Be My Valentine

View from Carina at dusk – Indian Street Bridge

In spite of the slightly romantic, moonlit setting, dinner on Carina on the Eve of St Valentine was not one of my better efforts. I think I’ve gone off brown rice, and I really must remember that when you use yoghurt as the basis of a sauce, given half the chance it will irreversibly curdle, ruining the aesthetics, if not the flavour, of your creation. But then I never was very good at Cooking With Gas.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the weather in Florida in the winter is at least as capricious as in England.
We had to stay in the marina yesterday, because to venture out would have been foolhardy, in the gale force winds.
This morning I awoke shivering, and not just because I’d had nightmares about intruders on the boat and swimming with manatees. It was 7C. That’s about 45F, for my American family. There was condensation running down Carina’s windows, and outside, mist was gently rising from the water.

Early morning mist at Indiantown Marina

We continued our journey along the Okeechobee Waterway, travelling east along the St Lucie Canal towards Stuart.
The trees were different – the pines lending some height to the panorama.

near Indiantown

Ian is usually meticulous about planning the day’s route, but for some reason it had escaped him that just before arriving at the St Lucie River, there would be a double bascule bridge that had only 9′ headroom, and this would need to be opened before Carina could pass through. This necessitated a hurried call to the bridgemaster on the VHF radio.

Roosevelt Bridge opened for Carina to pass through

Our plan had been to anchor at a place called Manatee Pocket, which sounded pleasant and picturesque.

Manatee Pocket

But when we got there, it seemed rather crowded with boats, so we went back and anchored in the quieter Hookers Cove.

The sun setting at Hookers Cove

And a few minutes later, the moon rose.

Moon rising

Some like it hot…..

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

….but you can have too much of a good thing, and the for the last two days the temperature has been up to 30C and a following wind has meant it’s been quite uncomfortable up on the flybridge. Fortunately the nights have been cooler, as the airconditioner on Carina’s pretty noisy. When we bought Carina, Tom and Tracy were plugging the benefits of the ice-making machine, something which it would never have occurred to us to think of buying for ourselves. We’re just beginning to appreciate it.

We left Ft Myers two days ago, heading east up the Caloosahatchee River to LaBelle. We’re not in uncharted waters – perish the thought – but it feels like unknown territory, since nothing between Fort Myers on the west coast, and Port St Lucie on the east, features in that bible for travellers, the Lonely Planet Guide.

Clouds reflected in the water just east of Fort Myers

The landscape began to change, but there was still plenty of birdlife around.

Great egrets near Fort Myers

Some interesting engineering too. This is a bascule bridge.

Cape Coral railway bridge

The vegetation still quite tropical here.

We saw some orange groves too.

Orange groves near LaBelle

Yesterday we covered LaBelle to Clewiston. The scenery and vegetation became more open grassland and we occasionally saw cows at the water’s edge. Presumably the alligators hold no fears for them.

Countryside east of LaBelle

There were locks to contend with, something we are used to on the canals, but these were rather different, being a great deal larger, and manned. There was some anxiety that we wouldn’t know the local code of practice, and also that there might be a lot of surging when the lock filled, but we acquitted ourselves quite well.

Leaving Ortona Lock

We saw a working boat leaving the next lock.

Working boat leaving Moore Haven Lock

Last night we stayed at Roland Martin Marina, Clewiston. After a few nights moored out, well away from other boats, it was a pleasure to eat at the restaurant there – good food, busy with people and funky music too.

Enjoying a glass of Pinot Grigio at Roland Martin’s

This morning, my usual routine of lying in bed for some time with a cup of tea, checking my emails and Facebooking on my phone had to be sacrificed in the interests of crossing Lake Okeechobee before the wind got too strong. We had, of course, read all about the lake and the vagaries of the weather in Terry Darlington‘s book Narrow Dog to Indian River, which was the inspiration for this trip, and it had assumed totemic significance. It’s an enormous lake – 35 miles across – so crossing it is rather different from meandering up the river. or hugging the coastline between the Keys. How to strike a balance between safety but not wimping out? The forecast was not that good for today – winds of up to 15 knots, moderately choppy, and deteriorating later in the afternoon.But the forecast for the following two days was worse. While time isn’t an issue, we don’t want it to become one, and we have to be in Jacksonville by March 7th, give or take a day or two. So we really didn’t want to hang about in Clewiston, and I had to get out of bed at 7.15 to be away by 8.
It was a beautiful morning, and almost straight away after leaving the marina we found ourselves in the wide expanse of the lake.

Entering Lake Okeechobee at Clewiston

Early morning fishermen on Lake Okeechobee

It took us just under four hours to cross the lake, and for the last hour there was appreciable swell. We carried on along the St Lucie Canal for 10 miles to Indiantown. Here’s another one for the engineers.

Railroad lift bridge near Indiantown

We made the right decision. At four o’clock the rain started, with thunder and lightning too. Tomorrow gale force winds are expected, so it looks as though I might get a lie-in tomorrow, and Carina might get some deep cleaning.

Seeing the sights at the Edison-Ford Winter Estates

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

Thomas A. Edison’s house on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River, Fort Myers,FL

The Edison-Ford Winter Estates may sound a bit dry, but it is a gem.

Thomas Edison came to Florida in the 1880s with his second wife Mina and bought the property, Seminole Lodge, as a winter home and spent the next 20 years developing the house and garden. He became friendly with Henry Ford through their shared interest in many enterprises, and in 1916 Ford bought the next-door house, The Mangoes.

We had an audio tour which covered the two houses, the Botanical and Ornamental Gardens, the Ford Automobile exhibit, the museum and Edison’s laboratory, all for $20 each.

Both the houses were charming in their simplicity and good taste, and Edison’s in particular reflected his various inventions.

The library, Edison house

The sitting room, Edison house

The master bedroom, Edison house

The Mangoes, Henry Ford’s house

Clara Ford’s dining room with her Wedgwood dinner service

Mina Edison developed the ornamental gardens, while Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were interested in botanical research and in particular, with Harvey Firestone, in finding a plant which would thrive in the Florida climate and from which latex could be harvested.

Mina Edison’s Moonlight Garden

Tropical plants making striking contrasts of form and texture

Palmyra Palms

The Mysore Banyan tree

Bauhinia

The Automobile exhibition included the Tin Lizzie, the Model T Ford.

Model T Ford

It’s quite frightening to think that it could actually go at 45mph.

Edison and Ford both had very little formal schooling and their achievements, dedication and enterprise were all brought out in the exhibition. But so too were their interest and enjoyment of family life.
They were both sociable, and Henry Ford loved dancing, to the extent that he formed his own dance band and employed his own dance teacher to learn and revive old dances. In the 1920s, he said: “The younger people do not know old-fashioned dancing, and the older people – those who really need it – have grown rusty. They thought they were too old, but one never gets too old to dance!”. Indeed.

There was an interesting view of the energy crisis, as seen 100 years ago. In 1913, Scientific American said that ‘the question of the possible exhaustion of the world’s oil supply deserves the gravest consideration. There is every indication we are now face to face with this possibility.’
And in 1931, Edison presciently told Ford and Firestone : “I’ll put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle this.”
He was 83 years old, and still working every day in his laboratory.

A precursor to the juke box

We decided we had enough time, after visiting the Edison-Ford estates, to go to Lee County Manatee Park . Manatees are aquatic mammals, about the size of a large sheep, and are an endangered species. They are most closely related to elephants, and are a must-see for visitors to Florida.
Owing to human inputting error, our first two efforts at driving there, courtesy of the Tom-Tom and then Google maps on my iPhone, were not successful, and it was only after driving about 12 miles round in circles that we established the right address for the park.
A certain irritability crept into the conversation.
‘The bl**dy manatees had better be sitting up doing tricks after this.’
But only one of them deigned to expose six inches of his back.

Sanibel

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

Gramma Dot’s at Sanibel Marina

Things improved after we left Captiva. We became afloat again at about 2.30 in the afternoon on the high tide, and had a good passage in smooth waters with the sun shining, all the way to Sanibel. We were met by the marina owner, Tom, and he and Robert, the chap whose boat we were berthed next to, couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful. The marina is very nicely landscaped with lots of flowering hibiscus, and it has a good restaurant, Gramma Dot’s, where we had a very good fish dinner. In the morning, we got up to find a complimentary newspaper and two blueberry muffins outside the door of the boat. I just love American customer service.

The guide book says that the best way to get round Sanibel is by bike, so despite the fact that I don’t have a very good track record with two-wheeled vehicles, and I hadn’t been on a bicycle for about twenty years, we set off in search of Billy’s Rentals. I normally don’t go anywhere without the appropriate one-inch Ordnance Survey map, but clearly that isn’t possible in the US, and we had only a vague tourist leaflet as an indication of where Billy’s might be, relative to the marina. A helpful fellow boater told us it was ‘about a mile down the road’ but I’m coming to the conclusion that some Americans aren’t very good at judging walking distances, possibly because they don’t walk anywhere very often. (Only joking, American readers!) We walked on for some considerable time, and at least a good two miles, before we found Billy’s.
We needn’t have worried that by the time we got there, the bikes might have all been taken. There were thousands of them, with many different kinds of varying complexity to choose from. As Florida is flat, Ian decided that the simple, no gears, brake-by-pedalling-backwards type would be appropriate for someone of my cycling capabilities.

Proof

Our objective was JN ‘Ding’ Darling National Wildlife Refuge, where you can follow a 5-mile trail through the sanctuary.

Roseate spoonbill and Tri-coloured heron

Roseate spoonbills

Egrets

Ibis

The trail also took us round a midden – debris of shells left by The Calusa Indians who inhabited south-western Florida for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century.

We had a look at the beach too.

Tarpon Bay Beach, Sanibel

Yesterday we left Sanibel for Fort Myers, on the estuary of the Caloosahatchee River, and saw this trip boat along the way.

Here’s the view from our mooring at Fort Myers City Marina.

Fort Myers from our mooring

Stuck in the middle with you

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

View from the mooring – Captiva Island and Buck Key

Last night we anchored in very shallow water between Captiva Island and Buck Key. The whole of this area is very low-lying and all the water between the mainland and the numerous keys is shallow. You have to keep to the marked channel, and even then, we’d been warned that there were two types of boat in these waters – those that were already aground, and those that were about to go aground.
Captiva and its neighbouring island, Sanibel, are famous for wildlife, beautiful beaches and generally being unspoilt and you can hire bikes to get around. The plan was to anchor for a night, then move on to the marina at Sanibel for a couple of nights and do some land-based sight-seeing.
The first bad news was that the marina where we wanted to stay was full, but we could ring in the morning to see if there were any vacancies. Then the bike place wouldn’t deliver bikes to a nearby jetty for us for a one-day hire. Then at 9pm, Ian suspected we were aground. We weren’t, but he decided that we needed to get up at 6 in the morning, when the tide would be right, to move into deeper water.
We got up at six and moved the boat, and got stuck.
So we now have to wait here till this afternoon, when we can float off on the high tide.
‘I’ll make a cup of tea,’ Ian said, and there was no further conversation for the next two hours.
But things are improving, as they usually do. He rang the marina again, and someone has left, so we can stay there for the next two nights after all. And I got out the tin of Brasso that I’d bought in Walmart and had a go at the decorative brass hooks in the galley (one in the shape of an anchor, and one a ship bearing two pineapples) which were badly tarnished and worked off my annoyance on them. The hooks don’t gleam quite as much as my Brownie badge used to, but they look much better and I’m having my second cup of tea.

The previous night we had stayed at Gasparilla Marina, an enormous place, but with very friendly and helpful staff and shower rooms and laundry facilities that wouldn’t have been out of place in a five star hotel.

Carina at Gasparilla Marina

The trip from Gasparilla was interesting, not only because of the dolpins and birds we saw, but the conversations between boaters that we overheard on the VHF radio. It turns out that we are not the only ones to be mildly annoyed by the large wakes created by some boatowners with an excess of engine fitted to their craft, but Americans are rather more polite and subtle with their insults than British narrowboaters.
‘Calling Moonwind……apparently your mother didn’t teach you courtesy.’
‘Calling Snowdrift……you sure know how to make a boat roll.’
‘Calling Bunnikins……I guess that’s your first boat.’

So far, we have neither been the recipient of such banter, nor dared to deliver any.

Cayo Costa from Charlotte Harbor

Not the BCN

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

We’ve spent many happy hours on the Birmingham Canal Navigations in nbScallywag, most of them in February in the cold and rain, but sometimes in August in the cold and rain, and I love the sense of history that the old decaying buildings lend to this part of the British Waterways, and marvel at the ingenuity of the men whose inventions and entrepreneurial spirit powered our Industrial Revolution.
The Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line was built by Thomas Telford and opened in 1838. It’s a wide, straight, majestic canal which is now a haven for wildlife, has several beautiful bridges and was a feat of engineering in its time.
After we passed Venice today, we went through a stretch of man-made channel that fleetingly reminded me of the Main Line, broad, straight and with a towpath each side. But it was swathed in warmth and sunshine, and our sedate progress at 6 knots was frequently interrupted by boy racers in speedboats going six times faster than us, causing Carina to rock and roll alarmingly.
Of course on the British canals, such conduct is considered de trop, and likely to bring other boaters out of the depths of their boats to wave fists or exchange expletives.
But here it seems the norm, so we’ll have to get used to it. And Ian has noticed that many of these boats are adorned with girls wearing bikinis, and he has only a grumpy old woman who doesn’t understand the electrics.

Yesterday we ventured out in the RIB dinghy to get from our mooring to Marina Jack’s in Sarasota. I had imagined that when you stayed on a mooring, it would be a short trip of about 20 yards to the shore. The actualite was a bit different. It was about half a mile, and hair-raising.This is me hanging on for dear life.

Here’s a photo of Carina from the water.

Carina moored at Marina Jack, Sarasota

Last night we saw our first Florida sunset.

And today, our first taste of what we had envisaged when we thought of doing the Great Loop – calm sparkling water, beautiful scenery and warm sunshine.

Mangrove on Siesta Key

There was a slightly sticky moment when Ian belatedly realised that Carina wouldn’t be able to pass under a bridge we were approaching, and had to quickly radio the Bridgemaster and ask for it to be opened.

We’ve seen some rather nice real estate, too.

Lots of small boats out on the Intracoastal Waterway.

And wildlife too

Rubbish weather

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

Leaving St Pete in the rain

I wouldn’t usually use a noun as an adjective, but language evolves, and the word rubbish seems to be in a transitional state, where its use as either a noun or an adjective seems acceptable. I could have used a more literary title for this post, but ‘Rubbish Weather’ seems to convey more accurately both the prevailing meterological conditions, and our feelings on the subject, than something perhaps a little more poetic, like ‘Goodbye St Petersburg’. And for all readers who may be experiencing really rubbish weather back home, feel free to indulge in a little schadenfreude.

We had been aiming to leave St Pete on Wednesday, and that would have been a great trip, with blue skies and calm water. But one or two maintenance issues still had to be sorted out before we could contemplate a night out on a mooring, separated from the facilities of civilisation by a 10 minute ride in the RIB dinghy. So on Wednesday morning, Ian fixed the loo and one or two other things, while I went to the marina laundry and did a bit more cleaning and organising. At this point, a Thursday departure was looking good, but the forecast gradually deteriorated and on Thursday morning, faced with the prospect of rain, winds of 15knots, and a moderately choppy sea, we decided Thursday was a non-starter.

St Pete’s pride and joy seems to be the Salvador Dali Museum, so we duly went along, but with a sense of obligation, and a sense that we shouldn’t waste our time, rather than feeling that it was something we particularly wanted to see.
How wrong we were.

The building itself is impressive, overlooking the bay, and the exhibition comprehensive, illustrating Dali’s changing style and artistic development throughout his long life. What impressed me was the technical brilliance of his work, like The Basket of Bread, painted in 1926 when he was 22.

I couldn’t say the same about the Warhol exhibits which were also being displayed. The Heinz boxes looked like Heinz boxes and the portaits of Mick Jagger and Diana, Princess of Wales, looked as though they could have been done with rather more skill by the average sixth-former. There were self-portaits so numerous that you couldn’t help wondering why this man found himself so endlessly fascinating, or thought that other people would.

This morning, the weather forecast which yesterday had been favourable, had once again got worse, with not only winds of 15 knots and the sea slightly choppy, but rain too.
This time, common sense lost out to an urge to get going whatever, and we left St Pete behind in light rain. No sooner had we emerged from the shelter of the marina than the swell started, which lasted for a good couple of hours while we crossed Tampa Bay. One lesson we have learned today is to Close All Doors Before Setting Off. Luckily nothing was broken or damaged.
We arrived at Sarasota 6 hours after leaving St Pete, but ended on a high note. One problem with these journeys is that at the very end is the stressful business of either tying up to a dock, or lowering your anchor, or mooring on a buoy. (Pronounced boo-ey here in Florida, we learned.) Today it was mooring on a buoy, which meant that the crew had to either throw a rope some distance around it, or grab it with the boat hook. My only previous experience of this procedure was watching Shane Spall’s attempts, on the DVD of her and Tim doing their Round Britain trip in their barge The Princess Matilda. There had been some profanity on the Spall boat, but we managed it at the second attempt with no foul language at all.

TMS

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

I’ve thought of a new acronym. It stands for Too Much Shopping.
On Saturday I found myself in Walmart, having a whispered, but heated, argument with Ian about hand-held vacuum cleaners, in my view a necessity for maintaining adequate cleanliness and hygiene on the boat. It was the first of our shopping forays to get the boat sorted and equipped before we set off on the Great Loop for real, and the objective was non-food household items.
Arguments when we go shopping are not that uncommon, which is why we don’t shop together very often, but as I can’t drive in the US I had to be accompanied. What was bizarre about this particular argument was that I wanted the sturdy, 18v, dark grey Black & Decker job with the ergonomic handle and the two auxiliary crevice tools, while Ian considered that the flimsy, 12v pink one that cost only a few dollars less would be perfectly adequate. I’ve sometimes had to quote Ruskin on the subject of value for money, but fortunately it wasn’t necessary on this occasion. Besides, compared with the plethora of must-have electronic gadgets we have acquired at some expense over the last fortnight, from the laptop, the dongle, and the GPS gadget to the personal wifi hotspot, the vacuum cleaner seemed to me a minor expense.

Yesterday’s shopping task was filling up the boat with diesel. This could have been left until we were leaving St Pete, but Ian thought he needed practice at missing other boats in the marina, and I needed practice at lassoing the poles on the dock, and throwing ropes to people.
Ian had radioed the marina office to say we were coming to refuel, and we were met by a man from the marina, who greeted us with “Hey Ainsworths. Where do y’all get those cute Alabama accents?’ Difficult one, really.
He addressed Ian as Captain, at the end of every sentence. This was abbreviated to ‘Capt’ but the p was silent, so that the conversation went along the lines of ‘You got a line there, Ca’t?’ ‘Hold it right there, Ca’t’.
91 gallons of diesel later, we were done, but Ca’t had unfortunately left his credit card in TGI Fridays the day before, so the first mate had to pay.
This involved getting off the boat and going up to the marina office. Normally I am not very brave about jumping off and on the boat, but perhaps because of Marina Man’s presence, I took a determined leap and landed with a good two feet to spare and my dignity intact.
“You’re just like my wife,’ Marina Man said, admiringly. “Great woman. Lousy taste in men.’

Downtown St Pete is quite posh. Straub Park overlooks the marina, and the palms and other trees provide a cool green space between the bayfront and the sea. There are some elegant apartment blocks between the treelined avenues and lots of nice places to sit out and admire the view with lunch or just a coffee. It’s busy with smartly-dressed people of all ages.
On Saturday night it was heaving. We were tired after the shopping marathon, and Ian fancied going to eat at The Moon under Water, which described itself as an English pub.

Usually I’m suspicious of such places when they are not actually in England, but the Moon does go back to Colonial times, and the name refers to the practices of the Press Gangs. The Army recruiters would slip a silver shilling into drinks. If anyone drank from a vessel (pewter in those days) with a silver shilling at the bottom, they would be deemed to have taken the Queen’s Shilling and forced to join up. The pewter vessels started being made with glass bottoms, so you could pick it up before drinking, and see if there was a shilling (the moon) at the bottom of the drink (under the water).

Anyway, on Saturday night there was a 25-minute wait for a table. We were hungry, but the next place was too expensive. Everywhere else on the bayfront was busy. Getting dispirited, we followed a sign to a Thai restaurant into a rather dingy shopping mall, when suddenly there was loud music coming from a bar, and realising it was a live performance, we went in for a drink and to hear some amazing Bluegrass/ country music performed by a motley crew with guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. Just one of those serendipitous happenings that make travelling so enjoyable. We went back to the pub, and the wait had increased to 45 minutes. But it didn’t matter. We found a nice Caribbean restaurant a couple of blocks away,and had a great meal there.
We went back to the pub on Sunday night. Inside, it looked like one of those Victorian pubs in London or Manchester, high ceilings, lots of pewter tankards hanging up and deep-buttoned leather upholstered seating. And the food was good there too.

The shopping is finished. Of course there were the lifejackets and other boating necessities to be got from West Marine, and we did the final food shop today at Publix, which is to Walmart as Waitrose is to Aldi. Tonight it will be dinner on Carina for the first time.

We’re ready to roll, except that tomorrow it’s going to be rainy, windy and the sea will be choppy. So departure for Longboat Key is now scheduled for Thursday.

Introducing mvCarina……

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

Ian wondered aloud the other day when our project would stop being stressful, and start being enjoyable. Not anytime soon, apparently.
In any case, wasn’t the point of the exercise, at least partly, to generate stress? What is excitement if it isn’t stress?

There was stress/excitement in abundance today, when we took control of Carina, as opposed to simply owning her. She was moored at the dock outside the vendors, Tom and Tracy’s, house in Treasure Island, and we faced the daunting prospect of casting off and getting under way with them watching the spectacle. In the event, Ian spent so long fiddling with the navigational gadgetry and putting off the evil moment, that they gave up and went out for lunch, but we didn’t find that out till later. We thought they were simply lurking behind the blinds.

We had considered postponing, because the weather forecast wasn’t that favourable – winds of 20knots, but moderating in the afternoon. If it had been any worse, we wouldn’t have gone. Being narrowboaters of some years’ experience, we’re used to boats being carried by the wind, but this was rather different. The manoeuvre consisted of reversing the boat, then going forwards down the channel. But surrounding the dock were several other boats belonging to Tom and Tracy’s neighbours, large poles sticking out of the water and some shallow water.
Although Carina obligingly drifted out away from the two poles she’d been moored to, as Ian reversed, the wind blew us at speed towards the other boats and poles. A hair-raising few minutes passed until we finally got free, the outboard dinghy on the back missing one of the poles by an inch.

Under way in Tampa Bay

Another source of stress was the depth of the water – in many parts of Tampa Bay it’s very shallow, and our depth gauge, remarkably similar to a dental apex locator, beeped with alarming frequency. But we managed to avoid the horrors of running aground, only to encounter stronger winds and more swell, reminding me of an epic journey in 1974 in our Enterprise dinghy in Hongkong, when Ian thought it was a good idea to sail in heavy seas round the south side of Hongkong Island from Stanley Sailing Club to Little Saiwan, a traumatic experience which is embedded in my memory.

Ian on the bridge

However, we arrived safely at the marina at St Pete, with boat and dignity intact, and were met by Norm from the brokers we had bought the boat from, who had very kindly not only given us a lift to Tom and Tracy’s in the morning, but came down to the marina later to help us dock.

arriving at St Pete marina

Norm and Ian docking the boat

On the canals in England, we often encountered what are known as ‘gongoozlers’, onlookers who gaze on as the boaters tackle the locks. I haven’t yet learned the equivalent American term, but there were some waiting as we docked. Admiringly, they enquired how old the boat was, and how many years we had had her. On being told that we bought her last week, and this was our maiden voyage, they were rapturous not only of Carina’s beauty but also Ian’s boat handling skills. I do have to admit he’d made quite a neat job of it.
Here’s a quick guided tour.

The galley

Aft cabin

Carina safely moored at St Pete

It’s nice to see the family……

Posted by Jane Ainsworth

……….and it’s nice to see them go, except of course when you are the departing guests.

The familiar feelings of sadness at leaving them all weren’t helped by an evening arrival at Orlando, followed by an hour’s hassle over the car hire and a two hour drive to the West Coast, but we did have a reasonable meal in Chili’s and the waitress reminded me of Denise out of Hebburn, the eponymous television programme.

Today we went to Treasure Island to receive instruction in how to avoid disaster afloat, from Tom and Tracy, the vendors. I managed to remember the location of the special implement to open the water and diesel filler caps, and how to use it, but little else.

But Tom and Ian spent some considerable time below deck in the pristine engine room, discussing filters, pumps of various kinds, and frequency of oil changes. I can already see that Ian’s enjoyment of the trip will not be confined to the cruising, visiting places of interest, and carousing with other boat owners, but will include many happy hours fettling the engine and generally Fixing Things.

I still can’t quite believe that the boat is ours, still less that tomorrow, weather permitting, we will be taking it all by ourselves 15 miles across the bay to St Petersburg. We have the use of a mooring there for a few days while we stock up and organise the boat. She is already well equipped, but a priority will be another blanket and a fan heater, since ‘freezing temperatures could be reached’ , according to the weather forecast, on Tuesday night.

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talesfromtheamericanwaterways

A sojourn by boat through the Eastern USA and Canada

Uncategorized

Be My Valentine

Some like it hot…..

Seeing the sights at the Edison-Ford Winter Estates

Sanibel

Stuck in the middle with you

Not the BCN

Rubbish weather

TMS

Introducing mvCarina……

It’s nice to see the family……