This past month in Dunedin - A emotional roller coaster ride to say the least

This is the way we like to see the inlet!

Beautiful evening

These guys come by here regularly!

Love this beach!

Quite a crowd at Molly Goodheads!

Happy's Bayou Bites

Great little place - used to be a food truck

"Home Cookin" 

Things a brewing

Pet parrot at Joe's Kitchen

Taken in St Augustine - nice fish netting

This past month in Dunedin has been a roller coaster ride to say the least.  It’s even been hard for me to sit down and write about it.  However, we’ve worked our way through it and this is how it’s been.

On September 12 we got an offer on NautiNell from a couple who hadn’t even seen her!  We countered, they countered and we accepted.  Then the hurry up and wait started.  Even while we were waiting on the sea trial and survey schedule we showed her two more times!   If everything went well we would be closing and moving off our home by October 15.  I said if everything goes well -  remember that.  We found ourselves reminiscing about all the fun days we’ve had these past years.  We got excited about what we would do next in the future.  Sometimes we would just have to get off the boat just to relax a little.  We put our bicycles on Craigslist and sold one of them the first day!  Get this!  A gentlemen bought the old rusty one of Mike’s for his son to ride around college.  Mike helped put the old thing in the trunk of his Maserati, no less!  Oh well!  Next we put the scooters on Craigslist too.  We’ve sold mine.  Sad…..!  We also spent a lot of time fixing up the little things here and there – just hoping to make the survey go smoother.  Ha - was that a joke!

Finally the day of reckoning came.  Three surveyors, the buyers and a stand-in for our broker.  Eight people on NautiNell!  We had to take her to Tarpon Springs for the haul out which is only about 14 miles – 1 1/2 hour ride.  We figured they would find a few issues – after all, she’s almost 30 years old!  The buyers were a very nice couple from Colorado.  We felt good about everything. We all enjoyed the ride. Then upon our return we heard the news…….  A couple of issues that were entirely unexpected.  A list of things wrong that, of course, we couldn’t see. The surveyors work for the buyers not the sellers.  When all was said and done, the buyers walked.  I guess they just didn’t feel so good about NautiNell after all.  We begged and pleaded to get a list of the issues.  Finally our broker was able to get a list of some of the things.  Most of them can easily be fixed by Mike.  And he has been diligently going down the list.   We have scheduled to have her hauled out for a bottom paint and to get a couple of things done that Mike just doesn’t want to tackle.  He’s capable but just can’t do it all.  So on October 17, we’re heading back up to Tarpon Springs to have her hauled out where she’ll be on the hard a few days.   We were as surprised as anyone about the problems they found.  It really sent us down a spiral for a while but we know she’s a great boat and has served us well for almost six years.  When she gets put back in the water she should be all ready for a new owner or maybe we’ll even reconsider.  Who knows!

Now along with all this on our minds – we have to deal with Hurricane Matthew!  We just had Hermine last month!  This time it was heading for the east coast (they said).  The problem was they kept saying they really weren’t sure just how far west it might go.  This meant that the best for us could be maybe tropical winds or the worst it could come on to land and who knows what would happen then.  I’ve had quite a crash course on hurricanes these last few weeks.  I stayed glued to the weather channel, etc. probably a little too much.  However we did know that the east coast of Florida would definitely be affected and also Georgia and the Carolinas.  We have good friends from the Keys to North Carolina up and down the coast.  We pretty much knew (?) we’d be okay but we didn’t know how it would be for the others.  As it turns out for us, we had some wind conditions for a couple of days.  We didn’t have to worry about the storm surge like we did during Hermine.  We really were fine.  But it just broke our hearts seeing Daytona and St Augustine getting hit hard.  And as I’m writing this we have friends in the Carolinas taking the hit.  I’m just praying that they are okay and the damage is minimal. 

So now between the boat sale on/off and the hurricane we’ve had to find a way from going crazy!  Just kidding – we knew we’d be fine – duh, at least we think so!  J  But our best way to cope was to go find a few Happy Hours!  (Not during the storm, don’t worry we’re not that crazy).  Anyway we did check out a few places. We checked out Molly Goodheads when they were celebrating their 31st Anniversary.  This is a very cool raw bar.  But it was way too crowded so we ended up at Captain Bill's.  We made note that Captain Bill’s was having a blues band playing on Saturday – we would definitely be back for that.  Between the boat sale and the storm, Terese came by for a visit.  Good timing! Thanks for the smiles! It was really good to see her.  It’s always good to see our Marathon friends!  Terese and Rick used to live here in Dunedin so she filled us in on places we needed to try.  We’ll try to do you proud Terese and make them all. 

We tried Happy’s Bayou Bites for lunch – the best Gumbo I’ve had in a very long time!  Finally Saturday got here and we had dinner at Molly’s and made it to Captain Bill’s for the blues band.  They were fantastic and I think I was a little overserved!  We’ve made it to the Elks Lodge a couple more times – they have Taco Monday and dollar drafts.  Can’t miss that!  We went to Ozona Blue on Terese’s suggestion and really enjoyed it.  We’ve taken a couple of dinghy rides and enjoyed the sunsets.  That always helps. Today we went over to Joe’s Kitchen.  It’s a little “hotdog” stand that has really good sandwiches, etc.  All outside, nothing fancy.  It was quite interesting.  Joe is a long time transplant from Chicago with lots of stories.  There was another man there that was a retired Jersey cop.  The combination was quite interesting entertainment while we had our lunch.  The same band is playing tonight so we’re heading back to Captain Bill’s.  I will not get overserved this time!?

We are getting back into the swing of things.  When we get NautiNell back in the water we’ll decide what we’re doing next.  We may stay here a little longer.  We may decide to head on down south.  We just don’t know yet.  Hey, we may get another offer on her and start this ride all over again! 

Stay tuned.

Till next time!

Admiral “C”

Update:  As of today’s post - It seems all of our friends on the east coast made it through Hurricane Matthew safely!  Some have minor damage to their boats but still consider themselves lucky.  It’s so sad to see all the pictures of the damage up and down the coast.  Some boaters are still searching for their boat days after the storm.  Our prayers are with those that were so greatly affected by the storm. 

 

 

 

Our First Few Weeks in Dunedin

This was what welcomed us the first night at Dunedin
Signs of things to come?

The finger piers underwater 
The dock was soon to follow

High tide and storm surge

Across the fairway from us

Our first day off the boat after the storm!
Huge fish out of water!

Sunset a couple days after the storm
Still lots of seaweed washed up

Florida State Park
A great place!

Looking over the grounds at Caladesi

Not the most comforting sign!

Caladesi Island

Beautiful beach - looking out to Gulf

Calm peaceful night at the marina

Our own private beach!

Looking out to the Gulf

Coming in for a landing
Picnic time!

Sand between my toes - love it!

Elks Lodge

NautiNell weathered better than some

 We’ve been here at Dunedin about three weeks now.  AND it’s been an interesting time, I must say!

As I last posted we arrived to Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin on August 27 and then the next day we rode the Jolly Trolley down to Indian Rocks and picked up our car.  The next week was spent anticipating the storm that seemed to be heading our way. For those of you that are like us and are not too familiar with tropical disturbances, here is a short synopsis of what happened:   First it was only an Invest 99 L, which was just hanging out there making rain off the coast.  The models showed it going everywhere and nothing was really expecting it to become anything significant except some rain.   Then it became a Tropical Depression 9 causing us a little more concern but still they were only saying it was going to be mostly rain.  Once it became a Tropical Storm it had a name – Hermine.  The problem was that it was moving up into the Gulf of Mexico but at only 2 mph!  The weather experts were having a hard time determining just where it was going to go – even though it had been out there for over two weeks.  So now being from Missouri, what do we know about hurricanes!  Little did we know we were about to have a crash course.  We watched the weather information very closely.  We put on extra lines to tie NautiNell down more securely.  For a long time it still looked like the worst was just going to be a lot of rain and some wind.  Then things changed.  She became much more organized and turned toward the west coast (that was us).  It was determined that it would become a Category 1 by the time it hit landfall.  The first Hurricane to hit landfall in Florida since 2005!  And wouldn’t you know it, the storm was on a path just going north of us by a couple of hundred miles – maybe.  This meant that the storm was producing 70+ mph winds.  We put out all the fenders and lines we had.  Oh, and of course, we made a run to the grocery store, Walgreens and the liquor store.  They told us to stock up on necessities!  We decided that since the storm was really going mostly north of us we would ride it out on the boat.  The problem with that (we didn’t really know at the time) was that we were on what they call the “dirty side” of the storm.  We could get lots of residual rain and wind and storm surge.  Storm surge - that water in the Gulf has to go somewhere when the winds are blowing it out!  So it comes inland.  That and the fact there was a new moon already causing a higher tide than usual - there was going to be major flooding.  Our main concern was the wind and the storm surge.  We didn’t want to float up above the pilings we were tied to.  Luckily the storm surge was not as bad here at the marina.  It was up only about an extra foot or two. They did have to turn off the power here at the marina because the water was up over the dock and fingers.  However, little farther north it wreaked havoc at over five feet!  The worst came about 3:00 – 5:00 in the morning when Hermine was making landfall.  We rode out 70+ mph winds.  The sound was horrible!  I was beginning to doubt our decision to remain on the boat.  But it was too late to do anything then!  Of course, it was dark and everything sounds worse at night.  I kept telling myself that as long as the dock was secure, so were we.  Finally morning came – no sleep – we stuck our heads out to see how things looked.  There were several boats that had their canvas shredded.  The water was still up over the dock by about 6 inches.  The last dock out which is open to the Gulf waters had some damage where the wind had pulled it up.  As far as NautiNell, we lost a fender and our boarding steps (they must have floated off the finger) and we have a “bruise” on the port side.  The bruise is where the boat rubbed up against the piling all night after it tore off the fender.  It is worn down through the gel coat.  Luckily it can be fixed without too much of a problem, we’re told.  We consider ourselves very lucky after seeing what happened to others on farther up north.  We can check this off our bucket list!  Wouldn’t you know every summer we have done our best to be in a so called “hurricane hole” during the season.  The one summer we don’t do that – and a hurricane makes landfall very close to where we are!  I do want to thank all our boating friends nearby that offered help and refuge if we needed it.  It’s nice to know they’re out there. 

Okay, so things are somewhat back to normal now. We’ve found a couple of places to hangout!  We’ve made it to a great little British Pub (Cricketeers) for lunch and Happy Hour.  And we’ve been to Casa Tina’s where we had some great Mexican!  Of course, we’ve found the American Legion and the Elks Lodge and a place just a block away called Frenchy’s!  

One day John and Susan (boaters on Alchemy that we met in Marathon) came up from St Pete to visit with us.  We really enjoyed it!  We spent most of the time at the Legion having $1.00 drafts.  Oh, and playing bingo where meat is the prize. John won a steak!

Then after the sun came out one day, we realized that it was Labor Day weekend! We had been so preoccupied with the weather, it slipped up on us!   So we decided to take a dinghy ride over to Caladesi Island which is a State Park.  It’s only a few miles away.  You can only get there by boat.  There is a ferry that runs back and forth from Honeymoon Island.  You get to Honeymoon Island by crossing the Dunedin Causeway.  But we can do it all by dinghy!  The next day we took another dinghy trip to Three Rookers Sandbar.  There are lots of beautiful beaches here.  Although there is a bunch of sea grass due to the storm.  It will eventually clear up, I’m sure.  We had a picnic on the beach.  And finally sand between my toes!

The next week found us driving to Venice.  We headed down that way to visit with Jeff (Jeremiah).  I had a dentist appointment there so we had the perfect excuse for a road trip.  We stopped in Bradenton and had lunch with William and Judy (Optimystique).  It was really good to see them!  It was only a 1 1/2 hour drive to Venice so we were there in no time.  We hung out with Jeff for a couple of days.  It was a really nice visit.  We met Paul and Leslie who are good friends of Jeff.  It turns out that Paul was a co-owner of a boat that we chartered in the Bahamas over 15 years ago!  Paper Moon!  What a small world. 

We made it back to NautiNell on Saturday just in time to be able to recuperate.  William and Judy showed up in their boat Monday morning.  They’re staying a couple of days.   We managed to have Happy Hour at Rosie’s Tavern and then dinner at Cricketeers.  What a fun time!

Yesterday (Sept 13)  We all went to Tarpon Springs for Happy Hour and to just check out the area.  Not much of a crowd there this time.  It’s really the slow season for them.  It was nice – no crowd means no waiting.  We went to Yianni’s Greek Restaurant for some cold beer and some Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie – a pastry filled with spinach, feta cheese and some wonderful seasonings).  Wow was that good!  We walked around a bit then headed back to Dunedin to the Hog Island Fish Camp for dinner.  Terese had told us about it and that her friend tended bar there.  Of course, Terese didn’t steer us wrong.  It was a great place!  There website calls it “Salty” Southern Cuisine.  Mike and I had Hogfish.  That is something you usually don’t see on the menu outside of the Keys.  It is so good!  Then it was back to the boat for a nightcap.

They headed out this morning going back to Bradenton.  We really enjoyed hanging with them.  Hopefully we’ll see them again soon.  For now, we plan to hang out here in Dunedin through October, then we’ll start working our way south back to the Keys.  That is if we still own NautiNell.  Who knows!

Stay tuned!

Till next time!

Admiral “C”

Our last month in Indian Rocks Beach

Mahuffer's Dive Bar

On a Mission from God

A little crooning at JD's

Another pic of Mahuffers 

One of our last nights 

Beautiful full moon

Just about sums it up!

I think I found something to
do with my shell collection!

Chillin'!

Rockin' at JD's

Capt Mike in his fav spot!

The last time I posted we were getting ready to head to Joplin for a visit.  We had a great time!  We left on July 12 and made it back to NautiNell on August 3. Just over three weeks!  It still was a whirlwind.  It never seems we have enough time when we’re there.  We wanted to get back the first week of August so we could move up to Dunedin where we had a reservation.  That’s another story I’ll get to it later.  First, it was the last trip home for the Silver Bullet.  It did a great job but it now has 277,000 miles on it!  So we decided to find us a “newer” car for the drive back.  We’re now the proud owners of a snazzy little 2010 HHR and the Silver Bullet has a new home.  Thank you Craigslist!

Anyway, we made it back to NautiNell on August 3.  For at over a week it rained and rained.   So much for sunny Florida.  We really can’t complain because that was that slow moving convection that caused so much damage from flooding in Louisiana.  We have friends there that have families who have lost everything.  They’re still in our prayers as they try to clean up and piece their lives back together.

The last few weeks haven’t been the best for us.   First, like I mentioned earlier, we planned to leave IRB the first week of August.  However, even though the Dockmaster knew this he still ran our credit card through on the 4^th for the total month.  He refused to credit it back and prorate our days!  We’ve never had that type of situation anywhere before with any other marina.  So that meant we paid for the month of August whether we stayed there or not!  BTW, he had no problem prorating our days for the ten days in June when we arrived!  So we made the best of it and enjoyed another month in IRB. 

It also seemed that every day or so, there was new project.  Either it’s the boat, the whaler, the car or the scooters!  One thing after another. Nothing really serious, but it’s been a pain in the butt!  But don’t worry, we still have found time to enjoy ourselves.  Our motto is now “don’t let those bastards get you down”!  LOL!  

On an up note, we have had several showings of NautiNell.  We have shown it here in IRB at least 8-10 times!  No offers yet, but we know it only takes one!  I know we’re going to miss this life but I think we’re really ready to start another adventure!  Whatever it may be!

While we were spending our days in IRB for the month of August, we still managed to hit a few Happy Hours, etc.  One afternoon we drove to Clearwater while they showed the boat.  We had lunch at the Brown Boxer Pub.  We loved it!  Can’t wait to get back there again.  We also went the opposite direction a different afternoon and spent some time in John’s Pass – Madeira Beach.  That time we had lunch at Shrimpy Blues Bistro on Treasure Island.  It was a funky little place!  Oh and of course, we didn’t miss Saturday Steak Night at the American Legion.  The best steaks we’ve had here in Florida for a long time!

J D’s Restaurant and Lounge became one of our regular hangouts.  The patio usually has great music and food is always good.  On Wednesday nights inside there is a piano bar with a totally different crowd and atmosphere.  Lots of ol’ crooners!  However, it’s also $1.00 hamburger night!  Can’t miss that!

We finally made plans to leave for Dunedin on Friday, August 26 because we wanted to be settled in up there before the rains from Invest 99 develop later this next week.  However, someone wanted to show the boat so we stayed one more day.

Finally, we headed out to Dunedin on Saturday morning, August 27.  It’s only a 12 mile boat ride!  That, I think, is our record!  It seemed we no more than got to moving that we were there!  It took about 1 1/2 hours.  We move slowly.  So we were in our slip at Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin by about noon!  Good thing too.  Within just a couple of hours the storms began brewing.  Luckily most of them missed us this time.

This morning (Sunday) we caught the Jolly Trolley that goes to IRB so we could pick up our car.  That can always be an experience!  We had to transfer trolleys three times but it all went pretty smooth.  The trolley stop is just a block from where we left the car.  We had lunch at PJ Oyster Bar before we headed back to the boat.

Now we’re looking forward to spending some time in Dunedin.  We should be here for the month of September and at least part of October.  We’ve been here before a few times just to visit.  The first time was in 2011 when we crossed the Gulf to Clearwater while on the Loop.  That time we took the trolley to Dunedin and Tarpon Springs from Clearwater to check it all out.  We’ve been by car a couple of times since.  We’re looking forward to really getting to know this little Scottish town.   We also plan to visit Tarpon Springs again.  We love the sponge docks!

Stay tuned!

Till next time

Admiral “C”

 

 

 

Our Time in Indian Rocks Beach

Some of the beautiful foliage

Greg could play a mean
guitar!

Outside at Mahuffers

Duh, I'm not sitting on that couch!

No expense too much for
Mahuffer décor!

A really interesting décor here

The best blues we've heard in a long time!

Taking notes for future
decorating ideas

Red Lion Pub

NautiNell looking proud!

Capt' Chappy is quite a carpenter

We’ve had our share of setbacks while we’ve been here in Indian Rocks Beach.  Some I mentioned in my last blog.  Well, they seem to be continuing.  Not all is the fault of the marina but it’s more a combination.  We just keep plugging along.  The way we have to tie up in the slip makes for a difficult time when trying to get on or off the boat.  So Mike built a great “gangplank” that helps. This way we can get off the back “most” of the time.   He’s pretty handy to have around!  Of course that entailed several trips to Lowe’s which turned into trips to the American Legion and the Elks Lodge.  After all, they’re close by to Lowe’s.  We had lunch one day at Widow Brown’s Restaurant.  I like the name.  The place was interesting and the food was good.   Mike’s scooter had a flat so we had to find a scooter shop close by.  It turns out it wasn’t far from the Legion and the Elks either!  Ha!

Indian Rocks Beach is an interesting little beach town.  It has its share of tourists, of course, but everyone is really friendly here.  Here are a few facts that I found interesting.  Indian Rock Beach consists of 1.39 square miles and over 3 miles of beaches.  The population is just a little over 4000.  I guess that’s while you get the “hometown” feeling.  According to legend IRB got its name when a native medicine man healed his chief with the waters from a natural sulfur spring believed to have been located in Kolb Park across from the City Hall.  Early settlers seeing the Indians on their way to the “rock encircled springs would say “The Indians are on their way to the Rocks”.  I can’t seem to find anything about the springs now at the park.  Not sure about what happened to them. Since 4^th of July was approaching y’all would be proud of Mikey.  He put up more flags than ever!  NautiNell was decorated with flags galore along with lots of red, white and blue! 

Mike had a milestone birthday this year – 70th.  This is the 6^th time he’s celebrated his birthday while on NautiNell.  Let’s just say he had a very good day!  First we took a dinghy ride to the American Legion in Madeira Beach that is accessible by water.  We had spent some time there nearly 5 years ago when we were going south on the Loop.  It takes about an hour to get there by dinghy because of all the no wake zones but it was a great ride.  This Legion has the largest membership in the USA.  Pretty cool!  They also had really good wings and cold cheap beer.  Mike’s favorite…..  After that we went about another mile to the Elks Lodge which is also on the water.  They have slips there open to members and we spent 4 days there Christmas 2011 again while on the Loop.  It was our first Christmas away from home then and I remember they treated us like family.  That hasn’t changed much!  So then it was back to the boat for a cocktail and a little time to regroup.  We wanted to check out Mahuffers.  This is a local dive and has great music every night.  On Sunday, it’s jam session.  We weren’t disappointed!  There was nice music outside by one guy who we listened to for a while but then they kicked it up a notch inside with great Blues!  Our favorite!  These guys were fantastic and the others that would step in occasionally added to their sound even more!  Let me tell you, this is a dive though.  You really need to watch where you sit and you might want to take a shower when you get home!  HAHA!  Our friend, Linda said that this would be probably the “diviest” bar we had ever been in.  We questioned that, knowing our history, but I would say it’s rated right up there!  And yes, we’ll go back.  Mike definitely had a good birthday!

July 4 started out a little low key. Yeah, we were taking it a little easy after the day before.  And then wouldn’t you know it – the salon air conditioning decided to quit.  Why do these things always happen on holidays or weekends?  Anyway at least we had the forward/aft one still working.  It couldn’t keep up very well but we were able to be comfortable when we slept.  We spent most of the time out on the sundeck where there was at least a breeze.  Since we had pretty much forgot about cooking Mike’s birthday dinner yesterday, we ended up smoking some country ribs on the grill.  We sat up on the front of the boat and watched fireworks.  It turned out to be a pretty nice evening, after all.  Hopefully we’ll get a repairman here tomorrow.

Okay, the next day the air started working again!  Go figure!  We still want someone to come check out and service it.  He’d be here tomorrow.  We just enjoyed the air for the time being – knowing it probably wouldn’t last.

We were right it was still working but quit just after the repairman got here.  He said the units were running really hot.  He added Freon and told us we needed to flush the lines.  They were possibly plugged up with crud.  He would do it for $450 each – we have two units!  Don’t think so.  So Mike and I worked about 4 hours without air trying to flush out the lines with barnacle buster.  Not an easy task but we got it done – we think.  It started working anyway so we showered and walked up to Crabby Bills for happy hour and shrimp.  It’s Wednesday so it’s shrimp day there!  When we got back the a/c was still working and the boat was slowing cooling down.  We can only hope and pray that did the trick.

On July 7 we decided to take a road trip to Dunedin and Tarpon Springs to check out marinas that we may move to when we get back from our trip home to Joplin.  It looks like Marker 1 in Dunedin will work the best for us.  Right now, if they have a spot for us then, we’ll move there and stay August and September.  That will be a short trip for NautiNell.  It’s only about 15 miles or so!  If for some reason they can’t get us in – we’ll go to Clearwater Beach Marina for a while.

When we got back from our road trip we decided to scooter over to the Red Lion Pub.  We used to have a Red Lion back in Joplin that was the place to go back in the ‘70s.  So we had to check it out.  Mike made a “buddy” there.  Turns out he just got out of prison.   Mike can sure pick them sometimes…

After that we stopped at Jake’s Cantina.  2-4-1 Mexican Pizzas and Coronas!  Nice way to end the day.  Oh yeah, air conditioning still working – but I’m not going to jinx it by bragging……

After a few other issues on NautiNell that I’m not even going to go into – (nothing big – just boat living) things are getting a little better.  One day we drove over to Seminole to go to a Verizon Store.  Yes, we’re having those problems too!  Sheeh! Anyway, we got that taken care of by a very knowledgeable young man at the store.  That was nice for a change!  So since we were out we just happened to ride by another Legion.  Of course we had to go in.  They just have the coldest cheapest beer, you know! 

On Saturday, we hit the Legion again here in IRB (actually Largo).  They have filet dinners on Saturday for only $8.25!  Couldn’t pass that up!  We have a hard time finding a good steak in Florida!  Well, that turned out to be a great idea!  HH cocktails and a good steak!  Too bad the band sucked.  Guess you can’t have anything.

Yesterday we spent most of the day “fixing things” – that seems to becoming the routine.  I’ll be glad when our “MOJO” changes!  We’re going home to Joplin on Tuesday and leaving NautiNell here.   We’ll be gone about 2 ½ weeks.  Maybe that will do it!  Anyway, the next time I blog will probably be after our return from home.  Like I mentioned earlier when we return we plan to move NautiNell to Dunedin around the first of August.  We’ll see!

Till next time!

Admiral “C