Tuesday, December 27, 2005

A Crossroads Christmas in Key West



Santa visited Crossroads in the night on Christmas Eve & decorated the mast inside the boat and arranged all the gifts under the "tree". The gifts had been in hiding in the backs of lockers, under closet floors - any place they could be stashed. I hope we found them all. Our families had sent us off with gifts & goodies to make our first Christmas away from them very special. We miss ya'll but we also had a wonderful day.
Michele prepared her Mom's traditional pork tenderloin & I was in charge of the gravy - both were excellent. We made biscuits on our new (gift from my Mom & Dad) oven stone and enjoyed biscotti from Gail and our last grapefruit from Dad. There were stockings to open from Michele's folks and other gifts to make it really feel like Christmas in paradise.
We took the dingy ashore in the afternoon for Christmas dinner at Willie T’s. The place looked like a slightly touristy bar but the food was a real surprise. We feasted on conch fritters, salad with Gorgonzola cheese and figs, blackened Mai-Mai, sweet potato home fries, veggie shreds and of course key lime pie. The pie was the real topper. It was very tart and textured almost like cheesecake – yum!
Key West [N24d34:120,W81d48:060]

Monday, December 26, 2005

out of St. Pete & on the high seas


We finally got underway Wednesday Dec. 22. at about 2:30 in the afternoon. All morning we filled water tanks, stowed last minute purchases and tied everything down to make ready for sea. The journey really starts now. Our departure was timed so we would be in open water before dark and we passed under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge out of Tampa Bay at sunset. Dolphins escorted us briefly as Crossroads entered the Gulf of Mexico and the sky grew dark. The plan was to head down the coast to Boca Grand pass and anchor there in the morning. A strong, cold north wind had us flying along at an exhilarating 8 knots instead of the estimated 5. Boca was abeam at 3:00 a.m. so it was still way to dark to go in and we decided to head to Naples instead. The anchorage at Naples sounded hard to find with out having to be towed off an unmarked sand bar so we skipped it too & finally anchored off Marco Island [N25d58:700,W81d44:220] at about 3:00 pm - a nice run for 24 hours. Capt. & crew were exhausted from only getting a couple hours of sleep and steering in rolly seas all night so bedtime was 7:00pm. It was easy to sleep the clock around and fortunately it wasn't until noon that the marine patrol informed us that we were actually anchored in the channel. They were nice about it though & let us move 100 ft north to get out of the way. At 5:00 that afternoon we headed out again - bound for Key West.
Some of our loyal readers have asked why we keep leaving in the late afternoon and sailing all night. To get out of the anchorage and the channel to open water we need daylight. Once we are off shore it can be dark, as there is not much to hit out there. Our departures and arrivals are timed for daylight and we just take turns sleeping and steering in about 3 hour shifts.
The nice fast north wind was now gone and about to be replaced with wind out of the south - yuck, that's where we're headed. We motored for 22 hours (way to go Carl - our Perkins engine) all the way to the mooring field at Key West. The dinghy motor was installed and all the legal gear to make it an actual vessel was put aboard. Florida treats dinks like all other boats so we must carry life jackets and a light and have current state registration. We hit the town on Christmas Eve and stopped at the first place we came to - a great Irish pub. Finnegan’s Wake had everything that 2 tired sailors needed. It was close to the dinghy dock and had good beer and incredible food. Michele had a big hardy burger and I had the best bacon wrapped, mushroom gravy-covered meatloaf I have ever had (sorry Mom). Eating our way through Key West is going to be fun!
-Glenn

"Guardian Angel”


I am sure if you asked Bill Browning if he has ever been called an angel, he would laugh out loud. Bill is the owner of the yacht brokerage company where we bought our boat. From the day we moved to St. Pete’s (the day Wilma hit Florida) he reassured us that we were in a safe spot. For the next 9 weeks Bill took care of us, anything we needed he did for us. We even left several items that he has agreed to sell for us in his garage. He and all the guys at Browning Yacht Sales are so down to earth and made us feel apart of the community. If you ever buy a boat in Florida please call Bill at (727)323-5300 or www.floridaboats.net.

Thanks/ Claire and Ian


We wanted to say a special thanks to Claire and Ian, the owners of the St. Pete's TCBY. They are a lovely British couple, they allowed me to check my emails and update our website. The minute I walked in the door, I felt accepted. If you every go to St. Pete's make sure you visit the TCBY next door to the Starbucks.

Michele

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Name Changing Ceremony

Name Changing Ceremony


Crossroads was previously named homecookin. Yes, that is correct without the g. I know you might think that is appropriate with my southern background, however we changed the name to Crossroads. We did not have a name changing ceremony in New Orleans, and look what happened to that boat. We thought long and hard about the proper way to christen the boat. We decided to use the voodoo stick we bought in New Orleans to smoke out all the bad ju-ju from previous owners. I poured Champagne over the bow and stern of the boat to keep the spirits flowing and wore an Elvis tee shirt to give the boat a little Memphis soul.

Michele

Name changing ceremony



Glenn shook some rendezvous seasoning over every corner of the boat for a little of Memphis seasoning and of course he poured a little beer to keep Neptune happy. We were pleased to share this ceremony with Don and Ruth Phillips.

New Friends/ Rhonda & Steve

We met a very nice couple from Kemah, TX. They are cruising on their 37 ft Shannon. We had them over for red beans and rice and shared sailing stories. The next day I took them to Sams for provisions. We really enjoyed their company, we are looking forward to meeting them again one day.

Glenn applies new name/Crossroads

Projects out the wazoo!


We are now drawing energy from the sun; the solar panel set up is awesome. I think Glenn should market this creative engineering design. We ordered and received new batteries and installed them. I might add, they weighed 135 lbs, they were loads of fun bringing on to the boat. I worked on the internet completing all the lengthy document forms, licenses, etc. You can imagine how much fun this was. Ha!

I bought a new outboard motor for our dingy; it is a Yamaha 15horse power/ 2 stroke. We also bought our new kayak it is a tandem and we should be able to see it from a million miles away - it is bright Tennessee orange. We had a great week of checking things off our project list.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Visit with my Ya Ya's


As most of you know, I have been friends with Joyce since birth. Kimbo and I became friends at Freed- Hardeman College and I was fortunate to become friends with Annie about 5 years ago.
My definition of a Ya Ya:
- A friend you can totally be yourself around.
- A friend you can go for months without talking to and when you pick up the phone and call them, your conversation picks up like you never missed a beat.
- Be so totally silly with.
- Tell anything to and know they are not going to judge you.
- Experience life’s high and lows, knowing you always have someone to call.
Most importantly, it is with out a doubt an extremely strong sisterhood. I had a great time visiting with my ya ya’s.

Michele

Bob and Judy Bohannon


Kimbo’s parents, Bob and Judy Bohannan from Texas, own a 38ft. Hunter sail- boat. Next year they plan to coastal hop from St. Pete’s to Annapolis. They are enjoying one of the famous mot-sa-pies. They are been extremely supportive of our journey.

Kimbo, Annie and Joyce visit Crossroads


Our friends Kimbo, Annie and Joyce came to visit Crossroads. We had a wonderful visit.

Saturday morning we watched the St. Pete’s Christmas parade, it was a hoot. I felt like I was watching the Chester Co. Christmas parade. I think if you had a car you could be in this parade. The highlight was the poodle rescue group. Fifty poodles with Santa hats on, very cute. We spent the rest of the morning at the wonderful street market and ate our way through the streets. The highlight of the day was hanging out on the sailboat. There was very little wind so we just chilled out for several hours. The weather was perfect, sunny and high 70’s. We had a feast of homemade breads made with olives, and sun dried tomato and rosemary. Spread out on a colorful beach towel on the deck were delicious grapes, honey roasted pecans, dolmas, garlic chickpeas, aged extra sharp cheddar cheese and yummy olive oil for the breads. We topped it off with a lemon tart.

Michele