The Newton's Adventure on America's Great Loop

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Life After HHC 04.08.2010 - 04.09.2010

No more palm trees!

04.08.2010 the Captain at the helm with Tut at his side HHC faded away. It was 78.6 degrees and the aquamarine water flashed with sunlight. Dolphins played in our wake as we traveled to Tarpon Basin. We anchored and enjoyed the solitude.

Tut was a little nervous to discover that Freedom was not connected to a dock. He walked all around the boat to verify his suspicions that we were surrounded by water. I put dinner in his dish. He ate and went to bed forgetting all about the water hazard.

04.09.2010 we anchored on Lake Santa Barbara in a narrow channel of a developed area. We were waked by boaters until dark. I kept reminding myself that the spot was better than being in the choppy channel. One glance out the window and Tut remembered that our boat was surrounded by water. The Captain was reminded that I, and Tut, wanted to touch land soon.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Paradise Remembered

In Paradise (Marathon) we found it increasingly difficult to distinguish one day of the week from another. It was hard to comprehend the date. We’re still confused about celebrating Christmas in shorts, not wearing green sweaters for St Patrick’s Day and finding that the Easter Bunny only delivers melted chocolate in the Keys.

In retrospect, our daily routine had little variation. We got up early and went for a walk or bike ride. Then we ate breakfast and did our boat chores. Almost every afternoon we rode our bikes to the stores and picked up an item we couldn't live without. In Andrew’s case it was chips and for me candy or ice cream. Sometimes it was cat food which Tut really couldn’t live without.

I must admit that towards the end of our stay in Paradise Andrew got up first. I follow about an hour or three latter, which meant that Andrew had to feed Tut. He would only give Tut ½ can of food. This enraged Tut who would howl his way down to the stateroom to wakes me. His feline screaming rarely made me get out of bed but his pouncing on my chest or stepping on my eyelids got me up quickly.

So what made one day different from another in paradise? People! Our new friends at Harbour Cay, fellow Loopers who passed through Marathon, relatives and friends who visited and the residents of Marathon brought diversity to our lives. We shared cruising stories and tips, exchanged information on boat maintenance and local events. Sometimes we‘d go out to eat and chat about the beauty of the Florida Keys.

Memorable moments included:

· Having Ice cream with Captain Richard on a bench in front of the Key Lime Factory

· Attending the Marathon Yacht Club Fashion Show with Pat and our Harbour Cay Club (HHC) friends

· Going to the Dolphin Research Center with Linda

· Going to Key West with my son and grand daughter

· Happy hour on Reflection

· Cruising with Ed

· Deep sea fishing with Bill

· Catching up with Lorraine

· Kayaking 2 miles to Pat and George’s boat at Banana Bay – me trying to get onto Reflection’s swim platform

· Going to the Marathon Sea Food Festival

· Happy Hours at the Tiki Hut

· The shuffle board tournament

· Tut’s Birthday party

· All the group dinners at HHC

· Fishing off HHC’s Dock

· Andrew releasing the pelicans at Crane Point

· The Turtle Hospital

· Key West cruise with Bill and Laura

· Dolphins playing in our wake

· Thursday night dominoes- what said at dominoes stays at dominoes

· Visiting George and Nancy’s perfectly kept American Tug

· Nagging Andrew to make upgrades on Freedom which I saw on George and Nancy’s boat

· Getting the upgrades installed

· Snorkeling with Captain Richard

· Tut and Sallyann’s round of sea sickness at Sombrero Light

· Tut vomiting in Andrew’s hat

· The dinghy ride with Bill to Boot Key

· The dinghy ride with Dave after many attempts to get through the sea grass

· Linda 2’s perfect birthday gift - ‘buy one get one free’ boxes of chocolate chip cookies

· Chatting with Tom and Diane, Jana and Michael and Gerry and Linda 3

· Tut’s visit to Jeff and Cheri’s boat

· HHC’s Shuffle board tournament

· The Trip and panic at Pine Island Liquor Store where we bought way too much vodka

· Making grilled bread and pizza ay HHC

The list could go on and on. Bottom line, we had a wonderful time in Paradise.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Dolphins 4.08.2010

Fouls warning boaters of a shoaling hazard. When you see Birds standing on water don't steer that way.

Three dolphins play by our boat.

baby

Mother and junior

Junior showing off

baby's jump

Belly rub, please!

What Tut does on his HHC walks

I enjoy walks around the HHC tidal pool. I turn right once I pass the anchor

and look both ways for traffic before crossing the driveway.
.

Then I'm off to the nearest stick to clean the tartar from my teeth. You can never go wrong with good dental practices.

My next stop is the sea grass pile where I sniffs for geckos and Iguanas.

It time to rest on on the bridge and gaze at the tidal pool.

Grass! You can never go wrong eating greens, except if they have purple tips. Then you make an awful noise as they travel back up from your gut. Trust me on this one!

Then it's over the Coral and fossils to my favorite place on the trail.

My scratching tree.

Sometimes when it's happy hour I mosey over to the Tiki hut to watch the sun set.

Then I go back to the boat and nap.

Boater's Version of being in the Dog House

Andrew thought it was odd that I lowered his lunch sandwich done to him while he was cleaning the hull on a float. A float is kept in place by ropes tied to the boat cleats. It's moved from cleat to cleat by the person on the boat.

Andrew got concerned when I past his dinner down to him as the float was tied to the center cleat. At this point he had no access to the boat from the float. AKA a boat's version of a being in the dog house.

Tut and I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and evening. Enough said!

Tut's Sweet 16 Party

3.26.2010 Tut's turned sweet 16. I'm sure he woke up with a song in his head. It was probably the Happy Kitty song from the TV show The Big Bang Theory.