Kelleys visit here in Bradenton

Capt Chappy at the "helm" of the Whaler

Enjoying our friends on the Manatee River

Chillin' at the beach

Darn, that ice is cold!

Rusty Bellies in Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs - Sponge Docks area

Just a little window shopping.....

Main Street in the Sponge Docks area

Wow, what a catch!

Sponges drying out

Wondering if we could snag a couple of sponges...

Pam and Bill enjoying the sights

Cervasas por favor!

Dinner at the ballpark

Another beautiful sunset

We’ve had a very busy month since we’ve been here in Bradenton.  First Todd and his family came for a visit, then Mike and grandbaby Allie, then our good friends Pam and Bill Kelley.  It was so good to see them all and to catch up on everything going on back in our home town.

Pam and Bill drove down here and arrived Saturday (Aug 3) just about dinner time.  After chillin’ a little we walked to the downtown area and had dinner at FAVS.   A great little Italian place.  We visited and had a great time.

Sunday morning we decided to drive around and do some sightseeing.  We checked out the beach area in Anna Maria Island and drove over to Sarasota.  There are several beaches and local hangouts along the way.  We stopped at a local bar called the Drift-In.  Definitely local color here!  We met a guy who had a punk hairdo of sort – said he was a retired cop from New Jersey.  When he retired he wanted to dress as far different from a cop as possible.  He definitely succeeded.  Said he often got mistaken for a circus act.  LOL!  No kidding!  We did made it back in time for Happy Hour at the Pier 22 – the restaurant at the Marina. 

We spent the day at the beach on Monday  - kicked back with lunch on the beach.  What a nice relaxing day.  The beaches here are beautiful with white sand but very few shells.  In honor of Shark Week, we had dinner at the Anna Maria Oyster Bar where their special was shark.  Wow!  Was that good! 

                                                                                 Tuesday we took a car ride to Tarpon Springs.  It’s about an hour away.  Tarpon Springs is the sponge capital of the world (among other things….).  We had visited there before when we were on the Great Loop.  There is a lot of Greek heritage there.  Very interesting place to visit – and of course, to buy some sponges.  Lunch was at Rusty Bellies - great place on the water.   After that we drove over to Dunedin to find Skips Bar another local hangout.  We had visited Skips before and liked it.  Not much had changed – a local hangout with good cold beer. 

Oh, and dinner was at the Mexicali Grill here in Bradenton.  Yes, we did more than just eat while the Kelleys were here – but not much more!  So many restaurants – so little time…….

Pam and I went shopping on Wednesday and the guys took the whaler out for a spin.  They ended up taking it over to the beach where they could turn it over and clean the bottom.  Mike appreciated Bill’s help – he makes a pretty good first mate! 

We all went out for a dinghy ride on Thursday over to Tarpon Grille for lunch.  We later hung out at the pool and then headed out to the ballgame – the Bradenton Marauders were playing the St Lucie Mets.  It was really fun hanging out at the ballpark watching everyone.  I think we all really enjoyed it.  Oh and the food was good too.  Pizza and Nachos – cold dollar beer – can’t beat it!

Friday morning found us saying our goodbyes. How did the week go by so fast!  We really did enjoy them being here.  Hopefully they enjoyed it too.

Now Mike and I are all by ourselves.  We’ve spent the last two days just cleaning the boat, laundry and all the other drudgery of things that need to be done.  It’s very quiet around here now!

Think I’ll go to the pool – before the afternoon showers come in.

Till next time!

Admiral “C”

Our First Month in Bradenton

A walk along the beach with Allie

Mike and Allie

Having spaghetti at the Sandbar!

Papa taking a siesta at the beach

Marti the Pirate

Beautiful sunset

McKechnie Field
Home of the Bradenton Marauders

Another beautiful sunset

One of our favorite spots
Woody's River Roo

View up the Manatee River

Bike Rack - isn't that cool!

Another cool bike rack along Main St.

Enjoying the rainbow after the rain

Todd's family aboard NautiNell

Savannah wants to learn to be a Captain!

Future Capt' Chappy!

Papa Mike and Piper

Since we’ve been here in Bradenton at Twin Dolphin Marina we’ve finally got some of our family on board.  It’s been great!

First Todd’s family and his in-laws (Todd is Mike’s son) rented a condo on Anna Maria Island for a week.  (That’s one of the reasons we came here.)  We got to spend a lot of time with them.  We were able to take them all out for a boat ride on NautiNell.  All ten of them!  We went back out the river and stuck our nose out into the Gulf for a little while.  We were able to show them part of the GIWW.  It was a perfect day and the kids had a ball.  Each one got to drive the boat under Papa Mike’s supervision.  It was so good to see Todd and his family.  That’s the hard part of living on NautiNell  - being away from our family.

The next visit was my son Mike and grandbaby Allie.  They drove here and spent their time with us on the boat.  One thing I did learn  - NautiNell is not exactly toddler proof!  Also “hurricane Allie” never stops!  LOL!

It was so good to visit with them.  Miss them all already!

We’ve been to the beach a couple of times on the Island.  There’s a great place on the beach to eat called The Sandbar.  It’s right on the beach and has a great view.  

Mike and I have taken a few Whaler rides up and down the river.  There are several neat places along the river to stop and eat or have a cocktail.  Right up our style! 

There are also several pubs in the downtown area close to the marina.  So far we’ve only eaten at one – FAVS.  Great little Italian place.  There’s a restaurant here at the marina that has really great happy hour specials.  We’ve hit that several times. 

My computer caught a virus and compromised the hard drive.  Good thing we had the scooters so we could take it to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad take a look at it.  We ended up getting a new computer.  Now I’m trying to learn Windows 8!!  On one of the days that we had to go to Best Buy it was raining when we came out.  We managed to find a neat little Chicago diner called Joey D’s to wait out the rain.  Great place!  It’s so cool to stumble on these places. 

There is a really nice Riverwalk here along the Manatee River and runs by the marina.  I’ve walked it a few times now.  It’s really a nice walk with several stops – family center park – skateboard ramp and a huge pavilion.  If it wasn’t so hot I’d walk it more!  Geesh!  It’s been in the 90’s here with heat index of a 100+ about every day.  Then it also rains every afternoon…..!  That’ Florida!

Mike and I went to a baseball game here the other night.  This is where the Pittsburgh Pirates have their Spring training.  So their Class AA team plays here – the Bradenton Marauders.  It was really fun!  Of course it rained so the game was delayed about an hour.  At least we could stand under the bleachers and drink beer while we waited for the rain to stop.  No worries!  But the home team lost…..  :-(

We’ve also found the local American Legion and the Elks Lodge.  Mike checks for these first thing when we arrive somewhere new.   

We will being having more company soon.  Our friends, Pam and Bill will be here Sunday.  Can’t wait to see them and catch up on all the hometown news.  Also, Jeff and Linda are planning to come up this way on their boat Jeremiah soon.

Till next time!

Admiral “C”

Our Trip Up the West Coast!

On our way from Sarasota to Bradenton
Whaler in tow

Local kitty at Bonita Bills

Enjoying the fireworks!

What a cool night!

Happy Fourth of July!

Like old times - hanging with our buddies!

Sunset in Sarasota

NautiNell on mooring ball
See where Mike put my scooter!

Fast boats - hard to catch!

Love the sound!

One of the many storms that headed our way

Yeah, we got passed by a sailboat!

 (Sorry, computer caught a virus and messed up my hard drive.  Had to get a new computer.  So I'm a little late in my postings.  Should be getting caught up pretty soon.)

After eight months of being in Marathon we find ourselves heading on another adventure back up the west coast of Florida.  The last time we were on the west coast was when we were still on the Great Loop in February 2012.  The following is a day by day log of our trip north which was long overdue…..

Day One  - We left Sombrero Marina on Monday, July 2 about 9:00 a.m.  It was a beautiful day – Florida Bay at a light to moderate chop and a following sea.  We were out of sight of land for most of the day and also out of phone reach or Wi-Fi.  We had great weather until we were about an hour from our destination – Little Shark River - a good spot to stop for the night – very well protected.  A storm blew in but it turned out not to be too bad.  It looked a lot worse coming in!  We anchored about 4:00 just before the rain hit.  Little known to us - this would become a pattern as we ventured up north.  Little Shark River is known for its bugs – however a light rain continued throughout the evening and kept them away.  We sat out on the deck with cocktail in hand and listened to the distant thunder.  We think we saw an alligator – never got a really good look at him.  If it was one – it was the first one we’ve seen on this whole adventure!  We did see a couple of huge turtles and three nurse sharks.  We also saw four Roseate Spoonbill who came to roost in the trees.  We thought they were pink flamingos at first until we got a good look at them and got out our trusty guide book.   Not bad for day one.  Until the generator quit again.....  Luckily we had the inverter. 

Day Two – Mike’s birthday and he got to work on the generator this morning.  His birthday present was that it was only an impeller this time.  We left about 9:00 a.m. finally.  We had really wanted to get an earlier start but we don’t always have control of that….  It wasn’t the best day either.  It started out okay then the seas began to build – 4-6 foot waves and some rollers that were maybe bigger.  Luckily the wind was still at our backs so most of them were following.  We dodged storms all day – didn’t really get into a lot of rain – it was just a really long day.  We made it to Marco Island and dropped a hook about 5:30.  Again we spent the evening enjoying cocktails on the sundeck and watched the storms roll by.  Finally have phone service again.  Nice evening overall. 

Day Three – Happy Fourth of July!  We left our anchorage about 8:30 a.m.  It was a beautiful day with calm seas.  We still had to run outside and would until we reach Ft Myers Beach area.  That’s close to where the GIWW starts and we can move inside away from the Gulf.   The closer we got to Ft Myers Beach the more the clouds began to build.  We made it just in time.  Of course, it’s a holiday so the beaches were packed and there were boaters everywhere.  We finally got into where the mooring balls are about 1:30.  Mike decided we should try staying at Bonita Bills again rather than a mooring ball.  What a great idea!  We were able to tie up there and have electricity.  It was perfect!  We’d stayed there before when we were headed south – only this time they charged us.  Oh well, the last time it was free – new manager this time.  We got all tied up and plugged in AND turned on the a/c.  No a/c…….! This is turning into more of a shakedown run than a pleasure cruise!  That’s what you get when you own a boat….  At least we had fans and a good breeze for a while.  After the engine room cooled down Mike checked the filter.  It had a few barnacles – we cleaned it out and all is well.  Good thing too because it really started raining so we had to close all the windows.  Like I said earlier – this was the pattern – get tied up or anchored and within 30 minutes or so it would rain cats and dogs.  At least it always waited until we were secure first!  Good karma, I suppose. 

We had dinner at the restaurant – a great blues band was playing and we watched the fireworks from our boat.  Very cool!  Couldn’t have planned it any better!  This was our third Fourth of July away from home.  Time does fly!

Day Four – After getting fuel at Ballard’s Oil here in Ft Myers Beach we were on our way about 9:30.  It was a long day but a good one.  We were able to go inside so no more open water!  Of course, there were more storms.  It was really hard to see when we were crossing Charlotte Harbor – the rain was coming down in sheets.  We finally made it to Marker 4 Marina in Venice about 6:00 p.m.  Of course just before the rain hit again!  We went to dinner with our friends Jeff and Linda (Jeremiah) who live here. Went to Bogeys and had so much fun with them!  We all are going to head to Sarasota tomorrow sometime for the Offshore Boat Races.  Can’t wait!

Day Five – Short trip to Sarasota from Venice so we were in no hurry.  We left Venice along with Jeremiah about 1:00 p.m.  Like old times again with our traveling buddies from the Loop.  It was only a two hour trip.  Picked up a mooring ball at Marina Jacks – yep, just before it rained.  Afterwards we took a dinghy ride and saw a lot of the race boats on trailers.  We had dinner at O’Leary’s Tiki Bar and a nice little sunset cruise.  Excited about the boat races tomorrow!

Day Six – We took the whaler to see the races.  They were being held out in the Gulf in front of Lido Key. It was a little rough getting out there because of all the traffic but we were able to get up close to Lido Beach and drop our anchor.  It was calm and we could see the races really well.  Believe me; Mike’s testosterone level was high today!  HA!  What a wild ride back to the boat!  After watching the races, everyone must have thought they were driving a race boat.  I was really happy to see NautiNell in the harbor!

Later that day we were visited by a young couple – Dave and Victoria.  They are doing the same thing we’re doing only on a sailboat – AND they are in their late twenties.  They’ve been on their boat for about three months and came from Houston.  Wish we had their energy! 

We also were able to get the boat bottom cleaned.  There was a guy on a mooring ball that had cleaned Jeff’s boat before in Venice.  Glad to have that done.  Now we can go fast!  LOL!

Day Seven – After saying our goodbyes to Jeff and Linda we left our mooring ball about 11:30 heading to Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton.  Jeff and Linda headed back home to Venice.  We only had about a three hour trip so we towed the whaler.  Pretty easy day up the GIWW.  The marina is back up the Manatee River about 10 miles from Anna Maria Island.  We made it there about 3:00 p.m. and then it rained.  Really, it did! 

We plan to stay here at Twin Dolphin Marina for a couple of months.  Seems like a really nice marina.  Looking forward to seeing Mike’s son Todd and his wife Lisa in about a week.  They’re coming with her family to a condo on Anna Maria Island.  Can’t wait to see the grandbabies!  And hopefully my son Mike will be here with his little one in another week or so!  Yea! 

Till next time!

Admiral “C”