Summer Wedding on Naushon Island

Joanne's brother's son, Brian married Zoe,  member of  a Forbes family that traces its roots back to sixth century Scotland.  The family trust owns Naushon Island, the wedding site, near Woods Hole.  We were invited!

Years ago,  Joanne, known as the Squid Lady then, worked at the Marine Biomedical Institute, UTMB, for Roger Hanlon.  They were young, spirited and hard working. Roger moved on to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Joanne moved on to management positions at UTMB. We saw Roger on CNN and also noted an article he authored in National Geographic in the last few years - but had not visited since he left Galveston. So we arranged to visit Roger during our trip.

Roger has come a long way since he and his family inhabited Fish Village on Galveston Island!  He treated us to dinner at an "off the beaten path" restaurant down Sippewisset Road.  (I love these Indian place names - here is another one: Mashpee), and tours of his house and lab.   Click these links to learn about Roger's research and view a Cuttle fish video.

We rode the private ferry from Woods Hole to attend a barbeque on Friday aftenoon on Naushon Island.
The island is all woodlands and pastures surrounded stone and wood rail fences.  The ferry docks in
Hadley Harbor.  I learned that the moorings are free when not in use by a family member and that the harbor is filled with a hundred or so boats in the summer. I guess June is not yet summer in New England! 

The McDermott clan rented a house on the water in East Falmouth, another beautiful location for our stay.

The wedding happened on the grounds of the Stone House on Naushon Island on Saturday afternoon. After dinner and dancing we all, including Marie, walked down the rural road with Al leading the way with a lantern for the ferry ride back to Woods Hole.

Please view our Photo Album.

Chartering a Catamaran in BELIZE

Double click this link  Belize Photos


Richard and I were lucky enough to charter a catamaran with our Texas Boating Buddies of TMCA (Texas Mariner's Cruising Association) to the beautiful Central American country of BELIZE.  Check out our photos by double-clicking "Belize Photos" just above this post.


It was a quick 2 hour flight direct from Houston and before we knew it, we landed in Belize City to catch a tiny little plane north to San Pedro (only 15 minute flight!)  We chartered with TMM charters and took possession of a large catamaran.  John Allison was the expert captain and he brought along his son, Chris, because his wife, Peggy, was recouperating from chemo.  The rest of the crew were Patrice & Lee (who accompanied us to Croatia just a few years ago) and Jack Odam.  There were 4 more TMCA couples on another catamaran, who sailed with us.  We had a great bunch of people and traveled together to wonderful anchorages. 


We enjoyed snorkeling especially at Tobacco Key and saw hundreds of gorgeous colored fish and eagle rays.  Jack cooked us great meals aboard and we also enjoyed some of the local cuisine - curry shrimp and grilled fish with lots of mashed potatoes and cabbage (cole slaw like) veggies. Yum!


Towards the end of the week, the weather turned rainy - but the week flew by and before we knew, we were saying our goodbyes.  All in all, another terrific charter with good friends and great times.

Cape Haze Don Pedro

May 5 - 7   We motored almost all the way to Cape Haze in company of Caprice, a Catalina 36 crewed by Mike & Jan Savino and friend.

In the morning, Caprice continued to Palm Harbor.  Joanne & I loaded the dinghy with lunch, beach chairs and umbrellas to a short ride to Don Pedro State Park.  With a light breeze to keep us cool, the beach was ours to enjoy!

The next day, I elected to return to Punta Gorda rather than continue to Venice as our engine has been overheating somewhat on the trip up. Joanne was less than happy.  I was hoping for a spinnaker run up the harbor but it was not to be.  Almost no wind!  Adjusting the throttle to keep the engine temperature from running much above 185 F or so, brought us all the way home. 

Caprice experienced a few minor adventures on the to Venice: first with the Tom Adams Bridge that failed to open and then with a grounding while waiting for a Venice bridge opening.  Joining them by auto at the Venice Yacht Club , Joanne, now in better spirits, & I celebrated our anniversary with dinner and dancing.

Boot Scootin Boggie & The No-See-Ums

May 1 - Last night we broke down and turned on the air conditioner.  This afternoon, we hung out at Blind Pass Beach and went for a swim in the Gulf.  Although the our pool water is still on the brisk side, we are jumping in to cool down!

Last weekend we attended the first annual ILSE at Burnt Store Marina where Joanne as well as others entertained the crowds.  We also entertained the no-see-ums playing frisbee golf! Itchy lessons learned, I hope.  

The walls are up on our new house! Check the pictures in the Piscaa album. We now wait for the trusses that are being built in Venice and a 40' steel beam being manufactured in Bonita Springs before construction continues.

Boot Scootin' Boogie

Blind Pass Beach

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Steve & Alice

Punta Gorda - Ocean Star arrived as I biked backed from IYC.  After a slight mis-manuvering Ocean Star floated snugly at our little dock. With a 6' 3" draft, I had really worried about them running aground in the canal. Since visitors are rare and visitors by water are well - Steve & Alice are our first, we were really excited.  First order of business - a ride to Iles Hardware for boat parts!

Photos

Tween Waters Cruise April 13 - 16

With an East wind and  flat water Eagle's Wings flew down Charlotee Harbor at hull speed momentarily hitting eight knots on our way to Tween Waters, an old time Florida resort on Captiva Island.  Swimming and laying about the pool, walking the beach and riding our foldup bike occupied our days.  We dined at the Bubble Room and at the Green Flash restaurants in Captiva's quaint village. 

Docking turned out to be very easy at Tween Waters on their auxillary dock located a short way away from the main marina.  On Thursday, we moved to the Captiva Yacht Club for one free night of dockage.

We actually sailed most of the way back again sometimes at hull speed in Charlotee Harbor although repeated gusts sometimes overpowered us.

We unloaded our boat at our house and moved the boat over to the Isles Yacht Club so Steve & Alice could park Ocean Star at our dock for a few days.

Tween Waters Photos      Tween Waters     PG Islanders Cruise Report    PG Islanders Pictures

Crescent Street Boat Yard

Rumble, Rumble, Rumble.  How does one describe the heavy low beat of a big diesel engine idealing just outside your door on an early Saturday morning?  The big crane driver was looking an empty lot from which he was to lift a mast.  No mastless boat was in site and his customer wasn't answering his phone.  After a while Travis from whom we rent stepped out to clue us in.  A friend of his (Travis has a zillon friends.) would use the empty lot between our rental house and Travis's house for the lift.  So the crane setup, the boat arrived and we had us a portable boatyard.  Marie & Joanne watched while eating breakfast on the lanai.  I had a closer look and loaned my boson's chair  when a shroud apparently hung up on the top of the mast.  See photos at

Stepping A Mast on Crescent Street

We had picked up Marie for the Easter weekend when we dropped off Michele at the Tampa airport.  Marie, Joanne & I saw the very well done Living Stations of the Cross at Sacred Heart on Friday night and Father Jerry's performance to a more than full house at mass on Easter Sunday.

Marie bought her first computer a few weeks ago. We have been helping her setup her Favorites and email contacts, struggle with the mouse and basically get launched back into the sometimes confusing web world. She had WEbTV for years but wanted more Internet content than WEbTV could provide.  She just signed up for a computer course!  

To follow the construction of our house here in Punta Gorda click on the Building a House link on the left of the page that transports you to a Picasa web album. You can view a slideshow here and even switch to a full screen view.  The Pisca website and Blogger are all part of the same Google virtual world so it's pretty easy to get pictures on the web and linked to the blog.  And it is easy and FREE!!!

Also, if you click on a slide show in one of the blogs, you will be transported to the linked album in Picasa where you can also see pictures in full screen mode.