Jaunary 30, 2014 Thursday

Weather rainy again so didn't do much.  Spent a couple of hours getting caught up on the blog but decided to go for a walk around town.  Asked the secretary at the office if she knew where they got all the sponges.  A friend of ours said everyone knows they are imported not harvested here in the Gulf waters.  The young lady said the signs, advertisement and boats with sponges on were not for just show.  A young man who was in the office quickly came over to ask what we wanted to know about sponges.  His grandfather came here from Greece to dive for sponges and his grandfather sells sponges in Greece and Germany that are shipped from here.  He talked about the different sponges, how they harvested them and said you should see how many I have in my attic.  Tarpon Springs is truly the sponge capitol of the world.  So off we went to buy some.  Happened to go into a store called Diver's supplies.  Talked with the young man there explained how the sponges were cut from the bottom just as the other young man talked about.  Talked about the different sponges, wool ones are super soft and will last up to 15 years.  Silk ones are good for putting soap on them and it will never get slimmy.  Wool ones are good for makeup or washing the face.  Vase sponges grow different shapes as a vase and will keep plants growing because they hold their moisture.  They also have an antibacterial to them so they stay fresh.  The first Greek Divers came here and made a living on sponges so brought their families here which started this Greek Community.  There has been several times where there was a sponge blight or storm which destroyed them and the men had to go elsewhere to work and learn a new trade.  Bridge painting seems to be that more popular job they are doing.
We ended up going to dinner at Mama's, thought we would just have "flaming cheese" but ended up getting a combo meal also.  Our waitress told us about her family, (not many people there).  She said she was currently trying to get a visa to bring her Mom back to the US so she could care for her since she was getting older.  She said her mom came here when she was 14, they had to lie about her age saying she was 18.  When she got here she was put to work immediately at a Chamois sewing factory.  Everyone spoke Greek so she never learned English.  Not sure why she went back to Greece.  Then she talked about her father being a diver and drummer.  He would back up famous bands when they come to Tarpon.  She said after her brothers and she were born, he quit the bands and became a bridge painter.  Now she says he takes care of the Greek churches here and sings or does the "chanting" for the priests, he is a holy man now.  She had beautiful dark eyes and dark skin.  Obviously grew up with brothers, tough but such a gentle spirit.  We offered to introduce our youngest son as a good hookup, she laughed and said everyone is trying to introduce her to someone they know.  When she brought us the cheese she said ready...then poured brandy over the fried goat cheese and lit it, then doused out the flame with squeezing lemon juice over it, when it burst into flames she yelled Oopa.   We could only eat half our combo platter and after she brought us a to go box she brought us Greek Pudding and shyly looked around and said it's on the house, you have to find room for it, it's really good.  We happily ate it all and yes it was very good. Just had to give her a hug and blessings, not often you find a waitress you just gotta give a hug when you leave.  Off we went home to bed with our tummies full.

 These were the sponges on the sponge boats

 This boat was the one Mike on Dirtiest Jobs Show went out on a couple of years ago, you can watch the show on Netflix, above picture.  Below are the finger sponges

 Our leftovers, she also gave us a second helping of bread so since she would have to throw that we brought it home also.

 Moussaka, Pastisio, and lemon beef off the spicket, we ate all the Dolmades with lemon sauce and Taziki, sorry for the misspelling

 I have also been doing some needle tatting, these are my lastest creations.

January 29, 2014 Wednesday

Woke up to a nice day, cloudy, rainy.  Did a boat load of laundry, all our winter clothes and a weeks worth of other clothes, sheets, comforter etc.  Done at 1300 then after speaking with Martha decided to try for Dunedin where they were anchored.  Checked out of our Marina, with our foulies on started out the canal.  Forecast of 57 degrees some rain and 12-15 kt north winds.  The farther out in the open the more it rained and the more the wind blew. Upon reaching the ICW 4 ft waves splashing over the starboard side of the boat and not being able to see the marker due to rain or fog south and 20-25 kt winds out of the north and the temp feeling less than 30's, we turned around and went back to the marina, parking in our slip and going up to pay for another night.  Probably couldn't make it to Dunedin in those winds anyway before dark.
Went to Hellas, a local coffee shop and Greek Pastry Shoppe to warm up and wait for the water to drip off our foulies back at the laundry room at the Marina.  Had a wonderful Greek Cannelloni with chips of dark chocolate in the sweet cream filling.  Well worth coming back to Tarpon Springs for.  Walked back to the boat for supper while raining but doesn't seem like it's going to freeze like out on the water.

 Boats as we're coming down the canal on our way out to the GICW,fishing boats, sponge ships

 House for sale on the point with guest house to the right

January 28, 2014 Tuesday

Woke up to a beautiful day.  Sunshine, birds singing in the 70's.  Yeah!  It really wasn't a mirage Curt was chasing.  Not bad for this time of the year.
Washed the boat in shorts and a T-shirt, left everything out to dry after washing off the salt water.  Walked to West Marine/Walmart 4 mile (roundtrip).  Stopped at a Greek Meat, cheese shop for some real Greek cheese and of course a bottle of Greek wine.  With instructions from the butcher on how to eat cheese by sucking on it not chewing and swallowing it immediately and also drinking wine, swishing it around in your mouth for a while letting the flavors melt together. He told us about learning how to work on a boat starting with a small boat for 8 months then was able to go on the bigger boat.  Somehow ending up here in the US.

 Curt singing all of Jimmy Buffet's songs, dock drinks etc.

I saw my shadow, sunshine I think is what caused it.

 Water not as pretty here in the marina but it's warm

 Had to take a picture of this for Jim Ellis, our home church Youth Director.  I think we should get one of these, maybe Bob Eastgate has one hidin away somewhere.

 Sponges galore from local Florida waters, the story is the divers go down with a breathing regulator connected by a  hose to a compressor on the boat, they run along the bottom of the Gulf cutting off sponges and putting them in a bag to be sent to the top of the water where they are put on the boat, covered up with a cloth that is kept wet so the black sticky substance dies and comes off the sponge with some help from the sponge divers on their way to the next sight. They alternate sights since it takes a sponge a year to grow 3 inches.  It will regrow from what is left on after cutting it.

Tuna steak leftovers approx. 1/8 of what was left from the previous meal.  Didn't taste like canned tuna or even much like fish.

January 27, 2014 Monday Middle of the Gulf of Mexico

5:00 am, lying awake and hearing Curt snooze I decided to check how things were outside.  To my surprise the stars were gone and we were in heavy fog.  Curt heard me say we're in fog, got up, checked to see if we were on course.  During the night we were pounding on the bow and he switched our course to the East for a little ways till wind went down or out of the wind, then south east again.  More of a comfortable trip for both of us.  Glad I had the Zofran to keep my stomach more calm. Curt was fine all night.
Maneuvered our way in the fog thru the markers and crab pots.  So glad to see the crab pot ball, knowing we were within 20 miles of land or less but more concerned of staying out of the shallows and in the channel of 6-8 ft of water.  Don't want to go aground in dense fog.12:45pm After close watch on both sides to stay out of the crab pots and stay in deeper water we came out of the fog bank.  Navigated across a small body of water to the markers for the channel into Tarpon Springs and went into another fog bank.  We ghosted in the fog seeing the markers about 10 ft away in the channel, heard a motor racing in the fog, slowed down to idle speed and in the fog waiting for the boat to come racing out at us.  Got out the fog horn, ready to blow it, then came out of the fog after zig-zagging around from marker to marker thru the shoals.  Saw two boats coming flying at us, with one foot of water close on starboard and port side, they split and went around us.

 Sun up sky and water the same color Raimiti is the Polynesian Term for this, once again we see it, just happened to be reading an article in one of the sailing magazines about it.

 Know were close with the turquoise water, yeah

 Fog is lighter in some places and then heavier like below

 Crab pot ball about 15 ft off our starboard, took 15 secs for it to disappear behind us in the fog

 They were on both sides of us and occ. in front of us

Really is disorienting when you can see very far, had to take the boat off Autopilot and really had no clue which way to go to get back on course except for the GPS and compass.  Didn't take long to get off course and took a while to get back on course.

 It opened up but below we see the another thick fog bank coming towards us, with the tower's of Tarpon above it.

 Finally coming into the channel and out of the second fog bank

 Looking back without regrets, pretty proud of ourselves for ghosting in with the handheld GPS only to guidance

neat boat on the way in

January 26, 2014, leaving Carabelle for Tarpon Springs

Up early, got provisions at the IGA a block away after the Pizza Party last night with 8 other motor boaters who were leaving around 10 am in the morning.  It takes us longer so more concerned about getting there before dark tomorrrow rather than getting there before dark tonight is done. All of us wanting to come in during the light because of the shallow channel and many many crab pots everywhere.
Called all the boys to let them know our float plan, nobody answered so Curt let Bob know the float plan in case we didn't show up in Tarpon Springs tomorrow, the Coast Guard would know where to start looking for us in the Gulf of Mexico.  Called Chris on the way out to sing him Happy Birthday, left a message.
Per Curt's Log--
8:15 Departed C-Quarters Marina, calm wind with High Overcast skies.
9:30-Passing "R 2" Carabelle channel marker. Electing to go direct to Tarpon Springs.  Wind E 10 kts with 2-3 ft  waves.  Forecast to go down to 1-2 ft. waves with winds shifting south then SW til Monday a.m.  Doing about 4.5 kts into the wind.  Had the jib and Main up till wind shifted to more out of the East.
12:00 N29 degrees 37.58', W84 degrees, 29.14', Some sunshine, wind on the nose of the boat still 4.6 kts.  ETA at noon tomorrow.  Put out a fishing line with a 6" minnow and hook to about 50 ft behind us bouncing along in the center of our wake, trolling.
1300-N29,30.7', W84,25' Speed picked up to 5.1-5.2 kts, seas still 2-3 feet but settling down
1400-N29, 30'7, W84, 20.7' 5.3 kts, variable. See Field Trip, BeachQuest, Inching On, Tumbleweed, coming up behind us about a mile west on their course to Dunedin/Clearwater.  Checked in by radio with them.  We told them we were the second sailboat farther to the east from them, so they kept an eye on us as. well as regular hourly check ins till we were too far apart.  They report they are doing 7-8 kts which means they will pass us in a few hours and be out of radio contact.
1605-N29"22.99', W8411.65' overcast, wind E 10, motor sailing under jib and main close hauled on course 137 to Tarpon Springs.  Seeing dolphins swimming and racing around our boat off and all day.
Started to get dark, other sailboat turning to put his sails down, we've passed him and he is now on a new course behind us instead of a mile to the southwest of us.  Motor boats have disappeared, no land insight for quite some time.  Getting colder.  Just as Curt was going to change gas tanks so he wouldn't have to during the dark night, I looked at the fishing pole, looked like the tip was bent more than usual, had noticed this before but when pulled on the line could see the minnow come up out of the water.  This time Curt looked and inquisitively picked up the pole, starting cranking in the line and about a 100 ft back saw a fish jump out of the water.  Oh my gosh, we got a fish, what do we want to do with it.  Curt set up the pole put out the line but let me pull in the fish.  I cranked and cranked but it would only grind, so pulled up on the pole and cranked, this seemed to work a little better.  Just like on the fishing shows when they catch a big one.  I was so excited, can't believe we actually snagged a fish.  Joey should be here, he's the only one to catch fish on our other deep water trips. After 15 minutes of slowing down the motor and pulling in the jib, we saw it was a tuna.  Curt grabbed the line and pulled him out of the water and put him in the dingy, he was tired and bleeding, lying still while Curt was getting the Rum to give him a long drink to comfort him. (Have you ever got a fish drunk? Have you heard of alcohol poisoning?)  By the time Curt finally got the Rum, he was pretty quiet(the fish), pulled him up on deck, decide he was a keeper especially since he was not moving much.  Curt cleaned him like he saw Dennis do on their trip to the BVI's this last Nov.  I was surprised how pretty he was and how red the meat was.  Amazing we caught Tuna for dinner tomorrow night in Tarpon Springs.
After settling down from the excitement Curt changed fuel tanks put down the main sail just as it was getting dark.  I mean dark, can't see a thing except for the lights on the bow and stern of the boat, can't tell which direction we're going.  Curt has experienced this on his trips to the BVI but we always had moon or other boats with us on our other trips.  I just couldn't get warm as the wind seemed to start blowing a little more and waves were rocking us.  We went down below, Curt covered me up as I lied down on the seat on the starboard side.  Since we were heeled to that side was quite comfortable after the second blanket, multiple layers of clothing and life vest I fell asleep, waking up when Curt came down to get warm.  He dozed off for short minutes then back up to the cockpit to check gauges and back down to the main salon where it is warmer and out of the wind, watching his hand held GPS and GPS on the computer. 

 Leaving the Marina at Carabelle

 Dolphins jumping even before we get out of the bay, good luck to see Dolphins so early in the day

 They're hard to catch on camera

 Past the markers and out in the Gulf of Mexico

 Off in the distance we see another sailboat, the mast barely on the horizon

 Water getting more clear, not the aqua blue yet

 Rocking and rolling, just a little, not my idea of calm seas as forecasted

 Trying to catch a picture of more dolphins as they go back into the water around us, had two twin babies come up right beside the starboard

 Waves picking up a little more

 Tuna in the water and then in the dingy

 Guessing about 24 inches long. I held him up over the water in the back of the boat, thinking I would let him bleed out in the water, upside down like we did with the chickens when we butchered them, so to get the blood out of the meat better.  I'm such a farm girl, not a deep sea fisherwoman!  Quit laughing!