It's Christmas Time....

 

The holiday season has been a bit peculiar.  Heat and humidity has kept the holiday spirit at bay.  That was until yesterday when a cold northerly wind blew in forcing us into jeans and jackets.  Getting off the boat and into the dinghy was an experience - we were surfing the waves from the mooring field.

To celebrate we decided to go downtown and enjoy some of the holiday lights.  Drinks and a hot brownie sundae (key word hot as we searched for hot totties and found none) also added to the festive mood.  Additionally, it was Riverfest weekend where the city brings in various bands throughout the year to play.  This weekend was a rock band with a Van Halen tribute.  Not very holiday festive, but fun to rock and boogie all the same.

Back at the marina we concluded our evening in the Captain's Lounge where we and many others sung Christmas carols and all learned exactly who doesn't have vocal talent.  It was great fun and exactly what we needed to kick up the holiday spirit!

Happy Holidays!!

The Captain and Admiral

Sightings on the Waterway...

 

As we traveled south on the Intracoastal Waterway we saw our share of birdlife and dolphins.  We even saw a few snouts of manatee as they surfaced for a breath.  We were surprised to see manatee as the weather was unseasonably cool and we had anticipated that the manatee would have headed deeper south into warmer waters. 

One morning we found that the Goodyear blimp had just taken off somewhere nearby and was still low in the sky as it went overhead. 

And still another day we found jet skiers tooling down the waterway.  Now jet skiers would not be an unusual sighting but what was interesting was the jet ski itself.  If you look closely at the photo the jet ski is actually a four wheel ATV where the wheels tip up and the unit transforms into a jet ski.  I guess you'd call it a transformer.  Look for at a retail store near you soon..... or perhaps already?!

The Admiral

Titusville....



 

There is nothing quite as fun as stopping in a town and then just haphazardly stumbling across some really cool festival.  That isn't exactly what happened during our stay in Titusville....but it was close.  We stopped to visit friends John, Mary and four legged Goliath when John said, "hey you need to stay a day longer because Food Truck Wars is coming to town."  Food trucks.....over 40 food trucks.... yeah we're there!  And what a great time.  There were food trucks of all kinds - BBQ, seafood, middle eastern, Mexican, Thai, bakery goods, fast food, Jamacian, ice cream and more more more!  They even had a special dogs only food truck where we could pick up some new grub for Goliath to try.  Thanks Chef Michael!

The only trouble with sooooo many foods to sample is you just don't have enough appetite for all the yummy stuff you want to try.  So we settled with award winning fish tacos, Charleston shrimp and grits and county award winning lobster bisque.  Mmmmmmm. 

The diets started two days later.

 

The Admiral

Happy Hour...

 

 

Our first official happy hour of the season took place at Hurricane's Bar and Grill in St. Augustine.  It was our first visit to Hurricane's but will not be the last.  Great ribs.  The company was splendid too - Jim, Kathy, Ed and Lynn.  Four legged wonderdog Murphy was there also.

The amazing thing about St. Augustine and a lot of Florida is that despite the absence of snow they really get festive for the holiday.  Immediately after Thanksgiving town is decorated.  The Christams parade is in full swing and the trollies are all playing Christmas music. 

It just is a bit odd to be walking around in shorts and t-shirts while there are wreaths and holly strung everywhere.

The Admiral

Work?!

 

There are always surprises whenever we set out to work on the boat.  This year's surprise would be the need for all new plumbing on the master stateroom head.  The old plumbing was just getting brittle and needed replacing.  The other surprise was to find that we had a neighbor.  A raccoon appeared to have taken to lounging aboard the catamaran behind us and would come around wondering who was disturbing its peace.

After checking everything off the to do list - wash, buff, wax, new plumbing, props installed, jib hoisted, anchor secured, batteries charged, etc, etc, etc. - we finally found water.  It is always a great feeling when we launch and an even better one when we find the bilges are dry after being afloat for a while.

The Admiral