Watching the Tropics

Just before we left Marineland, we see 3 manatees
swim into the marina cove.  This is one coming
up to breathe.

It must be summertime in Florida, or is it just Hurricane Season?

Our weather had been just about perfect for the past 3 weeks – nice east breeze off the ocean, sunny (but warm), with no rain at all.  Great cruising weather, but we had paid for a month stay at Marineland Marina.  So the middle of last week we “make all necessary preparations for getting underway” (as the Navy used to say) to start our trip to the west side of Florida, and wouldn’t you know it!  Here comes our tropical system Invest 99L, crawling across the Caribbean heading just north of Miami.

Another manatee coming up for air (nose on the left).
The swirls to his left are evidence of the other 2 having
just dove back down after breathing. (click to enlarge)
The white marks on his back are injuries from a
boat propeller.  These guys are slow moving.

So we discuss whether to move the boat north to Jacksonville to avoid the storm, or south to Daytona Beach.  Either way, we better leave Marineland, cause this is not a good place to ride out a hurricane.  After a couple days of watching its track, and talking daily to our friend Don in Daytona Beach (who is a retired Navy meteorologist), we predict that it could make landfall just south of Miami as a CAT 1 or less, and we head to Daytona Beach marina.

We make the 35 mile trip south last Thursday, with an uneventful trip UNTIL we ran aground just north of Daytona.  It took a couple moments to realize we were aground (rather than stopped by our props getting tangled by something), as I’m racing around below deck, throwing open hatches to check for water in the bilges and prop shaft packing.  We were stuck tight – not moving at all – and the tide was falling!  I tried calling TowBoatUS, but after 5 minutes on hold, we decided to try to unstick ourselves.  By increasing power in reverse, and by churning up the sand & mud beneath us, we were finally able to back off the shoal.  After limping into the Daytona Beach marina, we called a diver to inspect our keel and running gear.  Luckily, there was no damage.

So now we get back to the approaching tropical system & try to plan our departure as soon as it passes.  Wouldn’t you know that the thing meanders into the Gulf of Mexico & then decides to turn NE back across Florida.  Looks like we’ll be waiting for this thing until the end of this week.  In the meantime, we’ll put out extra lines, batten down the hatches & get ready to hunker down.  I’m sure there’s a hurricane party going on somewhere!

NEWS FLASH: Granddaughter Wears Out Grandparents!

How did we ever have the energy to raise 3 kids, when just one granddaughter completely wears us out in a week?!?  But, you gotta admit…we totally spoiled her rotten before giving her back to her parents!

She learned some new things the week with us, like body surfing in the breaking waves of the ocean shore; like high tide & low tide on the floating dock; like paddling a kayak for the first time on an ecology tour of the marine estuary; like finding the north star by using the Big Dipper.

But one of the highlights was going to the Marineland Dolphin Adventure aquarium to swim with the dolphins.  As long as you had a fish or squid in one hand, the dolphins happily followed your hand signals to dance around & splash the swimmers.  (I know the dolphins were happy, ‘cause they smiled all the time!)  Because Madeleine was just 8 years old, Sue went into the water with her & also got to shake hands (or flippers) with a dolphin.  An added benefit was Madeleine holding an easel board while a dolphin held a tube of acrylic paint to create a masterpiece of dolphin art.

And then we headed to the Orlando area to spend 2 days at LegoLand Florida.  Madeleine has been hooked (by her dad) on anything Star Wars, especially Lego, so she was in heaven for the entire time.  Between the amusement park, where she was fearless on all roller coasters, and the water park, where she tried to become a dolphin in the water, she decided to live there from now on.

There were numerous creatures around the park, all
constructed with Legos.  It took Lego artists many months
and several million Legos to construct all the creatures/structures.

Coming off one of the roller coasters, Madeleine fared
much better than her "Opa" did!

For those of you old enough to remember,
the new LegoLand took over the property where
the old Cypress Gardens ski & water show used
to be.  Lego still offers a ski show for entertainment.
This Southern Belle in a big hoop skirt, like we
saw in the old Cypress Gardens, is now
made entirely of Legos!

Yes, we enjoyed entertaining her for a week.  It was probably the highlight of our summer, too.  So now we’re in Chattanooga caring for Sue’s mother, who has her 94^th birthday tomorrow.  Sue is going to mess up all the diabetic residents in the nursing home by bringing in a birthday cake for all to share.

After that, we’ll head back to the boat to prepare for our travels.  We’ll have 2-3 weeks to get to the St Pete/Tampa area before we need to put the boat up for a week while we attend a wedding in Ohio, with a detour afterwards to visit our friendly attorney concerning the estate of Sue’s uncle.  Looking to close our cruising season a month early this year, around Oct 1.