Merry Holidays

Merry Holidays,

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat

Please to put a penny in the old man’s hat;

If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do.

If you haven’t got a ha’penny then God bless you!

A nursery rhyme “Christmas is Coming” is said to be a nursery rhyme to teach children about being charitable. If they don’t have anything to give, then give God’s Blessing. 

Since you last heard from me, we visited Fort Pierce with Wally, Darcy, Valerie (Darcy's sister) and Rick (Darcy's B-I-L).  I don't expect  you to remember any of that. Rob and I met people from Maine that taught with Wally and Darcy and we met one of Darcy's students from Deer Isle, we just love making all these connections with people. Here are the pictures from that visit.

Fort Pierce was fun except for the time it rained. 

 Sisters forever, Darcy and Valerie

 Aboard Whit's End with, left to right, Rick, Darcy, Tricia, Wally, and Rob. 

 The winner of the Ft. Pierce boat parade

Palm trees wrapped with lights timed to TSO

A darling little boy believing in the magic of Christmas 

Next stop Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart.

Ft. Pierce to Sunset Bay Marina is a day trip without anchorages. While there we spent time with our cousins, Sue and Paul.  Over and over again we meet up with people we know.  I don't know of any other form of travel that has this wonderful experience. 

We have met a lot of owners of the Kadey Krogen boat, Manatee. We met the owners of Cool Beans, a Manatee lost while on a mooring in the Keys during Irma. They now own Morning Star, another Manatee and will make it their new Cool Beans.  I love that name because my niece, Linda Jean, use to say this often when she liked something. 

The owners of another Manatee, Sovereignty, were in Stuart for the winter, we met Trish and David while at Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach spring of 2017.

Nearly Perfect, Jack and Patty met us in Stuart after a short visit with their friends in Vero.  We were looking forward to their visit. 

This is a great loving picture of Sue and Paul aboard Nearly Perfect

We had a great reunion with Patty and Jack (Paul and Patty pictured).

The ladies go to town

Dinner aboard Eider with Sue and Paul

A visit to a new place would not be complete without meeting the greatest dogs.  I met lots  of wonderful dogs and this is a Belgium Shepard I bring to you in honor of my friends Kathy and JoAnne who raised Belgiums for many years and still have them as part of the family.

South Fork of the St Lucie River, Stuart

A picture of the dinghy dock

These pilings are the remainder of the Florida East Coast Railway freight dock.

Part for the walkway was damaged during Irma so it wasn't possible for people to do the entire route.

From Stuart we headed out the St. Lucie River, part of the Okeechobee Waterway (OWW).  We are  working our way to Fort Myers for Christmas with friends. 

There are several locks and bridges to contend with.

The bridges

A hailed Merry Christmas from the operates of the only hand operated bridge in Florida.

The locks

There are two options for going from east to west of Florida using the OWW one is the rim route and the other is going across the Okeechobee, we took the rim route.

This is not a picture I took, but it is a nice example of the view when going through a lock. 

We planned the route to take our time, making it a four day trip. 

Our first stop was South Bay, an anchorage we had used before and found it a peaceful place to spend the night. Before sundown we watched the rookery for all the white egrets coming to roost in the trees.

South Bay 

Night two of our trip we docked at the Moore Haven City Dock, we will definitely stay there again.  There were two other boats there around 36' and room for one more smaller boat.  The dock is high making it difficult to climb out of the boat. A dollar a foot with water, electric and showers makes this is a real gem.

Night three at the Franklin Locks Campground another gem of a stop. With a senior park pass the cost for the night is fifteen dollars that includes showers, laundry, electric and water.  We met up with people we saw here last spring, it was great to see them again. Docktails on the boat.

View from our boat at the Franklin Lock

 Beautiful boat belonging to the people we met spring of 2017. Sue works from the boat while Gary maintains the boat and does great bright work.

Docktails are over, Christmas cards are out and it is time to say good night.  

I wish you peace, happiness and all the joy of the season that you hoped it would be.

Tricia