Bradenton to marathon 200 +NM!

Well that was fun, we left Twin Dolphins Friday Jan 10th at 8 am, sailed off shore to Venice, spent a couple of days at Crows nest marina, left there Sunday morning at about 9 am, motorsailed south in some lumpy stuff, 15 knots of NE wind and some big leftover swell from the cold front that passed the day before. Wind settled and the seas improved and by nightfall the wind filled in from the east as expected and we spent the entire night sailing only on just the headsail at 6.5 knots. Wanted to sail because of all the crab pots we would encounter off of the coast and Florida bay. When morning broke on Monday we were just a couple of hrs from the real skinny part leading to seven mile bridge. We brought the headsail in at 9 am and motored to and thru the channel. Caught a nice Bonita on the way! Managed to get a mooring ball at boot key and we will rest up prior to heading north to dinner key! Some pics below




Gulf was calm as we left Tampa bay!






Discovery on the face dock at crows nest marina in Venice.




Dolphin statue in wood at the beach park just steps away from crows nest.





Water color of the marina in Venice.





Day trip downtown Venice beach!






One that did not get away!





Lunch at keys fishery in marathon






View from discovery looking out on a packed boot key Harbour !

Posted using BlogPress from my
iPhone

Finally on the move!

Discovery had finally broken the roots it grew in Bradenton and headed south! We said our goodbyes to all the friends we made at twin dolphins marina these past 6 months, and slipped away under calm cloudy skies. We motored down the manatee river then out the south west channel and into the gulf again! 6 hrs of motoring in flat calm water brought us to the framiliar confines of Crows Nest marina in Venice. We will wait here for the south winds to switch to north and provide us with a good run down to key west! The hopefully up to dinner key to wait for a chance to cross to the exumas!

Some pics from today's trip






Flat like a bath tub today in the gulf!





Discovery on the face dock at Crows Nest Marina in Venice!





Beach park is just a block walk from our boat, love this wood sculpture of a Dolphin at the beach entrance!



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bahamas here we come

It's early January and Discovery
is now ready to head south and east to stage for our crossing to the Bahamas!

We have finished all the prep to the boat, we have made runs to Costco (see below) and Walmart to put on enough food,supplies and beer for the expected 4 months down island! Now all we need is a decent weather window to make it around the keys and back up to dinner key where we will set off to the Exumas!





Discovery will sit a few inches lower in the water after we find room for all of this!




Can't have too much toilet paper in the Bahamas!


We hope to finally say goodbye to

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:

Discovery crew does early Xmas

-

December 2 Anita and I left Discovery in her slip at Twin Dolphins marina and flew first to Little Rock to finish my dental implants, then to Chicago to spend 2 weeks with family in Illinois! All our kids joined us for the last 4! Days in downers grove Illinois at Anita's sister Marty's home. We had a early Xmas present exchange and a birthday party for our grand daughter Edolie!
Pics below






The tree







Edolie opening her presents














Edolie at her birthday party, our daughter in front of the tree, and our son playing wee golf!


We will be flying back Monday December 16 and will begin planing our passage to the Miami area and our anticipated crossing to the Exumas this winter sometime in January!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Downers grove Illinois

Hanging at twin dolphins

Using our time here at Twin Dolphins to complete much needed maintainence and adding a few items for the upcoming cruising season! Sold our old inflatable kayak and a few other items at a flea market and used that money to buy a newer kayak off of Craig's list here see below






Took advantage of our new wheels and drove over to Anna Maria island for lunch at a cool beach bar below





Really good to get our feet in the sand again, it's been 4 months since we have had to wash the sand off!




Had a big time and a great lunch on the beach!




Light wind gave us the chance to hoist the chute do the first time in year's . We use this so few times I have it up for sale!





Another field trip took us to St Pete yacht club! We have been here several times racing our S2 back a few years ago! This really is a impressive place!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Summer of 2013 tour

We decided we needed wheels again so while in Ft Worth in July we located a well used but well maintained Toyota Sequoia. It should serve us fine to be a interstate cruiser and double as a storage shed when we're off sailing!





Anita really enjoyed her time with our daughter Alissa! Looks like Alissa was having a good time to! The girls are watching the new flat screen on our daughters bedroom wall!






While in Ft Worth with our daughter we went down to the famous stockyards.







We stopped in Pittsburgh to see our son John and his family, his daughter is a cutie, and a girl after my pirate heart!




On our way to Pittsburgh after spending time with Anita's mom and dad we dropped by my home town and visited my father at the VA cemetery in Danville Illinois. My dad was part of the greatest generation, dad had two purple hearts and a bronze star!




Above is a pic of my sons family, john, Katie, and Edolie!





Anita and I got a little sight seeing in while we visited our son, this is a shot inside the Heintz museum in downtown Pittsburgh!





Another shot from the museum








On our way back to the boat from Pittsburgh we stopped in Savannah, of course Anita had to go to Paula Deens Restauran!




Our pre meal bread at Paula's place, yumm






Anita and Paula, I wasn't to impressed she seemed kind of fake to me, sort of one dimensional you know?





Savannah is a special place, the squares are soooo southern!







Well here we are back on the boat trying to work off some of the flab we put on during a summer of eating at the relatives!






My biking partner, we're on the new riverwalk in Bradenton, very nice spot along the manatee rivet just down from our marina!





Went to the maritime museum in Cortez.

using BlogPress from my iPhone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad