Tuesday, January 26 - Time to catch up with our blog! On January 17, we woke up in Dunedin and planned to leave LeeLoo at 6 a.m. to drive to Atlanta to spend two weeks with Carey's father. As Carey prepared to get off LeeLoo, he noticed that the extremely high tide left us with at least a five foot climb down from LeeLoo onto the finger pier. Even the finger pier next to LeeLoo was close to being under water. It was simply not safe to get off LeeLoo with such a high tide. So what did we do? We waited for almost two hours before the tide went down enough for us to get off LeeLoo. And even then it was quite a jump down. This is one disadvantage to being at a marina with fixed docks - the tide (and the boat) goes up and down and the dock stays in the same place. What Nancy would give to have our floating docks back again! We have since ordered a tall step stool that should help with getting off LeeLoo in an extremely high tide. We still have a lot to learn about when it comes to dealing tides!
While in Atlanta, we remembered what it is like to have winter! We have been so fortunate to have beautiful, warm Florida weather for so long. Yes, Atlanta practically shut down to prepare for the possible snow/ice storm. As it turned out, most of the snow went north of Atlanta although we did get a dusting of the white stuff. We did feel bad for the folks along the east coast where the storm really hit.
A dusting of snow - enough to make us glad we are not in Chicago!
Our plan is to leave for Dunedin on Sunday, January 31. Our good friends, Hal and Wendy Gilpin (from Hawk Valley Retreat in Galena) are flying to Atlanta Sunday evening to join us for ten days of cruising on LeeLoo. We will pick them up at the Atlanta airport, then continue south to Dunedin. We are really looking forward to their visit as we have cruised with them many times before and they are very familiar with LeeLoo. By February 3 or so, we should finally be on the move again. Our destination is Ft. Myers via St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Venice, and Pine Island Sound where we hope to anchor for a two nights. Time to explore more of Florida!
Thursday, January 7 - We safely arrived at Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin last Saturday. The cruise to Dunedin was only 14 miles and the bay waters were only moderately choppy. We are getting better at following the markers and only got confused one time. Just before the marina, we went under a drawbridge with a 24 foot clearance when closed. Fortunately, LeeLoo's air draft is only 17 feet with the flagpole and the VHS antennas are deployed. Most of the drawbridges have clearances when closed around 24 feet so we will be able to travel and not wait for bridges to open.
Marker 1 Marina is a small, but very nice marina. The piers are fixed (rather than floating) and, as is common in Florida, the finger piers are short. Nonetheless, we were able to dock LeeLoo bow in and we are able to easily get on and off her. The laundry facilities are free here! This is a first! Our laundry prices per load have ranged from $1.00 a load to $2.50 a load. Needless to say, Nancy will take advantage of the free washer and dryer! Another nice amenity are very clean showers! After traveling the rivers, one really appreciates marines with clean showers.
LeeLoo safely docked at Marker 1 Marina for the month of January.
Last night we joined a dozen other Loopers for docktails. We spent 2 hours socializing and eating! It is a great way to gather information about experiences, boat maintenance, marinas and anchorages. Loopers have a wealth of information to share. Just say you are a Looper and you have instant friends. Even the local residents want to talk to you as soon as they find out you are a "Looper".
On Friday night, we plan to get together with Gold Loopers Jim and Connie Gillette (Patriot) and Ron and Jan Matuska (Adagio). Patriot and Adagio are 32 Ft. Nordic Tugs similar to LeeLoo. A Gold Looper earns this designation once they complete the Loop for the first time. We look forward to seeing our friends and to catch up on our boating experiences.
The weather has turned turned cool and the 80 degree days are gone for a while. We are now in the 60's and 70's. We can't complain though - much better than Chicago weather!
Scenes of Florida we never take for granted!
Saturday, January 2 - Hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year! We spent a quiet evening on our boat in Tarpon Springs. One of our recent purchases was a better TV antenna so we were able to watch all the New York New Year celebrations! And, yes, we did make it to midnight - 3 hours past our normal Looper midnight of 9 a.m.
Our trip back to the Atlanta area to meet up with our family over Christmas went very well. We truly enjoyed seeing everyone - especially our 5 grandchildren! Driving there was a challenge as we had a lot of rain, but we will take rain over snow any day!
Grandpa Playing with Grandchildren Paige and Peter
We returned to LeeLoo on December 29 and had a day to do a little sightseeing before we had to turn in the rental car.
Turtle Cove Marina in Tarpon Springs has a great pool and hot tub (although we couldn't get the hot tub to heat up) so we spent some quality time sitting around the pool.
The Pool at Turtle Cove
Feels Like Summer!
Today we are on the move again. We will leave this afternoon as the tide is rising for Dunedin, Florida and will stay at Marker 1 Marina for about a month. We have already been to the marina by car to check it out so we know where we are going. Unfortunately, we are back to short fixed dock finger piers so we will once again be climbing on to LeeLoo depending on the heights of the tide. More from Dunedin . . .
