"The Mooring Ball People" (Posted 9/21/2011)

Since it has been a month since the last update I thought I should at least do a short update.

At the time of the last update we were anchored in Bradenton Beach. While we were there in Bradenton Beach, Linda had some dental work done (NOT fun). She is as "dentist phobic" as I am so they gave her a pill to sedate her.  She did fine but IT ALMOST KILLED ME waiting in the dentist office worrying about her! :-(

One day, as I was dinghying back from a marina with some gasoline that I had gone in to get, I heard someone holler, "Larry!"  I looked up and there was a sailboat coming in the channel.  It was Lawrence and Brenda on "Ilera" from Boot Key Harbor in the Keys!  The cruising world is a small world!  We had dinner with them at a restaurant one evening. They were staying in a marina waiting for the wind and weather to be right for them to continue on north to Hudson (our original home port) to visit with Brenda's parents.

On August 31st we decided to "take a vacation" and sail down to Sarasota. We anchored there for a week and had a nice time as usual.  It did blow hard for two days from the one direction from which there is no protection so we hunkered down on the boat in 2 foot waves in the harbor! I used up all my patitence and some of Linda's waiting for the wind to abate!! :-(

Although we had originally planned to return to Bradenton Beach after our "vacation", when the winds backed off we decided to head south to Punta Gorda (a three day trip) since we had heard that they had installed a new mooring field there and it might be a good place to leave Enchantress while we were going to be away in October.  We had a good trip down and picked up one of the new moorings.  We were their FIRST and ONLY customer.  There was Enchantress all by herself on a mooring with 41 other empty mooring balls!! Everyone in town that we talked to called us "The Mooring Ball People"! We met another couple one day on the docks who had been cruisers and had done the "Great Loop" (a 6000 mile circle up the East Coast to New York, across the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes, through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River, and across the Gulf of Mexico back to Florida!).  They were very nice and offered us any assistance we might need while in town. Cruisers and ex-cruisers always try to help one another.  We try to "pay it forward" by helping other cruisers, giving them a ride when we have the car, etc.

After we arrived in Punta Gorda we settled in for a few days and then rented a car and drove down to Marathon in the Keys to retrieve our car since we were not going back down to the Keys this winter.  We stayed in a motel overnight, paid a visit to our storage unit, and drove our car back here the next day.  So, for now, we have a car and will be leaving in about a week or so to go on a road trip to northern Florida, Georgia and North Carolina to visit friends and relatives. We will fly from Charlotte, NC to Connecticut for a 10 day visit there and then fly back to NC and drive back from there to Florida.  Whew, I'm worn out just typing it!! :-)

When we return from our trip we will be sailing further south on down to Cape Coral/Fort Myers area where we will spend the winter.  We plan to sell the car then as we really don't need it and it is a lot of trouble finding a place to store it, someone to take care of it, shuttling it around as we cruise, etc.

Will update the blog again when we return from our trip in late October. Hope everyone had a great summer!