Christmastime - Florida and Texas Style!

Christmastime!  What a wonderful time of year.  We're so lucky to be here in our new home in Punta Gorda.  We've been enjoying lots of holiday parties with our clubs - The PGIslanders, the Isles Yacht Club, the Punta Gorda Sailing Club, etc. 

Marie sits on Santa's lap

Dec 23 - IYC Eggnog in the afternoon followed by dinner at Sue's house in the evening.

Dec 24 - Constance and Bill for Christmas Eve dinner

Dec 25 - Time to find out what Santa placed under the tree!

Dec 20 - Last night we watched the PGI Boat Parade at Chuck & Trudy's house, one block over from our house as the parade does not come down our canal. Joanne brought turkey soap; Trudy prepared stuffed mushrooms, avocado dip and vegetable pizza. Chuck spiked the hot chocolate with brandy. Pictures     Friday, Rob & Sue drove us around PGI to look at some amazing  lighted decorations. After the land tour, we piled into Chuck's fishing boat on a chilly but clear and almost windless night for canal side viewing of Christmas the lights. What a delight!

Dec 13 - Last weekend we took advantage of a $59 Southwest Airline Flight from Tampa to Hobby Airport in Houston.  Our friends, Betty & Richard, swooped us up at the airport and lent us their car.  We really enjoyed seeing our New Life and Boating friends.  The weekend started with a quick trip to our favorite restaurant, Top Water Grill, in sunny San Leon.  We met Karen & Alan and Kat & Doug for a fun-filled lunch - lots of laughs and great fried shrimp!   Then, we dashed over to Betty & Richard's for a ring-side seat of the Clear Lake Boat Parade.  It's wonderful to see that the parade back with lots of entries and colorful lighted vessels shining on the night water. Pictures Top Water Grill 

Sunday flew on by - our main event was the annual New Life Christmas Party at Barb's.  Lots of fun singing Christmas Carols and playing the Gift Exchange.  Check out our photos by double-clicking our link and then click on "slideshow."  Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Pictures New Life Party 

Marie's 90th Birthday

Marie celebrated her 90th birthday at the Isles Yacht Club with twenty-six children, grandchildren, spouses and friends.

Highlights included a video slideshow of  historical family photos with music.  Good job, to my brother-in-law, Al!   Marie recounted the changes she has witnessed in her life from the horse-drawn ice wagon to space travel. Granddaughter Annie, a competitive Irish stepdancer demonstrated her quick footwork.   Our friend, Sue, gave Marie a beautiful hand-crafted shell wreath.
Over the Thanksgiving holidays, guests also sailed on Charoltte Harbor, toasted themselves in the sun on Englewood Beach, watched lots of football and, of course,  gobbled up lots of  holiday food.

The Driveway, a short film written & directed by Marie's youngest son, also entertained us.  The film drew on Kevin's growing-up days in Bergenfield, New Jersey.  Good job, Kevin!

See my pictures at   Marie's 90th Birthday Party.

Early November, Early Winter

Harry Potter at the IMAX - Nov  19 - Saw the new Harry Potter film with friends at the IMAX in Fort Myers.

Tunnel of Love - Nov13

The  dinghy squeezed through the narrow Tunnel of Love as we jockeyed around sawed-off mangrove branches using our paddles to paddle, pole or fend off.   Once completely covered, the tunnel is now mostly open to the sky.  It leads one from the East side of Cayo Costa Island to a lagoon near the gulf side. See the Google Earth photos on the right.

The tunnel lies WSW of Cabbage Key about two nm South from Pelican Bay where we anchored Eagle's Wings for the weekend. We pushed through on a rising tide with sometimes only a few inches of water under the dinghy's keel.  An osprey flew overhead clutching a fish dinner while ibises watched us from the mangroves.  As we approached the lagoon still hidden by twists and turns of the shallow stream, the sounds of waves washing ashore filled our ears.  We landed on the lagoon shore and walked across the dunes to the beach to walk with pelicans and shore birds about. 

Tunnel of Love from Google Earth

 




Dorrit and Joanne




Longboat Key Bike Ride - Nov 8

Monday's activities included a pleasant seven mile ride along Longboat Key to Joan Durante Community Park and back with the IYC bike group, small talk at the PGIslander's bimonthly social and listening to Team Punta Gorda's annual State of the City address at the Civic Center.   

Nov 7th - MLLW -  We are still afloat at low tide after North winds blew the water away for the first time since we moved to Lido Drive .  We expect periodic bouts of low water and chilly below 70 F weather till next spring. 

Nov 6th - Venice Art Festival 

We drove 20+ miles up to the Crows Nest Marina Friday to sleep overnight on Rob & Sue's catamaran, Catalyst.  How people with no money can buy fine art, I don't know but we did.  We now have three metal pieces from Garner Metal Art hanging in our foyer.

Paper Castings
John Galbo Impressionistic Photography
Red Bird Photo

AndrewBoromPhotography

Touch of the Islands

Twilight Spoobill Twilight Flamingo

Squirrely Wood

Dimensional Copper



















Fall Leaves

With great anticipation to visit our dear friends, Betty & Richard, we traveled across the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina to Asheville. As we rounded the state border of North Carolina, the mountains appeared in their Fall glory of deep golds, oranges, pink and rose hues!

It's been more years that we can count that we've gazed upon this wonderful sight and felt the crunch of the leaves under our feet.  Check out our pictures below by clicking once under the underlined word - Photos and then click Slideshow. 

Blue Ridge Parkway

From Fall Leaves

Asheville

Arboretum

Dupont State Forest

Transylvania

Blue Ridge Parkway

The Sight

Photos

From Fall Leaves

South Seas

October 15th - North Wind, Sailing South!  Today, we actually tacked down Charlotte Harbor on broad reaches to round Marker 5 and head for the ICW. Although the light wind allowed us only 4 - 5 kts, we enjoyed some time on the water sans motor.   South Seas  lies on the north end of Captiva Island.  This was  Boater Appreciation Weekend;  the rate for slips, normally $3.50/ft for a sailboat like ours was only $1.50/ ft. Saturday evening the marina manager hosted a free dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled chicken. Free always gets our attention and we enjoyed the spread.  The marina was packed with boaters, especially from Punta Gorda.  Our clubs were well represented and we had fun talking about our sailing adventures.

Before Saturday's sunrise, I walked out to Redfish Pass.  See my pictures at Sunrise at South Seas. 

North to Sarasota

Friday, October 8th - A light notherly breeze floods Charoltte Harbor with cool air. Too light to sail, we motor to Cape Haze to anchor with Caprice & Sabrina for the night.  Joanne & I rode our dinghy over to Don Pedro to walk the beach and swim in the Gulf water.  A Saturday of motoring up the ICW landed us at the historic Field Club.  It's on the national register of historic places; click here for history.  We walked around the beautiful grounds and out to US 41 before dinner at the club.  After breafast, motoring again, we moved to the Sarasota Yacht Club.

The SYC's brand new building sparkles.  In it we found a couple of  Lipton Cup trophys from the 1930s. The Lipton Cup races are held in Southern California so someone went a long way to race.  We walked a  short way to St Armand's Circle to wander through the art gallerys.    

Monday morning,  the crews of Caprice and Eagle's Wings decided to transit Big Sarasota Pass, a  pass of shifting shoals and misfortune for those not armed with local knowledge. One local told us to head 275 M; another prescribed 240 M. Both courses would have run us onto the shoals, clearly visible to us once in the pass..  Information on the SYC website (a 210 M course) proved to be accurate.  Out in the Gulf, we motor sailed under clear skys south to Boca Grande.   Just awesome sailing!

To save about an hour, Caprice suggested we take the swash channel rather than the deep & safe water Boca Grande Pass.  As we rounded Boca Gande in seven feet of water, it seemed like we could almost shake hands with the folks wading off the beach. To starboard, water looked like the rapids on a river.  

We anchored in Pelican Bay for the night and motored home the next day.   All in all, another great adventure aboard Eagle's Wings!

French Picnic



TMCA French Picnic 2006



Warm sunlight filters through the trees surrounding tables filled with French cuisine. Light and shadow play over a champagne fountain. Imagine stepping into an Impressionist painting; you are on the banks of Double Bayou at the French Picnic! Over one hundred people, many sporting berets, were in attendance for the French Picnic the weekend following Thanksgiving. Something like fifty-five boats nuzzled up to the bank of the East Fork; some had arrived earlier in the week to celebrate Thanksgiving but most arrived Friday. Some folks arrived by dinghy from Marker Seventeen...

 

That's how I described the French Picnic in a Galveston Bay Texas boating magazine, Telltales, in the year of 2006. Such memories spurred Joanne to bring thisTMCA tradition to our new home here on Charlotte Harbor.   And so she did. 
The French Picnic planned on Cayo Costa for the first October weekend fortuitously coincided with fall's first cool front. Blessed with low humidity and a pleasant breeze, crews aboard four sailboats, Sabrena,Gioia Sul Mare, Caprice and Eagle's Wings and four powerboats, Egret, Mystic Blue, Rare Indigo and Summer Thunder anchored in Pelican Bay. Stars filled the clear night time sky as water lapped along the sides of our boats. We played with the Goggle Sky Map App on Joanne's Droid X phone - very cool.  Saturday morning,  Joanne & I meandered along the beach  selecting a few sea shells along the way. Of course, we got wet too!   Oh what a awesome weekend!





Look South



Look North



Look West



French Picnic on Cayo Costa



Here are the picnic highlights. Shortly after arrival on Friday, Claudia and Jim Morrow hosted a superb Happy Hour on Egret. Wine flowed and conversation filled the bay.

 

On Saturday afternoon, the friendly park ranger provided taxi service to the picnic site on the Gulf side of Cayo Costa. The picnic tables were set with lace tablecloths and elegant shell centerpieces. The crews brought their French specialties. We uncorked our bottles of wine and sampled the delicious fare. We voted for the best dishes and prizes were awarded.

Our 3rd runner up was Igor Kapuscinski with his two delectable walnut pattees. In second place was Constance Robison with her yummy Beef Bourgeone. The grand prize winner was Jackie Whitaker with her scrumptious chocolate cake.



TMCA French Picnic  





The Ranger let us on the island anyway!