St. Pete

St. Petersburg on the horizon

We’re back! A few friends have asked why we’ve been quiet on the blog. One reason is that we were so busy in St. Petersburg that I never sat down and got it done! I’m also better at posting as we’re leaving for a new adventure as a way to wrap up and process our visits. Since we were in St. Pete so long, I should have posted while there. I’ll be better next time!

Last year we came to St. Petersburg for a couple of weeks to check out the city. We liked it so much that we planned to come this year and stay for a whole month. We even rented a car so we could experience the city to its fullest. Well, our visit was amazing! We did so much and had such a great time, I’m not sure where to begin so I think I’ll let photos do most of the talking.

We stayed at the Municipal Marina which is located downtown, in the heart of the city. It’s a great marina (though we couldn’t access wifi when we were there) and we took advantage of the location, visiting the Saturday Farmers Market and a weekend Arts Festival, enjoying drinks and sunsets on the fly bridge, walks in town, more than a few frozen yogurts, and bike rides along the bay.

Foggy day

Cool day (thank you Pam for the blanket!)

Bright and sunny day with a big girl anchoring in the basin

Neighborhood osprey on her favorite perch in the marina (she was eating a fish but you can't see it in this photo)

Fellow Nordy, Ghost Rider sitting pretty on a gorgeous morning

Saturday Market

Sunrise over Tampa Bay

Sunset over St. Pete’s

Our time in St. Pete was extra special because we got to spend a great deal of time with some very awesome folks. Kristina, Atle, Diane and JP made us feel like their home was ours - magical :) I can’t say Thank You enough to everyone. Some people we met last year (we met several people out cruising who were from the St. Pete area) and some we just met on this trip and others were visiting St. Pete as well. We dined, danced, drank and laughed a lot. We had tours of St Pete and Gulfport, were introduced to the St. Pete Yacht Club, enjoyed an evening at the symphony, the Disney and Dali Exhibit (the Dreams of Dali: Virtual Reality Experience was Amazing!) and several local restaurants. (One of my favorites serves “authentic Thai-Mex” and it was really good, thanks Jim!) I didn’t get pictures of everything or everyone but this gives a flavor of what we did…

An evening on Blossom with Rick, Michelle, Kristina & Atle

Diane, Anne, JP, Mart and me enjoying the Tampa Bay Symphony at the Palladium

Rick & Michelle at Dali

Me and Mart at Dali

Nom nom nom, cotton candy, a perfect dessert!

Party on B! Margie, Jim, Peter & Mart

Bob & Sandy, dancers extraordinaire

“The Burg” burger. Yup, a gyro-burger. It was super tasty and just as healthy as it looks, I'm sure!

Of course I can’t leave out the online wine tasting classes we enjoyed with Kristina, Atle, Diane & JP (and MoMo) - "The Noble Grape", "Bubbly" and "Port & Fortified Wine". Tastings and dinners and a whole lot of fun...

Bubbly

Ports

MoMo enjoyed the tasting parties as much as we did!

A wine bottle graveyard? No, this is the glass recycle bin at the marina. I swear these weren’t all ours!

We also were able to visit with family while we were here. We went down to Longboat Key and spend a great evening with Penelope, her son Sydney, her sister Sally & Sally’s friend Chris.  One afternoon, Brenda and Syd came up to see us with their grandsons, Jake and Zack too. What nice young men!

Jake, Zack, Brenda, Martin & Syd

Later in the month, my Aunt & Uncle got away from the cold up north and came down to visit family living very close by. We shared a wonderful day together!

Bill, Rae & Me

We manage to get a lot of kitty-time too. Ringo, the marina cat came to visit (just a day after the 2-year anniversary of George’s death, I was happy to have a cat aboard that day.)  Our friend’s cat MoMo was also very happy to keep us company and we visited some very large cats at the Big Cat Rescue in Tampa Bay.

Ringo (the marina cat) visiting Blossom

Me & MoMo and Martin

MoMo in training as a “QI” (Quilt Inspector) And yes, I actually have 2 quilts nearing completion!

 Big Cat Rescue, he was pretty chill

This poor guy is a rescued, strange hybrid and has lots of health problems

The cougar was waiting for her "treat" (medication hidden in meat)

View from the Dali Museum. Building the structures for the Grand Prix

We couldn’t have enjoyed our time here anymore than we did. We leave with many wonderful memories and several dear friends. One thing we know for sure – we’ll be back!  J

Boat Business:

• Nav Mode. Our autopilot stopped working in navigation mode around the time we arrived in St. Pete last year. Martin was never able to get it back on track. Basically, we would snake back and forth out of control. On our way up (on the outside) he cranked up the counter rudder and voila – she ran straight as an arrow. This is awesome because it’s much more chill to run off shore and overnight in nav mode!
• Downstairs speakers. Martin called our electronics guy, Bryan, and was able to fix our radio. There are three inline amplifiers between the radio and the speakers which, along with some internal settings on the radio, needed to be configured correctly. Along with much swearing (the amplifiers are in places inconvenient for access), Martin was able to get them playing nicely together.
• 9K Gen. Well, we had an expert come out and work on it for several hours. Nothing was really found to be broken, though. We ran the gen two nights, 9 hours each time and it never over heated. (Last time we ran it, it overheated in about 45 minutes). We have no idea – just happy that it seems to be working again.
• Hydraulics. Steve from ABT came out and performed a bearing service on both thrusters and fixed the port side leak.
• Dinghy. The dinghy got a good wash and Martin replaced the locks we had on the compartments with hasps that we’ll lock using weatherproof combination locks.
• SUPs. Both of our inflatables developed pin hole leaks on seams that we cannot seem to fix. So now we have 2 gorgeous hard boards and a very pretty & colorful boat deck!

SUPs

• Fuel. We took on over 1000 gallons of diesel and topped off our gas tank for the dinghy. Getting ready for the Bahamas!
• Tightening hose clamps. After our brief trip over to the fuel dock we spotted some coolant in the front bilge. Martin hunted it down and found a loose hose clamp between the keel cooler and the main. That was an easy fix.
• Water Strainers. A couple of our strainers were leaking slightly on top through the wingnut that clamps the lid onto the strainer. Another easy fix using a little gasket maker.