Back to Westshore Marina

Sunday April 30, 2017

We are off the boat at 9:30 AM and back on Tide Hiker by 10:00 AM. I feel sorry for the rest of the crew - Darrell & Mona are flying to LAX, Dick & Betty to PHX, Jay & Lovie to CLE and Nick and Lyn to BOS. What a drag. We were unpacked before lunch.

We now need to confront our planning:

1. We have paid the marina thru the end of this week
2. We need to get to a wedding in the DC area on May 20
3. Deidre needs to get to the doctors in Charleston to attend to her back
4. The water level in Lake Okeechobee is falling fast and is already 1" below "totally safe"
5. We have a slip lined up in Charleston for June
6. The diver is coming Monday
7. We need provisions.(have lots of left over beer!)
8. I need to change main engine oil in about 70 hours.

Tentative decisions:

1. We will shop tonight.
2. Subject to weather (which looks OK) we will leave tomorrow afternoon (after the diver) and get to the head of Tampa Bay Monday evening, and anchor behind one of the little islands (maybe Egmont Key).
3. We will go offshore Tuesday and head for Boca Grande entrance and anchor in Pelicam Bay. Will be a 80 NM run.
4. Wednesday to Franklin Lock,
5. Thursday to Moore Haven and Friday across the lake. If the lake has not dropped more than an inch or so by then we should be OK. We will make the GO-NO-GO decision Wednesday morning.

All at sea

Saturday April 22, 2017

We had a “showing” this morning. A retired couple looking for a DeFever trawler. They were on board for 90 minutes and seemed to be impressed but when we left town Sunday afternoon on Norwegian Jade we had not heard a peep from them, not even a “Thank you for showing us your beautiful boat” email.  

We picked up Darrel Bass and his SO at their hotel just before lunch and brought then to Tide Hiker for the day. Darrel helped me launch the dink and we ferried over to a water front restaurant for lunch. Most of the rest of the afternoon involved preparations for our “pre cruise” party.

Nick and Lyn arrived about 4 PM. Dick and Betty about 6 PM and finally Jay and Lovie about 7 PM. Deidre had a huge supply of hot and cold snacks and we partied on till about 10 PM when all these “oldies” started to waver. Not like the old days. But I thought it was a huge success.

Sunday April 23, 2017

Sunday morning (nursing a fuzzy brain) we cleaned up the remnants on the party and prepared Tide Hiker for her week alone. By 11:30 we were Ubering to the ship and all settled on board by about 1 PM.

The ship is impressive – just under 100,000 tons, 1,000 feet long and carrying 2,600 passengers. It was recently renovated and seems in perfect condition. We left the dock right on time at 4 PM and headed down the bay. There is virtually no sensation of movement and no vibration from engines.

Our group of 10 are all on the 9^th deck. Jay and Lovie have a real suite and a grand balcony overlooking the bow, and so that will be our meeting room each evening before dinner. The rest of the group have balcony rooms - except the Blackmans who have an inside room on the same deck. Our theory is simple - we would prefer to do two cruises with inside rooms rather than one cruise with a balcony room.

Tonight we went to the Asian restaurant and it was fine.

Monday April 24, 2017

All day at sea. Breakfast in the Grand Pacific dining room – good. The rest of the day we spent swapping between sun and shade, reading books. We did not venture into the pool. It seems that the ship is mostly populated by overweight people that have selected the “all you can eat” and the “all that you can drink” packages.  We have decided to keep out of the two pools for "health reasons".

The corridor on our deck went the entire length of the ship

Our room - after Tide Hiker it was 'spacious"

Tuesday April 25, 2017 – ANZAC DAY

We arrived at our first port sometime this morning – COZUMEL. Just enjoyed a light breakfast on the stern deck, level 12. Very fine way to start the day.

We have not booked any excursions thru the ship. Mainly because I think I can do better independently on shore and also because Deidre’s sciatica is really bothering her, and we will not be doing much walking. So I went ashore and spec’ed out what was available, and decided upon a horse and buggy tour of the “city”.  Mexico is Mexico, and not much has changed that reality in poor old Cozumel.

Tonight we went to our first 'show" - it was a hypnotist and he was amazing. He put a dozen people to sleep on the stage and had them do all sorts of strange and funny things.

Not a very good photo, but you get the idea. They were all 'asleep"!

Wednesday April 26, 2017 - Nick and Lyn’s 20^th anniversary - Costa Maya

Terrible place – Mexican effort at Disney world. In the middle of nowhere. Jay and I rented a golf card and we rode around with the girls and had a couple of beers and lunch in town. Town was a very shabby place and there was no way I would put a toe in the water.

Jay and I selected the place with the "$1 beers" but Lovie selected a mixed drink and it was $12! 

Tonight was our first "Special Dinner"for Nick and Lyn’s anniversary followed by another show – "Blazing Boots" and it was excellent!.

Thursday April 27, 2017 – Roatan

This morning we woke up docked in Roatan, a small island 40 miles off the coast of Honduras. The place looked encouraging – water was blue, the dock looked festive and there were hills. Once again, we had not booked any ship excursions, preferring to proceed independently.

I headed to the dock and found a place that would rent us a car at a reasonable price. While on the dock I ran into Dick and Betty and invited them to accompany us. We picked up Deidre and we were on our way. Guides were available “for a tip” and we ended up with a nice young lady who spoke excellent English. There was only one “main” road on the island.         

The island was still in the “poor” category but significantly cleaner and better maintained than Mexico. There was really not much to see, but our guide took us to an animal sanctuary and that turned out to be fun. After an hour or so at the sanctuary we picked up the guides daughter from school and dropped them both off in town and headed for the beach.

Roatan from the ship

Monkey on her shoulder

Flower with butterflys

The ship as seen from the island

Friday April 28, 2017 – “Belize” – Harvest Caye

This island is 100% transplanted USA. But we went ashore like good tourists and had a swim in the ocean and the pool. It was amazingly hot so we were back on the boat early.

WOW! Now I can say I have been to Belize!!!

Belize seems to be densely populated with very well fed people.

Belize is very well organized country

We departed Harvest Cay about 1 PM. Now will be running continuously to Tampa, arriving AM Sunday. The wind has built steadily since them and is now about 45 knots with “mounting seas”! The last wave measurement we saw at about 6 PM was 14’. later in the evening the waves were averaging 21' The starboard deck has been closed because the apparent wind there is over 50 mph. This huge ship is just pounding thru the weather. Fun!

Dinner in the French restaurant – OK but ordinary. Back in our cabin we read that the wind is still about 50 knots and the waves have built to over 20’. The ship is just blasting thru the weather and doing 25 knots. Every now and again we hit a larger wave and the boat shudders. Fun! Glad we are not riding in Tide Hiker in these conditions.

The wifi on the boat is expensive and unreliable which I find most frustrating.

My strongest and most positive feeling about the cruise is the staff - just great. Apparently from over 60 countries, never a grumble and always a smile and a greeting. 

Back on Tide Hiker

Friday April 14, 2017

Friday was "home administration" day. The mail had arrived while we were away and that means bank statements to reconsile and bills to pay. Plus the EP invoices were late (not my fault!) and they needed to be issued. Friday night we went out for a Mexican dinner.

As usual, I have a long list of jobs on Tide Hiker, especially because she is for sale (Not that we are seeing much action!) We have a long week before our cruise and I need to cross of more than a few jobs.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

The forward bilge pump has shorted out and the replacement arrived while we were away. I installed the pump this morning.

Rain water is leaking into Tide Hiker via the starboard forward fuel deck fitting. Last year I arranged for my Charleston helper to loosen and caulk all 4 fuel deck fittings and it looks like he botched the job.All 4 screws are stripped out and the fitting is cocked. Its a difficult job because one cannot get to the fitting from inside the engine room.

I removed the ineffective mounting screws and scraped out all the caulk. I then injected two tubes of two part epoxy into the screw holes in the deck. I will check the epoxy tomorrow.

Deidre and I went to the pool for the rest of the day.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Lazy morning - Deidre made pancakes with strawberries and I bought a Sunday paper. Another perfect day, the winter weather in Florida is just delightful.

The fuel deck fitting needed another two tubes of epoxy.

When Steve recharged the AC system (back in Stuart in February) he mentioned that the insulation on the AC lines needed attention and so today I replaced the old insulation at each end. That seemed to go OK.

The Solon gang is coming to Tide Hiker Friday night before the Caribbean cruise and Deidre decided that our brass fittings (the Ship's Bell and a "porthole mirror") needed cleaning and polishing. The cleaning products from the super market were too much work so I got out our supply of muriatic acid end that did the job!

Monday April 17, 2017

Manatees in the marina

Tuesday April 18, 2017

Fuel deck fitting, down tight and caulked.

Fish in the marina

Charleston, SC

Monday April 10, 2017 thru Thursday April 13, 2017

We were on the road by about 9 AM and covered the 460 miles to Mt. Pleasant by about 5 PM. We did not want to disturb Kylie at dinner time so we grabbed some dinner at a local place and knocked on her front door about 6:30PM

No caption required

Oliver guarding the baby

Grandma getting her fill

Tuesday I got a haircut and checked out 21 Yacht Harbor Court and the marina. Deidre also got a haircut an visited her doctor about her sore back. Lot's of running around with Ky and the two kids. Dinner at the Taylors.

Thursday we drove back to Tide Hiker, back on board about 7 PM. All good

Westshore Marina, South Tampa.

Saturday April 8, 2017
N
W

It was only about a 10 mile run to the marina. As forecast the wind had died some what and slipping Tide Hiker was a breeze. The new marina is quite fancy, inside a gated community, but outside the gate its pretty ordinary.

The Yacht Clubhouse

First job after settling Tide Hiker was to go get the car. We Ubered back to St. Petersburg but headed straight to the dog rodeo. We arrived in time to see one of the dogs "break the world long jump record" by jumping 26' 6". We stayed for the "30 pole slalom weave run" and "freestyle frisbee". Our lasting impression is how much the dogs enjoyed themselves. Back to Tide Hiker after a cup off coffee on Main Street.

This evening we headed into Tampa to check out the downtown area and the cruise ship terminal where we had Thai dinner.

There was a wedding at the club house tonight

Sunday  April 9, 2017

Pool side, Sunday morning

Saint Petersburg, FL

Tuesday April 4, 2017
N
W

It was a dark and windy night. As usual Tide Hiker was as solid as a rock and we slept well. The wind direction was amazingly steady, as illustrated in the following image from the anchor alarm

Tide Hiker did not move much

We took it easy in the AM because the run to St. Pete was only a few hours, and it was still blowing. We called an hour or so out of St Pete and received our ball number. By 1 PM we were secure. The mooring field is located in a protected pool right down town St Pete.

Tide Hiker's previous owners (Norm and Vikki Naughton) live in a high rise condo overlooking the mooring field and had been keeping an eye open for our arrival. They made contact and invited us to the Yacht Club for Happy Hour, so we launched the dink and met them for a couple of hours. Very pleasant.

Wednesday

St Pete is like Sarasota in that its "just perfect". We went ashore in the dink and caught "Lolly the Trolly" for a ride around town, and ended up at the Salvadore Dali Museum for the afternoon.

 Thursday

After an easy morning we went ashore for a coffee and then Ubered over to pick up the car on Longboat Key.

Back in St Pete the "Longest Table" dinner was underway downtown. It was an impressive sight. Maybe the "table" was 500 yards long? Unfortunately the evening was a bit cool and windy.

If you could see a bit more to the right you would see Tide Hiker 

A long shot from Tide Hiker at dusk.

Friday April 7, 2017

We woke to the sound of many yapping dogs, to discover that there was a "dog show" setting up on the shore line east of us. We had seen people erecting tents and facilities the day before. It was going to be a big weekend in St. Pete - on the shoreline north of us they were setting up for a Blues Festival.

We headed ashore by about lunchtime and visited the dog show. It was more of a "dog rodeo" than a "dog show" and dogs were competing in all sorts of fun events - a long jump over a pool of water and choreographed Frisbee catching etc.  It was really good fun and the dogs were having a blast. Friday was really a practice and elimination day - the medal winning competition was happening Friday.

The Blues Festival got underway by about lunch time. We did not need to get any closer than Tide Hiker. The music lasted until about midnight.

We ate dinner on Tide Hiker. Deidre had a crock pot going most of the day. It was great to get back to Tide Hiker after trips ashore and enjoy the aroma as we opened the door.

(Back at) Gulfport anchorage, Boca Ciega Bay

Monday March 3, 2017
27 43 87 N
82 41 77 W

A strong weather front is expected to pass thru this afternoon so we upped anchor by about 9 AM and dropped anchor back off Gulfport by about 1 PM. The wind is now gusting from the south to 25 MPH which is no big deal but would be uncomfortable if we were underway. Apparently it will all be over some time tonight and so we will spend the night here and have changed our reservation for a ball in St. Petersburg to tomorrow. We have nosed into the southerly shore dropped 175' of chain on the snubber and its a nice sandy bottom - so let it blow.

Clearwater Beach,

Sunday April 2, 2017
27 59 03 N
82 49 25 W


Lazy morning, we were not underway until about 11 AM. (Good TV last night, we were up until about midnight.) We were only heading about 25 miles so there was no hurry. Of course it was still the weekend and there was a lot of boat traffic.

Even a pirate ship

A few little sand bank islands in the bay with nice beaches

The anchorage behind Clearwater Beach was a bit awkward to get to and a bit tight but the anchor was down by about 2 PM. We only let out the bare minimum of chain because of space issues, but the weather forecast was fine for the next 12 hours.

I had a go at scraping the dinghy before we launched her, but I could only get to one side and only got about 80% on that side. We dropped the dinghy and turned it around and re-hoisted her backwards, and that allowed me to get to about 60% of the other side. We are going to have to find a beach or a sand bank to do a decent job. She really needs some diaper rash cream on her bottom now.

Scraping the dinghy

We found a dinghy dock and walked into town and then to the beach. One of the busiest beaches I have seen for many moons. Enjoyed afternoon tea at "Frenchies" on the beach.

Boca Ciega Bay

Saturday April 1, 2017
27 43 836 N
82 41 776 W

The "gang" came over this morning at 10 AM to make sure that this time we really left.We were on our way shortly thereafter. Because of the tides and the lack of space we could not recover the dinghy without a lot of hassle, so we tied it to the bow and "pushed" it out as we left the slip, and once clear of the slip ran the lines around to the stern and towed it for the day. I do not like towing the dinghy, but it was a calm day.

We headed generally north and crossed the entrance to Tampa Bay about lunch time, continuing north up the ICW. It was Saturday and there was a lot of boat traffic. At one point we were passed by a procession of about 25 huge "cigarette boats" (Deidre calls them "little dick boats"). The racket was a bit overwhelming, especially since they were accompanied by a helicopter that flew low overhead.

Our target was Gulfport on Boca Ciega Bay. The anchor was down by about 3 PM and shortly thereafter we were in the dink on our way to town. The town had a reputation as being a bit backward and funky, and it lived up to its reputation. We ate at a place with a singer/steel drums performer and a bunch of rather strange (but fun) black people dancing.

We wanted to be back on Tide Hiker before dark as I was a bit concerned about the outboard overheating as the stream of cooling water was not as strong as it should be. I have replacement parts on board but the owners manual does not describe how to make the change and I am reluctant to start taking it apart without guidance.

Growth on the hull after 30 days.

Back on Tide Hiker we recovered the dinghy. The dink has been in the water for about a month and does not have anti-fowling paint on her hull. I was expecting to see some growth but was amazed at the extent of the growth.