Dunedin and Tarpon Exploration on Boat (Christmas season is apparently here...)

It's Christmas time.... but it doesn't feel much like Christmas weather....
Yesterday we did our first extended travel with our new dinghy.  20+ miles to and from Tarpon Springs from Dunedin on water.  (Around lots of Islands).  Of course the weather changed while we were out.  75 and sunny when we left.   60ish and looking like rain (and windy/wavy on the way back).  Nothing intolerable but Katie wore two life jackets for wind and warmth protection. 
Today we decided to do a Hallmark Christmas kind of day.   Dinghy ride to shore, shopping for Christmas knick knacks, Christmas Boat Parade and Christmas Tree lighting.  
They do the boat parade up around here.   Serious business...   
And we finished the night with a Christmas Tree lighting.   Well, it's not really a tree.... But it's garland hung from a pole in the shape of a tree...

Fun times were had by all...  And there was ice cream.   Yes, it was a good day - even while I sat and listened to a Paul Simon sound alike sing his songs while Katie did some shop exploration....

It was so nice today we did shorts and T-shirt outside til almost 10pm and I actually had to turn on the AC in the boat when we got back to lower the temp (more for lowering the humidity.  Everything is sopping wet). 

Oh, and Santa appears to have been taking Ozempic....


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Orillia ON to Severn Falls ON

Image
We are within sight of the last lock of our trip!    Today we left Orillia early under grey skies and wind. At least it wasn't raining.  We made our way to the north end of Lake Couchiching (Water with Many Winds in the native language) and into the narrows of the canal.   We soon came up on a railroad bridge.  And the sign (which is a new thing for us) said the next opening would be between 11am and 11:30am.   But it was just a little after 10am.   Ouch.  Trying to keep the boat in the middle of the channel for an hour with 20mph winds.... Not easy.  Fortunately there were trees and the trains blocked more while we waited.   We dropped anchor and used the engines to keep the boat reasonably straight in the channel (and off the huge rocks lining both sides).  Eventually the long trains stopped and they opened the bridge for us.   We've had it with locks and bridges ...  (We ...
Read more

Youngs Point ON to Fenelon Falls ON

Image
We left Youngs Point lock wall this morning about 8am with two hours of cruising to get to our first lock.   What a beautiful day.   We had two lakes to cross.  Clear Lake (which is clear)...   And Stoney Lake which is.... Granite.  The beaches are done and the navigation is critical.  It's a common thing to have solid granite just a few inches below the surface on both sides of the boat just 10-20 feet away.  As long as we are in the designated channel it's fine....   But prop repair and replacement is a big business here... Still... Driving past this kind of scenery all day would never get old... (Until it froze).  Eventually we journeyed through four locks today... And up to a fifth.    Lock 28, 30, 31, 32... And sitting just under lock 33.   Yes we are aware 29 is missing.  28 and 29 used to be a set of two (a flight lock) but in the 1960s they automated it (hydraulic controls rathe...
Read more

Ludington MI to Grand Haven MI - and Gold Looper Status!

Image
We are back at North Shore Marina!   The place we started and the place our boat calls home.  We have a new slip (next to where we were last year) and we have a port tie which is best for our boat.   How we tie up here will take some getting used to... We left Ludington today and it was a bit breezy (15-20 knot winds).  It was our best day to get home in the next five though so we went.   You can't see it but the waves were coming up high enough to splash us all the way on the top deck.   Lumpy for the first 30 miles.  Until we reached silver lake sand dunes.  Then we could turn about 30 degrees and quarter the waves a little.  The white caps died down also.  It was kind of foggy today so we couldn't see very far.  More of a haze as it didn't affect navigation but made pictures difficult.  That's the light house at Little Sab...
Read more