Eagle's Wings in the SPOTlight

When I read Sam's email alerting TMCAers that a SPOT could be had for free if one signed up for one year of service, I ordered one on March 23. Although it was shipped UPS ground from California (the only shipping option), I received my SPOT on March 27th! The promotion ended today, but maybe they will extend it

Here is the link to my SPOT page: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ACbbdUTA0slUr8FX6euNUF5rEkynPKAX

If you followed Eagle's Wings from Clear Lake to Clearwater, you know about tracking with SPOT. If not you can learn about SPOT at http://findmespot.com/en/.

The promotion ended today, but maybe they will extend it if you are interested:http://findmespot.com/robby/

Marie Attends Retiree Luncheon

March 21st, we drove Joanne's mom, Marie, to a Lipton retiree luncheon in Bradenton. Joanne introduced her mom as the woman who broke the glass ceiling at Lipton Tea because she was one of the first women managers at their Corporate Headquarters. Her mother was manager of Lipton's customer service group for over fourteen years.

There were many remembrances of good times by many in the group. Her mom recalled that during her career most amusing was her corespondence with cats! When Lipton marketed Tabby cat food, cats would write Lipton sometimes complaining about the product. One such letter signed with a paw print included a picture of the feline writer. The cat it seems didn't like the chicken flavor. Marie wrote back complementing the picky feline on her good looks and she included a coupon for the tuna flavor. Always a diplomat! Marie really enjoyed her career with Lipton and has many more fond memories.

Later in the day Joanne was surprised when two wonderful friends, Ann & Walter, visited to help her celebrate her 60th birthday. Everyone enjoyed Marie's special angel food cake with homemade chocolate butter cream frosting with vanilla bean ice cream! It was a birthday to remember.

Lee & Patrice On Board

We were so happy when our friends and TMCA members, Lee & Patrice, visited in March . We had a super time with them for 3 days when we took them out on a long weekend cruise with the Punta Gorda Sailing Club to Englewood Beach and Stump Pass. We had wonderful long conversations about the fun we had in Crotia with John and Peggy Allison on a TMCA cruise and toasted more fun times to come! As an added bonus to us, they brought over our CQR anchor, Magma grill and a short length of chain from our garage in Dickinson. These items will help us in our upcoming adventure down the Florida coast and hopefully onto the Bahamas.

Richard swapped the CQR for the Fortress for a second anchor on the bow and stored the Fortress in the cockpit locker; the CQR fits better with the primary Supreme anchor. Richard used the chain for a dinghy anchor, a small Danforth with 50 ft of line and now 15 ft of chain. We used the grill right away when Lee cooked some delicious chicken on the grill.

Richard used part of the short chain that had been attached to the dinghy anchor, a piece of used wire reenforced hose, some snaps and a mushroom anchor to make a "kellet." If you don't know what a kellet is, here are some interesting links about them: http://www.johnsboatstuff.com/Articles/anchor.htm ,
http://www.petersmith.net.nz/boat-anchors/kellets.php , http://www.anchorbuddy.co.nz/ and
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f55/home-made-anchor-kellet-3754.html .


Here's some great pictures of us with Lee & Patrice on the cruise to Englewood Beach. Double click on the second one to enlarge the beautiful sunset! The first one shows the 23 boats anchored in Peekins Ranch Cover off the Intercoastal Waterway where we anchored for the first night with the club.

This turned out to be another good checkout cruise because our battery charger decided to fry itself. Better here than the Bahamas! We also found out that one 4D battery wouldn't last 24 hours with our poorly insulated freezer/refrigerator sucking up the amps. You 350 cruisers know what I am talking about.

At Burnt Store Marina

We sailed Eagle’s Wings down to Burnt Store Marina a few weeks ago and moved aboard. Burnt Store is about nine miles south of Punta Gorda. Almost every day is a maintenance/cruising preparation day and we still have a list of projects a page long to complete. We are berthed next to David and Patti's Two if By Sea on “P” Dock in the North Boater Basin. Check out the marina at

http://www.burntstoremarina.com/

The weekly Bahamas Bound workshop sessions held at the Isles Yacht Club are now complete - all the sessions were terrific with lots of knowledge shared by experienced cruisers. And it was free! We also attended the Peace River Power Squadron's Cruise Planning course - we picked up lots of great information there as well.

Manatees hang out in the marina:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee

We hang out for lunch on the Wyvern rooftop while attending the Peace River Art Festival:

Lee & Patrice arrive tommorrow. They plan to join us for a cruise to Englewood Beach with the Punta Gorda Sailing Club this weekend.