Traveling up the learning curve

We attended the SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) 8th Annual Florida West Coast Rendezvous in Punta Gorda, traveling by motor home to the Isles Yacht Club. It's a beautiful club, with a large facility for club members and a perfect venue for the SSCA activities. We attended seminars on Cruising Cuba, Heavy Weather, a San Diego-to-Thailand Voyage, a Belize/Honduras/Mexico/Guatemala Cruise, AIS/Radar, Land Travel, and Women Cruising, and gathered lots of information and tips for future travels. There was a happy hour with full-dress flag ceremony, drawings for prizes, lunch and dinner, and we met many new friends and fellow travelers. The dockmaster at Isles YC was most gracious and helped us settle in for the night. We thank Harry and Melinda (S/V Sea Schell) for encouraging us to go, and we enjoyed the company of Rankin and Sandy (S/V Heart of Texas) who also traveled by motor home. John and Susan (S/V Alchemy) arrived by boat from Clearwater, so we had a good visit and catch-up with them as well. We closed the event with a great dinner in Fisherman's Village at Harpoon Harry's.

The golf group continues and also continues to grow, and they too have a learning curve....never ever let your golf ball go to a mama alligator.

Retiring the birthday hat

Sadly, the Mayberries have decided to retire the birthday hat, since it's come full circle as of yesterday, when William celebrated at Mattison's. An ornament was added by each celebrant before they passed it on to the next, and it's become rather unwieldy (but still very popular and a great attraction for strangers). There is now talk of a birthday Speedo. Can't wait to see it after a few ornaments have been added.






Family and friends gathered for happy hour, and rumor has it they retired to Cork's Cigar Bar afterward for karaoke. Serendipity's crew turned into pumpkins and didn't make it to Cork's, but heard that a good time was had by all. William seemed to be pleased with his gifts, and Judy enjoyed hiding behind the musical card. Or maybe she couldn't hear it because she was sitting beside the wild and crazy Gigi (son-in-law Jim's Mom)....

Back on the rolling anchor

We took a short trip back to Sun N Fun on Sunday, joined by Mike (our marina manager), his daughter Lauren, and Wild and Micki (with their new baby Yorkie Sade) from our (in)famous C Dock at Twin Dolphin. C, of course, stands for Cool, Classy, Chic, Charming, Courageous, and Courteous....primarily because a large portion of the dock is made up of boaters from Tennessee.

Sun N Fun has a great pool, big waterslide for small and large kids, putt-putt, and lots of other amenities mentioned in the blog from our earlier trip there. We had a good wet afternoon in the pool and on the slide, then when we went back to the campsite to cook we had a good wet evening with the rain pouring down in sheets while Jay cooked the burgers and wings. But it didn't matter; we had a great time anyway, and we think Lauren may be lured back for some sliding, swimming, snacking, and RV exploring. She didn't even seem to mind being surrounded by old coots, and she and Sade behaved much better than the rest of us.

Back to the beach

We left Myakka and went to Little Gasparilla Island to spend time in a beach house with William and Judy. Their kids rented the house for them for a week to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary (they were only 2 when they got married). All three kids, their spouses, and the 6 grandchildren celebrated with them over the weekend, and we joined them later in the week. They had a few small adventures before we arrived...the water heater burst into flames in the middle of the night and later a scorpion tried to join them. Thankfully everything had been stomped out, replaced, and relocated by the time we arrived.


We'd heard some bad news about the parking situation (you can only get there by boat; no bridges to Little Gasparilla), so were somewhat concerned about leaving the motor home. Thankfully, Eldred's Marina (hear the banjos?) accommodated us (for a small fee) since we used their family's water taxi for a ride to the island.


The beach house was really nice, and the beach was almost deserted.




We relaxed, walked on the beach, picked up shells, were over-served (how does that keep happening??), ate too much, enjoyed the beautiful full moon, and wished we had another week there.

It took two dinghy trips to get off the island, but the dolphin show made it worthwhile. It looks funny to see a dinghy on a trailer (especially behind such a big truck), but the guys got it loaded for the trip back to Twin Dolphin.

Anchoring out on wheels

Marina friends Henry and Chachy also have a motor home, and they're leaving for three weeks of travel to Maine. We spent the night with them at Myakka State Park to see them off, sharing happy hour, dinner and good conversation.

Their motor home is beautiful, but the best feature by far is the lord of the manor, who gets whipped cream every night from his servants.

We enjoyed the super harvest moon (combination of full moon and autumnal equinox, which won't be experienced again for 19 years) and Jupiter at the end of a great evening.





The next morning we explored the park and took the canopy walk. The canopy walk was made possible by donations from park supporters, who financed the towers on either end, the benches surrounding, and maintenance.






One interesting feature was a "nail" on top of some of the posts to discourage nesting (to prevent spatter-painting of the towers and bridge). These are pretty big nails and we've now decided to build a nest somewhere else this year.



The view was terrific from the tower, and the slightly swinging bridge was fun to cross, seeing the tree-top foliage, birds, and the forest below. Not a bad way to anchor out!

Marina mania

We're still planning to plan to plan our work. Soon. In the meantime, we're having a ball at (and around) Twin Dolphin. Good friends John and Susan (s/v Alchemy), whom we met crossing to the Bahamas in 2007, came by water from Clearwater to Twin Dolphin for a weekend visit with their Power Squadron members and invited us to join them poolside for dinner Friday evening.



Pat and Dan (s/v Ariel) whom we met in Marathon in 2005, came up from Ft. Myers for an afternoon visit Saturday and went to a happy hour(s) reception at Mattisons with us. We caught up on old times and their new great-grandbaby Gabriel and made plans to visit more often and soon. We hope they had more than fun than it looks like in the photo....blame the photographer.



The reception (a monthly event) not only featured lots of slipholders, but also a lady in a red dress with a bird on her head selling raffle tickets...you just never know.









Captain Jaybird is golfing again (after many years) with Lyle (appropriately nicknamed "Wild" by a Mayberry grandchild) and his brother Gary, William, and Mike (the marina manager). They have a great time and friendly competition. Golf technology is obviously similar to computers, skiing, boating, etc., because when Jay took his clubs to be re-gripped, they told him he needed new clubs, not new grips. The clubs have grown over the past 30 years! But they still work, along with a loaner Big Bertha from Wild.

Happy Labor Day (sorry little pig)

Twin Dolphin hosted a Labor Day gala on Sunday, complete with live band, tiki bar, and a roasted pig. Even with the downpour (lasting about an hour), a good time was had by all. Some people just jumped into the pool when the rain started, to even out the wetness. The potluck dishes were, as always, delicious, and there were lots of transients attending from other marinas who seemed to have a great time too.

The lovely lady in the photo is Julie, who works part-time in the marina office, and her husband Rick (who had knee surgery just 3 days prior to the party).