Dec 1- We were up at 8:00 am and off to take Koby out for a walk. John and Pat called to say they were coming over at 10:00 am to pick us up to take us over to Dunedin. We went to Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin so we could show Sid and Evelyn around to see if it would suit their needs as well. We left there and John took us back to Tarpon Springs to have lunch at a restaurant called Captain Jack's - a great local restaurant right on the water. After lunch we went back to our boats and John and Pat headed home. We decided to go uptown and see the sights. They have all their Christmas decorations up and it seems so strange to walk the streets in shorts at this time of year. We went back to our boats, had dinner then sat out on the dock talking with other boaters next to us.
Dec 2- We took Koby for his walk over to a vacant lot about a block away. Dave wanted to see if we could get a new American flag as ours has seen better days, so we walked uptown again. While we were there we stopped at a bakery and had a couple of goodies before we headed back. The day was a little overcast but warm. We decided to go for a dingy ride with Sid and Evelyn. We went to a marina across from us as a friend of Sid and Evelyn's had been towed into the marina by Sea Tow and they wanted to see if he was alright. We left there and went to a new marina called Turtle Cove where a lot of the Loopers had gone. We then headed for a park we had seen on our way in. It has a lovely sand beach so we pulled up to shore and let Koby have a run for awhile. We had just arrived back to our boats when Bill and Bobbi from Mist showed up and invited us to join them for dinner. We quickly cleaned up and headed for a restaurant called "Rusty Bellies". The food was great and the company even better. We took a slow walk back enjoying the nice evening.
Dec 3- We were up at 8:00 am as we are moving today to Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin. We will be staying here for a month as we are heading home for a couple of weeks for Christmas. John has said he will be checking on the boat for us while we are gone. We were just told there is going to be a Christmas boat parade on Saturday here. John and Pat are coming over to stay overnight so they are here for the parade. We are walking over to the Publix not far from the marina to get a few things.
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| Heading to Dunedin from Tarpon Springs |
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| Heading into Marker 1 Marina at Dunedin |
Dec 4- We were up early to begin cleaning the salt off of Manana. As we were cleaning Bill from Mist showed up in his dingy to say hello but unfortunately he got too close to a post covered with barnacles and he tore a hole in the dingy. The tube deflated so quickly I thought Bill was going to sink. Dave jumped in our dingy and pulled Bill's dingy into the dock by the shore. The marina lifted it out and placed it on a dolly and Bill went to have someone patch it for him. If it wasn't for bad luck he'd have none. The marina has now scraped down the posts so hopefully no one else has this issue. There are several boats around us that are decorated for the parade happening tomorrow. Many more people are arriving for the weekend and the marina is abuzz. It is pretty quiet during the week here.
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| Manana and Something Special without the salt |
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| I tried to capture Christmas decorations on this boat |
Dec 5- We were up early to get things cleaned up and ready for John and Pat's arrival. When they arrived we all hopped into the car. The guys are going to a boat salvage yard and they are dropping us off at a mall to shop. The guys picked us up after a couple hours and we headed back to the marina as they were having a barbeque today. They put on quite a spread and the employees were all dressed in Christmas attire. We had a great afternoon watching the decorating of the boats and the crews. By 6:00 pm the parade began to formulate on the water in front of the marina. They then headed down to Dunedin and back again. It was a cool windy evening so we didn't linger out on the docks for long. John and Pat stayed the evening with us aboard Manana.
Dec 6- We were all up early and got ready to go to the boat show in Clearwater. We waited for awhile on Sid and Evelyn who had gone to church but as it was getting on we decided to go after all without them. We wandered through the booths in the buildings for awhile then we began to wander the docks. We went aboard a 37 foot Carver John wanted to see then boarded a 66 foot Choy Lee. It had five cabins - 2 forward and 3 in the aft. They all had full bathrooms with showers. It was quite the boat. We had seen enough so we headed back to the marina. Sid and Evelyn were back so we all decided to go to dinner at a local restaurant called "Franky's". The food was great! John and Pat left us there and we walked back to the marina.
Dec 7- We were up early this morning doing some odd jobs as we are planning to go for a bike ride. The bike paths are not far from the marina and they can take you to Dunedin, St. Pete's and Tarpon Springs. We decided we wanted to see Dunedin so away we went on our bikes. It was about a half hour ride over there. It is a very quaint village with many cute little shops, restaurants and even an ice cream parlor. We spent most of the day there going from shop to shop. The guys found a couple of benches to sit on and waited for Evelyn and myself. We got back just as it was getting dusk and it had gotten a lot cooler. We had dinner and called it a day.
Dec 8- Today is sunny but a much cooler day than we have had. We had bought a new collar for Koby but it was too small so we decided it was time to return it and get a larger one. We could not find one so we got him a new leash instead for now. We biked over to the Dollar General store as well and picked up a few things. We invited Sid and Evelyn over after dinner to play cards for a couple of hours but the bad guys won!
Dec 9- This morning is laundry and vacuuming day aboard Manana. Dave is in the bilge replacing worn out hoses on the generator and air conditioner. This is the time and place to do this. Evelyn and I are planning to bike three miles north to a store called Joanne`s, which is something like Michael`s in Canada. It was a good ride but it was all on the sidewalk not on a trail so it was narrow and quite bumpy. Dave has been saying he wants a small Christmas tree for the boat so I found one with lights already on it. I bought a rope garland and for the balls I just bought a couple of boxes of wine charms that looked like Christmas balls. When we got to the counter to pay everything was 60 percent off and then the cashier gave us another 20 percent off as well. As we were talking to the girl ringing us through we found out that she is from Oakville, Ontario (boy what a small world). I put up the tree as soon as I got back to the boat. I have it sitting on the bar in the salon. We decided we needed to have docktails so I went around and invited everyone to come over. We (all eight of us ) talked until it was dark and chilly. We all dispersed and we had dinner and I tried to get warm again.
Dec 10-We are usually up at 8:00 am as that is the time the forklift at this marina starts up. It runs all day taking boats in and out of the buildings up until 5:00 pm then things go quiet. We decided to take the dingy's out for a run but Sid had not dropped his yet, so he had to pull out of the slip and then drive back into his slip and then he could drop it. We headed out to Caladesi Island State Park to have a look around. There is a marina at the island and it is $1.00 a foot plus hydro if you want to stay there. The beach is white powdery sand and stretches for a mile or so. I unfortunately do not have any pictures as I left my camera behind. I am hoping we get time to go back again. When we go back we were invited for docktails at 5:00 pm by an American couple. Several of the new people who had just made the crossing that day were there. They had a much better crossing than we did and like us were glad that part of the trip is now behind us.
Dec 11- We are going to hop the Jolly Trolly today and are going over to Clearwater to have a look around. John and Pat are coming this morning to drop off a few parcels we have had sent to their address. They arrived around 10:00 am with Rick and Carmen on their way over to Tarpon Springs for the day. We visited with them and just as we were all leaving a couple from Tuscobia arrived so we went and had lunch with them and caught up. We left them there to catch the Jolly Trolly at about 3:00 pm. It's about a 20 minute ride to Clearwater and they drop you off at the pier there. We are on the beach side and the vendors were just setting up their wares on the pier, so we walked through then decided it was time to walk the beach. We walked for about a mile down the beach then headed over to the Municipal Marina as there are a couple of Loopers docked there. We walked the docks for a bit and met one of the Loopers coming back to their boat, so we visited with them for a little then headed to our stop for the Jolly Trolly to head back to the marina.
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