Apollo Beach, FL

Photos while in the Apollo Beach area.

Sunset at Little Harbor, Ruskin, FL

 Cousin Dana participated in the "wild Christmas contest" at his office.

We think he won. Did you win, Dana?

Christmas lights at Apollo Beach

Skier at Little Harbor

Dolphins at Little Harbor, Ruskin, FL just south of cousin, Dana's.

Manatees come in to swim in the warm water discharged from this big power plant just north of cousin Dana's house.

Manatee & Susie

Below is Showtown Bar & Grill at Gibsonton, FL

During the winter months the carnivals winter here.

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall07/Caramanica/

Ft. Myers Beach - Meeting Gale & Maureen

Stayed on their boat 2 nights... it was fun to be on a boat again.

Sharing a plate of nachos for lunch at Ft. Myers Beach, FL

Enterprise, AL - Heron settled at the storage facility

Moving to Enterprise, AL

Imspecting the damage

Examining the parts

Here is my cousins, Jeff & Barb's house & garage in Enterprise, AL



Fixed & on the road again. 

Now we are heading for Fort Lauderdale, FL where we will pick up Heston from the airport on Dec. 18th.  We will be visiting Susie's cousin, Dana and Jennifer, at Apollo Beach, FL.  I'm sure we'll see their son, Taylor, too.

Shalimar, FL - Heron returns to the trailer

Setting Heron on the trailer

Part 1

Setting Heron on the trailer

Part 2

There is a close up of a brass cover with vents in this video.  Under that cover is the hole.  Bob wanted to take the cover off today, but we ran out of time.  We'll see if we have time to remove that cover tomorrow after pulling into the storage facility in Enterprise, AL.

End of Day 1

Tomorrow we hit the road for Alabama

Just a little trivia that I find hard to believe but it is true.

There have been over 14,500 views on our blog since it's beginning.

Nearly 2,000 just last month.

WOW! I'm amazed.

Our new home

Order of business...

1. Move sailboat to Enterprise, AL
2. Meet Heston, my youngest son, at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport

              (just an hour before we discovered the hole in the boat,

              Heston sent an email with his plans to fly to Florida to

              meet us with us just before Christmas. He lives in W. Hollywood)

    3. Drive ourselves and Heston to Iowa, where we'll spend Christmas & New Year's with family & friends

    4. Jan. 2, 2012 - Pick up our 5th wheel in Wentzville, MO on the way to Yuma, AZ

    5. Relax and play the winter away in Yuma, AZ 

    6. Yahoooo!  RETIREMENT - Highly recommend it.



Traveling to Shalimar, FL

We've spent the last two days traveling from Iowa to Shalimar, FL.  We drove our pickup truck down here with the boat trailer hitched to the back. We left the boat here for one month after discovering the hole in the hull on Nov. 9th.  So the month's rent ends Dec. 10th.  We've made arrangements for the marina to set the boat on the trailer tomorrow (Thursday) and then after we secure the mast for traveling mode and get food items & other personal items out, we will trailer the boat to Enterprise, AL on Friday.  We picked Enterprise, AL because my cousin, Jeff and his wife, Barb live there, it isn't far (2 hours) from Shalimar and Jeff found a storage facility that will house the boat for a great price.  Bob will spend a few days in Enterprise doing the repair on the hole, it the weather cooperates. We may leave it here for a year, we just know that we are done with living on the sailboat for 2011. It's not likely that we will do anything with the boat before Nov. 2012.  Anybody interested in a Pacific Seacraft 25? Video of tomorrow's activities to come tomorrow night.

Moravia, IA - Haircut for Bob

Bob gets his haircut for the first time since retiring, May 1, 2011.

By the way... he cut his upper lip shaving on this particular morning.

Boulder, CO - Pasta Bar after Thanksgiving

Preparing the pasta bar for Friday night's supper.

Let the games begin... or continue

After turkey entertainment...

Pool, darts and dance

The dancers are front to back

Ali, Maddie, Scott and Jess

"Hot Stuff"

Dancing front to back Andy, Mary, Jess & Steve

Dancing with Dave

What a hoot!

Front to back - Dave, Maggie, Paula and Bobbie(nephew)

Shakin' it out above - Dave, Maggie, Ali and Bobbie

Front to back - Maggie, Paula, Jess and all over the floor is Scott.

Bob Schaut's Rollin' with Tina

Front to back - Bob, Jon, Paula and Maggie

Boulder, CO Thanksgiving Meal

Cooks are busy in the kitchen

Sitting around the tables

Thanksgiving Day Boulder, CO - Pool Tournament Part 2

Pool Tournament

Part 2

The Pool Tournament- Part 1

Part 2 later.

Random photos

Sister Mary and her son, Andy

Sister Paula and her daughter, Ali

Sister-in-law Sheryl, married to brother Tim

You know who

Niece Ariel and nephew, Benson

Nephew Scott and his main squeeze, Jess

Brother-in-law Jon-  Married to sister Paula

Niece Maggie, daughter of sister Mary

Turkey cooked in "The Big Easy"

Ariel, Maddie, Paula and Ali

Thanksgiving Day - Boulder, CO

Feeding 19 for Thanksgiving Dinner

Preparing the meal

Calm merriment preparing Thanksgiving Dinner

All 19 spent the night in one big house. 

On the farm near Ames, Iowa

Bob works on the farm hauling wood with the skidloader

Touring Estes Park, Co on the day before Thanksgiving

Breakfast at the Peterson's in Boulder, CO

We all think neice, Ali, looks like this "American Idol" contestant, Lauren.





Shalimar, FL - Unstepping the Mast

Thursday Nov. 10th, the marina men took down the mast and lifted "Heron" out of the water.

Preparing for Lift Off

On the Dry

The Hole

After the boat was safely out of the water and we inspected the problem, Bob, Wicket and I headed for Iowa at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  We drove straight through and arrived in Ankeny at about 12:30p.m. Friday afternoon.  Nap time.

So we have been visiting with friends and family and after an intense search for a 5th wheel, we have located one the meets all our requirements.

2011 3185RL Bighorn

Unfortunately, we didn't leave our bad luck in Florida.  We attempted to take off in our pickup truck on Tuesday and it wouldn't start.  The tow truck came out to my sister's place, where we had spent the night and towed the Ford truck to the Ford dealer in Boone about 6 miles away. They checked it out and ordered parts, replaced parts and decided "Oh, that wasn't the problem".  So after more investigation, they decided it must be 3 faulty fuel injection things.  It's nowThursday a.m. and awaiting the call saying the truck is finished. Not likely to happen before noon. 

Unpacking Heron

We unpacked half the stuff off Heron, prepared the dinghy to be folded up and took down & stored all the little things on deck.

Heading for the lift & strapping in.

Shalimar, FL - Pulling Heron out in the a.m.

The sailboat will be pulled out, mast unstepped and it will be sitting on "the hard" for at least a month.  We'll be heading back to Iowa tomorrow late morning and will get our pickup truck and the boat trailer.  We'll head for Boulder, CO to visit Susie's sisters for Thanksgiving and head back to Shalimar, FL with the boat trailer after Thanksgiving.  Bob is sooooooo discouraged/angry/frustrated with the boating life right now, that he just wants to get away from it all for awhile.  Retirement isn't suppose to be this stressful.  So we will likely put the boat in a cheaper, dry dock storage place and then go and relax in southern Florida for a month or two. We might head over to Phoenix after Christmas or thereabouts.

I'll get a short video later tonight and a photo of the beautiful graceful jellyfish.

Jellyfish Photo

Video - Bummed Bob & the Dance of the Jellyfish.

I love jellyfish.

Tomorrow we will see what the hole in the hull looks like on the outside of the boat.



We sprung a leak!

We got tied up to the dock in the marina yesterday and then Bob ran the bilge pump. The bilge pump is a pump in the very bottom of the hull.  Every now and then he runs it to see if there has been any water accumulating in the bottom.  One way the water may enter the hull is from the spot where the propellor sticks thru to the outside.  There is "packing" stuff around it, but it is natural for a very small amount of water to leak in at that spot.  Yesterday, however, gallons & gallons were pumped out.  So tonight he ran it again.  Once again the pump pumped water, pumped water, and pumped water.  So he went about looking around and found water spouting in like "Old Faithful".

The video shows the leak right under the upper piece of red hose.  The water is spouting vertically and most of what shows up in the video is the shadow from the stream of water.  The stream is only about 1/8th inch in diameter, but it is pretty constant.  You can hear the bilge pump running.

To temporarily, seal the hole, Bob screwed a screw into the hole.  One big question, maybe never to be answered is, "how did that happen?"

We'll see about having the marina pull the boat out tomorrow for inspection and repair.  We will most likely sleep restlessly tonight. Another "Yikes".

Shalimar FL - Dolphin Sighting

Jellyfish and dolphins

.

First of all, Wicket didn't let us sleep in on Sunday morning.  We didn't set the clocks back, so she was right on cue.  But anyway... we got up, walked the dog and had a yummy sticky bun at Juana's at Navarre Beach on Monday before shoving off.  It was a bit breezy out of the east but not as bad as Sunday.  Navarre Beach is mile marker 207 and we arrived at 3:00 at Shalimar Yacht Basin mile marker 225.  The sun was warm and the dolphins entertained us all along the way.

Yes, I know.  I am very easily amused and I need to work on my Flipper impersonation.

The closing on our townhouse is Thursday, so we need to be near faxing & printer capabilities. We got here yesterday at 3:00 and have already spent 4 hours printing forms, signing forms, getting forms notorized, and overnighting documents.

So we will likely remain at this marina until at least Friday.

Motoring Sunday...

Wicket let us sleep in this a.m. so we woke up at 7:50 and after taking her to shore for a morning walk and pulling up the anchor, we were on our way by 8:45.  We planned to make it to mile marker 223, but the wind was fierce out of the east, so we could only go an average of 1mph for the first hour and a half.  It was very exciting when the wind eased up a bit and we were able to reach speeds of 4.3mph.  You can really see the difference.  So needless to say, when it was 2:00 we decided to quit for the day and anchor off Navarre Beach.(mile marker 207.1)  There is a public boat ramp, a bar and grill and a convenience store within 1/2 block.  The boat ramp makes for an easy and alligator free trip to shore with Wicket and Bob is looking forward to coffee in the morning from the convenience store.



More tense moments

So we wake up Sat. morning and head out of Ingram Bay.(mile marker 164)  We are heading in the Intracoastal Waterway near Orange Beach, when Bob says that he can't see the channel markers, but then he says, "Oh, I see.  We go up to the north shore and then back down."  So when I see both channel markers to our left up ahead, I assume he has figured it out because they were to the north.  Big "assume" as in ass u and me.  He got out of the channel and we were once again stuck.  So this time, Bob got in the dinghy and pulled on a line which is attached to the top of the mast.  That heeled us over, which kept the keel shallower than normal.  As he did that, I steered, but we didn't come free.  After trying to pull us out with the dinghy, Bob decided to dinghy over to a fairly close marina to see if someone would come & pull us out.  As he is speeding away in the dinghy, the line for the dinghy gets caught in the dinghy motor's prop.  What a morning.

So while he is gone & Wicket & I are left to wait on the boat, I try my own tricks.  Running from left to right and front to back to redistribute my weight and going in reverse and low and behold I could tell that the boat was moving ever so slightly.  Then the depth finder started reading 3.5 and 4.2 and then 6.5 and I knew it was free.  I was still quite a ways from being in the main channel, so I crossed my fingers in hopes that I wouldn't run aground again before getting in the channel.  Yahoo!!!!  I made it to the main channel and then motored about .5 miles back to the marina. 

Bob was on the phone talking to the Boat US tow captain for this area when the marina employee says to Bob, "Is that your sailboat?"  Bob looks out and says, "Yes".  He tells Boat US to "never mind".  Tells the marina employee, "Leave it to the Misses to get it free".  He jumps in the dinghy and meets up with me.  We proceed on our merry way.

Boat US to the rescue - not our rescue this time

At the end of the video below, you will see the Boat US guy going past our boat.  He yelled over at us but neither of us could hear what he said.  I think he said, "Nice job, lady".

We saw dolphins and jelly fish today and crossed into Florida.  We are anchored in Little Sabina Bay for the night, which is way out near Pensacola Beach.(mile marker 189.0)  Tomorrow we will try to make it to Fort Walton Beach (mile marker 223)  We will see what kind of trouble we can get into tomorrow.

Crossing Mobile Bay

We did it!  We started out from Dog River at about 7:30 and arrived at the Intracoastal Waterway at about 1:00p.m.  The video shows the entrance into the waterway and then you'll notice how calm the waterway was compared to the bay.  Be forwarned... the video may make you seasick.

Here is a close up map of the route we took today. We went about 40 miles and are now tucked in Ingram Bayou where it is very windstill, and quiet. The red star is our overnight stay tonight and we will continue eastward in the Intracoastal Waterway tomorrow.



Leaving Mobile Bay in the a.m.

Yikes!  We're heading out once again tomorrow from Dog River.  Our goal is to reach Wolf Bay on the Intracoastal Waterway or somewhere around there by dark tomorrow.  The wind is forecast to be 10 - 15 from the west to northwest with sunny skies.  That will put the wind blowing from behind. Should be a much better day for sailing.  Also, the fuel line is cleared and the engine is once again purring like a kitten.  We have, also, planned to tie down the microwave (which slid all around the table in the cabin the other day) and Wicket, and pack other things into cupboards (gumballs) before we head out.

Stay tuned. 

Mobile Bay - USS Alabama - Battleship

There were 2500 men living on this battleship.

http://www.ussalabama.com/history.php

This is the cafeteria.  There is, also, a laundry, shoe repair, infirmary, barber, store, etc.

Above you can see the two turrets at the front end of the battleship.  We climbed up inside the second one.  Wow, who designed such a massive thing?  Very impressive.

Capt. Bob

Capt. Susie

The submarine, USS Drum, also, sits at the site of the USS Alabama.

Below Bob looks through the sub.

http://www.ussalabama.com/uss_drum.php



Mobile, AL - Dog River Marina

We have been at the Dog River Marina since last Thursday so we were ready to pull out today and head on down to the Intracoastal Waterway.  We were up early and pushed off at 7:15.  The 10- 15 mph wind created 3' - 5' waves in our face as we motored out into the bay. We followed the markers to the middle of the bay.  There are huge areas of the bay only 5' - 6' deep.   We were only halfway to the center of the bay when our engine died.  Bob put up the main sail and the head sail, but being unprepared the lines were tangled and the wind was blowing us into the shallow areas.  We were heeled way over but the wind wasn't from the right direction to get us into the channel.  Things in the cabin were falling onto the floor, including the big jar of gumballs. Wicket slid from one side of the deck to the other. To say the least... Wicket & I were trembling from fear.  The mast wasn't pulled up high enough, so it scrapped across the top of our dodger and ripped a hole into it.  (Sewing project).  

We finally entered Dog River and the rescue boat from the marina arrived to pull us back up to the dock.

Lesson learned... tie everything down in high winds, including Wicket.

The problem turned out to be "gunk" caught in the fuel intake line.  We were glad it was a cheap & easy fix.

The forecast for tomorrow is higher winds, so we will stay put until perhaps Friday.

Fellow cruisers at Mobile.  Left to right - Linda and Tom S/V Francis Ray, Michele and Marc S/V Marc's Ark and then Bob.

Chris and Susan S/V Buckeye

Susie, Linda & Tom, Michele and Marc

The duo

Bob & Susie S/V Heron, Linda and Tom S/V Francis Ray, Michele and Marc S/V Marc's Ark, Chris and Susan S/V Buckeye! Fun people.

Mobile, AL - Bellingrath Home & Gardens

Bellingrath Home & Gardens

In 1932, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bellingrath created this beautiful 65 acre gardens.  The public has always been welcome to tour the grounds.  Three years later they had a 15 room house built on the property where they lived.  Mr. Bellingrath survived his wife, but he died in 1955 at age 86.  The property and all furnishings were left to a foundation which opened the home to the public following Mr. Bellingrath's death.  Mrs. Bellingrath's collections of cyrstal, silver china and porcelin remain in the home for viewing.

Below is the Fowl River side of the house.  The paved paths lead one down to the docks.

In the center of those intense pink rows of flowers, is a pond.

 Below is Mirror Lake

A Lion Statue on the Estate

The Asian Garden



Fish in Mirror Lake



They decorate for Halloween and have a huge Magic Light display throughout the entire 65 acres for Christmas.

No photos are allowed inside the home, but you can see more at:

http://www.bellingrath.org/