Author: Phil

Well, we’re in February and Polly came to stay for a while.  She has moved out of her place in St Petersburg, rented a home in Tucson, AZ near some of her relatives.  She will be leaving for Tucson in early April.  She’ll stay will us until then.  As she is still a Florida resident she will get her Covid 19 vaccine shots here, before leaving.

As I mentioned in the last blog we had Paget painted up nicely and finally decided to sell her.  She sold quickly to a middle-edge couple with children in Miami.  The wife’s parents are from Norway and they have at least one antique boat.  This couple wanted one to day boat around Miami.  It all worked out and they are now the proud owners of Paget.

Carey and I have cleaned up the Nr 2 Apolonia, the 37′ Maxum and we are planning our trip to Virginia and the Chesapeake.  We’ll be leaving on 26 April.  Now we are planning our trip and doing the necessary check out of Apolonia.  And just to make sure Carey can see well, she took care of a cataract issue with her eyes and also had new lenses placed in the eyes.  She doesn’t need glasses any more.

It is still slow around here but in our local area people are behaving by wearing masks for the most part and being serious about the Covid virus, even though the news media seems to indicate Florida is miss-behaving.  We’re lucky to be in a spot that has reasonable people.

Take care.  More to follow as we get ready for the trip north on the boat.

 

When you label large blocks of time on a post, like I just did, you know things are moving slow …

We spent most of this winter isolating due the COVID virus.  I could not take the symptoms and Carey was making sure I did not get the virus.  We stayed in.

We had planned a trip to Annapolis to see the grandkids, which we canceled.  Our friend George (Cajigal) was losing his battle with cancer so we went to see him and his wife Polly.   A short time after our visit he passed away, which was just before Thanksgiving.  Polly and her son Jackson came over to our place for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully relaxing for Polly.  We enjoyed each others company.  After that visit Polly decided to settle up in St Peterburg and move out to Tucson, AZ. near her brother.  She needed to get the vaccine for the virus and move our of her apartment by early February.  We made plans for her to move in with us in February until she was able to receive the vaccine, find a place to live in Tucson, and move out of St. Petersburg.  As that was all in the works, Polly and her son Jackson came over again for the Christmas holidays.  We had Bonnie Scanlin, a good friend, over for Christmas Eve dinner.  Sort of breaking the rules but all five of us have been very serious about isolating so we took the risk.

Now January, we’re putting a fresh coat of paint on Paget.  We think we’ll put her in the market.  And we are also getting Apolonia ready for a summer cruise hoping that the virus gets under control.

Here are a few pictures of the holidays.  And we report we’ve had our first Covid vaccine shot and will get the second one 19 Feb.

A hot summer and we’re still waiting for the cool weather of fall.  It is now the end of October and we’re still in the rainy season, but thankfully no hurricanes have hit us this year.  While we do have the month of November yet to get through we’re hopeful!  The virus has really slowed us down.  We are staying isolated.  There are some open air restaurants that we have started to visit as they are following CDC guidelines.  We’re also anxious about getting good word on an upcoming vaccine.  Not many things we’ve done to take pictures of, but here is one at a local eatery in Jenson Beach where we can sit outside and safely social distance, CrawDaddy’s.

June was quiet.  We isolated and stayed at home.  Carey has been extra protective of me with COPD.  Just two people running around the house quietly.

In July we ventured out a very little bit.  We also enjoyed a visit from George and Polly for a week.  It was very nice to isolate with friends who are as careful as we have been.  We enjoyed the pool and ate most of our meals at home.  We did go out once to a Cuban restaurant where they rigorously adhered to the CDC guidelines.   We also took this time to have some mechanical work done on the boat.  Now we are getting a bit bored again and hopeful for leadership that gets this country out of the mess we are in.  We also enjoyed celebrating George’s 74th birthday.

Hopefully, a bit of normal will return next year.  We have purchased a dinghy and small gas engine for the boat so we can start short overnight trips on the boat.  It will be a way to isolate but still get out and around.  We’re looking forward to these trips in August and September.

After returning from our boat trip to the west coast of Florida COVID 19 took center stage and we started our harbor at home safety regime.  Carey wouldn’t let me out of the house.  We cancelled all planned trips and stayed away from activities outside the house.  Finally, we got the garage cleaned out and presentable.  We boat, read a lot, watched too much TV and dreamed about trips we wanted to take.  It’s now the end of May and we’re hopeful we can safely return to some low level of activity; however Carey and I will not be pushing to hard until we see what direction the virus takes.  At the end of May we did make one outing to Cobb’s Landing Restaurant where we ate outside 6 feet away from all other customers and enjoyed the view of the Ft Pierce City Marina and the new restaurant behind it.