4/4 to 4/13 Clewiston to St. Augustine

We have had poor WIFI for the past ten days at marinas so I have been unable to post.  This will be a summary of events.
4/4  We left Clewiston at 0725.  Made it across Lake Okeechobee in 3 hours. Winds 17, light chop to 1 footers. Sunny.  Mike from Big O Marine Towing said to call him when we were 15 minutes from the Port Mayaka Lock (north side of the lake).  He called his friend the lock master and the lock was open when wearrived.  The water on the lake is low, so we got right through with no drop.  See picture of boat behind us.

Home, home on the range/swamp.

We are on the AICW headed north.  Winds 26 but a following sea.
, so it doesn't seem rough. Heading for Ft. Pierce tonight.
Arrived Ft. PIERCE:  Well, I did not take "lasso" in college..although I wish I had.  We came into our slip with winds of 28 and rain.Ron backed into the slip as I attempted the lasso. Missed several times and lost my LLBean watch on the last try.  It now belongs to King Neptune!

4/5
0830 we left Ft. Pierce. Arrived at Telemark Beach/Indian Harbor Beach at 1515.

4/6 Very windy today with a small craft advisory, so we are staying put. We are right in front of the office and just across the parking lot from the laundry.

 An Olympic training facility for rowing is next door to the marina so we are able to watch their practice sessions several times a day.

4/7 0700 and we are off.  Captain Ron and 1st mate Duke at the helm.

Duke at his best.

As we approached an eastern turn in the ICW, 6 miles after Titusville, we were concerned about a beam sea since winds were gusting to 38, but there was no problem since some barrier islands protected us.

There were lots of boats damaged by Hurricane Matthew last fall.

Two pink flamingos flew right in front of us and a ray jumped in front of the boat.  Where was my camera??

4/9  Arrived yesterday in St. Augustine.  Today we attended Palm Sunday services at the cathedral. The "first family of St. Augustine" participated.  After the service, the Bishop  and entourage walked to the marina for the blessing of the fleet.  Tonight we took a tour of the city on a trolley chartered by MTOA.

4/10 Shopped with Ann today.  What fun!

4/11  The MTOA Rendezvous officially opened yesterday. There are lots of seminars and activities.  Evening party theme was to dress in clothing from your favorite decade.

Raffles are done at the end of each workshop and event. We won 5 times.  (set of wine glasses, turtle candle, turtle light pull, ninja turtle-which I gave to a little boy on the dock, a lighthouse night light and 2 free nights'stay at two different marinas).

Each evening ended with a dinner.  The band was fabulous tonight.
They had centerpieces on the table containing balloons and a pump.  Look what we made.

4/12  One of my favorite events was Chef Bill's cooking demonstration.   Our lunch was a sampling of all of the foods he cooked.  One dish had shrimp, heavy cream, Lawrys Seasoning, sugar and bananas.  Very good!

 The culmination of the MTOA Rendezvous was the awards dinner.  Turtle pins are given out for various volunteer activities. Since we did a presentation on the Great Loop with Ken and Ann, we earned ruby turtle pins.

4/13 most of the MTOA people left today.  We are staying because of some mechanical issues.  We had someone here 2 days ago to work on our generator--we have a temporary fix.  We also had a diver change our zincs and he found prop damage.  Ron is renting a car and driving back to Dunedin (4 hours each way) to pick up our spare prop.  A diver will switch them out tomorrow.
WILL ADD PIX LATER