Friday

December 2nd, 2016

Joell and I have had the pleasure to meet about 24 members of the Fort Meyer Yacht Club...

They came here to Pink Shell Marine to see the Boat Parade on Saturday evening...

They've invited us for Cocktails this evening where we met most of the members...

Here are some of the boats that were decorated  this evening along with ours....

A couple birds at Pink Shell Marina...

Another bird....

Dock Masters perch...

Decorated boats...

This is Rick and Marys boat... we had drinks with them last night aboard their boat.... 

What a nice couple...

Mikee Like It...

With the flash...

Thursday

December 1, 2016

Last night we enjoyed our first Holiday celebration.  We had drinks and dinner with the wonderful St. Charles Yacht Club members.  It was a special tree lighting event.  We made so many new friends.  All accepted us as if we had been members for years.  Maybe that was the midwest attitude coming through (ok east coast for some of you).  The members were all living in the area, but had spent time in the midwest.  There were members from Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin (even Hales Corners close to where we lived).   The evening will be a Holiday memory not soon forgotten.  Thank you for being a harbor of hospitality and including us in your celebration.

Today we arrived at the Pink Shell Resort and Marina.   This is truly a luxury resort and all of the amenities are included with our stay.  It is the first resort we have made reservations for and have been looking forward to it.  Family and friends will be visiting us here for the Holidays.  We will be here for the entire month of December.  Our fist major holiday event here will be the Holiday Boat Parade on Saturday.  We have the best seats for the show.  We look forward to showing you lots of parade pictures.  

On our way to Pink Shell Resort, we were boarded by water police for our very first time.  One came up to the fly bridge, one stayed below, one stood on the boat edge and two stayed in the police boat.  Mike never stopped driving while they asked questions and looked at our floatation devices and registration.  It was rather a neat experience.  

Marina office at Pink Shell all decked out for the Holiday

A few of the Pink Shell Resort & Marina buildings.

As far as we understand Elwood will be able to go on the beach.  Sounds like Florida let up on their no dogs except on designated dog beaches rule.  As long as he is on a leash we may take him to the beach.  This will make him very happy.  

Wednesday

November 30th, 2016

Amateur Radio on the Loop

For all my ham radio friends out there I though I'd shoot a short video of just some of the noise I have to deal with while on the boat...

My best reception is when Joell and I are anchored out away from power lines and other boats. I turn off all the power to every device/appliance on our boat except to the two way radio.  I do the same when in a marina which helps but we're surrounded by other boats making the same or other noise...

If I have a good strong station it'll usually break through like on the video where K9BTQ, Tom is running the Milwaukee Florida Net...

Tuesday

November 29th, 2016

On our way to St. Charles Yacht Club I noticed one single dolphin come in quick from the port side of our boat and race up to the bow of the boat, only to find 6 dolphins all racing along with us...

"if you don't see an image here you either don't have "flash" installed on your computer 
or 
your trying to view this video clip on an iPad which doesn't run flash I understand"

St. Charles Yacht Club

Main Entrance 

Waterfront view...

Inviting pool...

The drive in to the club...

Mikee Likes It parked right next to the club...

Monday Evening

November 29th, 2016

So, after a hard day of shelling I thought I'd have a drink with my Potato Packers, steaks on the side...

What's this....a big pair of nostrils...

Hey, it's Mavis the Manatee...

Swimming around our boat during Cocktail Hour...

Looks like propeller marks on the manatee's back...

Here the manatee is trying to untie our anchor line... 

Stop that Mavis...

Ouch...

Looks like Mavis caught one across the left eye...

Elwood was very interested...

Time to pet Mavis the Manatee... 

Kind of sponge like skin...

You just shake your hand in the water and over Mavis came...

What a great visitor!!!

Monday

November 28th, 2016

Our day of fishing on the Gulf yielded nothing....

I put on a slide diver and let out a little too much line and caught the bottom...

We put the engine in neutral, Joell pulled in the two other lines and turned the boat around and we were able to get it to release without issue...

Even though we hooked the bottom the Penn reel preformed great..

Yet another boat sunk just off of the ICW

Our anchorage for one evening at Stump Pass with three other boats..

This was the coolest swing bridge....We didn't have to wait with our antennas down...

Pelicans we scared up with the dinghy...

This is an Osprey nest...

up close... the Osprey comes and goes...mostly goes...

Our anchorage in Pelican Bay, near Cayo Costa State Park, last evening and tonight...  super secluded...

We named this sandbar "shell beach"....

Shells, shells and more shells...

This is "Shell Beach".... just before Elwood found a dead fish and rolled in it...

He got a bath when we got back to the boat...

Had to have a Miller while walking on the beach...

Our small collection from the day...

After we got back to the boat we decided to do a little fishing in the cove we were anchored in...

This is a Pompano with the yellow fins....

And this fishie is a Mutton Snapper (we think....)

or some other type of bait fish (which he'll be tonight after the sun goes down...