Holidays

The Year of the Snowman - Joanne decided this year we would participate in the PGI Boat Parade. A snowman in lights would rise above our sailboat. It has risen!  Friends, Chuck and Trudy helped attach hundreds of LED lights to a mesh netting that we could raise with the main halyard. Neighbors stopped by as we worked on the driveway to offer advice. Our neighbor Brian provided line and other stuff.  Richard wired a traffic light sequencer to add movement: the snowman tips his hat changing from blue to red to green. Icecycle lights adorne the life lines.  All the lights including the rope lights that line the canal and the yard lights reflect in the canal. 

Thursday, the snowman moves to the Yacht Club to participate in the Lighting of the Fleet.  Joanne has invited about fifty people to stop by for food and drink.  Fifty people on a thirty-five foot boat may be just a little tight! 

Last night fifty people did show up, coming and going and coming back again. Everyone enjoyed the snowman, good food and good fellowship.   Our neighbor, Brian,  photographed the fleet lighting for us. Great job Brian!

Holiday Photos

 

CharleyShoe Lighting of the Fleet Photos

PGI Boat Parade December 22 - Eagle's Wings appears at 16:20 and at 19:40 minutes into this Utube Video - PGI Boat Parade

Joanne's sister Claire visited us for Christmas week from Oregon.  We all attended Christmas mass with Joanne's mom;  the music was sensational!  We found time to take Claire kayaking through the mangroves at Placida.

The New Year came a little earlier than the traditional Punta Gorda Midnight. The party on Pelican Bay broke up at 8:40 PM with everyone raising champaign glasses and singing Auld Lang Syne at the late hour of 8:40 PM. Islanders, scattered about Pelican Bay on twenty-five boats, tucked themselves in for a relatively warm and tranquil night. All asleep, quite possibly, before the magical midnight hour, 9 PM.

We hosted the Merritts, Jim & Connie, on Eagle's Wings.  Bleu went to Camp Angela while we were out on the boat.

After a very good breakfast pot luck on the first day of the New Year, we shared lots of laughs watching and participating in the merry blind dinghy race.

We were able to sail down to Marker Five and sail all the way back to Punta Gorda to start the New Year in style!