Blog of Events & Happenings

Sunday we moved aboard Apolonia, after having loaded the boat.  Ready for the adventure — a boat trip to the Chesapeake Bay.  We’ll been away from long boat trips too long — since 2017.

Easy under way from Fort Pierce, but chart plotters were not working.  I figured I’d work on them a while, but just 10 miles later said, no way — must have help.  Pulled into Harbor Town Marina, back in Fort Pierce, and asked for a bit of help.  After some investigation, we determined plotters were fine but boat power to the helm station was the problem.  Batteries ok, so it is a cable issue.  Still working to determine which cable is not carrying the required 12Vs, but hopeful this will be fixed by tomorrow noon.  This has cost us 1 of the 3 weather or mechanical down days we had planned for the trip.   We’ll see what’s up as we move forward.  Now planning a 12 May arrival in Colonial Beach, VA, well before our 14 May deadline.

Even with the issue, Carey had a great day.  Several people stopped by and said, “nice boat,” then in conversation she discovered we had common friends and experiences with them in the long-range boating community, particularly in the Bahamas  She was enjoying being back on the water, as was I.  I determined our new dinghy was riding nicely on the new Hurley swim platform davits we chose to haul the dinghy. Looking forward to anchoring out…our favorite.   We ended the day with dinner at The Cove Restaurant, located at Harbor Town Marina.  Maddy loves being back on the boat and is snoozing as we end the evening watching Beverly Hills Cop and Operation Petticoat.  So nice being old folk!

Tomorrow we hope to be off to Titusville.  A few pictures below.

 

Well, we’re in February and Polly came to stay for a while.  She has moved out of her place in St Petersburg, rented a home in Tucson, AZ near some of her relatives.  She will be leaving for Tucson in early April.  She’ll stay will us until then.  As she is still a Florida resident she will get her Covid 19 vaccine shots here, before leaving.

As I mentioned in the last blog we had Paget painted up nicely and finally decided to sell her.  She sold quickly to a middle-edge couple with children in Miami.  The wife’s parents are from Norway and they have at least one antique boat.  This couple wanted one to day boat around Miami.  It all worked out and they are now the proud owners of Paget.

Carey and I have cleaned up the Nr 2 Apolonia, the 37′ Maxum and we are planning our trip to Virginia and the Chesapeake.  We’ll be leaving on 26 April.  Now we are planning our trip and doing the necessary check out of Apolonia.  And just to make sure Carey can see well, she took care of a cataract issue with her eyes and also had new lenses placed in the eyes.  She doesn’t need glasses any more.

It is still slow around here but in our local area people are behaving by wearing masks for the most part and being serious about the Covid virus, even though the news media seems to indicate Florida is miss-behaving.  We’re lucky to be in a spot that has reasonable people.

Take care.  More to follow as we get ready for the trip north on the boat.

 

When you label large blocks of time on a post, like I just did, you know things are moving slow …

We spent most of this winter isolating due the COVID virus.  I could not take the symptoms and Carey was making sure I did not get the virus.  We stayed in.

We had planned a trip to Annapolis to see the grandkids, which we canceled.  Our friend George (Cajigal) was losing his battle with cancer so we went to see him and his wife Polly.   A short time after our visit he passed away, which was just before Thanksgiving.  Polly and her son Jackson came over to our place for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully relaxing for Polly.  We enjoyed each others company.  After that visit Polly decided to settle up in St Peterburg and move out to Tucson, AZ. near her brother.  She needed to get the vaccine for the virus and move our of her apartment by early February.  We made plans for her to move in with us in February until she was able to receive the vaccine, find a place to live in Tucson, and move out of St. Petersburg.  As that was all in the works, Polly and her son Jackson came over again for the Christmas holidays.  We had Bonnie Scanlin, a good friend, over for Christmas Eve dinner.  Sort of breaking the rules but all five of us have been very serious about isolating so we took the risk.

Now January, we’re putting a fresh coat of paint on Paget.  We think we’ll put her in the market.  And we are also getting Apolonia ready for a summer cruise hoping that the virus gets under control.

Here are a few pictures of the holidays.  And we report we’ve had our first Covid vaccine shot and will get the second one 19 Feb.

A hot summer and we’re still waiting for the cool weather of fall.  It is now the end of October and we’re still in the rainy season, but thankfully no hurricanes have hit us this year.  While we do have the month of November yet to get through we’re hopeful!  The virus has really slowed us down.  We are staying isolated.  There are some open air restaurants that we have started to visit as they are following CDC guidelines.  We’re also anxious about getting good word on an upcoming vaccine.  Not many things we’ve done to take pictures of, but here is one at a local eatery in Jenson Beach where we can sit outside and safely social distance, CrawDaddy’s.

June was quiet.  We isolated and stayed at home.  Carey has been extra protective of me with COPD.  Just two people running around the house quietly.

In July we ventured out a very little bit.  We also enjoyed a visit from George and Polly for a week.  It was very nice to isolate with friends who are as careful as we have been.  We enjoyed the pool and ate most of our meals at home.  We did go out once to a Cuban restaurant where they rigorously adhered to the CDC guidelines.   We also took this time to have some mechanical work done on the boat.  Now we are getting a bit bored again and hopeful for leadership that gets this country out of the mess we are in.  We also enjoyed celebrating George’s 74th birthday.

Hopefully, a bit of normal will return next year.  We have purchased a dinghy and small gas engine for the boat so we can start short overnight trips on the boat.  It will be a way to isolate but still get out and around.  We’re looking forward to these trips in August and September.