Waiting for Sally and Manny

It is a sunny morning here at Harbortown Marina in Fort Peirce, FL.  It is noon and Sally and Manny will be picking us up in five hours.  We are going out for dinner, then over to the Ft.Pierce Tuesday evening jazz concert and then back to their house for a couple of days.

Have been here since Friday.  Just enjoying the marina, meeting new people, some of them are also headed to the Bahamas.

Joy has started packing her stuff.  We have to bring stuff for two plus weeks up north as well as clothes for Sally's house.

My turn in the back cabin is after lunch.  Only one person can move around at time.

If we have time we are going to bike to downtown Ft.Pierce and check out the library.

We have been working on the boat to get it ready for the Keys/Bahamas.Have changed the oil and filter.  The yard is going to install at new VHF radio with AIS and a second remote unit at the helm.
Should be done by the time we get back.

Joe

Market Day in Ft. Pierce

Saturday is market day in Fort Pierce from 8 am to12 noon. The entire park area around the library, parking lots and marina were full of vendors.  One section was the food, the other section was clothes, art, etc.

We spend about two hours this morning shopping and ended up eating fish tacos from one of the vendors.

The marina was wiped out in 2004 and is slowly rebuilding.  The Feds kicked in $18 million so a series of barrier islands are being built to block any storm surge.

So here are a couple of pictures.

This is the crane that  is rebuilding the marina which was wiped out during the 2004 hurricanes.  They are building  barrier islands.

Two dogs dressed up in the holiday collars.

Going to Sally's house Tuesday night.  Joy did a lot of cleaning inside the boat today.  We are going to tackle a sanding project either tomorrow or Monday.

Joe

Back on the boat - Ft. Pierce

Back on the boat after a great stay at Melody's house.  Melody was married to Joy's father, Bob Gabriel, for 20 years from 1985 to 2006.  She is a big part of our family. 

We played duplicate bridge at her Bridge club, Joy and I came in fourth in our section which was
a big surprise to us as we had not played any bridge for 10 months.

Have a bunch of pictures to show.

Joy with one of Melody and Hank's birds on her shoulder

Joy and her sister Sally at the Fr.Pierce Jazz and Blues Society on Tuesday. Had a great time.

Melody and Hank at the Jazz concert.  Hank turned 80 this year.

Manny playing with the band. He also sang,  My Way, in the second half of the program.  He loves
Sinatra songs.

this is Dimples, she is Havanese. She loves to lie between your legs on the recliner.

Now we are Ft.Pierce at Harbortown Marina. Boat will be here until Jan 12 or so. We fly out on Dec 22 and return Jan 9, 2013.  Going to DC.Baltimore, Cleveland and Columbus and then back to DC for Erin's 6th birthday, Jan 8.

Then heading south to the Keys!!!


Joe

FOG HAS LIFTED

It is Monday morning and we are on the way to Vero Beach.  Woke up this morning to dense fog.  This is the third day in a row where it has been foggy at 7 am.  Not a big deal as we only have about a 5 hours to Vero Beach Municipal Marina and Melody is picking us up around 4:30pm.

Spent last night rafted to Yesterday's Dream.  the Frankos are really neat people.  We seem to enjoy doing a lot of different things.  For example Linda and I are big Cleveland Browns fans.  So we were
able to watch the game yesterday against the Kansas city Chiefs on my 4G Wifi card and Sony computer.  The boats were rocking too much for their Dish TV and also the game was not on
Dish TV because it was not sold out.

Some pictures of the last couple of days.

Monday for breakfast, Chef Steve, cooked potatoes with onions and mushrooms.  Along with oranges, grapefruit and bread for toast that we brought we had a great meal on Yesterday's Dream.

 

 

On to Vero Beach!

 

Joe

 

 

 

LEAVING COCOA,FL

Spent two night at Cocoa Village Marina with the Frankos.  Really a nice marina. It i right in the downtown of Cocoa which is painted with all sorts or mural on the buildings.  Went out for breakfast for two days

The first breakfast was at Cafe Unique which bill itself as an Amish store.  They have food from Millersburg, Ohio.  I had a mix of sausage, bacon, and ham with cheese and potato.  Still miss eating eggs.

Saturday moring we were fogged in so we decided to stay an extra night.

Saturday we went to the local musical theater performance of a Christmas Carol, the Musical.  It was a large production withe over 80 people involved in it. They only do musicals, about 7 per year.  It is like the New London Barn players but only all year long.

So today we are off to a anchoring spot about 30 miles from  Cocoa and 30 miles from Vero Beach, Melody Gabriel's town.  Going to spend 3 nights with her and Hank.  Then down to Ft. Pierce to see Sally and Manny and boat storage for the holidays.

We will be in Baltimore and Hyattsville in two weeks.


Joe

PS  This picture is of a large group of birds just floating on the ICW

New Smyrna Beach

A short ride yesterday, and we pulled into New Smrna, Fl.  A mall town on the ICW jut north of Titusville which is our destination for today, Dec 6 , Thursday.  It is early, about 6 am, and I could not fall back to sleep.

We are getting closer to Ft.Pierce where we will stop for Christmas vacation.

Yesterday was Steve Franko's birthday and we celebrated by going out to a Thai restaurant for
lunch and enjoying a birthday cake that Steve made. He does the vast majority of  cooking on Yeterday' Dream.

A couple of pictures

At the Thai restaurant Steve got a special desert, fried banana with honey and vanilla and strawberry ice cream.

New Smyrna had their Christmas parade of people and boat last weekend. We were here for it two years ago with Linda and Francis Miko, plus Sophie.

Finally it wa time for cards and birthday cake.  Steve prepared a vegan carrot cake which was very moist (applesauce).

This morning it is off  to Titusville and the mooring field.

Joe

St. Augustine

We   spent Sunday at St.Augustine walking around town and looking at the sight.

Went to church at the cathedral which was foundedin1565, the oldest church in America.

Anna Perkey was going to join us for lunch,but her three year old in the hospital so she had to cancel.

this is the watering hole for the bird outside the dinner we had breakfast with the Frankos.They are big time going out for breakfast people.  Steve cook lunch and dinner on board.  It was a nice 25 minute walk to the dinner from the municipal marina where we were on a mooring,  Cheap, only $21 a night.

 Nice rainbow the other afternoon out over the harbor

For dinner we ate on Yesterday's Dream,played card and watched the Browns.

Walked back at 9 pm as the taxi never showed up, waited 20 minutes after it was supposed to be
there and started walking.  Christmas lights below

may have to get my new computer early as the keyboard is in bad shape ever since Joy
dropped a water pump on it.


Joe

AFTER THE PARADE

Got back to the boat after the parade at St. Augustine.  A little explanation later on.

Today we travelled with Yeterday' Dream down the ICW from Beach Marine into St. Augustine harbor. We elected to stay on a mooring ball, only $20 per night.  We are at the far SE corner of the mooring field but past the lift bridge which is good for Monday morning.

It rained off and on but we were dry behind the Bimini and dodger canvas.

Linda and Francis Miko joined us for dinner and we had a great time at this little Polish/Greek
restaurant.  The owners are from Poland but their child was born in Greece.

After dinner and ice cream we watched the parade celebrating the 20 years that St. Augustine was under British rule from 1763 to 1783.  This part of our country switched back and forth.  St. Augustine was founded in 1565, makes it the oldest city in America.

Christmas lights on the Plaza

 

Joy, Francis and Linda

 

 

The British Celebration of Lights.  Besides the people dressed up in period costumes, ordinary people walk in the parade carrying candle and other lights.

Joe

Travelling with the Frankos

After a long time apart, High Spirits and Yesterday's Dream finally crossed paths in Fernandina Beach, Fl. The Frankos had left Cleveland back in 2009 and we left Cleveland in 2010.  they have ravelled all over the Great Loop Circuit and this is their third trip south to Marathon FL.

In addition, the Walkers, Kathy and Michael, were visiting their family in Jacksonville, FL and dove over for a real Eat 55th Street, Dock A, Slips 27,29 & 31. Ye, we had three dock in a row back starting in 2007.  Steve, Michael, Kathy and Linda were all teacher or administrators.  Linda worked for Tri C in the math department with my sister, Connie
.
Couple of pictures of our get together for lunch.,

Joe, Joy, Michael, Kathy, Steve and Linda

Steve and Michael

Kathy and Linda

Main Street after all the Christmas lights were set up.

Then High Spirits and Yesterday's Dream headed south to Jacksonville, FL. Had a nice overnight stay at Beach Marine.  Joy, Steve and Linda took their bike to the beach, got to ride on the hard sand.

This morning, Sat, before breakfast we were treated a boat race between children in the marina.  They were in large canoe with kid paddling on boat sides of the boat.

It is now off to St. Augustine to visit with the Mikos tonight and Anna Perkey(she worked with Joy at Cleveland Clinic).

Joe