I'm sitting here on Sunday afternoon overlooking "Manatee Pocket"  (like a harbor) and reflecting on the last 2 months. No we haven't made it to the Bahamas, no we haven't reached the goals that we had originally set. But many of my goals for this time have been met. Even with with the stress of repair it has been a very relaxing enjoyable time.
 Every year I spend 2 months fighting allergies in Valdosta. I've had very few here and no sinus infections.
I  have meant many new people along the way and shared Christ with some of them. I've had the privilege the last few days of of discipling a man from California who is becoming a great friend.  Amazing the people God can put in your path if you just look for them.
I have spent very little of life just doing what felt like at the time.  That is the release boat cruising does for me. And the Bahamas are only 68 miles away. Soon, with boat repair and weather to go right this week.

Currently we sent in a hotel overlooking the pool and all the beautiful boats. Life couldn't get much better than this.

Manatee pocket

Pitate cove resort

It's been almost a month since I posted anything. But this month has flown by. Even though we've been stuck in Port all but two days of it it's been quite interesting to live the life of the boat bums.
St Patty's in Fort Myers and crossing the Okeechobee Waterway and repair work on the boatand the Edison Ford estates are all that stands out. Here are some pictures of this time.

Fort Myers yacht basin, built by the CCC  in 1938. We lived here for almost a month.

Thomas Edison winter home

Henry Ford's winter vacation home

Ford's home

Edison built a Workshop so that he could continue to work even while he was in the south on vacation. Notice the jackshaft to the left to run all of the equipment. Everything was run by a series of pulleys and belts.

We want Remmy in this Palm Garden almost almost everyday. The garden was built just two years after I was born in 1955. It was fun to see Palms from all over the world.

Yes, Allen even some Steeler fans. This girl's dad grew up in Pittsburgh and still loves the Steelers.

 Two Remmys on an island we dinghy to.

 Clint's island

Crossing the Okeechobee Waterway

Easter with friends who also had boat problems. 

 A very rare sight. A baby manatee was born in the dark area just hours before we saw took this picture. Mama would push his head up to make sure he breathed.

Interesting living in a state of board live-aboard Marina

Friday is we looked at the weather and saw that we would have days of wind and our best bet was to get South along the outer Coast of Florida. So Friday about noon we headed south with many swells and a very strong following sea. We had plans to stay Venice, Florida but could not get an Anchorage or a slip there, so away we go another 40 miles to Cabbage key area where we anchored after dark.  This is just inside the Boca Grand Pass. We stayed on anchor that night with the the wind blowing as much as 25 miles an hour. But the anchor held and we didn't hit anyone so it was a good night.

We awoke to beautiful weather as you as you can see in the video. 4 hours later driving the intercoastal which was like an interstate highway of boats, we're in the Fort Myers yacht Basin Marina. This Basin was built by the CCC projects of the 1930s. There are several hundred boats in this Marina. 

Many of them are liveaboards and rarely if ever go out of the marina. In the corner on the water is a big boat or or should I say house that is used as a upscale hair salon. We are meeting many people of great diversity that lives here. Most of them are older retirees who find living on the water a cheaper way of life. Steve the boat across the way is a retired mechanic and spent a year living on anchor across the river. The next boat isis man and his dog from Wisconsin. We have met many people here from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The man who is working on my boat owns several houseboats and rents them out to people. While taking Remington for a walk I just saw three ladies in their early 80s all single who live in the marina. One of them's house was damaged significantly in the hurricane and our son had the houseboat that she is now living in. She is very proud of her home and told us so.

Crossing the Gulf of Mexico

One hundred eighty miles in 13 hours 3 to 5 ft waves for 2 hours then 2 to 3 for 3 hours then 1 to 2 for the rest of the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico.

After 4 hours this shows up.  An old missle used but airforce to tell location years ago.  Now "Y" tower

Soon the water turned a deep royal blue that has no discription except to see it. About this time Audrey asked "How far off land were we?" 90 miles to any land.

Coming into Clearwater Beach inlet just in time.  Dark by the time we got to the city marina?

Today's agenda

Rest and Starbucks

Still in Carrabelle

Just a note to let you know where we're at. We have spent Several Hard Day's working on the boat. Joan and Allen Dear brought us down on Friday and we went out for a little ride on Chelltina on Saturday and found several little problems. And one possibly large one. Today the head mechanic is supposed to fix all the problems. If that happens we will have a weather window that we should be able to cross the Gulf of mexico on Wednesday. Remember it's cruising so anything could happen.

I have not been able to embed the spot link but you can find where we are at on this link. It will show you a map and the track We are following.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ITaiKvnKZHQXaGraF9IaJIgXP1PpuEty

Tabasso fish sauce

This is good on chicken, fish, devil shrimp or anything else.  Close to  Tamara's Cafe sauce in Aplachicolo, FL   /www.tamarascafe.com 

Tabasso fish sauce

Stick of butter  1/2 cup melted but not hot

1 Tbs tabasso sauce

1 Tbs sweet chilli sauce

1\2 Tbs  Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs  lemon juice 

Mix serve warn very fish or on chicken wings

I've been telling people for the last month to go to my blog and see what's going on and where we are. Where We Are? Sitting on the hard or up on land in carabelle, Florida. When we pulled it out we found a problem in the fiberglass on the bottom that had to be fixed and so we fix several other spots but the weather has not corporated and it's been too cold to get most of it done. Hopefully with warmer weather next week we will get it done. We also had to put a new autopilot on because ours quit working after only 30 years. I don't know why they don't make Electronics to last. Hahahaha!

As some of you know I'm still working so I have to spend sometime at my business into February. Hopefully we will be able to cross the Gulf of Mexico before we had out on the full trip. Our plans are still to go to the Bahamas but we may tour only the northern part. You'll see more in the next few weeks on that.

This week I set up a mission trip to Dominican Republic up in the mountains where they still plowing with oxen. We will be reconstructing a building into a church teaching a discipleship program.  Dates on that or June 26th through July 5th. Get in contact with me if you were interested in it.

God bless you all and pray that we finally get out on the water.