January 10th: Happy New Year and Headed to California

It was New Year's Eve afternoon. Several of us were on the dock in front of our boat when we saw a quite large cruiser, (50 - 60 feet long) cruising fast and headed into a shallow area. Flint said, "He's gonna run aground!" Sure enough, a few moments later the boat was kicking up a big trail of sand and then suddenly stopped. Not a good way to celebrate New Year's Eve! As you can see from the sand trail in the water, he tried to back off but it didn't work.

The sand trail in front of the boat was from him racing the engines in reverse, but he was only able to slightly turn the boat. The tide was quite low when he grounded so we thought he might get off in the morning when the tide came back up. They stayed the night, the boat lit up like a Christmas tree with music playing. They obviously made the best of it. Fortunately for him, in the morning we saw him under way on his own power.



It seems like there is always someone working on their dinghy engine. One of our newest members is Norm who came in on a beautiful big sail boat. He's a great guy with a good sense of humor. He has sailed all over the world and has interesting experiences to share.



His 2.5 horsepower outboard engine wouldn't start. He said it was almost but hadn't run for a long time. I went over to check it out when he said he was somewhat stumped. He had already taken the carburetor off and cleaned it. There was a spark and gas seemed to be flowing but it wouldn't start. We played with it for a while and finally gave up for the day. The next day he again removed the carburetor and we took it completely apart. Bottom line is after several guesses we put it back together and it started.

When we were on the Panama Canal Cruise with Randy and Cindy we ordered sherbet for dessert. It came with these cute little spoons that Linda really liked. They also worked great for getting the last little bit out of the dish.

We received a package from Amazon a couple days after Christmas. We hadn't ordered anything so we wondered what it was. Linda opened it and it was a set of four sherbet spoons. We knew immediately it was from Randy and Cindy. Of course I bought some sorbet to try them out. They worked great!

Flint with his Yellow Jack

The weather was pretty windy so I didn't think I'd get out fishing before we went to California. I woke up one day and it looked calm. Checked the weather and the winds were forecast to be low for most of the day. Talked to Flint and away we went.











It was a great day at sea. As soon as we arrived Flint caught a very nice Yellow Jack. Fun to catch and great eating. We caught quite a few more fish and ended up with 8 keepers.

Crab chair

Day's Inn Courtyard, Ft. Lauderdale

It was January 7th and time for Linda to head to Key West for physical therapy. Afterward, we drove to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the night before flying to California to celebrate our Franko family Christmas. We stayed at a nice motel with a fun court yard.


Linda liked the turtle and I couldn't resist the alligator picture

We rode the shuttle to the airport at 11:00 am. Nice that we didn't need to get up early. Security at the airport was very quick and our flights all went as planned. Matt and Wendy picked us up in San Diego and drove us to their house in Encinitas. It was great to be back! Rebecca came down today and is here for the weekend. Of course, Trevi and London will join our Christmas gathering.