Peanut butta Jelly

We got our new bikes in this morning and after we put them together, we pedaled down to Sigma Marine to pickup our stuff and to see when they are going to come down to the boat to look at the auto pilot. I was laughing so hard at times I almost fell off the bike, my legs started burning almost immediately and I was huffing and puffing. We had to stop a few times to rest, now we can walk for miles, but the bikes are killing us, I was singing peanut butta jelly, because that is what my legs felt like!

Our new bikes

Captains log "All Walked Out"

Karin's book

Well Sigma Marina came today and brought back our chart plotter and when he plugged it back in it worked great, so after he left, Pierre turned it off and when he turned  it back on of course it did not work again, Pierre called them and they are going to have to send it back to Furuno,  Kenny was using the golf cart, so we had to hoof it back to Sigma Marina and my shin splints are complaining, but we got there and the girl that works for them is very nice and she let me refill our water bottles with their cold water. We have walked this way now for awhile and there is a little garden / etched glass door company on the way, they have their doors out in their garden, it's very beautiful, Codi they have lots of tillys, so I said to Pierre lets stop in and look at the garden and the doors, we looked around for awhile and we ran into a sweet little cat, so I sat down and started to pet him when a woman came out of the house and offered us to come in out of the heat, her name is Karin Mesa and her husbands name is Julian they are the most wonderful people! They are artist, like us and want to get into making wrought iron gates, just like Pierre and I used to make. She  also writes children's books and she gave me one of her books. When we got back to the "little ship" I read her book and I found it to be very charming, it is about a an anole lizard named Oliver, so sweet!
 I went on the Walmart online store and ordered us bikes, screw this walking thing!

Bromeliads on a tree

The walking Lesne'

Super cool old church

We have walked our feet off the last couple of days, Friday we took the chart plotter to Sigma Marine, and Pierre talked to him and they are going to look at it and see what is wrong and get back to us on Monday. Saturday we drove the golf cart to "Miss Vickie's the marina down the street from us and had lunch, they had a small band playing music and it was sweet! When we came back we met a man (Jackson) that has a small wooden boat here, he bought this boat and fixed it up. But him and his wife want to cruise, so they have bought a  38 ft Southern Cross. Very nice, so we talked to him for a while and he told us that he had to pick up his wife at 5 pm and if we wanted he would drop us off at the grocery store ( I needed toilet paper!) then he would pick up his wife from work and come back by and get us! Alright! His wife Arlene was so wonderful, as was he! Such nice people, I am regaining my belief in humanity! Today we drove the golf cart to Captain Jacks and chained it a tree, then we walked over the bridge and down to downtown Tarpon Springs, turned left and walked about 2 miles to West Marine and was surprised to find a Walmart, Dollar Tree and Big Lots in the same plaza! We walked across the street to Panara Bread and had lunch then we hoofed it back to downtown and off to a small park they have in the middle of the town, they have manatee in this park, but we did not see any, so we walked around to the sponge docks and back over the bridge, as we started over the bridge it started to rain and we ducked into Captains Jack for drink and wait out the rain, then we headed back to Mar-Marina, this Marina is fenced in and you have a clicker to get in, it makes me feel better to know we are safe.

From Captains Jacks

Sponge Capital of the World

Grass sponge

June 1905 was the month that the Greeks arrived in Tarpon Springs to start fishing for sponges. Newly arrived Americans settlers had discovered sponges in the Keys  around 1820s. The west coast sponges were discovered accidentally in 1873 by Key West turtle fishermen whose nets were foulded by sponges off the mouth of the Anclote River. Sponges came to the area to work the beds and some moved to Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs got its name from a woman Mary that moved here with her father, she saw some fish jumping and thought they were Tarpon, they ended up being mullet, but Tarpon Springs stuck.
 In 1890 John Cheyney a Tarpon Springs businessman opened the Anclote River and Rock Island sponge Company across the river from Tarpon. During the 1890s sponge packing houses were built in the City, sponge presses were installed and buyers moved into Tarpon Springs. Gradually the sponge business shifted from Key West, Cuba and the Bahamans also moved to Tarpon Springs. By 1900 Tarpon Springs was considered the largest sponge port in the United States.

This is wool sponge

 It was, however the Greek immigrants who expanded and refined sponging in Tarpon Springs. The individual who is responsible for the Greek involvement is John Corcoris, who arrived in Tarpon Springs in 1896 as a sponge buyer for a New York firm. He went to work for John Cheyney, who financed Corcoris' early efforts to make the industry more efficient. In 1905 Corcoris introduced the first mechanized sponge fishing boat to Tarpon Springs and brought in 500 Greek divers from Kalymnos, Halki, Sumi, Hydra, Spetse, Aegena and other Greek Islands. Other Greeks soon arrived and family's were established!

Sponge vase

Milk, please

Well...I think I am changing my mind about Tarpon Springs, we put the sun shades up today and did some small stuff on the boat, but I have been out of milk for days and I love milk in my coffee in the mornings. So after we finished the sun shade we walked to the marina up the street and had lunch. I had fish tacos, they were good! We walked back and went to office to find out about where we can get some milk, Gene and his son Shane said there was no where we could go on foot, now there was another man in the office his name is Kenny Coffee..and when he heard what I wanted he said " you know, I baked a cake last night and when I sat down to eat a slice I did not have any milk to go with it, so hop in my truck and I will take you to the store" he took us to a Winn Dixie..and I have to say I have never seen such a big Winn Dixie, we got milk, oranges and some yogurt! He waited for us in the truck and picked us up at the door, talk about service! I commented on what a large Winn Dixie that was and he looked at me and said " you don't get out much do you?" He asked us what else did I need and I told him I need a laundry mat..stat.. He drove us to the laundry and showed us how to get there, and said " I am going to let you use my golf cart so you both can get around here."
We have meet such wonderful people on this journey! We meet Harold and Kim and the others on the dock at C Quarters, all such great people! I am loving this! We hauled up the TV antenna and we have 60 channels! Here are some pics of the dock, and Pierre pimped out on the golf cart! LOL

Add caption

Mar Marine

We got up early and headed up the river to the marina, we are now at the dock and I now have wifi, sweet. We are getting charged for electricity here so we put up the sun shade. No laundry here, bummer, we are going to put the water taxi down and head out to look around and see what we can find, the furuno  repair man can not come till Monday, so we wait, post grip.

Tarpon Springs

Whew, after a 28 hour sail, we are now anchored here on the south end of Ancolte Island. We left Carrebelle around 9am and sailed out into the gulf ( the big pond) we sailed for a few hours and the chart plotter would not find us, so Pierre told me to go down below and find the book, I did and he read up on it and the furuno told him it was broken...BROKEN....and about now the auto pilots went out..so he said let's go back, I said hell no..we go on ....I only had 2 hous sleep because someone had to be at the helm steering. Long story short..we made it with no worries, well lots of worries on my part!
  After a day of rest and some research, I called the City Marina and talked to Ted, the dockmaster, after a lot of questions on my part we had a slip waiting on us. The next day I said to Pierre lets dingy in and check it out before we take the " little ship" up the river, boy are we getting good at launching the dink, it only took us about 30 minutes this time!  So off we go to the City Marina what a joke Tarpon Springs should be ashamed, very ashamed, the docks are a mess and they do allow live a boards, they charge a small fortune..etc..needless to say we could not stay there, so Ted felt bad and called a friend whom has a dock next to the Marina, but alas, the story of my life, we just missed it, he has another boat coming in so it was spoken for. Well what to do, so we had lunch at a authentic Greek restaurant, Kimmy you were right the spina thing with spinach was good and we had some sort of flaming cheese too! Their pita bread was to die for! Then we went on the hunt for a slip, what a joke this town is for cruisers, we soon learned to say "no we do not live aboard" because we finally found a place and after we talked to the man and we must have told him about 4 or 5 times we lived on the boat, got all the paper work done and everything, he said so you live on the boat and we said yes again...then he took the paper work and told us to go away, he didn't allow live a boards...go figure..I was pissed and hot. After all day we finally found a place and again Gene the dockmaster told us no live a boards, but there is a man that lives on his sailboat here!! They gig transients and cruisers here..me no like...but we had to take the slip. We will head in tomorrow!

Rainbow over Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs..here we come!

Hey everyone! We are heading to Panama City tomorrow to drop off the truck and do some last minute shopping before we head off to Tarpon Springs. We finally have a weather window...no rain and storms in the gulf! We are going to leave either Sunday or Monday, and sail all day and all night and get there the next day. I want to get there in the day light, we are going to anchor off a Ancolte Island and dingy into Tarpon Springs. They have a sponge festival at the end of the month and Kim and Harold may come down and spend a couple of days with us, I hope so!! I will let ya know!

Kingfish Shoot Out

Every year,  for the past 10 years C-Quarters Marina has had a kingfish tournament, to benefit the leukemia society. Jimmy Crowder, the man that owns C-Quarter had a daughter that died from leukemia, so he has sponsored this tournament and they have raised over $700,000,00 so far. Quite impressive! It was a lot of fun watching the boats come in and seeing their catch, I have never seen such big kings. They have big raffle at the end of the tournament, but I didn't win anything :(  I did get a small fish finder to put on the dink for $45.00, that was a good buy! The winning fish weighted in at 46.5lbs. 

Winning fish