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.

Channel 29

Waiting.  Waiting for No Show already at sea to report conditions on Channel 29.  Channel 29?  Someone said, "It's the long distance channel; that's why we are using it."  On the rotary knob, channel markers were distributed along a logarithmic scale with Channel 29 just to the right of Channel 16.  As I looked up from the old VHF radio, black water reaching out from a hazy beach to a dull sky filled my field of vision.  Somewhere over the horizon, TMCA boats were either sailing a meandering river home or rushing about as if riding a wild rapids under bare poles. We were to join them, waiting now for No Show to call on Channel 29. Silence. Looking around, my brother-in-law Paul charged like an angry bull.  Before I could dive between the rails of a corral fence and out the way, Paul rushed by as if I weren't even there, his eyes riveted on Ed Herndon of all people.  Midnight. Prevacid. Six hours till dawn. Six months of construction to go.

Michele came for a visit last week. We sailed on the harbor.  She borrowed the car to drive to Key West. The lucky cats with six toes are there. She quit her job. She is living in the moment.  I have lived in the past that never was and the future that may not be. So living in the moment is OK, I suppose, as long as the moments add up. It's better than Prevacid.  When she returns on Monday, we may or may not sail down to Pelican Bay for a day. Later in the week we drop her off at the Tampa airport and pickup Marie for Easter.  Richard back to 16.

Pelican Bay & Boca Grande

Tiny raindrops falling from a gray sky dotted the quiet canal water with ever expanding circles Wednesday morning as we completed loading Eagle's Wings. Without wind we motored around Punta Gorda and down Charoltte Harbor past Marker Five where we turned west toward Pelican Bay. With wind now filling in but on the nose we continued motoring. We anchored in Pelican Bay for a St Patrick's dinner with the PG Islanders.

Thursday, a short dinghy ride transported Joanne & I (Sherwood remained aboard) to Cayo Costa for a walk to the beach, a picnic and a ranger led tour. Check the Islander's website for a cruise report.
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Friday morning Eagle's Wings motored a short way to "med moor" at the Boca Grande Anchorage along the mangroves northwest of the entrance channel.


We took in Boca Grande from our dinghy and then dined at the Pink Elephant located directly across from the anchorage. The fish and chips were the best and also the most expensive we have ever tasted.

Nightime featured brillant stars in the perfectly clear sky. Saturday morning we managed to run aground on the way out of the anchorage where a shoal is building off the southeast side of the golf course. We backed off and slipped by alongside the seawall. We actually sailed part of the way home under an absolutely beautiful sunny sky!


Sunday, March 21 rain came in buckets! Glad we sailed home on Saturday!