Blog of Events & Happenings

We bought our Villa in Ballantrae in September 2017 and have enjoyed the place and the surrounding neighbors; however, we’ve decided we want to live in a home.  Have just gotten use to a private home over the years.  Also, we need a bit more room outside for Maddy and those pool homes really did look nice.  We have entered into a contract to purchase a single family home and assuming all goes well … which we anticipate … we’ll close on 28 September.  Some pictures of the new home are shown below.  It is in the same gated community that our Villa is located … just across the street.  We have listed the Villa for sale.  While it has shown a couple of times we are still waiting for someone to write that check to purchase it.

We’re getting settled into our routine and defining the new lifestyle in Florida.

There are good day boat trips available near Port St. Lucie.  On Saturday, the 7th, we traveled 10 miles north on the ICW in Apolonia and picked up Jan and Tom (Jan is my cousin) at their home (with dock) in Vero Beach.  They brought lunch and we found a good day anchorage at Wabasso to anchor and have lunch.  After lunch we continued north to Sebastian Inlet and Captain Hiram’s Resort.  Pretty trip!  On the way back we passed a boat in trouble … it was out of gas.   In trying to help … he had drifted into shallow water … we touched bottom and later that day determined we had bent a prop which had to be reworked the following week.  That’s  boating.  A smaller boat with an outboard came by and pulled the distressed boat into a local marina.  The only “ouch” of the day was when the distressed boat later passed us going south with high speed and a wave.  He had gas now and we had a bent prop!

Later in the month we moved Apolonia to her new permanent slip, a floating slip at Ft Pierce City Marina.  We love the area.  It is close to the revitalized Ft Pierce downtown area with restaurants and a playhouse theater.  Lots to do.

In the pictures below you see Jan on the Apolonia, Apolonia in her new slip, as well as a couple pictures of the Tiki bar restaurant very near our new slip.

This month we also moved Paget to the marina at Ballantrae where we live. We are renting a slip with a lift for Paget for the very inexpensive price of $250 per month.  What a deal and it is close to the Villa.  We’ll decide soon whether we are keeping Paget or if we’ll get by with just the new Apolonia.

Click on first picture to see large images …

 

Wanting to visit Jack and Ann Southerland and the grandkids, we packed up the car and Carey, Maddy and I took off up North.  We stopped first at Jack and Ann’s and enjoyed catching up.  On the Friday the 18th we headed to Annapolis to visit Lauren, Cynthia, Oliver, and Benji.  We left Maddy at Jack and Ann’s since Benji is allergic to dogs.  We had a great visit and attended a birthday party the grandkids were attending.  Good time had by all.  Sunday we traveled back to Manassas to pick up Maddy.  Monday morning we drove to Port Kinsale Marina and visited with Ross and Kathy on Pilgrim.  We hadn’t seen them for several years and wanted to visit.  That afternoon we headed south back to Port St Lucie, after a nice visit.

Click on first picture to see large images …

 

Lauren, Cynthia and the grandkids Oliver and Benji joined us from Thursday 29 March to Tuesday 3 April.  A great visit.   It was a busy time and the grandkids wanted easter eggs, fishing, swimming, and beach time.  No time for a boat trip.  Maybe next time.  Highlighted by a great Easter Dinner with a main course of lamb.  So peaceful, relaxing, and enjoyable.  Already planning the next visit.  Click first picture for a slideshow view of pictures below.

This update is about the boats.

Paget passed her final Sea Trip last Friday as the new propellor we installed moved the boat at 25 mph at top end with a 20 mph cruising speed.  Just 2 mph slower than the target goal, we’re happy campers and ready to start using the boat around this area.  We are also considering selling her but will take some time to see how much we use her.

And we finally took Apolonia (the 37′ Maxum one) out for a few days.  We motored down to Boynton Beach, 60 miles south of Ft Pierce to visit Diane Burton and Petty Saylor.  They were visiting Diane’s mother in that area.  Enjoyed dinner Saturday evening at Two George’s restaurant, a great spot.  Great cruise but had to pass the Mar-a-Lago compound area and its security.  Not much of a problem and then we had the pleasure of viewing the Palm Beach boat show from the water … amazing … $1.5B worth of boats covering 12 acres on land and water.

A gallery of pictures describe some of the the trip.   Click on first picture to view slide show.