July 6

Our friends, Brian and Tammy, are poor working stiffs these days.  They had their cruising year a couple of years ago (www.anotherroad.com).  So by the time we awaken, they have left for work.  But, they left us one of their cars so we can get the new prop.  We didn't get a very early start.  We relaxed and had coffee, did some web browsing looking at the developing storm, showered, and then left the boat about 11:00.  The propeller shop is in Bradenton which is on the south side of Tampa Bay.  We are in Pasadena, which is on the north side near St. Petersburg.  This means we have to cross the Sunshine Bridge over Tampa Bay.  For those of you back in Kemah, this bridge is of similar construction to the bridge on Hwy 146 over the Houston Ship Channel.  Pretty neat looking bridge.  If you are not familiar with the history of this bridge and the tragedy of 1980 when a ship hit the original bridge, follow the link above. 

Once in Bradenton, we found General Propeller easily.  Barb is getting pretty good at following maps, both land based and marine charts.  She has definitely earned the title of naviguessor.  I can't take credit for that word, but I don't recall now where I first heard it.  At General Propeller, we met with Larry, who I had been referred to by Warren at Catalina Yachts.  He promptly got me the new prop and then for no good reason sold it to me for a 15% discount.  Of course being the fixed-income, make that no-income, cruiser that I am becoming, I graciously accepted his offer. 

Since we had the afternoon to burn before Brian & Tammy got home, we headed north to Largo, FL.  The ex-Morgan, now Catalina factory, where MoonSail was built is in Largo.  Over the years I have dealt with Warren Pandy, the Customer Service Guy, several times.  Warren can be hard to get a hold of, but once you do, he will research your question and get you the right answer.  I knew from my recent e-mail correspondence with Warren, that they offered plant tours on Wednesday afternoons.  He had also told me he wouldn't be there on the 6th, when we expected to be in town, because he would be on vacation.  Much as I would like to have met him, I figured we'd go visit the plant anyway.  Well, we found the plant and went into the receptionist, and were told there was no tour today because the tour guy was on vacation.  I didn't realize that Warren was the tour guy too, and if he wasn't there, there was no tour.  I was quite disappointed.  I don't think we will still be here next Wednesday, but if we are, we'll be back.

Back to Pasadena then, with a quick stop at Publix grocery store to pick up a few items.  Brian and Tammy got home about 5:30.  After a dockside cocktail, we headed off to Sloppy Joe's for dinner.  Sloppy Joe's is related to the famous place in Key West, but a little more refined.  We had a great dinner, and then went back to Brian & Tammy's boat for more cocktails.  After awhile, they reminded us they had to work in the morning, so we went back to our boat.

July 7

The main item of business for today is to arrange for a diver to come put the new prop on the boat.  Brian had talked to Jim, the dock master here, and he said they had a diver's number in the office.  So after coffee, I met Jim at the office and got the diver's number.  I gave him a call and he said he could come by shortly after noon.  I was pleasantly surprised, as I hadn't necessarily expected same-day service.  Bill Latimer, showed up about 12:40 as promised and went right to work.  He was pleased to see that the marina was fairly clean compared to a week earlier.  They have a condition in this area called red tide, that is an algae bloom which kills tons of fish and other marine life.  The dead fish then float and collect in marinas and make them stink.  We had noticed many dead fish on our way in the other day but didn't know why they died.  Anyway, Bill got busy, and in less than thirty minutes he had the new prop on.  It seemed such a shame to put such a pretty piece of metal in the yucky salt water where you'll never see it, but...

After the prop job was done, we headed into St. Pete to visit with some old dock neighbors from back in Kemah.  Dan and Jaime (www.nereia.us) left Kemah a year or so ago, and have been in this area for a while due to family concerns.  But they hope to get cruising again this fall, and may join us in the Keys and the Bahamas.  We spent about three hours with them and caught up on numerous things.  It was great to see them again, and we will probably get together again before we leave.

About 6:30, we were back on the dock and getting ready to barbeque dinner on Brian & Tammy's boat.  A friend back in Kemah, Don Walker, had given us a frozen package of his Parrothead-club-renowned jerk chicken as a going away gift.  We were not sure how many chicken breasts were in this package, but we knew it was more than we could eat at one sitting.  So, since Brian & Tammy have enjoyed Don's chicken before, we thought it would be fitting to defrost it here and share it with them.  So, we barbequed the chicken and some skewers of squash, zucchini, and mushrooms.  Of course, dock cocktails were required while watching the BBQ.  After eating, drinking, and watching the Weather Channel, Brian & Tammy reminded us that Tammy had to work tomorrow.  (Brian is "working from home" so he doesn't need to be up quite so early.)

July 8

I have noticed already the slower and more deliberate pace we do things at now that we are cruising.  What might have been just one of many little tasks to get done in a day back in the old life, is now the whole day's accomplishment.  Case-in-point.  While we are here, we need to get our wills signed, witnessed, and notarized.  We meant to get this done before leaving Kemah, but it didn't happen.  Tammy has access to a notary at work, so we decided to make Brian and Tammy the witnesses, get the notary at Tammy's office, and time the whole event so we could all go to lunch together.  Now normally, like I said, this would be a relatively trivial thing packed in amongst the rest of the day's events.  But at the pace we run now, it was pretty much all we did today.  We slept in a little this morning, had coffee, showered, and headed to Tammy's office about 10:30.  We met with the notary, did the signing, and went to lunch. 

After lunch, we did make a detour on the way home.  We stopped by the local West Marine store.  Now for you boaters, you know that West Marine is like the Home Depot of boating.  But this is not an ordinary store.  In addition to the regular store, you can go in back into another area at least as large as the main store, which is the clearance center for the whole chain.  Here is where discontinued items, returned items that are usable, damaged boxes, etc. all end up.  You will find different items every week, and deals of about 50% off.  Brian browses here regularly, and we picked up a couple of things. 

Back to the boat by mid-afternoon, and after such a busy day it was nap time.  At least for Barb.  I still have not gotten accustomed to the concept of being able to nap during the day.  Even if I am tired, I rarely can go to sleep for an hour or two and then get up ready to go again.  So, I'm writing logs while she is sleeping.  As soon as Tammy gets home from work, we will go out for happy hour and dinner again.  Tough life huh?

GPS N 27-45.184 W 82-44.218  Miles made good this leg 0.