March 8th, 2013

What a beautiful morning after two very windy days. We spent two days at the Cape Haze Marina due to the weather but took advantage of the time to meet a neighbor of Gary's he had not seen since he was 13. They both agreed that neither of them looked a day older than when they last saw each other!!! Wanda and Bill were kind enough to drive an hour to the marina to meet us and then took us to Gasparilla Island whose main town is called Boca Grande (Big Mouth) south of where we were moored. The island very much reminded me of Key West but not quite as touristy. It had a lovely beach which we walked on for a while for me to look for shells etc. I found a dead puffer fish and a strand of whelk cases which were most interesting. People were looking for shark's teeth, I guess to make necklaces out of.

Whilst at the marina we had our dinghy looked at. Since powering the boat with the dinghy upside down dragging in the water (unknown to us) the dinghy has not ran. We do seem to learn the hard way, don't we? The dinghy had water in the carburettor but was fixed quite easily and cheaply compared to what we have paid out so far. Now we can dinghy into places the boat cannot go. Uh oh, I spoke too soon. We went for our dinghy ride and would you believe it one of the side chambers started to deflate which meant we could not stay out as long as we planned. I did find a sea urchin on the beach but not much else.

Can you believe it, we had a day were everything went right, nothing broke down or deflated. We took the newly blown up dinghy into Tarpon Bay on Sanibel Island for some nature watching and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We took some underwater pictures of a whelk (says Gary) conch (says me) and a string of whelk eggs. Gary also took a photo of his beloved wife leaning over the front of the boat looking down into the water (my favorite/favourite position!!!).

No butts about this one.

Is it a conch or is it a whelk?

I am not sure what is in the bottom left corner - any ideas?

A whelk/conch with his foot out taking a walk.

A string of whelk's eggs.

My lovely pelicans.

My lovely hubby.

The back of the boat showing our homemade Kingston Rover sign and our country's flags.

Our clocks went forward this morning. It seems too early for that. Can you believe I got up at 7am this morning? That's 7am old time 8am new time.

I had a bit of a giggle with a tourist boat the other day. It was one of those "Rocket" boats that go very fast. It was full of tourists enjoying themselves speeding along at 30 mph. Behind the boat in the wake were two dolphins leaping in and out of the wake. Every time they leaped out the tourists would all go "oooh". You could hear ooohs intermittently as the boat drove into the sunset. Our boat plods along at 8mph so I do not think we will ever have dolphins leaping in and out of our wake.

We had a panic with Mia a couple of days ago. We were moored at a pier and she decided to go "walkabout". I was at the back of the boat with her as she leaped or attempted to leap from the boat to the wooden pier. However, she did not realise the boat had swung away from the pier a little creating a larger distance than she was used to. Anyway, she jumped and misjudged the distance ending up with just her front claws clinging to the pier while her body dangled 6 feet above the water. I do not know how she did it as she is 16 years old but she was able to pull herself up onto the pier by her own strength. She did not go "walkabout" again whilst at that Marina and I do not blame her. I cannot get out of a swimming pool unless I use the steps so I admire the cat's strength.


It is Mother's Day in my homeland. I wish all the British Mothers reading this a wonderful day knowing that your children love you and thank -you for everything. Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mum.

The name of the skin under the pelican's bill is dewlap - the name also applies to the loose skin under certain cows' chins.