Ocean Air and Island Flair

It had been a long five months since we floated away on board our Happy Wife. Between overseas travels, holidays, a frigid winter and an over scheduled work life, we found ourselves tied to the dock for far too long.

And so it was that we decided to grab a week or two and head out to the tiny islands right near Tampa that are very special to us. Bird Island and fantasy Island are about 2 hours away from home for us and they are the first locations we took Happy Wife to on our very first trip out.

It is certainly not as remote as our beloved Ten Thousand Islands being so close to Tampa but just being out on the hook on our own is priceless to us. We truly appreciate it every single time we leave the shores

We anchored on day one at around lunchtime and headed straight to the beach. The beach is Cali’s happiest place…no leashes in sight and she spends her days looks for fish, chasing balls and floating toys and is is always exhausted by the end of each day. She is going to be turning seven this year and so the boat, travel and the beach is what she knows and loves. It makes us so happy in an obsessive kind of way and we love it more than we should

We spent our days working some, taking walks on the beach, sipping cocktails up on the helm in the evenings and going to bed early. We call 9pm boaters midnight. Out on the water you are up early with the birds and go to been the sun does too

I have started to study again online so this was a great time to begin as well. From our anchorage, there are two restaurants up the Alafia river about twenty minutes by dinghy and we love to go up now and then for lunch or drinks, which we did a couple of times

This trip out we had winds in excess of 20 knots on most days. In all our years of boating we’ve never experienced sustained winds like this. While it wasn’t a problem at anchor, it did put a damper on things like beach picnics and so on that I love to do.

Of course we, with our vintage Hatteras, have to watch the i=winds when we have to sail or dock because we don’t have bow thrusters that modern boats have, so we have to use the dual motors and the winds to steer us in. It truly is a skill and today most modern boat captains don’t know how to truly steer a boat

We stayed for 12 nights before having to head back home. We celebrated Easter quietly out on our own but i set the table and we had a lovely dinner together. We took an early morning gap before the winds came up to much again Our kids and grand kids were on the dock waiting to catch our ropes and that is always so lovely.

Happily home and so happy to have spent a little time out on the water again. The kids and grand kids welcomed us back home at the dock