Well the SSCA Gam was fantastic with almost 300 cruisers
attending. Unfortunately, I was so busy
that I forgot to take pictures. So I
spare you that. For those of you who
don’t know what a Gam is. It’s an old
whaling term used when ships would be out to sea for months and actually meet
up with another ship. They would share
all the news from back home and share their stories. Our Seven Seas Cruising Assoc picked up that
term for the gatherings of cruisers all over the world for comradery, education
and just plan fun. The one at Melbourne,
Florida is the annual one that brings people from all over for 3 days of talks,
dinners, flee markets, vendors and just lots of comradery. We get to see people we have not seen in ages. Harry and I have gotten very involved as
volunteers so we coordinated one big discussion group, then did a “round table”
discussion on another topic. I ran
registration and the volunteer assignments.
Harry monitored 1 of the rooms with talks to help with AV stuff
etc. So we were busy. The picture you see here is us handing down
the “radio widows” hat which has had 22 recipients. One was the last one which I got 3 years ago
and now was time to pass it on. The
recipient, Eddie Tuttle, was well deserving of it since her husband, Glen,
spends hours each day on the single side band in many different aspects. It started out as a really funny gag for
those of us who have spouses running the radio nets as HAM operators. Through the years, the cruisers use this type
of communication more and more as they travel the world on their boats. Eileen Quinn, who was a fantastic song writer
of sailing songs wrote one called “Radio Widow”. One of the lines is: I didn’t lose my love to another, but I lost
it to the SSB. The song is quite funny
and the last line she cuts the antenna to the radio. Just a bit of fun history for you. Also, early on people were trying to make Wi-Fi
antennas on their boat with a pringle can, that’s what started it all.
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| Here is the hat. I forgot to get a picture at the Gam on Eddie's head but I had one with it on my head |
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| Jamming at the Gam with Salty Paws and others |
After the Gam we stayed another day to visit with Barb and
Bill Burgner who use to have a boat next to ours at Twin Dolphin Marina. We had a great time catching up with each
other’s lifes.
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| Barb and Bill with Harry |
Then off we went down the
ICW to Ft. Pierce. Lind Rains, who is a
very close friend and nurse from Bradenton, came to visit for a night. She and I worked together for years at the 2
hospitals in Bradenton. We had a great
time with her, although the visit was too short. We also had dinner with Carolyn and Sam who
now live in Ft. Pierce. We caught up
with them after not seeing them for year.
Now, we go outside in the ocean to Lake Worth. It’s about 50 miles with the winds behind us
so we had a good downwind run. We spent
several days anchored out there with strong winds and lots of rain.
Outside again to Ft. Lauderdale with another downwind run
but high winds and slightly rough seas.
I was glad to get in and anchored.
We ended up spending 5 days there waiting for a weather window but did
have lunch with Nick and Jeanie (my brother and wife). Also, our 4 year old great niece. Lots of fun,
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| Beautiful Lilliana, my great niece |
We went to Thanksgiving dinner at an upscale restaurant that
served a huge thanksgiving dinner with a ton of turkey. The meal was very reasonable but they made a
bundle on the drinks. We brought turkey
home for good old turkey sandwiches the next day. We walked miles while we were there in the
city.
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| Turkey dinner at a restaurant looks like a family dinner plate |
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| There idea of Pumpkin Pie |
Next stop was a fantastic sail down to the bottom of Key
Biscayne to anchor for the night. It was
on a Saturday so going through Miami and Biscayne Bay was like driving on the
thru way in NY. Boats every where
speeding, racing ,sailing, kite boarding etc.
We were very relieved to get our anchor down.
We are moving fast now, as we went through Stiltsville the
next AM. It is wild to see houses on
stilts out in the middle of the water.
People use to live in them and now they are vacation homes. We saw several that are occupied.
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| Stiltsville house being occupied by a vacationer |
We wanted to stop and see some cruising
friends in Key Largo but it is too shallow for us and we couldn’t get close
enough for us to get together. We were
sorry to have missed Ann and Darrell.
We did get a treat in Marathon though. We anchored outside and dinghied into
Berdines to meet a cruising couple for dinner.
On our way in we meet a dinghy coming out with Don and Diana in it. Boy, were we all surprised. They are very good friends who had their boat
next to ours for several years in Bradenton.
They are headed to the Caribbean to follow our adventure. They say it’s our fault they are doing this
adventure. Reading our blog made them
take this on. We were so glad to see
them and had them join us for dinner.
The other couple we met we hear on the Waterway net all the time but had
never met. So the 6 of us had a super
time with nonstop talking for 2 hours.
Cruising is just so much fun.
After 3 days of perfect wind and sailing we motored up the
west side of Florida. The seas very flat
(very good) but no wind (very bad). We
got spoiled sailing and not having the motor running. Anyway, had a great trip and anchored between
Twin Dolphins and Regatta Pt in the Manatee River. I love being back and getting caught up with
old friends. Linda, my nursing friend
has loaned us her truck. She and I went
shopping, what a treat to get off the boat and actually go to a mall and shop
for Christmas. We had lunch with Judy
and Bob Wakelam, who we last saw 2 years ago in Grenada. Great
catching up. We saw some folks at
TDM that we haven’t seen in 3 years.
Then spent the evening having one laugh after another with Debbie and
Ray DaRin. I really need to take
pictures but just forgot.
We spent a week anchored out in the Manatee River mostly
seeing old friends, running errands etc.
Then Harry and a friend, Jim took the boat up to Tampa and I drove the
loaner truck that Linda gave us. We will
be a month at Margorie Park Marina in a slip.
It’s a nice little marina right down town Tampa on Davis Island. We walked every day, visited with neighbor boats,
went to the Edwards Yacht Sales Christmas Party, SSCA breakfast in St. Pete,
and had several different sets of friends over .
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| Typical mansion on Davis Island. It is extremely upscale and fun to see all these houses |
We did have a really nice day sailing with friends who
charter their sailboat. That particular
day they had a young couple on board. He
proposed to her while under sail. That
was lots of fun with Champagne and all.
The boat is called Lionheart and they do a great job of chartering.
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| The young couple up front just before he proposed |
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| Jim, the captain on Lionheart |
