Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com
We have settled in rather nicely here. We appreciate being able to get up each day and not have to travel.
Saturday night we attended the Holiday Jam Session under the Tiki Hut here at the marina. This featured a gentleman named Gary Diamond off the sailing vessel Saturday’s Child on vocals and playing a keyboard/synthesizer, an unknown keyboardist and two guitar players performing all kinds of music. It was surprisingly good - Gary is a very good singer. This was attended by 20 to 30 cruisers and will be repeated this Saturday.
On Sunday we got on our folding bikes and headed toward San Pablo’s Catholic Church or at least what was supposed to be San Pablo’s. We arrived to find an empty lot. We asked some of the locals and discovered that the church is actually five miles to the north. Apparently it used to be on the lot but they built a new church and tore the old one down. Unfortunately no one apparently told Google maps. As we arrived at the empty lot right on time to attend 11AM mass and mass would be almost over by the time we rode the five miles to the new church we decided to try again next Sunday. We hope God gives credit for effort.
So it was on to the Hurricane. The Hurricane is a sports bar with the NFL Sunday Ticket package and 25 cent wings. They have all the games every Sunday and it is Marathon’s home for wayward Packer fans. There is a large number who show up every week to watch the game. We learned about this from Ann from the sailing catamaran S/V Camelot. Ann along with her husband Harv are from Stevens Point. We met her in Publix last week and struck up a conversation because she was wearing a Green Bay Packers cap. Harv on the other hand is a Vikings fan - not much to say about that.
We parked our bikes outside the bar and spent the afternoon eating wings and watching the Green Bay Packers win the NFC North with their glorious victory over the sad and confused Chicago Bears. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
Monday afternoon on one of our trips into the dinghy dock we noticed a group of people standing near where the potable water hose is. (We pull up there every day and fill our two plastic five gallon jerry jugs with water to later be transferred into Sweet Escape’s two water tanks.) We walked over to see what they were looking at. What we saw was probably 500 pounds of manatee hanging on to the water hose begging someone to turn the water on. Eventually one of the dock hands came over and gave the end of the hose to the manatee and turned on the water. This manatee stuck the hose in it’s mouth and started drinking and drinking and drinking. Note to self - remember to bring in some sanitizing wipes to use on the end of the hose the next time we get water. We shot some video of this and it is at right. File that under “something you don’t see everyday”.
We have been wanting to go fishing but we have been lacking an anchor for our dinghy. We looked at them at West Marine and would have to spend at least $50 dollars there. We decided to try the morning radio net first. Readers will recall they have a segment called “Treasures from the Bilge” where cruisers can buy and sell merchandise. Yesterday during the morning net we announced our need and within 10 seconds we had a dinghy anchor. Shannon from S/V Sol Mate had just what we were looking for and sold it to us for $10. Take that West Marine!
This morning we dinghied in and walked across the street to the Tackle Box where they sell live bait. We bought a dozen live shrimp, took them back to the dinghy and drove up Sister’s Creek just off Boot Key Harbor for a little fishing.
Saltwater fishing is fun. When you fish up north you may catch two or three different kinds of fish. Here, you may catch any of a hundred different species. Judy drew first blood today when she pulled in some kind of snapper with bright blue stripes on it’s head. Brian then caught what we identified as a gray mangrove snapper. Brian then also caught a weird looking fish that puffs itself up when you touch it. At that point we ran out of shrimp. We released all the fish, but is was fun to catch them.
We are getting close to Christmas. It is hard to believe with the weather what it is here. We are also getting excited because Daughter Erin and her Fiancé Ryan will be coming down next Sunday and then late on the 25th we will pick up Daughter Jenny and Grandson Cameron at the airport in Fort Lauderdale. On the 27th, weather permitting we will sail to Key West and spend five days there at the Conch Harbor Marina.
We are really looking forward to seeing and spending some time with our family and introducing them to the cruising life.
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