Update
January 1, 2014
I
really did it this time. Its been 1.5 years since I did a blog
update! We are still boating, Sun Cat is still for sale and we are
enjoying life in the Villages and (once in a while) on the water.
The following is a summary of our 2012 and 2013 adventures. As
you will see there was a lot of good and some tough times in
2012 and 2013.
We
docked Sun Cat at a private dock in Stuart for the summer and fall of
2012. It worked out fairly well. We had people checking on it and had
the sundeck cabinets rebuilt as well as some repairs to the woodwork
in the aft cabin.
2012
was our first summer in Florida and I thought you might be interested
in what we’ve been up to here. (This next 6 paragraphs were
actually written in August of 2012). After a reunion cruise on a
cruise ship with many of our looper friends and a too quick trip to
Maine to move our stuff down, we’ve settled into our new house in
the Villages and proceeded to get involved in some of the many
activities in this crazy place.
In
a typical week, I will play pickleball 2 to 3 times, we’ll play
water volleyball 5 or 6 times, do water aerobics 2 to 3 times, do
aqua zumba twice, play 4 or 5 rounds of golf and go to town square
for music and dancing 2 to 3 times in the evening. We’ve also seen
several shows (Bill Haley Jr. and the Comets were great!), played
Mexican train, Tripoly and Samba at the recreation centers and been
to a number of parties both in the neighborhood and at friends.
As
you can see a lot of these activities involve water. That’s because
the temperatures are generally in the 90’s most of the day,
dropping to the 70’s during the night. We also seem to have a daily
thunderstorm which cools things off a little for an hour or two.
There are around 60 pools here. These include 7 sports pools,
approximately 20 family pools and around 30 neighborhood pools and
they are building more. We generally travel around by golf cart as
almost everything is golf cart accessible including the grocery
stores.
As
many of you know, son Bill had a difficult spring and was staying
with us for a few months until he gets further along in his
rehabilitation. He gets a charge about taking his golf cart through
the McDonald’s drive through.
Jean
went to the “new to golf” school and is playing regularly. I’d
like to say we are both getting better but I seem to be hot &
cold! There are 4 executive golf courses within ¼ mile of our house.
In total there are 28 executive courses and 10 country clubs, all but
2 of which have 27 hole courses. We played “couples golf” last
night. This is organized by the St James Village group. They schedule
8 to 10 consecutive T times at 2 adjoining executive courses, put 2
couples together to create a foursome and then have a group dinner
after the round of golf. Its fun and a good way to meet more of your
neighbors.
Today
we went to town square to hear Paul Ryan speak. It was refreshing to
hear someone talk about tackling the big issues facing our country
rather than the b.s. about tax returns and the crap we hear from the
media. As soon as I finish this, we are doing a golf cart expedition
to a model train show with son Bill.
We
made many new friends during this time. Son Steve joined us for
Thanksgiving and we had a great visit with him as well as a fun
christmas with son Bill.
In
January, 2013, Jean’s sister Gail rejoined us to stay with Bill and
we went to Stuart and put Sun Cat in the Stuart boat show. We then
took her to Fort Lauderdale where she was again shown at Trawlerfest.
After that we went on a cruise to Marathon where we docked at the
Sombrero Resort and met with our friends George and Jane and Tim & Jan. We spent
the months of February and part of March in Marathon. In mid
February, Gail called while we were on a walk to say Bill had had
heart failure, been revived and was on the way to the hospital. She
called again a few minutes later to say he had died. What a shock! It
was strange because when she called the second time we were right
where the rental cars were for us to pick up one and drive home.
Co-incidence or??? We spent a week home dealing with issues related
to Bill’s death. The support from Gail and our friends and
neighbors was incredible and really helped us through a tough week.
We returned to Marathon and continued our stay there, with somewhat
heavy hearts.
We
decided to keep Sun Cat closer to home for the summer. We left
Marathon in mid-March and proceeded up the west coast of Florida with
our ultimate destination being the Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton.
A long day took us almost 80 miles to an anchorage at Russell Pass
(in Everglades National Park, near Everglades City, Fl. ). The next
day we traveled to an anchorage at Smokehouse Bay, which is in the
middle of Marco Island. Bad weather was threatening again so we left
early and headed to Fort Myers Beach. While there we had a nice
dinner with Phil and Alice on Wonderland and Dave and Marla on
Adesso.
Our
friends Larry and Cathy joined us at Fort Myers Beach and we
proceeded up the coast. We had lunch at Cabbidge Key, and then
anchored at Cayo Costa State Park where we went ashore and had a nice
walk on the beach. THen it was on to Venice for another beach walk
and dinner at a nice Italian restaurant (where else would one go in
Venice?). Bad weather threatening again so it was on to Marina Jack’s
in downtown Sarasota. It blew hard for a couple of days so we
toured Sarasota and went to the Ringling museum. This is really 3
museums in one- a circus museum, and art museum and the house. A full
but very interesting day! Larry and Cathy left us there and
after another day in Sarasota the wind abated enough for us to leave,
proceeding out into Tampa Bay and then up the Manatee River to
Bradenton. We only stayed a day there, then rented a car and
traveled home, feeling comfortable Sun Cat was secure. We spent
April, May June and part of July getting involved the all the
activities we could, especially golf and water volleyball.
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| Mike Cathy Steve & Jean at Marine Corps Museum |
The next
stop was New Jersey to see our friends Larry and Sue. While there
played a little golf and toured some of the area wrecked by Sandy.
After that it was on to Long Island and a visit with George and Jane.
We had a nice visit with them and then took the Ferry from the east
end of Long Island to Connecticut, saving a lot of driving.Cape Cod
was next. We picked up my sister Sue in Providence, RI on the way
through and then spent a couple of days with family on Cape Cod
before heading to Maine.
In
Maine we stayed with Steve & Christine for a week or so. We spent
some time sailing the first weekend. On Sunday we had a cookout at
Fort Williams Park with some of our out of town guests (for the event
the next day).
On that Monday, we had a “Celebration of Life”
type of service for Bill at the yacht club as he had requested. We
were overwhelmed with the number of people who showed up and told
stories about Bill. He would have been very pleased!
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| Cookout t Fort Williams |
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| Steve at the wheel of Trader |
As
many of you know, I usually send out message generated by our “Spot”
that gives a google earth image of our location. When I sent out one
that night, I was surprised to hear from our friends Chuck and
Claria. They were on a trip and were going to be in Bar Harbor, the
other side of the island from Northeast the next day. We therefore
planned to meet up.
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| Mount Desert Island from Cranberry Harbor |
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| Frenchmen's Bay from Cadillac Mountain top |
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| Steve & Steve at top of Flying Mountain |
After
a busy week on Mt Desert, Jean and I drove to Camden to spend a
weekend with our friends Peter and his friend Patty. We had lunch at
the yacht club, attended an after race party, went lobstering with
Peter and had a nice lobster feed on Saturday night. There is nothing
like fresh Maine lobster!
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| Fresh caught Maine Lobster - Yum!! |
After
another couple of days with Steve & Christine we headed south
again. we went to Long Island where we attended George and Jane’s
wedding and visited with many of our looper friends. Then we spent a
couple of days in Baltimore, touring the inner harbor and the B&O
railway museum. While there we stayed at a hotel that had once been
the corporate headquarters of the B&O. It was very elegant.
After
another nice visit with Mike & Cathy we took the auto train home
and got back into the swing of things in the Villages. The rest of
our boating for the year consisted of monthly trips to Bradenton to
work on the boat.
