Flies, Bugs and Mosquitos Oh My

Ok, we are past the prime season for boat camping in SW Florida. The wind calmed after supper last night. An older couple in a nice 40 foot boat (named Sorry Kids) anchored closer to us than we would like and ran there generator all night. Part of me was upset at the disturbing of the natural surroundings, then I became jealous. The bugs and mosquitos became thick. The thought of a nice airconditioned boat sounded really good.

We ran a fan for a while, but shut it off before we went to sleep. The breeze finally came back up and the temperature dropped to the low 70s. Nice for sleeping.

We have a device for flying insects. Looks like a small tennis racket--only the "string" part is metal, and electrified at the punch of 2 buttons. The little buggers make a very satisfing spark when they make contact. We couldn't swing it fast enough in the cockpit last night before we retreated to the cabin.

This morning, Gail is fishing with the last of her shrimp. We are taking home a nice mackerel and a nice spotted sea trout. They will be great on the grill this afternoon. Soon we will load the dink and head for home. Pretty Girl needs a good bath and so will Gail and I.

That's all for now. Pictures to follow.

Good Fishing

We spent a great night at anchor. Tacos for supper. The breeze kicked up a bit, but we choose our spot well. After our showers, we slept like babies.

Gail has been catching all kinds of fish off the back of the boat. Jacks, snapper, catfish (of course), and a nice 19 Spanish mackerel(now cleaned and in our ice chest). All of these were caught on her 24 inch pole. I'll add pictures when we get home.

That's all for now. More later.

Pics now in. Top--what is now off the grill and in our tummies! Gail's instrument of choice for the weekend. The fisher girl herself.

From April to Now

Sitting at anchor in Pelican Bay (Cayo Costa) 5/14/10. This trip started 4/2/10. We took off that day for the weekend only to have the boat run poorly. Fuel filter changes did not help. Time for a real boat mechanic. Unfortunately, we weren't the only poor running boat in town. A number of simple tries did not fix the problem. Eventually the injectors were removed and serviced. Several internal fuel filters were replaced as were the spark plugs. Pretty Girl now runs like a top.

We were out with Nick and Shannon on Mothers Day and had some fresh fish for supper.

We left our dock about 9 and had the hook down in our favorite anchorage about 2 1/2 hours later. We are waiting to see if we will be able to see the shuttle fly in about an hour.

That's all for now. Stay tuned. More later.

OK, we did get a glimpse of the shuttle in between cloud layers. We had plotted the direction from our anchorage to Cape Canaveral on the GPS. We have a little portable TV, watched the lift off and shortly saw the shuttle (very briefly) exactly where the GPS showed us it would be (043 degrees magnetic). Too bad it wasn't perfectly clear. At least we saw a part of history.

Canal Cruise 9/11/09

Greg and Carol came for a visit from Kansas (by way of Texas). We had a very nice visit and took the opportunity with a break in the weather to get in a canal cruise. It was the first time the boat had been off the lift since we installed the flag and hardware. A pretty appropriate day to fly the colors.

Later that night our sister Nancy and her husband Fred came over for food and a very nice visit. A few pictures to document the events.

Sunday

Ok, a bit of a cheat since we are doing this post from home on Monday. Another great day and night. We headed into the park in the morning. Here is a couple of pics. We always have fun looking at the fish, sipping our coffee and eating our cereal ashore.

We went back to the boat and Gail grabbed her fishing poles and the few shrimp she had left. We went towards the mangroves behind where we had anchored and started hitting fish. We (yes even me too) caught some Jacks, snapper, Ladyfish, Spanish mackerel and 3 keeper spotted trout.

We put these on the grill--very tasty. Can't wait to get back out!

Saturaday Morning

We were rocked ever so gently to sleep last night with the sound of little waves rippling on the hull. That sound, which seemed annoying earlier, is now missed when it is abscent. The breeze that kicked up the harbor yesterday continues and is providing a welcomed balance to the warm temperatures.

Gail has caught a few fish and I have been doing some reading. We enjoy this so. I have a couple of pictures of Gail in the dinghy. Will post from home.

Stay tuned. More later. A comment on a couple of pictures. We watched a line of thunderstorms form rapidly and move inland north of us. It's hard to see, but if you look closely you can see a waterspout on both photos. No, it really is 2 spouts. One would form, from the distance we couldn't see if they reached the surface or not. They would dissipate and soon another would form. We saw several like this.

The Weekend Cruise

We left home at 9:30 this AM and arrived at Pelican Bay 4 hours later. It's normally a 2 hour trip but the wind was up a bit and Chatlotte Harbor was lumpy. We elected to do a 6 knot cruise which was much friendlier than crashing through on plane.

It's been a high overcast most of the day which has held the heat down. Only 85 in the boat but we have a nice breeze at anchor.

We met Randy and Cindi Pickelman on Morning Star, a nice Krogen 36. They are also at anchor here. Randy is a frequent contributor to the trawler list and I have kept up with Morning Star and her travels for some time. Very nice folks and it was fun to trade stories for a while.

We may stay here for the weekend or may travel to a marina for Sat night. We have bar-b-q chicken and corn on the cob for tonight. Pretty fun.

Stay tuned, more later. Pictures are now added. Pretty Girl in the dinghy (truck). Believe it or not, it actually folds and fits in the cockpit. A newly discovered feature, we can put it in intact on its side and tie it in place. She came home that way and rode fine. This will simplify our lives tremendously!