"I love your boat!"

Pictures: The view from our pilot house where we steer from , probably in the small islands near Pine Island Sound, west coast of Florida; window art in Naples; Naples Pier at sunset (we had a seat on the beach); in the middle of this photo is a pink roseate spoonbill (50" wing span) flying; our small boats on a sandbar near Sanibel Island; Ken on the Cayo Coata beach; the Cayo Costa State Park shuttle to the beach; one of two pigs we saw in the last few weeks, this one at Cape Haze Marina; four of the competitors in the Watertribe Everglades Challenge (the two women were in a double kayak, the two men in a small wooden sailboat)

More Pictures: Barb MacLeod and Heidi (Barb is a mean card player, even with a new game she has just learned); the Honey Building in LaBelle on the route we used to cut across central Florida; VICTORIOUS at a dock provided by the city of LaBelle for free; cattle on the side of the canal near Lake Ocheechobee; tied up to "dolphins" in Clewiston on the south rim of Lake Ocheechobee; Heidi with Barry and Susan Perkins in Vero Beach; white pelicans (108" wingspan!) on a sandbar with cormorants. Nature note: white pelicans migrate to the northern great plains of the U.S. in summer.

"I love your boat!" We get this comment all the time--either that or someone holding up a camera to take a picture. Ken often sends back a toot on our Kahlenberg whistle, a very tug-like response. A sheriff's boat pulled up to us at our anchorage in Marco Island, we looked at each other wondering what we did wrong, but he just wanted to ask a questions about our boat. It's nice to be noticed; there are a lot of white look-alike boats out there. Of course, there can be other comments too. One we have gotten a few times is "It looks like Popeye's boat."
The best part about our boat, though, is the layout with three separate indoor areas and a roofdeck over the main cabin. We love to show it off and during this month we have gotten to see a lot of old friends and most of them have not seen VICTORIOUS yet.
We saw Josie in Naples, and after a nice lunch out, we sat in the pilot house and talked for quite a while, enjoying the view while we caught up. We visited with Barb and Dick who are renting a house for a month in Placida (north of Ft. Myers Beach) and we spent some time on our boat and some on their trailered outboard boat during the 4 days we stayed in this area. They took us on their faster boat to two great lunch spots, one in Boca Grande, and one on Don Pedro Island. Heidi's cousin Connie had a sprained ankle but admired our boat from the beach in Cape Coral where she winters. Then we crossed the central area of Florida on a canal and through Lake Ocheechobee and saw Lynn and Ray at Indiantown Marina. Back on the east coast after leaving the St. Lucie Canal we saw Susan and Barry -- they also helped us get groceries -- and Judy and Chuck who we first met last November in Brunswick, Georgia. Heidi's brother Jim couldn't get time off from work in Cape Canaveral but we had a long phone conversation. We were starting to forget who told us what story after this string of fun encounters.
At Don Pedro Island on the west coast we had a chance to walk this beautiful beach and search for fossil shark's teeth. Our collection now has about 100, but they are small and wouldn't quite fill a 1/2 measuring cup. We had some great home-cooked meals with Barb and Dick, and we got to try the BBQ at "JRs"in Indiantown--it's a locals hangout and the locals are mostly immigrants from Guatamala and Mexico although Linn and Ray are regulars there too. Our kayak came out at the backside of Sanibel Island and in Placida. At Marineland on the east coast we happened to arrive at the town marina just when a speaker from Duke Univ. was giving an evening talk next door at the U. of Florida Marine Lab, about the mantis shrimp she studies and their extreme speed.
Ken is always vigilant and helps us catch glimpses of roseate spoonbills, eagles, dolphins, manatees, white pelicans, many herons and egrets on the coasts. We watched cattle grazing canalside and in the canal, while crossing central Florida. The canals also had some very large alligators that often started thrashing about as we passed.
With all of this to fill our time, we just were lucky to be in the right place during a windy spell to meet a group of boat race participants who were diverted to the area we were in, Englewood (west coast). The race is a Watertribe event, with small boats like kayaks, hobie cats, small single hull sailboats and even paddleboards. By diverting the start, they shortened the total race distance from 300 miles to 240. The 70 or so participants (already there were dropouts from 91 registered) had 7 days to complete the race, ending in Key Largo and going around or through the Everglades National Park. It was extremely interesting to see the many different classes of boats, to see how each participant had provisioned, and planned for propulsion -- foot pedals, paddles, sails, an experimental class for solar-powered motors, and combinations of these. Small craft warnings due to the wind were causing withdrawals and DNFs, but we followed the race on the "Spot" GPS transponders each boat carried and about 50 singles/teams finished.
Those are the highlights for the past month. We hope to be home by the time the next blog is written, maybe in 4-6 weeks. Temperatures have dropped a lot in northern Florida, but it may just be a blip, we hope, due to strong north winds for the past 3 days. The good news is that wind and colder temps keep the bugs away.