Community is where you make it.

 One thing that has shocked us most about this trip is the community that we found at the marina in Marathon. We're all from different parts of the country we have different political views, different religious views, different businesses. Different personalities but we're Drawn Together for this period of time to love and care for each other. When Luke's dog got stolen the whole Community worried over it. We all rejoice when the dog was found a couple hundred miles away. The pictures are below are of a sundowner that happens most evenings but this is much larger one to honor the people who service each day at the docks. Everybody brought food and everybody ate.

 We had an invitation to Steak and Lobster House for Valentines Day but decided to go on a day when it wasn't so busy. Valentine's dinner was steak and shrimp with asparagus and a potato. Not as good as we got there later on in the week at the restaurant but good anyway because of the best restaurant view in town.

One morning we borrow the car and went grocery shopping but before stopped at the Stuffed Pig. Audrey had Lobster eggs omelette and I had alligator tail and biscuits and gravy. Yes we left as stuffed pigs. The mimosas cleared your palate.

Faith from the boat just to down from us brought over her fancy chairs that made into recliners to set anywhere you needed them on the boat. They come from West Marine and the store was just across the street had them so I went and got two. But as you can see Remington quickly took one over.

Audrey reclining while using her phone star app to name the stars.

Yesterday we took a family of four on a fishing trip with us. They are staying in a Harbour close to us and know many of the people who are staying here in our Marina. They have traveled here from Canada on their 27-foot Catalina. If you don't know that's a very small boat. We didn't catch a lot of fish but they had great fun. The boys are 7 and 10 and each lost a tooth while we were on our trip. No not that rough just that time.

Time is getting close for leaving and Tuesday we will be moving to Key West bight (not missed spelled) for a week. Hard leaving here but many are leaving at the same time we are. Some have already left.

Here are four boats leaving in the wind earlier this week.

This is so beautiful, what was the Garden of Eden like?

As I went to bed last night I was amazed at the beauty of the full moon as it came up. I sat by the window and could see it for a couple hours and it was so gorgeous. I could see a slight eclipse that was to take place later in the evening. Then this morning I got up to the sun coming up over the palm trees the beauty of the sea, Dolphins playing in my backyard, pelicans flying around, and coumaran Diving for food. I wonder what the Garden of Eden must have looked I before man sined and screwed up the beauty of it all.
 As you can tell I have not yet got tired of this lifestyle. Yesterday Audrey had people telling us that we needed to be back this time next year because they come back every year. Book your slip now they said.
 We had a Sundowner last night with probably 30 people in attendance. What a great time to meet and greet people from literally all over the North America.

The last several days has been getting into a quieter lifestyle.  As with everybody in the harbor we have lots of boat work to do. I took two men out fishing day before yesterday but only caught a few small snapper. Good eating but not near what we wanted. I told the guys we should go to the hump, which is 26 miles out in the Gulf stream. We decided to just stay in Shore in 25 - 110 feet of water. The guys who went off shore loaded up on Blackfin tuna. Maybe I'll have to make that run next week.

Time goes by so fast

Time is going by so fast down here. We spend quite a bit of time working on the boat, visiting with friends that we've made, it takes Audrey all afternoon to do the laundry, playing with rim Remington, and did I mention Sundowners with all of our friends.

3 days to the keys

Sorry I fell a little behind on the Blog. We left Sarasota and every night spent the evening and different keys. First night was the world famous cabbage key. Hahaha.  They have been a resort since the 1940s with no way to get to the island except by boat. The island is only about a hundred acres and is located near the Inlet between Captiva island and sebastian islands outside of  Fort Myers. The Cabage keys is a preserve for gopher turtles  and several other bird species. In the same view we saw osprey, bald eagle and 3 other types of birds. The view of the the sun was coming up was absolutely fantastic.

Two different types of trees with pods

Remington came running into the cabin to tell me that I had to come do something immediately. He barked and barked until I got up. I thought he needed to go to the bathroom but no he wanted me to see the dozens of fish that were under our dock. He ran out onto the dock and look down into the water and said "look at these dad."

Wednesday was a rather short ride of only about 40 miles to a marina in Marco Island. Again it was a beautiful place and at one point we saw dozens of frigate Birds circling above using the currents to fly high. This was a sleep tonight with not much else being done except going and eating at a nice little local restaurants with music for the old folks like us.

Thursday was our final day of travel. We spent 6 hours going about 85 miles spending much the time dodging Crab Traps. Our heading all day was 151 degrees but we couldn't stay on that heading because we had to run between the lines and across the lines of crab traps. The water was never over 25 foot deep and as we approached Marathon dropped to 7 feet. The 151 heading put me exactly in the Faro Blanco  Marina.

More tomorrow about Friday and Saturday. Rest finally today

Who said Boats were all fun

Today was a day of working on the boat. At 9 o'clock I had a diver here to change the props because of my running aground.  He told me for this area the boat that has never run a ground has never been driven. Then a mechanical tryed to figure out why one engine is not running to full speed. He found nothing but suggested several things to try. Later that day another driver came to clean the Barnacles off the bottom of the boat.. This should give me better speed and use less fuel. It may help with the engine problem but changing fuel filters probably will do more.

Audrey and I took a Break for lunch and went to a local Tiki Bar here at the marina. She had a shrimp salad and I had a Mahi Reuben sandwich.  It was a good lunch. Now back to work.

A day of mixed blessings

Look who showed up for breakfast Sunday. The Truman's were staying close to Tarpon Springs visiting his mother and came to spend breakfast with us. It was such a special time. Is Rick prayed he asked that the blessings of God would be upon us and that we would continue to work in His service during this trip. As you read on Audrey's blog, within an hour we were with a young man named John who had done some major things wrong but had caused him to give his life to the Lord. He hasn't got it figured out what he's supposed to do or how he's supposed to go about life at this point but he's making progress and he knows that his sins are forgiven.

From there we had great Motoring all the way past Tampa Bay.  We then took the intercoastal and had to set at two bridges for about a half an hour for them to open. After we passed the second one about 9 miles from Sarasota, I was in the channel but not the center of the channel and ran aground. We were only going about 10 miles an hour but it's still bent a prop to the point that we couldn't run one engine.

In the midst of trials, Hi glory is supreme

It took us about an hour and a half to limp into Marina Jack Marina in Sarasota Florida where we get this loan slum with the neighbors.   In the background is about 110 foot 25 foot wide 2010 yacht and one even bigger than that behind it. Many multimillion-dollar yachts in this Marina.  But we were blessed in that they have a full service department more about that and Monday blog.

Audrey's post.

Shifting our  Passion & Pursuits

As we are Christians who are older in wisdom we are called to admonish those younger in Christ with goodness & grace.  There's no finger shaking here.  But train by action & the Word.
Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another." Romans 15:14 NKJV
The full meaning of the word admonish is to train through our words and by doing - to correct by discipline, to train by action.
Through relationship and mutual respect, "to admonish" has the power to transform lives.  Gracefully and lovingly "training by word" as we model what we speak, therefore also "training by action."  These two things combined have the opportunity to bring growth that might not happen otherwise.
We met John yesterday refueling our boat. He says "you both seem so easy going" , well it was a good docking day.  We noticed his ankle bracelet and Glen asked about it.  Since the gas pumps slow he had opportunity to witness and John shared his salvation experience with us. He spends each night locked up except when at work. Glen was able to admonish through the Word with John.  Pray for John in Tarpon Springs who gets out of jail in 52 days.
Blessings to you all. Audrey

Tarpon Springs Epiphany Festival

Today was a restful day I'm walking around the festival eating doing minor maintenance on the boat and taking Remington to the dog park.

 Lunch of broiled octopus and roasted lamb in a pita.  Yes you can still see the tentacles and it was delicious.

This 1931 Cadillac drove up in the parking lot right in front of the boat. 12 cylinder engine  that roared when it was sitting still.  I thought it looked like the Ramblin wreck from Georgia Tech.

 Dining Alfresco on the back of our boat with leftover Gyros and pita, Greek potatoes and other miscellaneous. The bottle of Greek wine was delicious.

Don't you like my table.

Tarpon springs Friday

When we checked in on Friday at the marina office we found a lot of things were happening in Tarpon Springs this weekend.  Our goal was to be gone on Saturday but what's the hurry. They are having a Epiphany Festival Saturday Sunday and Monday. The Marine office was gracious to us and allowed us to stay at a very low rate for Saturday night so we could see part of the festival. That's great of them.

So off we go fooding. The sponge Dock area of Tarpon Springs has great Greek food which we can't get in Valdosta Georgia. So we're eating our way through Tarpon Springs and only bringing back what we can eat or carry on the boat for a short. Time.

 A spice and tea store

our favorite bakery but the Greek grandma would not let us take her picture.

baklava and almond brownie with Expresso

On Thursday we set out from Carabelle to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Tarpon Springs Florida. This is about 150 miles. And we were running somewhere around thirteen and a half miles an hour. We left a little after 4 a.m. and ran into Heavy Seas almost immediately.  2 to 4 foot waves. Not a problem at all for the boat but a big problem as we all got a little or a lot sea sick, including the puppy Remington. The Seas were so heavy it was hard to get a good picture of the sun coming up.

 After about 3 to 4 hours  the Seas began to calm down  and by the time we made it to Tarpon Springs  we were on almost flat wateor.  We knew we were going to make it when at the halfway mark, 12 dolphins came into our wake and played and surfed and jumped in the waves that we created. They stayed with us about 5 minutes then went on but several other times we had Dolphins join us.

We got into Port about 5 o'clock in the afternoon still light and without much wind so it is very easy to push into slip number 2 in the Tarpon Springs City Marina. What a beautiful place to be right in the center of the Greek section of Tarpon Springs. Audrey and I were exhausted so we went to our favorite Greek restaurant here and was in bed by 7:30. It was a very hard day but we all survived and is experience I'd love to do again. Maybe without the 3 to 4 Footers.

Hard to get good pictures of dolphins playing in the waves. There are three in the Whitewater by the boat and if you look way back in the waves there's a couple of white spots which are also dolphin jumping. These Dolphins had a black fins on top and grey to off-white sides until you got to their belly which was black again. Another type of dolphin, I love it

Tonight we change the name from old grand-dad to ChellTina on our boat. A little champagne for the boat a little for Neptune comma and a little more for Audrey and I. Going from old grand-dad male to ChellTina female, Audrey wants to know if that make her transgender. No I think it makes her happy the name fits her better.

 driving to and provisioning the boat is a lot of work. As you can see the salon is completely full the boxes and stuff. As evening approaches most of it has been put away. But Andrey and I are so tired that we are not planning on leaving until Thursday. Wednesday will have OK weather but maybe Thursday will be better. Lots of little stuff to do tomorrow.

The day is finally here. The pickup is packed and wait until morning to head to carabelle to finish the provisioning of the boat. Alan Dear is driving us down and he will be bringing our truck back to Valdosta. We're hoping for a weather window Wednesday or Thursday to cross the Gulf. Audrey and I both are very excited about the start of this adventure. See you in the morning

I spent Monday and Tuesday at the boat doing a lot of little things getting it ready. What was getting the dinghy ready. I had to roll it to where we put the motor on. Not very good at rowing a

at least the wind and Tide was in my favor. Audrey has been working all week getting the provision is ready and today we went to the store to buy some last-minute items we need. As it looks today we will be able to get a Crossing across the Gulf on Thursday of next week. We head to the boat on Tuesday. We're both excited as we can be about this trip.

As I set here contemplating 2016 and looking to 2017, I am amazed at All God has done in my life.  God has lead me to Ministry in many others lives.

Life group has taught me so much.  The group mean so much in my life.  Thank-you Jesus.

 Working with men in discipleship is amazing.  God has change my life as He changes men around me.

The opportunity to work in Dominican republic to me is beyond belief.  God made me love a people that speaks a different language and live in a different culture, but needs and knows the Great and Mighty God.  I pray for them everyday in ways I have never pray for people before.  My love for them is only second to the love for Christ.

 Crosspointechurch is a place where of growing and serving. Thank you God for letting me be involved in a growing loving church with Disciplineship at it's focus.
The My business has been Blessed beyond belief.  God is rewarding a life with Him in the forefront.  He has and is forgiving all the nasty sin in my life.  He has and is saving me.
The part of my life that amazes me most is the gift of fun times. The seas have become a place to refresh me and  to renew me spiritual.  "He holds the waters of the seas in the flat of his hand."
  Thank you God for all you are to me.
I know not what 2017 holds, but I know Jesus will hold this and every year in his hands.  You to can know him by turning from your sin and choosing Jesus to reply on for all eternity.  Praise be to God.