Jan. 20-24, 2017 St. Petersburg, FL is our home for nearly a week.

Mid-winter weather in Florida has a history of being unsettled. It was the reason for us to wait 11 days to make the crossing of Florida’s Big Bend and it’s keeping us in the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina for close to a week. “The Blow” came through Sunday afternoon. Just north of us were tornado swirls and just south of us were water spouts. We got off much easier. The thunder rolled and lightning flashed, revealing cloud layers scuttling by at 50-60 mph. We kept an eye on the lines of the nearby unattended boats, prepared to make them more secure, but it was not necessary. We all rode out the storm without incident.

On Saturday, the day before the storm, the Demens Landing Park next to our dock was the gathering site for the Women’s March for Social Justice... a reaction to Donald Trump becoming the 45th president. 20,000 participants represented females of all ages and a goodly number of supportive males of all ages. Their handmade signs covered every topic imaginable that concern women of today.  Wally and I visited the Farmer’s Market across the street early in the day. We selected freshly picked strawberries, corn in the husk, string beans, baby potatoes and home-baked bread. After stowing our purchasing in the boat, we returned to the park. As observers of the march preparations, we were very impressed by how enthusiastic, empowered, yet orderly the marchers were. The evening news reported that groups like this one had demonstrated their hopes for a better future all over the country and even world-wide. Amazing! 

Not since we first purchased SUMMERTIME on Punta Gorda Isles 3 years ago have any of our family members been on board our boat. That changed yesterday when Wally’s cousin Vesta and her husband Steve came for a tour. A downpour caught us all unawares as we were strolling down the dock together, so we had to put my clothes dryer to work as soon as they came aboard. Back in dry clothes, we walked to a nearby bistro and enjoyed a delicious lunch together. What a nice visit! Vesta and Steve are Maine folks spending their second winter as renters in the Largo condo complex that Wally’s mother and step-father had been in for 30+ years. The Florida lifestyle suits these newcomers just fine, too.

Our Kadey-Krogen Manatee attracts the attention of passers-by wherever we go. Last week in Gulfport, FL it was a delightful man who had been on the design team for this boat back in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s. This week it was another trawler owner. After asking a series of questions about our satisfaction with SUMMERTIME, he moved on, but returned with his father. Both were eager to accept the offer of a tour that I had made earlier. What a sweet father-son duo they were. He is now on the search for a Manatee of his own!

It has been a pleasant addition to our stay in St. Petersburg to have the Albert Whitted Airport with it’s Control Tower just 500 yards off our stern. Using our smart phone to pick up the controller’s and pilot’s transmissions, Wally, a pilot for many years, sits up on our upper deck and watches the various planes and helicoptors take off and land. As the wind picked up on Saturday, we both watched a banner-towing plane make 4 passes of the field before his hooks grasped the tow lines and hauled a huge banner into the blue. That’s tricky business. We also enjoyed a tasty lunch at The Hangar Restaurant on the upper deck of the airport terminal building. Of course, viewing air traffic while eating was the most popular pasttime for the dining crowd.

Oh, yes,  downtown St. Petersburg is “Artists Central”... the famous and the up-and-coming hob-nob together. Reminders that creative spirits are at work bloom everywhere!  

Created by Darcy O Campbell