Holiday week

And a Merry Christmas was had - instead of 8 tiny Reindeer we had 3 sassy seadragons to bring Santa's trove.

Non-boating friends have asked what we do all day. And have commented on how many 'new and exciting' things we are doing. Well, yes and no. Here is an all too typical morning: Up with daylight, think about all the fun activities to be done. Brush teeth. Hmmm. The water pump isn't shutting off. Go above decks to check with Captain. Uhhh... guess we forgot to switch water tanks. Down to the engine room. Shut pump off. Switch tanks. No good, have the dreaded airlock. Run. Prime. Run. Open all the water faucets. (Even the forward head? Yes, Even the forward head.) Pump on pump off, bleed pump. Success. Now the water is spraying all over the engine room. Pump off. Close spraying valve. Pump on. Yea!! Now to clean up: dry off the engine room, shut all the open faucets. Open the floorboards over the bilge and sump pumps to the forward head. For some reason they just don't clear. Curse the forward head. Get out the wet/dry vacc. Suck, fill, empty, repeat. Clean up, close the floorboards back up. Think about getting a shower. Collect everything, walk 400 yards to the marina head, shower and walk back. Now its nearly noon... lets go kayaking!


Kayaking in urban areas can have exciting moments - we crossed the ICW from Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, a couple of miles. Six jet skis whizzing by to port, and enormous commercial vessels churning to starboard. Creates interesting wakes to toss my little boat about. But we raced a sailboat and won! Okay, so the wind was Very light, and the sailboat's sails very old and tired. But you take the victories you can, lol. Clearwater Beach is a barrier island with additional areas of landfill; these are long fingers of homes surrounded by waterways and, on land, connected by low bridges. Paddling through these bridges - barely tall enough for us to fit under - was rather magical.
We paddled to a couple of small islands and beached the kayaks while we explored:



Made the trip up to Tarpon Springs again to see if the food was as incredible as we thought. (yes!) This time we ate at Demitri's on the Water, just across the street from Mykonos. The birds think its a great place to eat too - not always waiting for an empty table to get a quick bite from.

Jack liked his braised lamb better than what he had at Mykonos, but my Moussaka and Dolmades weren't quite as good. Our waiter was charming though, and when I asked for Galaktobouriko for dessert he went into raptures about it. A few moments later he was back, empty handed. "I have to break your heart... But No!" said our waiter, and off he rushed. Minutes later he produced a huge portion, warmed, with two forks. Then he told us a story. Galactobouriko is his favorite treat in the world. When he was a child, his mother would make big pans of it. One day after she made it she went to the store to get ingredients for baklava too. She invited her son to come with her but he said no, he was old enough to stay home. So she left him. But he had big plans. As soon as she left he sat down to the pan of Galactobouriko and ate every bit of it. And we ate every bit of the one he brought us, from his home!

The Jolly Trolley failed us coming home from Tarpon Springs and we ended up calling for a taxi. Our driver was another charming person. A Coptic Christian from Egypt, his businesses there were burned out by the Islamic Brotherhood and he brought his family to New York, opening a store just in time for Hurricane Sandy. They relocated to Clearwater where his wife teaches and he drives a cab. We learned about the Egyptian Coptic community here, which is quite large, and about facing such losses with great grace...

Back on the boat a few days later, Jack had the stereo playing quite low through speakers on the aft deck. We were delighted to have a Great Heron land on the rail, cock his head to listen closely, and start a stately dance, swaying, lifting his feet, a master! Was lucky enough to get a couple of pictures.



Jack decided This should be our boat:
For some reason he likes the name. I think he should just put the name on his kayak - same color, after all! And a great fishing boat.

A wonderful week, now New Years Eve. Expecting to see some amazing fireworks from the flybridge - if we stay up that late - but probably nothing as lovely as the daily sunset shows.

Happy New Year to All!

The Early Days

Seadragon: A 52 foot, 1991 Cheoy Lee Trawler, bought in October 2014. Now December, and we are learning just how much we don't know.

We spent the month of November in Pensacola. The first night there we had a big storm and the springline - a rope securing the boat to the dock - broke. In the pouring rain I ran for help from other boaters while Jack worked to keep the boat from smashing on the dock. Moorahme's Randy and Beth and Joe from Cat's Meow responded with extra lines and good cheer, getting us secure once again. Nearly midnight and all of us soaked, couldn't have asked for better people to share a dock with. And dockmaster Ron was a treasure - always looking out for everyone, always ready to help, gentle in his bits of wisdom and advice.

After weeks of going through the engines, getting some plumbing changes made and an inverter added we finally were ready to depart. Our maiden voyage was about 50 miles long, from Pensacola to Shalimar anchorage near Destin. Ah! Anchoring! Finally something we know how to do and are comfortable with. Had an easy night and felt good.
Discovered in the morning that anchoring in the panhandle has one big difference from anchoring in the South Pacific: Mud! Took many gallons of precious water to hose off each and every chain link before it went into the chain locker...

From there we traveled the intracoastal waterway (ICW) across the Choctawachee Bay and into a river system. Felt very primeval.Saw no one, just birds. Looked for alligators, but no luck. Crossed into more bays, passing Panama City and anchoring at California Bayou. Owls hooting, stars shining. Another lovely night. The third day was similar, more river time, passing through a railroad turnstile, which was fascinating and very steampunk! Loved it!

The last bit of river opened into Apalachicola Bay and we tied up at the Apalachicola Marina & Fuel Dock - very old and funky, so very cool. Got fuel and then backed into a teeny tiny slip via 2 90 degree turns. Wow. Jack did beautifully, we got tied up and off to explore the town. Very charming; a working town, mostly oystering, but also some tourism, so fun shops and restaurants. The guys at the fuel dock loaned us a golf cart so we could get to NAPA to buy engine oil and stop at the Piggly Wiggly for some groceries. Had to try the oysters at Boss!

From Apalachicola we crossed over to Dog Island, about two hours away and just a few miles from the town of Carrabelle. Would have loved to explore the town and the barrier islands - lots of nooks and crannies for the kayaks and some lovely beaches - but the weather window was perfect for crossing the Gulf of Mexico, so we dropped anchor in Shipping Cove till midnight and then set off through East Pass. The trip is about 10 hours in Seadragon and we wanted to arrive early at Clearwater Pass and into the Harbor Marina in good light. After hours standing watch in the dark the sunrise was a glorious reward!

We had a good trip with light winds and seas. The dock master was very welcoming and helped get us tied up and gave us a care kit of local information. Very nice indeed.


A lovely friend - Randy aboard Moorahme - informed us that "boat" stands for "broke or about to". Seadragon is a good solid boat, but still... with so many systems there seems to always be something on the fix it list.
Today we started a load of laundry - when it seemed to have finished we left to spend the day ashore. On our return I went to put the laundry in the dryer and discovered, to my horror, that the washer was filled and overflowing into the bilge and had been all day. Oh. THAT would explain why the boat was listing badly to port. Hundreds of gallons of water pumped overboard. How do we stop the water? Turned off the breaker. Nope. Turned off the water pump. Nope. Turned off the water to the entire boat. Yes. But a bit awkward when its time to brush teeth etc. Search. Open all the possible places for shut off valves. Ah. Under the floorboards in the passageway between the engine room and V-berth. Success! Water back on, crossed fingers during test of water pump, yes, it still works. Whew. Next: deal with all the water. Pump bilges, pump sumps. Get out wet/dry vacc. Mop up. Get clothes out of the washer, cart to the aft deck, wring out by hand, hang on the rails. Shoo the herons away. (Love the herons, but not their pooping.) Decide that the problem is probably a bad solenoid. Get out the manual for the washer. Lots of info on how to clean clothes. Not so much on how to fix broken washer....

It was a good day though, really. After the early morning boat chores we took the Jolly Trolley

from downtown Clearwater up to Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is a Greek town from the 1890s, based on the sponge diving industry. Today they still dive for sponges but are also a tourist destination. It was fascinating to learn about sponges and how they are gotten and prepared for sale.

And the Greek community is strong - we heard as much Greek spoken as English. The food we had at Mykonos was so fabulous we way overate. Later, talking with the owner of a dress shop we were told that Dimitri's is the best in town, but that Mykonos - just across the street - is run by the son of Dimitri's and is "almost" as good. Guess we will make our own comparison the next time we go.

Christmas Eve!

Securely tied in Clearwater Harbor Marina
as a front blows through, winds to 25Kts and waves to 11 feet. Glad we are tucked in! Earlier we rode our bikes across a huge bridge, going to Clearwater Beach. Didn't care much for the typical tourist beach town, but miles of lovely white sand beach; will go back on a prettier day.



One of the amusing things here was the sight of a pirate ship bearing down on us. Sad to say, not a drop of rum got shared.

Our stockings are hung; Merry Christmas to All!