Cady Girl

 You've probably been wondering where we are???? We docked in St Petersburg Municipal Marina at around 4 pm on the 15th!  What a beautiful locale, and Frank, the Dock Jockey is a delight! He hails from North Carolina but works in St. Pete for 5 months out of the year and then returns to North Carolina mountains for the hurricane season. Thursday during the day we prepared Cady Girl for our guests - you know, vacuum, dust, make beds - same-o, same-o. After, the slave driver Captain finished washing the boat, we took a 3-mile bike ride to the hardware store.  I was not happy! It's too humid for this Oregonian. Jan and Ray arrived around 5 having hitched a ride from the Tampa Airport with a young man, they met on the plane. They settled in and then we walked up to the Stillwaters Tavern on Beach Dr. NE.  Outdoor seating, lots of people watching and great food and drink. The architecture and homes in St. Pete are beautiful and the flora and fauna are "bitchin", per Capta...

We left Cedar Key in beautiful weather and motored to Crystal River on Sunday.  Crystal River is the Manatee Capital of the World and home to a beautiful National Wildlife Refuge. Manatees are large, herbivorous marine mammals, also known as "sea cows." We took the tender up some canals known as breeding grounds for the manatees, but alas, we found not a one. 😪 We found several abandoned boats and a shipwreck, instead. On Monday we motored for 87 miles to Clearwater.  A beautiful, beachy, condo locale.  We docked at the Municipal Marina and walked up the street to a fantastic restaurant, The District Bistro! They had a great playlist too, and all of their drinks were modeled after the 30's era.  Don had a "Boulevardier" and I had a "Curious Margarita" made of Orange Gin, Tequila, Lime juice and agave.  Extraordinary!!! Yesterday was laundry, boat maintenance -installing new water pumps in the engine, a task the Captain had not done before.  He had his...

There are good days and bad days in boating!  These last two days went from one extreme to the other. On Friday, we left Dog Island bright and early as we had a 78-mile trip across the Gulf!  Weather and seas did not cooperate with conditions worse than the day before. Wind was 20-25 with gusts up to 35; waves were up to 4-6 feet.  Needless to say, we wore our special watches. The good news was that it calmed down as we got closer to our destination. Steinhatchee and specifically the Sea Hag Marina was quite an experience.  It is the fisherman's hang out for that part of Florida, for sure. They even provide lounge chairs to watch others filet their catch. The staff at the marina was great and the store was amazing. We walked up to Kathi's Krab Shack for dinner. I had the flounder Po-Boy and Paula, our waitress offered Soft Shell Crabs on special.  Don asked if they were blue crab or snow crab, her response was "they're soft-shell crab."  Being the Maryland ...