What Can Jump 150 Times Its Own Height???

Hint:  It is not this fellow! 

  The answer will become obvious in a little while. 

Up the east coast of Florida we go, heading from lovely Vero Beach to Melbourne.  About 38 miles to our marina, home for the next 3 or so weeks.  April 20th's the day and though it began sunny, clouds soon rolled in,  it was solidly overcast, windy and COLD.  There is usually a decent breeze in the flybridge where Thad drives at the upper helm and, even though we zipped up most of the isinglass enclosure, Cindy had her sweatshirt hood up and she and Eloise huddled in a fleece blanket together.  Poor little Beezer was actually shivering much of the day but that did not keep her from asking to go up front onto the bow.  She loves to sit in someone's lap while that someone is sitting on one of the dock boxes. Which we did until the spray got to be too much for us.  Then back up top.


Gee, who must be driving the boat??

   We arrived at Telemar Bay Marina in the afternoon and between the wind and the current Thad had a heck of a time getting Glorious Dei into her slip.  That is when you are very, very glad for dockhands who help get you tied up.  We keep a stack of $5 bills for tips.  That gentleman got $20 for his invaluable help!

Okay, safe and sound at Telemar Bay.  Met our neighbor, Jim, a liveaboard two slips down, who clued us in to a great little restaurant, Doubles, just down the road.  We frequented it many times over the next few weeks, riding our bikes down there.  Yes, bikes.  We have never been bike riders in our adult lives but we sure are now!  Actually we did not have to go cold turkey, yet, from having a car, as we rented one while we were in Melbourne.  As long as Thad was finishing up his work his company picked up the tab.   Verrrry nice, verrry convenient.  One of the things we were a bit worried about was doing without our car.  Glad that was postponed for a bit.  Another shout out to our dear friend (and pet sitter extraordinaire), Nancy LeClair.  She is keeping tabs on things in Port Charlotte for us, the condo, our car and my mom's car.  Thanks Nance!

So, time for the answer to the title question.  Since it was not the man of steel it must be . . .  yes, you guessed it - fleas!  Fleas, you say??  Oh yes, our Telemar Bay greeting committee was made up of not only the wonderful people who worked at the marina, but also those horrible  little bloodsucking creatures.  There was a grassy strip of land just off the dock and it must have been infested with fleas, though we could not figure out why.  The second day we were there flea bombs were purchased, Elvis and us left the building, and we bombed the boat but good.  Thad even sprayed all of the grassy areas.  Eloise already takes a monthly flea/heartworm med, so we weren't worried about her, but those pesky pests reappeared the next day!  On the dog and on us!

Eeeww.  We needed help! 

Who ya gonna call??!!

I wish I could say that something miraculous happened to get rid of them but, unfortunately, something very sad happened to help with that problem.  Our liveaboard neighbor, Jim, was found deceased, on his boat, the next week.  When they went onto his boat it was found to be totally infested with fleas (they had a cat).  Once the fleas on that boat were dealt with it took care of them elsewhere.  Whew.



 

We had company while in Melbourne;  Kathy (Cindy's sister) and Brooks came to visit, with their fuzz muffin of a Goldendoodle puppy, Breelie. 

They live in Tampa and we were so happy to have them as our first visitors.

Breelie's in training as a rescue dog!

 

Telemar Bay Marina is actually in Indian Harbour Beach, just across the Indian River from Melbourne.  Just the best little beach town, ever.  We said, many times, that we could live there.  Just sayin'.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time and Thad successfully finished up a 1 1/2 year stint in Melbourne, working on the merger between HealthFirst and MIMA.  He worked with wonderful people, Brad Escousse and Mark Miller in particular.  Thanks guys, for being such great friends.

 

The marina was in such a wonderful location, right by a swing bridge over the Banana River, very peaceful and picturesque. 

 



Okay, we enjoyed our time in the Melbourne area, but now it's time to get goin' on this exciting trip of ours.  The Lord has been gracious enough to gift us with our beloved boat but she was meant to go , not just sit in a marina.  So, Glorious Dei, get a-go-go-ing!!  See ya on up the waterway!

The loveliest sunsets at Telemar Bay

Putt, Putt, Putt, Across Florida

Ahhh, entry #3, slowly but surely we are making our way across Florida, on her inland waterways, trying to get to Melbourne, on the east coast of Florida.
After gladly leaving that Sanibel anchorage we started heading east, into the Caloosahatchee River, through Ft. Myers and onward and onward.  Well, it feels like onward and onward to us but, in reality, we do not go very far in one day.  Remember, we cruise around 8-9 mph, and sometimes there are slower portions, so we might travel anywhere from 50-90 miles in a day.  Much, much different from traveling along the highway in a car!  When we were deciding on a name for the boat, we held a little family contest and had some very terrific names suggested.  My mom, knowing that a full displacement trawler does not go so fast and, since one of our sons was in China for a year, suggested "Slow Boat to China!" 
Along the Okeechobee Waterway there are several locks to go through:  the Franklin, Ortona, Moore Haven (ask Thad sometime about his first time, last year, through Moore Haven!!), Port Myacca and St. Lucie. Each is a bit different, you go up/down maybe 2-10 feet, grabbing and holding onto their lines, which can be clean as a whistle or dirty and slimy.  The Port Myacca lock's lines were hanging down in the water and when I brought the bow line up numerous crawly little things swarmed the deck - yuck!  That's when you are glad you have gloves and shoes on when locking through.  Locks were accomplished with no real problem.

We anchored out a second night after heading east on the Caloosahatchee, which happens to be quite a pretty river.  We have a book on board which lists anchorages and found one called the Lollipop, right where we wanted to end up for the night.  As you motor along you cannot just pull over to the side of the waterway, any old place, and stop for the night.  If you do you will quickly run aground.  You must be very diligent in your planning, whether it be at anchor or in a marina.  So the Lollipop was a canal, about 100 yards wide ,running about 1/2 mile north off the waterway, ending in a small round lake, hence the name.  Absolutely nothing around us but a herd of cows!  Thad was a wee bit nervous because it was so isolated.  Cue the dueling guitar/banjo music here: 

Felt like we were in "Deliverance" territory!

But the only "wild" life we had visit us were the cows, a couple of alligators, a couple of water snakes (a big "eek," here, from Thad) and myriads of insects on our deck the next morning.

Next up was crossing Lake Okeechobee.  This is where Thad discovered how wonderful our autopilot is!  14 miles across and the autopilot made it a breeze. 

Entrance to Lake Okeechobee

We tied up at a marina at Indiantown that evening and Eloise was sure glad to get off the boat and rendezvous with real grass!  We have a mat

on board, a door mat made of soft nylon, with two holes with grommets at one end, and a rope that threads through the holes.  Christened the "potty mat." It is easily dunked into the water after certain activities occur. 

It took a little doing to get Eloise to use it but she has become quite accustomed to it, though she much prefers solid ground.  The first few times she would use it she would turn in circle after circle after circle.  I mean a lot of circles!  It literally made me dizzy to watch her.  Now she just grins and bears it (no pun intended, really) and enjoys the treat she gets each time she goes.

This will look familiar to those of you who know Eloise's proclivity for potty acrobatics!  I decided a video was going a bit too far.

 



Okay, one last stop before we got to Melbourne.  Told you this boat was slow!  We left Indiantown and headed on to Vero Beach, where we picked up a mooring ball at their city marina's mooring field.  Got to meet up with Chris and Alyse Caldwell, since Vero Beach is their home.  We dinghied to the dinghy dock and they picked us up right at the marina and took us to dinner.  Dinner happened to be at the home of their dear friends, Kathy and Ferd Becker.  How incredibly kind were they to let us crash their dinner plans!  Lovely people and a great evening.  Vero Beach, aka "Velcro Beach" because it is so lovely people come and never leave, was a treat.  We had a good night's sleep, securely attached to our mooring ball and it was a beautiful morning the next day, as we headed up to Melbourne - hooray!

                                                                                Our Vero Beach view

 



 

 

 

 

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho (yes it really is spelled that way) It's Off to Cape Cod We Go!

Thanks for checking back for posting #2.  I am so computer illiterate that merely doing this blog thing has surely s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d my brain a wee bit.  But that's a good thing, right??

Mom & Thad Toasting to our Upcoming Voyage

So, where we left off:  Thad and I were leaving Gasparilla Marina on April 16, bound for Melbourne.  It was a beautiful Tuesday late morning and we were headed south, feeling great, with the Lion King soundtrack blaring away.  We would have loved to get to Melbourne via the Keys, but time constraints said we must take the "overland" route, aka the Okeechobee Waterway.  But the first stop, on our first night, was to be Sanibel, where Thad's parents had lived so many years and where all the Harveys have so many great memories.  It was a leisurely 4 hour cruise and we anchored right in front of Mariner Pointe, where his parents had lived, around 3:00.

Lighthouse Beach

Had time for a nice dinghy ride and walk on Lighthouse Beach and then back to the boat, to prepare to dinghy over to Gramma

Mariner Pointe (Dale & Jean's place was ground floor, far left)

 Dot's for  dinner, at Sanibel Marina. 

 

Alas, that was not to be as "the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed . . . ."

Well, it did not get as bad as Gilligan's Island, but we did end up with winds around 22 mph, so no dinner at Gramma Dot's.  In fact, instead of my back-up plan of shrimp scampi, we ended up having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  The wind, coupled with the opposing tidal current, meant we had a few rocky and rolly  hours and an uncomfortable night's sleep, but the anchor held like a charm.  We discovered that Mariner Pointe is not a good anchorage - we give it 1 star, if even that.  But we tried.  And some of you may remember the first experience we had anchoring in the same place, with the same results, last Father's Day.  Needless to say, we won't do it again.

 

Let me tell you a bit about our boat.  She's a 1978 Gulfstar motor cruiser, built in St. Pete.  A wonderfully designed, very livable trawler, a diesel sipper, if you will, as her average cruising speed is around 8 mph.  Though, as I have told many people, it never feels that slow when you are on the water (thank heaven!).  She is 44' long, 14'6" wide, has a draft of 4', a full displacement hull and a full keel, so our running gear (props and rudders) is protected.  She weighs around 44,000 lbs. and has twin Perkins 6.354 turbo-charged diesels, holds 500 gallons of fuel and gets 3 miles to the gallon which, believe it or not, is really good.  Also has a 250 gallon water tank and a 100 gallon holding tank.  Our dinghy rides on top of the aft deck hard top, a 10'6" Avon with a 15 hp. Honda 4-stroke outboard; we use a davit and winch to get her up and down.  Many fun times we've had just in the dinghy, running all around Gasparilla and Little Gasparilla Islands, back home.

 

I said she has great livability and she does - a spacious salon (living area) with 2 laz-y-boy recliners, equally spacious aft master bedroom with queen-sized bed and LOADS of storage.  I have 2 closets just for me!  Two bathrooms (heads), one with a tub/shower and one with a full-sized shower.  The galley, or kitchen, has a full-sized fridge, 3 burner electric stove & oven, microwave, large single bowl sink and granite counter tops.  There is a forward cabin, known as the v-berth, which also has a closet (Thad's) and plenty of storage.    Oh, and did I mention the full-sized washer and dryer??  The salon has a lower helm station where you can drive the boat, but Thad prefers to pilot her from up top on the fly bridge.  There is plenty of seating up there also.  What really stands out about this boat is her fully enclosed aft deck, kind of like a big ol' screened in porch, which means we can comfortably sit out there in all kinds of weather. We have a couch, teak table and two wicker chairs.  It's heaven!

 

Thanks for checking in and listening to me ramble on and on.  I've only brought you up to speed on our first day of travel!  Hang in there with me and I'll tell you lots more.  Adios!

 

Thad & Beezer (Eloise) at the Helm

 

 

3-2-1, Live!

 

Welcome to our blog!  Yes folks, this is the inaugural post of the blog that has been in the making for more than a month.  It just took Cindy's pea-sized brain forever to figure out how to make it happen.  Welcome to Glorious Dei A-Go-Go, the electronic diary of a man (Captain Thad), his first mate (Cindy) and their swab of a dog, mighty little Eloise, as they traverse the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from home port in Port Charlotte, Florida, up the US east coast, and back down again.  We hope you will enjoy traveling along with us and sharing what is, for us, a wonderful adventure.

 

Let me give a tad bit of background.  Thad had a dream .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

 of buying a cruising boat and traveling around the eastern half of the United States.  Did not know how or when this might occur, but the dream persisted over 15 years.  He especially wanted to do a cruising route known as The Great Loop. 

 "The Loop" is the circumnavigation, by water, of eastern North America (over 5,000 miles), traveling the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the Great Lakes, inland lakes and rivers, and the Florida Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway.  It can be accomplished in any time period but usually takes from 6 months to a year.  That was Thad's dream.  It was not Cindy's dream.  Cindy was quite happy living in Indianapolis, doing the same old things.  Boats were great and she'd always enjoyed them, but was content with her life as it was. To be sure, we had even looked at cruising boats, of sufficient size to do the Loop, in Michigan and on the east coast, for several years, but this whole thing was still just a dream for the future.  But, wouldn't you know it, the Lord had other plans for the Harveys and Cindy really came on board (pardon the pun) with the whole idea in August 2010, and said "Okay, the time is right, let's do this thing!" Soooo, a move to Florida was put into action (much easier to find a boat down there), the house in Indianapolis was sold, furniture disposed of or stored in generous relatives' basements (thanks Mom & Dad and Brooks & Kathy), and a move to Cindy's folks' condo, in Port Charlotte, Florida, was accomplished in March 2011.  Then the search for the right boat began. 

But I must stop here and give a big shout out to a couple who really gave us the push we needed to realize we could do this cruising lifestyle.  Because, even though Thad had grown up on a lake in Indiana and had boats pretty much throughout his life and even Cindy's family had owned a boat, running around lakes in Indiana in 21' ski boats is no where near the same as piloting a boat in the 40' range.  So in May of 2010 we did 4 days of training with Chris and Alyse Caldwell on their boat, Sandy Hook, out of Ft. Pierce, Florida.  www.captainchrisyachtservices.com is their website and is well worth a visit. 

  Chris and Alyse taught us and trained us and reassured us that yes, indeed, we could certainly manage to buy and cruise on a boat.  Plus they have become good friends!  So, Chris and Alyse,  we owe you quite a debt for everything you have done for us these past 3 years.  Thank you!

 

So now we had moved to Florida and the search had begun.  We had looked at a number of boats in the past, had been to a number of boat shows over the years, and had somewhat of an idea of what we wanted.  But being with Chris and Alyse on their boat opened our eyes to what we really should be looking at, what was really important in a boat.  Up til then Cindy's head was turned by how pretty a boat looked and the aesthetics of the interior.  How little she knew!  And Thad, even with lots of small boat experience, Power Squadron classes and much, much reading and researching over the years, knew next to nothing about what was important as well as practical.  As it turned out, a year after training with them, we decided we wanted the same boat Chris and Alyse had, a 44' Gulfstar motor cruiser, aka a trawler.  Chris knew of two that were for sale, both in Jacksonville, FL, and over Memorial weekend 2011 we looked at both.  Boat #1 we knew was not to be, but Boat #2, hmmmm, could this be The One??  Turns out that SeaSea was to be our boat, and in July she officially changed ownership and her name to Glorious Dei.  And we could not have been more fortunate and blessed to have purchased our boat from a wonderful couple, Paul and Stacy Brannon.  They had lived on her for the previous 6 years, had done the Loop and cruised just about everywhere.  Family circumstances dictated they move back to Georgia and they had been praying the right persons buy their beloved home.  And, of course, we had been praying for the right boat.  It was definitely a match made in heaven, no doubt about that!  Paul and Stacy are the most generous and kind couple you will chance to meet and have also become dear friends.  Stacy was the captain and did most of the piloting of SeaSea but Paul himself is a licensed captain and more than capable at the helm.  Plus, one of our biggest blessings, he is incredibly gifted in mechanics and engineering and was always meticulous about the care and maintenance of their boat.  She could not have been in better condition.  We are so, so grateful to the two of them for selling us their boat and we promise to take as good of care of her.

 

Plus, Paul and Stacy agreed to travel with us, to acclimate us and further train us, when we brought the boat from Jacksonville to Melbourne, FL, in November of that year.  Invaluable.  They are, simply, the best!

 

So, what do you do with a boat once you have her??  We had chased that dream of getting one, like a dog chasing a car, and now we'd caught her!  It was somewhat daunting.  Now, we had to get serious about this Looping thing and make some definite plans.  The original intent was to leave in the spring of 2012.  You see, the weather dictates where and when you cruise.  For example, you leave the west coast of Florida by March 1, hit New York City around Memorial Day, do Canada through the summer and start heading south by cruising through Chicago by Labor Day.  You continue down through inland lakes and rivers, eventually coming back out to the Gulf of Mexico in Mobile, Alabama around November, then back to your original starting place by December.  Well, that was our plan.  But the spring of 2012 was just way too soon to begin, so we decided to do it the next year, leaving in March 2013.   Unfortunately, that highly inconvenient thing called "work" got in the way. Thad, who works for Southwind  as a consultant in the health care industry, had an assignment in Melbourne, FL that ran until May 1.  Leaving after May 1 would cause us to be traveling too far behind schedule, weather wise.  Sure, we could do the Loop and really push it, but it is not wise nor safe to push like we would need to, plus what would be the fun in that?  So, we decided to just travel north, from Florida, as far as Cape Cod, MA and come right back down the east coast, back to Florida in the early winter.  The entire Loop will have to wait for another time.

 

And that is precisely what we are presently doing.   We brought Glorious Dei from our home port, Gasparilla Marina, to Melbourne, FL, leaving on April 16.  More about that journey in coming blogs.  And we left Melbourne on May 15, heading north.  And that's where we'll close for now. 

 

Stay tuned, there is much, much more to come!!