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.

Speedy Johnson Airboat Ride - Everglades City Fl, Feb 10, 2009

About fifty members of the Peace River Power Squardon and two members of the Galveston Bay Power Squardon carpooled to Everglades City to ride Speedy Johnson's air boats. To ride with us click on the video below.

After the airboat ride, Bette & Alan who rode with us suggested we drive a few miles down to the Cypress National Preserve to see some alligators.

Checkout Speedy Johnson at http://www.speedyjohnsons.com/homed.htm

Look over the Peace River Power Squardon at

http://www.puntagorda-boating.org/

Useppa Island Cruise February 6-8, 2009

Earlier in the week north winds associated with two cold fronts blew the water away here just as they would on Galveston Bay. Low tide left Eagle’s Wings settled on the bottom at low tide during the week. On Friday, the water level was still about a foot lower than predicted so we waited for the tide to rise. When the deck of Eagle’s Wings reaches the dock, we have just enough water to float us out to Charlotte Harbor. At 13:20 we cast off.

Useppa Island lies along the eastern side of the ICW west of the north end of Pine Island. Useppa has a long and colorful history; visit http://www.useppa.com/ to see for yourself. The island’s museum is very well done. While it is possible to rent a room or a cottage on this private island, Useppa is generally off limits to cruisers like us. However, the Punta Gorda Sailing Club arranged a cruise to this fabulous island and we signed up! If we had to push our boat out to the harbor, we were going!

We mostly motored down to Useppa to drop anchor at the end of the day. By the time we had the dinghy ready, the stars were out for a short ride to Blue Goose for a wonderful dinner courtesy of John & Marilyn Jorgensen.

Saturday morning we tried to take a short cut in the dinghy over to the Useppa Marina; shoal water forced us to paddle a short way and make for the Useppa Channel. After tying up to the dinghy dock, we paid our $15 landing fee, walked about the island and visited the museum.

A twenty-five minute dinghy ride back out the Useppa Channel and down the ICW delivered us to Cabbage Key for lunch. Power boaters covered the docks and dollar bills covered the walls and ceiling of the restaurant. After lunch we went back to our boat anchored just across the ICW to rest up.

For burgers and brauts, we loaded our drinks and Joanne’s contribution to the meal in the dinghy (secured in a plastic bag) for the long way around to the marina. We returned after sunset to sleep well on Eagle’s Wings.

Sunday morning we were back in the dinghy and back to Useppa for lunch at the Collier Inn. We met many fine people in the sailing club including one couple who had sailed on Lake Travis and Galveston Bay! Here we are with Marylyn & John at the Collier Inn.

What’s it like to run a nine foot dinghy with a five hp motor in the ICW? Not too bad. One power boat actually slowed down for us; the rest sent us their wakes but we rode over them easily enough. That we had little chop made for more or less dry rides.

We were actually able to sail most of the way back to Punta Gorda on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.

We really appreciate John and Marylyn for introducing us to the sailing club, hosting dinner on Blue Goose and sharing lots of local knowledge with us. What wonderful people!

 

Visit the Punta Gorda Sailing Club at http://www.pgscweb.com/

Remember, click on a picture to enlarge it!

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