Valentine's Day Cruise to Boca Grande



IYC Cruisers/Bikers pause for a picture on Boca Grande Beach


Valentine's Day - Time for Cruising!   We led a cruise of 11 boaters (24 people in all) from the Isles Yacht Club to the newly renovated Boca Grande Marina.  What wonderful spring weather and fun motor sailing on a gorgeous day!  We ate dinner at the Eagle's Grill, their newly renovated restaurant. We dined under a full moon on their beautiful weather-protected porch area.  We also led a  bike ride through the island enjoying the golf carts, tourists and sights along the way.  Clayborne Young paid us a visit as he did research for his website, Salty Dog Cruiser's Net.  Clayborne is also the author of books about cruising the Florida coast and it was a pleasure meeting him.  Check out our photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/100014425150092582097/IYCCruiseToBocaGrande#

Clayborne Young



Sunrise over IYC Boats at Boca Grande Marina





Joanne - President of Friendship Force of SW Florida

Joanne on a Friendship Force Exchange in Australia

We joined Friendship Force of Southwest Florida a few years ago when our friends, Sue & Rob Linehan, told us about this neat travel exchange club.  Guess what?  Joanne recently became its President in a landslide victory!  (OK, so not many people wanted to run, but Joanne lept at the chance to lead this wonderful group.)

Sure, you can book a cruise or a trip with a travel agency or on your own...but why not, have a deeper experience by actually meeting the people of the country you are visiting? Friendship Force (FF) makes this a reality!  

Here's how - You travel with your club members or go on-line (to find other clubs) that are traveling to a country that you may want to visit.  You'll stay with a club member at their home and their club will take you to see the sights of their local area. 

For example, when we visited FF's 2 clubs in Australia, we saw kangaroos in the wild on club member's land not available to the public, unless of course you are in FF.  One club member even took us for a ride in his private plane.  These experiences don't happen with a travel agency! 

The lifelong friends you make and the experiences you have traveling with FF are unique, memorable and unbeatable.  You have the opportunity to be an "ambassador" for the US as you talk about our country and come to a deeper understanding of their homeland.

What else? Our FF club hosts exchanges (people coming in from countries outside the US and from other states in the US).  This spring we are welcoming 12 people from Costa Rica and this fall, a group from Nebraska is scheduled.  Our club members volunteer to let them stay in their homes and other club members take them to see the sights of SW Florida.  We host a Welcome Party and many events for them.  It's fun for everyone and gives you an appreciation how others view our country.

Check out our club website at www.friendshipforceswfl.org  Hope you'll join our club if you are in Florida or if not, check out one in your area of the country.  There are 380 clubs worldwide.

Commodore Richard, PGIslanders

When a boat club changes its officiers, it's called a "Change of Watch."   Our wonderful boat club, the PGIslanders celebrated its Change of Watch on Friday, January 10th, with 165 members gathering for a terrific celebration complete with BBQ dinner and lots of thank yous for past officers and current ones!

Here's a picture of Richard being presented the club burgee complete with the 3-star flag of Commodore!  He ran the first meeting with a slide show to keep members interested and on track.  He is excited to lead this wonderful group in 2014.

Photos

New Year's Eve

The PGIslanders bent the needle on the Fun Meter down in Pelican Bay on New Year's Eve!         

Four large catamarans rafted to form a huge party platform to host a record number of people, 58 PG Islanders and their guests. Recent new members Bruce & Marilyn Conklin, Dave & Diane Commens and Tom & Joyce Mack joined the fun. The host boats Linehan's Catalyst, Johnson's Chat-eau, Rommel's Desert Fox and Hilke's Dues Paid were festively decorated and lit. 

The weather was perfect, breezy and pleasantly warm.

The Islanders gathered just before dusk and were delighted by a surprise event, dinghies that danced to the Blue Danube sans tutus before everyone in the attentive anchorage. Nine Islanders dinghies performed many precision maneuvers in close proximity, including the Demolition Derby Figure 8, all without incident. The conclusion was an awesome red and white pinwheel finale complete with a Happy New Year's wave. The Blue Angels would have been proud. 

The clever Dinghy Ballet was envisioned and choreographed by the Haswell's and Clark's. Dinghy pilots included the Brandt's, Terry Clark, Richard Collins, Toby Haswell, Steve Johnson, the Lennon's, Rob Linehan, Chuck Millburg and the Oberle's. 
 

On New Years Eve the food was both plentiful and delicious and the holiday mood was high. The party started early so a champagne toast was celebrated at Punta Gorda midnight of 9 pm. We also celebrated the incoming Commodore Richard's birthday with a homemade carrot cake.

The following morning the Islanders and guests welcomed the New Year with a lavish breakfast feast. Some Islanders stayed to enjoy the beach of Cayo Costa while the others headed for home.   What a great way to start the New Year! 

Click Photos

Watch the Dinghy Ballet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKAfv9JyJg

Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays 2013

Richard says "This is the kind of
soldier I'd like to find in my toy chest"

It was 10 years since we last visited Fort Wayne, Indiana, home of my sister, Mary, and brother-in-law, Al.  Guess What ? Allegiant Air now flys directly from our little airport straight thru to Fort Wayne in just 2 hours! (75 degrees to 24 degrees!) It was a wonderful Thanksgiving family time, celebrating my Mom's 93rd birthday, followed by Turkey Coma and then, a baby shower for our niece, Holly, who is expecting her first child in early March.  lOTS to celebrate!



Hideaway

Upon arriving home, a frenzy of activities...brunch with Friendship Force (our travel exchange club), holiday parties with our boating clubs (PGSC, PGIslanders and Isles Yacht Club) and a gift exchange with our neighbors! 

We helped create this beautiful lighted sail for Hideaway, our friend's (Trudy & Chuck) boat as a new entry in the Lighted Boat Parade.  What a great time we had waving to throngs of visitors along the 7-1/2 mile canal route!


IYC Fleet Lighting



Snowman on Eagle's Wing with our house behind boat

Our boat, Eagle's Wings, was decked out in snowman lights and participated in the Lighting of the Fleet, an annual tradition, at the Isles Yacht Club (IYC).  We had more than 60 visitors aboard munching on seafood, appetizers, Pasta Fagioli soup, homemade Christmas cookies and liquid refreshments.


Christmas Eve was a wonderful evening with Cousin Constance, Bill and Cousin Jake and Mom at our place!  



By the way, the January-February 2014 edition of Where to Retire is now on newsstands across the country. If you'd like to read the article featuring our home town of Punta Gorda, A Treasure on the Gulf Coast, click link (in red) below snowman picture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltElQD7mRBdExaVmk5VVZlb0k/edit?usp=sharing



Veterans Day - Honoring Women in the Military



           Our town honored women's role in the military at a moving tribute in Punta Gorda's Veteran's Park.



Grace Chicken & Marie
 

A highlight of the ceremony was a speech by Grace Chicken (age 99) relating  her nursing experiences caring for the wounded. 

She was one of the first women trained to airlift soldiers from the battlefield aboard C130 and C141 planes. She served at many foreign posts had a distinguished military career. 

Not one to be left behind, my Mom enlisted in the Navy shortly after her brother was drafted.  She also contributed to her country's war effort by helping administratively with supply distribution.  We were so glad to attend this moving tribute.

IYC Admiral's Cruise and French Picnic

Low Tide at Pelican Bay - that was the challenge facing us as we headed out Friday for the Isles Yacht Club (IYC) Admiral's Cruise.  The weather was perfect for sailing down Charlotte Harbor!  Gorgeous sunny sky, low humidity, temps in the high 70's and a north wind pushing us along at a rapid clip.  We reduced sail as we approached the anchorage off Cayo Costa to enter on a rising tide. Two cruisers with five foot drafts wisely decided to anchor at Usseppa to wait for high tide.  But we slowly motored our way into the anchorage at dead low tide calling out depths along the way to the rest of the fleet: 5'8", 5'6", 5'2" ... just a few inches of water below our 4'6" draft boat, Eagle's Wings!  Southern Belle, a new member's boat, elected to follow us, failed to hug the beach and unfortunately went hard aground. Fortunately, a small power boat came along and pulled them off before the captain succumbed to that "I'm aground, the bottom have me in its clutches" feeling we all have experienced. If you haven't been aground, you haven't been around.

All the IYC boats began to arrive for the first fun event of the weekend - docktails on the catamaran, Chatty Cat.  Wow!  24 people crammed on the boat and we had a great time catching up and sampling the appetizers that everyone brought aboard.

Saturday morning we participated in a "Dinghy 101" Refresher Training arranged by Jane on Halcyon.  The highlight of the day was our 4th Annual "French Picnic," a gastronomical delight!   We dinghyed to shore with our food treasures and we hopped the Ranger's tram to take us over to the pristine shoreline picnic area.  We sampled the delicious cuisine and voted for the winners.  This year's top dish was Cranberry Chicken Salad Croissants prepared by Diane Ufer, 2nd runner up was Tom Weekes', Salade Nicoise, and Best Dessert was Lemon Tarte by Peg Vasu.

On the way back, we went over to Manatee Hole - check out the great pictures below!




Pictures