We found a local seafood supplier and purchased a large red snapper steak for supper.  It was soooo good. We told him we would be back. The gas grill is acting up so I tomorrow I will work on it.  I only visited ACE twice today.  Standing on the bow of the boat I took a picture of my favorite place in Carrabelle.

Carrabelle Sweet Carrabelle

Wednesday started like most days for me here in the forgotten coast.  A trip to ACE hardware!  This time it was a navigation light that was bad.  Since we will be traveling at night I checked all the running lights last night and found one bad.  Ronnie, the owner said he didn't have one but could order me one that would be in on Thursday. Denniese also had a list of supplies for me. I returned to the boat and found she had started a painting project.  It seems a steel pole on the sun deck needs some chipping, sanding and a fresh coat of paint.  While she started on that I checked out the nav light and found it was corroded which was causing a bad connection. It was necessary to crawl into and under the instrument panel to remove the light. After the third time of removing and replacing the light I finally had it working. " Boat Rule number 10... Repairs usually take 3 tries"!! Some folks in a couple of vans pulled up in front of the boat and seeing that I am the only person around they ask if there was a bar around here where they could get lunch. I told them not here but about 20 miles West was Apalachicola and it had lot of bars and restaurants. They also ask about fishing and where they could rent a boat.  Half the group left and the other half stayed and watched from the parking lot.  It looked to me like they were on a convention and had skipped out of the meetings. As much as I tried the repairs did not take all day so I started on another chore.  This time it was the macerator pump.  I had suspicions that it was not working . "Boat rule # 16, never go looking for problems,cause you will find them"!!  After spending an hour taking the hoses off the pump and testing it I found the reason it was not spitting out "stuff" is because the holding tank (sewage) was empty.  I had forgotten that we had it pumped before we got here.  That's OK the smell kept any visitors from coming up and asking a lot of dumb questions.  It looks like the Gulf may be calmed by the first of the week for a crossing.

Carrabelle is Great

Today is Tuesday, March 20th, the first day of Spring and it is Spring in Carrabelle. Getting to know the places we visit is part of the fun of doing the Loop.  In between doing chores on Lifestyle II, we visit the local spots.  Here at Carrabelle that can be accomplished in about an hour.  Well it would seem that way since it only has one grocery, a couple of restaurants and no real retail community.  Today we visited the other restaurant.  It is at the other marina, the Moorings.  No connection to the world wide charter business with the same name.  The sign out front said "Carrabelles best breakfast".  We found that the Mayor and the Sheriff have breakfast there on most days.  The mayor was still there.  We talked, well he talked we tried to talk but he is a little hard of hearing and so it was best just to listen.  We did find out that he had lived in Green County, Tennessee, above Knoxville.  He is now on his sixth four year term.  He must be well liked or either they can't find anyone else to work for such little pay. I told him we loved Carrabelle and after traveling all over we decided that Carrabelle was the perfect city.  It has one road in, one road out.  It does not have a Wall-Mart or a traffic light. They have a downtown revitalization program that is coasting over $200,000. and consist of replacing the sidewalk for one block. He was real proud of the project. I asked him about not having a stoplight and he said they had one at one time but it caused too many accidents and had to take it down. Malinda served us breakfast and it was maybe the best we have had. By the time we were finished it was close to 10AM and the mayor said he needed to go to the office.  At least he has the right work ethic for the job.

Back on board

We arrived safely in Carrabelle Saturday afternoon around 4:30.  During the drive from Tennessee, Mike checked the weather forecast and wind predictions for the Gulf and we made the decision to not cross on Sunday.  The wind was forecast to picked to around 20 knots before we could get across.  So at this writing, the predictions are for fair winds on Friday.

It's a good thing we have a few extra days to prepare since the water heater element went out and we had no hot water when we arrived.  The hardware store is closed on Sunday, so after visiting the First Baptist Church of Carrabelle, we began cleaning the boat and getting stocked up on food and water. Mike changed the oil in the engine last night and tackled the water heater this morning.  After only two trips to Ace Hardware (which luckily is right across the street from the boat) we have hot water again!
 but
Maggie and I have been checking out the neighborhood a littler better when out walking.  There are so many old, small homes here and it looks as if the occupants just up and left all their stuff.  Windows are boarded up and it seems almost like a ghost town.

This area is called "The Forgotten Coast"  and I can see why - it is like a step back in time.  There is one grocery store and it is next door to the Ace Hardware.  We found a little diner across from the Post Office and there is a nice little park across from the Baptist Church.  Everything is within walking distance so Maggaie and i are getting plenty of exercise. 

We may have to dine out tonight because Mike is equalizing the batteries for the DC power source and the it takes around 8 hours.  I can't cook with all that going on!!!!!!!!

We have had 2 beautiful days with perfect temperatures, but the sand fleas are ferocious.  Unless the wind is blowing, they will eat someone alive.  We've got plenty of Skin So Soft and that helps keep them at bay for awhile.

The Adventuer Continues

Last March we started this adventure in Stuart, FL.  We had just completed a new house and moved into it for one month prior to the start of our trip.  By June we were traveling up the Hudson River. We moored Lifestyle II at Poughkeepsie Yacht Club in New York for 10 days and  returned home for a family reunion. At home we took the time to unpacked the remaining boxes. We celebrated my birthday, September 19, at Rock Harbor Marina, in Nashville, only 30 miles from our home in Murfreesboro.  At that stop we pulled Lifestyle II out of the water to do some bottom work and we spent time at home hanging pictures and getting to know our land home. By December we had made it to the Pan Handle of Florida but the winter weather was setting in and we decided to leave our floating home in Carribelle and drive to our land home for Christmas and the winter. That decision worked out well because we were able to spend Christmas with family and have some work done on our beautiful boat in Carribelle.

An early Spring seems to favor a departure from Carribelle by late March.  We have enjoyed our stay in Murfreesbor but our boat is calling and we are ready to get back in the grove of traveling.  We look forward to visiting familiar places along the Gulf Coast and crossing our wake at Key Largo.  As soon as we are back aboard Lifestyle II we will start the Blog on a daily basis or as the signal allows. Stay tuned for our report....

Mike,Denniese and Maggie Mae
M/V Lifestyle II, Marine Trader 40