THE GULF COAST AND THE BEGINNING OF THE END

It's been more than two years since my last post on Manana. A lot has happened since then. I want my friends and the wonderful people we met along the way to know why it ended so abruptly, what I have been doing and what I plan to do in the future. The following is what I wrote and had planned to post after getting the pictures from Denise and before leaving for home to take care of my business. I never got the pictures from Denise. It was more than two years ago, I had no idea what was going to happen next. Once we got into the leisurely cruising mode and taking our time at every anchorage, there just didn't seem to be a lot to talk about. Looking back, we were just having too much fun visiting all those places and had a hard time deciding what was the most important thing to tell you about. I took enough time to update our map. If you click on "view larger map", you will be able to see the entire trip and all our stops. You can also move your mouse around the map and follow our trip. Things were also changing in my business. Ill talk more about that later, but let's start up where we left off. It was finally time to leave Fort Myers Beach. Our friends Ed & Benia were leaving to go back North and we wanted to get closer to the Tampa area to find a protected spot for hurricane season. With North winds blowing, We decided to take the first leg of the trip on the intercoastal to the Charlotte Harbor area and maybe beyond. Where we stopped would depend on how far we could go in a day. The closest stop would be Burnt Store Marina in Charlotte Harbor and the furthest would be Venice. As we wove our way through the intercoastal, it looked like Burnt Store would be our next stop. It was interesting seeing areas we had viewed from the shore and our car. It turned out to be a nice day for a ride and by the time we got across Charlotte Harbor we were ready to stop for the night. The entrance into Burnt Harbor was narrow and so shallow on each side that fishermen were wading out to go fishing and birds were resting on dry sand bars. Burnt Store is a marina built around a planned community of homes and condominiums. The marina has a few stores and a nice restaurant and bar. The rest is residential and you need a car to go anywhere of interest. One of the reasons we stopped here was to try to catch up with our friends on BREOthat we had first met on the Erie Canal and ran into months later in Daytona Beach. We caught up with them the next day and had fun sharing our experiences and future plans. Our next stop would be Venice, Florida. We decided to go out into the Gulf for this trip and it resulted in a beautiful sail all the way up the coast. The winds were good, the seas were small and the shoreline was beautiful with bright white beaches, beautiful homes and condos all along the coast. It was an effortless sail and we arrived at the Crow's Nest Marina just inside the inlet by mid afternoon. Venice is a beautiful, touristy and somewhat "artsy" town with many interesting restaurants and shops. Apparently, the most popular restaurant happened to be The Crow's Nest at our marina. The marina had free loaner bikes and we made good use of them touring the town and getting lots of exercise. The following morning, we were planning on heading North to Tampa Bay and the Twin Dolphins Marina in Bradenton Florida. Once again the forecast was for strong North Winds and we decided we would leave early in the morning and head up the intercoastal. Our friend Sam Rodgers, from Bradenton, had told us that there were boats having trouble getting through an area just South of Tampa Bay on the intercoastal near Long Boat Key and we should reconsider going that way. We talked to some boats that had just come through that area and, although there was some dredging going on, they did not have a problem. One person did say that they heard there were problems and went outside through Long Boat Pass to avoid it, which is a very shallow and tricky inlet on the North side of Long Boat Key. We decided that we would try it, and continued our plans. We were up early and ready to go. The wind was blowing 15 to 20 knots on our beam, however, and was pushing us up against the dock. There was also an incoming tide that was rushing in that would also make make it difficult to get turned North, since our bow was pointing into it. We could back up and try to turn into the a little basin behind us, but if the wind and current caught us, we may have difficulty staying off the other docks and boats in such a small area. We tried to call the marina to see if someone was available to help us, but there was nobody there. There were no other boats on the dock in front of us for about 5 boat links. One of our neighbors offered to help and we thought we would give it a try going forward and push the bow out into the current to help us get turned and off the dock. We thought we had it but the stern would not clear the pylons on the dock as the wind pushed it sideways. Unfortunately, our outboard motor hooked on one of the pylons and was torn off it's mounting block and promptly dropped into about 12 feet of salt water next to the dock. Not the best start for our journey! We tied up and tried to call around to find a diver to retrieve our outboard. Salt water is extremely corrosive and, if we didn't get the motor out of the water quickly and clean it out, it would become a useless hunk of metal. After many calls with no results, a diver walked up and asked if we needed help. Someone at the Venice Yacht Club had picked up our voice mail and the diver happened to be just a block away. In less than a half hour, he was suited up, dived down, tied a line to the motor and we had it hauled up on the dock. For a very reasonable fee of $30.00, we just saved ourselves a thousand or so on a new motor! We rinsed off the motor, removed the spark plug and kept cranking it until all the water was out of the cylinder. We replaced the plug and a few cranks later it started! We remounted it and, after taking a few deep breaths, decided to try and leave again. This time, we got lots of help. The marina dock hands were able to hold on to the bow line long enough for us to pivot the stern into the current and make a complete turn and get on our way. After about an hour and two draw bridges successfully negotiated, we received a phone call from Sam. He had been talking to a Tow Boat US operator who said they had over a dozen calls from boats that were stuck at Long Boat Key. He gave us his number and we called him to confirm it, and he advised to not try to make the passage or we would be stuck and paying him to tow us out. We thought about going to Sarasota, but we would still have to go back to Venice to get out in the Gulf. So, we turned around and headed back to Venice. We had a relaxing evening after a stressful day with the promise of a good forecast for tomorrow. The forecast was correct! The winds had clocked around and were coming from the East and we had a beautiful, and uneventful sail up the coast. Once again, we had perfect winds and minimal waves and a beautiful view of all the barrier islands and their sparkling white beaches. As we approached Tampa Bay we decided to take the Southwest Channel on the South end of Egmont Key. It would save us from going through Passage Key with a questionable depth on the North Side of Amelia Island and avoid the main shipping Egmont Channel on the North side of Egmont that would require us to go further out in the Gulf to enter. Once inside the Bay, we set a South East course for the entrance to Manitee River. The Bay is larger than it looks on the charts and it took us about an hour or more to get across. As we approached the markers for the River entrance, Sam called us again. He was watching from shore and wanted to warn us that the channel entrance was shoaling and we needed to go to starboard of the Number 4 red channel marker. This is like driving off the road and into a ditch, or worse! Fortunately, there was another sail boat entering in front of us, so I told him of my friends warning and told him I would follow. Obviously, if he got stuck, I wouldn't follow my friends advice. The depths were adequate, however, and we both made it through without any problems. Twin Dolphins is as far as most sailboats can go up the river since there is a low bridge right next to it upriver. We were met by Sam and his girlfriend at his slip he had offered us. We had some difficulty getting in and tying up to a short fixed dock. It wasn't long until we found out that, although Sam had already paid for the dock, he was not allowed to sublet it. We thought this would be the case. Although his slip was close to the pool and other facilities, we decided we would rather be on a longer floating dock that would be easier to get on and off the boat and moved to the other side of the marina the next day. Twin Dolphins is a very nice marina with a swimming pool, excellent air conditioned facilities, a 1st class restaurant and bar at the end of it's pier and across the street from the county library, City Hall, museums, bars restaurants and more...all within walking distance. Since I knew I had more things to take care of in my business, we signed a 6 months lease and began to settle in. We also wanted to explore some of the interesting parks, museums and other attractions in the area. There are so many things to see around the area and we have only touched the surface. One of our field trips was to visit the Catalina Boat Yard to see how our boat was made. It was a fantastic tour and were treated very well and got answers to almost all of our questions. One of them concerned our packing gland that never seemed to be adjusted right. They suggested that it could be the shaft alignment and should have a mechanic look at it as soon as possible. We tried calling several mechanics they suggested but none of them would respond or could not schedule a time to come out. Our friend Sam came through again with the number of a mechanic he had used. We called him in the morning and he was out by noon! When he opened the engine cover, all he said was "Oh Shit!". I looked down and saw that the engine was twisted at a weird angle. We had not looked at it since we had left Fort Myers other than to check the packing gland. There had been no symptoms of any kind, no noticeable vibrations, and everything (except the packing gland) appeared to be working just fine. Somewhere, somehow, three of our four engine mounts had sheared off and the shaft would not turn because the engine had twisted and bound it inside the coupling. Wow! We were extremely lucky! It had to have happened as we were docking it in the slip. If it would have happened when we had it in gear and running at high RPMs it could have been disastrous, especially offshore. We could have lost our shaft and water would have been pouring in the boat from the hole where the shaft was. Needless to say, we scheduled him to repair it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it was time for me to head back home to take care of some business. I flew home while Denise stayed on the boat to prepare it and wait for the mechanic to work on the motor. She also scheduled a lot of other things to be done with the help of some of the dock mates and then came to Indiana. I was making some changes to be able continue cruising as much as possible. As usual, things don't always work out as smoothly as you hope and I wound up having to stick around longer than I had planned. Denise had gone back to the boat in Bradenton and I stayed in Indiana. I was able to go down for her birthday in February. I had also made arrangements to help Steve Janett sail his boat from Tampa to Corpus Christi Texas. That trip and some future trips, are recorded at http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=340003 I had planned on spending a little more time at the marina but Steve's weather router insisted he had to leave that day to avoid bad weather. Well, we hit bad weather a day later and it didn't stop until we got close to Texas 9 days later. After that, it was back to the office to help get a responsible manager in place so I could leave. Once again, harder than expected. Denise decided that she wanted to end our 14 year relationship for reasons I could not comprehend. I began working and saving money to buy another boat. I planned to make a purchase before spring of 2016. In the meantime, the trips across the Gulf with Steve and my friends at the marina have kept me in the sailing mode. So that was the end of this Sailing Manana Story. My new story has already began with the Gulf crossings and will continue when I purchase the next boat. This time it will be cruising ready when I buy it and I can start right away.

KEY WEST TO THE GULF COAST

We have been in the mooring field in Key West for more than two months. We went home for part of that time but we were ready to move on. As usual, the weather was not co-operating 100%. The winds seem to blow very strong and consistant from the North during that time of the year, which means we would have to sail, or more likely, power through 5 foot plus waves on the nose to get to the mainland Gulf coast for about 2 days. Not a very pleasant trip. The alternative is to go back East and North to Marathon and cut across the Florida Bay. Almost everyone we talked to said it is too shallow for us since we would be following the Southern coast of the mainland, which is mainly the Everglades Swamp. Everyone, except Ed and Benia. They had been cruising for many years in a larger sail boat than ours with a 6 foot draft and had made the trip several times. They have recently sold their sail boat and bought a beautiful trawler and they offered to let us tag along with them as a "buddy" boat. We left early on February 12th and headed back around Fleming Island for our last view of the Key West docks and headed South and East towards the upper keys. The weather, as usual, turned out to not be as predicted and the waves made for a somewhat uncomfortable trip, but we made it to Marathon by mid afternoon. All the moorings were taken in Boot Key, so we anchored next to Ed and Benia just inside the bridge. The anchorage was very crowded and we had to make a couple attempts before we got in a comfortable spot, or so we thought. While we waited for the anchor to set, we realized we were not floating anymore and were sitting on a sand bar. No problem. The tide came up and we drifted back for a comfortable evening. We left early the next morning and went through the pass under the 7 mile bridge into the Florida Bay with our next destination an anchorage in Shark River in the Everglades. The water was surprisingly deeper than I had anticipated and what the charts showed. The crab pots were still a challenge, however, and we wound up dragging one for a quarter of a mile or more before it floated off behind us and we realized what was slowing us down. No damage except our ego. Following the waypoints and keeping a close eye on the charts and the depthfinder, we made our way into Shark River before dark. The shores of Shark River were much more lush and the water deeper than I had anticipated. It was also extremely quiet. As the sun went down, it also became extremely dark, but the canopy of millions of stars helped light up our buddy boat Genteel as we dingied over for dinner. The next morning, we were on our way, with only a minor attack of no see-ums. We unfurled our genoa and were hitting 7 knots plus as we made our way West around the Thousand Islands and the Everglades and into the Gulf of Mexico. Genteel had the benefit of a little more speed and had decided to go all the way to Fort Myers Beach. We decided we would hop off in either Marco Island or Naples, depending on how far up the coast we got. As usual, the weather changed our plans. We spotted a fast moving storm coming in off the coast packing 60 knot winds and heavy rains. We called Genteel and warned them of the storm and decided we would hop off in Marco Island. Genteel turned around and went back to Naples and we were just trying to tie up in Marco when the storm hit. For a change, the forcast was accurate for the storm and the wind and rain beat us up while securing Manana in the slip. We had a burger at the closest restaurant we could find and called it a night. The next morning we threaded our way out of Marco Island and went back into the Gulf headed for Fort Myers Beach. It was a beautiful sail up the coast and we wound up taking a slip right behind Genteel at Moss Marina in Fort Myers Beach. We would ultimately take a mooring in the municipal mooring field, but we had to go back to Key West to get our car. We took the high speed ferry back from Fort Myers to Key West and had a nice drive back through the Keys and across Alligator Alley to get back to Fort Myers. We now had to move to the mooring and then prepare to leave the boat to go back home for a few weeks to take care of business. Fort Myers Beach is a popular Spring Break spot and the kids were just starting to arrive before we started our two day drive back to Indiana. Before we left we got a pretty good tour of the town by Ed & Benia and got to enjoy some of the reasons it is so popular. Our drive home was uneventful, but we wound up spending almost 5 weeks away from Manana and Fort Myers. Obviously, we got a lot accomplished at home, including selling the house and moving into our townhomes. On our way back, we met up with our 600 Dock friends in Fishermans Village in Punta Gorda and had a little dock party. Everett and Barb were our hosts as Dave and Stevie, Chuck and Mindy and Keith and Diane joined in the party. It was great to see everyone and we had a great dinner and, of course, a few cocktails to celebrate. Our friends Ed & Benia had been watching our boat, and when we got back, it was as if we never left. Now we have had some time to explore more of Fort Myers and the surrounding area. Here's some sights from that we've seen so far. We are planning on moving the 15th towards Punta Gorda, then to Venice and then to Sarosota and Tampa Bay area. Entering Shark River in the Everglades for the night and the sunrise as we left our anchorage. Manana in it's first slip (other than avoiding the storm in Marco Island) since October! We moved her to the mooring after we retrieved our car from Key West. A few scenes of Fort Myers Beach. Pure White Sand! Our wonderful friends Ed and Benia A sunset for Denise's Birthday! The Edison and Ford Houses amid beautiful trees and gardens, many of which they used for experiments. Wildlife everywhere at Ding Darling preserve. Shelling on Sanibel Island.

EXPLORING KEY WEST

Key West has an interesting history and an even more interesting atmosphere and lifestyle. Key West was originally named Cayo Hueso (pronounced 'kayo 'weso)by Juan Ponce De Leon (the fountain of youth guy). Even though it may have sounded like the modern day name, the Spanish name meant Bone Key. Apparently the original inhabitants of Calusa Indians used the island as a burial ground. Ownership of Key West went from Spanish to English to Spanish and then back to the U.S. Of course, there was also the Conch Republic. Key West declared it's independence from the U.S. in 1982 and formed the Conch Republic in protest against road blocks searching for illegal immigrants on Highway 1, the only land connection to the Keys. Key West has been a military post for most of it's history and still has a large military presence, but tourism has taken over and highlights it's carefree lifestyle and celebrates it's famous residents and visitors. The attraction for most of the tourists is not the history but the laid back life style, the architecture,the food, the music, the nightlife, the diversity, and of course, the bars and shops on and around Duval Street. Our goal was to try and see as much as possible of everything Key West and the Lower Keys are known for. Although the island of Key West is only about 2 miles across, there is a lot to see and do. There are historic homes, museums, nature centers, forts, beaches, quaint inns, bed and breakfasts, waterfronts, marinas and sunsets. And of course, we visited many of the restaurants and bars with an emphasis on finding the best Happy Hours. Some of the most memorable sites was Hemingway's house, The Truman White House, the eco center, Fort Zachary Taylor, the Beaches and the boardwalk along the wharfs. Around Duval Street there is Sloppy Joes, Captain Tony's, Willie T's, Kelly's (great Happy Hour!), Hogsbreath, Smoking Tuna, The Green Parrot, Grunt's Bar, Blue Heaven and many other places we didn't have the time, or the stamina to visit. On the Boardwalk, there is Alonzo's, The Boat House, Schooner's Wharf, The Turtle Crawl, The Eat it Raw Oyster Bar, and Dante's. Other than Kelly's, some of the best Happy Hours were along marina's with our favorites being Kelly's, Alonzo's and the Boat House. And of course, Pepe's, (the oldest restaurant in Key West), has the most mouthwatering baked oyster combo's ever! My Daughter, Bonnie brought her husband, Ben and my granddaughter Lila for a visit and we took them on a tall ship sunset cruise. Lila (only 20 months old) got to steer the ship and her mom and dad seemed to enjoy themselves too. We also took a trip to the Dry Tortugas to visit Fort Jefferson and did some snorkeling in what seemed the middle of nowhere. The mooring field we were in was very rough with almost constant strong winds and waves that made it a long and wet ride into shore. It was, however, the best choice for the price, considering slips were about $200 per night or more. The holding for anchoring was not very good and equally inconvenient and you still had to pay for everything such as a place to leave your dingy when you went ashore, water, showers, laundry and parking if you had a car. We got everything for $10 per night in the mooring field. The best part, as in every place we have been, was all the wonderful people we meet. Since someone said a picture is worth a thousand words, I will show you the rest of our stay in Key West in pictures. Some Classic houses in Key West Denise in No Name Bar on No Name Key Miniature Deer on No Name Key Beautiful Beach and Park Near Fort Zachary Taylor My Granddaughter Lila and her Parents Bonnie & Ben "Driving" the Jolly Rover Tall Ship Lila relaxes later as the sun goes down. Juggler on Mallery Square with sun setting. Hemingway's House... a resemblance? Fort Jefferson on our "cruise" to the Dry Tortugas Our Buddy Boat Genteel as we left for the mainland from Key West. Ed and Benia have become very good friends, but we just discovered we don't have any pictures of them! Yet!

THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

I know it's been a long time since the last blog. I got so use to blogging as we made our destinations along the way, I almost forgot that we still have a lot to do and talk about now that we are settled in for a while. We had a wonderful Christmas and a busy couple weeks back home. We got to have an evening with our fellow cruisers from back home at our house. Steve and Nancy Janette of Katherine and Bill Sellars and Jeannie Mcavoy of Nemo joined us for cocktails and pizza to catch up on all of our adventures. Bill and Jeannie had helped Steve and Nancy take Katherine to it's new home in Texas. They had left the Chicago area in September and took the river route to Mobile and then over to Texas. You can follow their adventures at http://sailingkathryn.blogspot.com/. It was great hearing about all of their travels and sharing ours. We had a lot of business to take care of while we were at home but with the Holidays and all, we never seemed to have enough time to get it all done. We planned on driving our car down to Key West to make it more convenient to get around and to come home if necessary. This meant that we had to allow a few days of travel time along the way. All in all, even though we didn't get to see everyone over the Holiday, we got to see our children and granchildren and spend time with the people we love and miss the most. I only missed seeing my brothers and sister who live in Dyer but I'm sure we can make it up another time.

Denise and her beautiful Grandaughter Kaitlyn

My equally beautiful Granddaughter Lila with her new Uke. My other sister lives in Nashville, however, and that just happened to be on the way. So our first stop was in Music City. Although we got there late, we had a wonderful visit with Sandy and her rising star friend Megan Ellis. The next morning, we headed South with the next stop being as far into Florida as we could get. After a late check in at a cheap hotel, we made Key West the next day by mid afternoon. Our friend, Greg of Ocean Ministries met us and got us back to the boat before nightfall. The boat looked no worse for the wear, except for a disguting coating of guana (bird poop)sprayed across our bimini and dodger. We have mentioned cormarants in earlier blogs, but these birds are some of the nastiest and seem to love coating everything they can in between meals. This is our first experience with them using our boat for their resting place. Yuck! We settled in the next day and got ready to see what New Years Eve in Key West was like. There were lot's of people and lot's of drinking and we had the choice of watching the Conch Shell Drop at Sloppy Joe's or the Pirate Lady drop from the masts at the marina. The Conch Shell Drop was the choice. Needless to say, there were a lot of people in Key West on New Years Eve. We were able to stay out until the conch shell dropped and then made it back to the boat shortly afterwards. Welcome 2013! Now we get to settle in and explore Key West at a more leisurely pace. There is so much to see here, we keep adding things to our list almost every day. But, along with the exploring, comes a lot of work. The first order of business was to clean up the mess the cormarants left and to devise a way of keeping them off our boat. We had left some flags flying near the spreaders that we thought was working when we were on the boat. Apparently not. Our neighbors, R.L. and Karen on Last Call had a BB gun that certainly chased them away, but you had to be on the boat to shoot them. We finally hoisted the flags in front of the mast so that they sweeped the spreaders which works fairly well, unless there is no wind. There seems to be plenty of wind though, which creates some of our other challenges. In this large and rather open mooring field, the North and Northeast winds really kick up some pretty good sized waves. Our dingy has served us well in all other mooring and anchoring situations, but here, she is too small. To keep from getting soaked on our 15 to 20 minute ride to shore, we have resorted to wearing full rain gear. The other challenge is water. There is no place to get water except at the dingy dock, which cannot be accessed on our boat. This means we had to buy some 6 gallon water jugs and haul them to the dock in our already too small dingy. Each jug weighs about 50 pounds full and are extremely difficult to get back in the dingy, onto the boat and then having to hoist them to pour into our water tanks. The extra hundred pounds does nothing to help us get the dingy through the waves either! We have figured most of the problems out, however, and the longer we are here, the more we are enjoying Key West. In an effort to keep the blog short, (and hopefully interesting) and since I have not posted in so long, I will end this one and then try to post bits in pieces of our adventures (and more pictures) in chronological order from here.

KEY WEST

It took two days to get our davits, solar panel and battery monitor installed on Manana. That meant two days at a dock with shore power and all the conveniences. We were able to get the batteries charged to 100% while SALT did the installation. David from SALT did an excellent job of installing everything and seemed to take a lot of pride in doing so. While we were at the dock, I was pumping rain water out of the dingy and a huge manatee poked his head up to get splashed with the fresh water just a foot or two away from me. He lazily swam around our boat and Denise went chasing him with the camera. With a lot of manatee "whispering", she got him to pose for a few pictures.

We finished up some minor chores and then went back out to the mooring again on Wednesday night (12/5) and decided to spend one more day in Marathon to see some of the things we have missed and to give the solar panels a good test to see how well they would do for a whole day. Starting from a full charge for the night, we wanted to see if it would bring them all the way up. Thursday was a little cloudy but a very calm day. We dingied out to the ocean and the beach and then back to the boat. We were looking for a restaurant and bar but found out later it was inside the Boot Key Marina. Some scenes on the way to the ocean

We had lunch at Burdines and then took a taxi to a specialty hardware store to get the right equipment to install lifts on our dingy. After that, we had a drink at Castaways bar that was recommended by the cab driver and was close to where we left our dingy. This guy was actually in an aquarium in Castaways

We took a ride back to the boat and, after installing the lift equipment we dingied to shore and took a walk to find a place for dinner. We wound up at the Brass Monkey, which was a very reasonable place with a great happy hour, but they didn't serve dinner! Oh well, we ordered a pizza and once again made new friends! Back at the boat, the solar panel had charged all the way up to about 95% on a very cloudy day. In fact, it could have been 100% because it had been dark for several hours already. That was as much, or more than we had hoped for. We went to bed with the idea of getting up at first light to head for Key West. As we headed out Friday morning, there were several boats going the same way. Although the winds were light, it was a beautiful day and we motorsailed most of the way. It didn't seem to take long before Key West was in sight and we had to wait for the Carnival Cruise ship to clear the channel before we headed in.

It was a great feeling to be cruising past Wisteria Island and the Key West Bight. There was a lot of activity with tall ships going in and out and just watching the shoreline.

To get to our mooring, we had to go around Fleming Island, which is to the West of Key West. It was a very narrow, but well marked channel and before we knew it, we were picking up our mooring in Key West Garrison Bight mooring field. The Dockmaster told us to come in the next day to register. The wind was coming from the North and Northeast, but was not uncomfortable. In the morning, we took our time and headed towards the Marina office to register. It is a fairly long dingy ride and the waves, although small, loved to spray us every once in a while. As we were approaching the channel, a fishing boat started coming out of the channel right at us with a good size wake behind him. I turned to port to avoid him and his wake, but he seemed to keep turning toward us. He came within 10 feet of us and, more or less, swamped us with his 3 or 4 foot wake. I guess some things never change. We got registered and then went exploring. Denise had read that there would be a Christmas Parade Saturday evening, so we thought we would visit a few places and hang around for the 7 O'clock start. For lunch we stopped at a place that we had found before that served some great Mojitos. They had changed there name to Willie T's, but the mojitos were great and so was the constant live entertainment. We then explored the rest of Duval Street and walked back down to Mallory Square to a beautiful sunset with all the street entertainers on the square and the tall ships making picturesqe passses in front of the setting sun.

We decided that Willie T's would be the best place to view the parade and have dinner at the same time. The parade was very much like a small town Christmas Parade but had a lot of palm trees and things like that. Willie T's for the parade

They wouldn't let this Santa in the parade

Wonder why? We had good seats close to the street and met a delightful Cuban couple, who offered to take us back to the marina. Before we went, however, we decided to visit the Garden of Eden. This is one of the places that does the body painting for Fantasy Fest. We had been there a few years ago, but, Saturday night was much different than lunch in the middle of the week! Of course, we didn't stay too long and our new friends, Frank and Betty, gave us a ride back to the dingy dock. They wanted to see our boat, but it was very late, and we were'nt 100% sure we could even find it on our first night time ride. After some difficulty, and the help of our neighbors flashing yellow light, we were safe and sound aboard our boat once again. We had contacted our friends Larry and Donna on Saturday, and they had graciously invited us for a cook out at their house on Sunday. In my last post, I had mentioned how we had met them the weekend before. They have a beautiful home and are wonderful people. I brought my guitar and they had several other local guests. Larry and Donna had a restaurant for a short period in Texas, and the food was delicious! All the guests were interesting and very friendly people. I offered to play a few songs after we ate and, although I had a noticeable lack of practice, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Larry didn't play, but I hope to hear him sing some of his original songs soon. Once again, Larry and Donna gave us a ride on their golf cart back to our dingy. This time we found our boat with a litle more confidence. We spent Monday preparing to leave Manana to go home for Christmas. We had invited Greg over from Ocean Ministries to have lunch and give us some hints on what to do to secure the boat. He also offered to watch it for us while we were gone. Ocean Ministries goes to areas where hurricanes are threatening and helps people prepare for the storm and to help them afterwards. He has been in the Caribbean for many years and was a wealth of knowledge. Today, he picked us up to take us ashore to get to the airport. Our boat is secured and in good hands and we will be back to her arond New Years. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!