Palm Harbor

  Saturday, Dec 17 we made our way to Palm Harbor, a tiny basin off the ICW in the city of Palm Bay.  We have some long time friends here whom we haven’t seen for several years.  They have a house on Turkey Creek, and Palm Harbor is the entrance to that creek.  We were the only transient boat in the harbor.  There were three sketchy-looking vessels where someone may or may not be living aboard, and there were five abandoned vessels along the shore line.  We’ve seen many examples of both - sketchy live-aboard boats, and boats washed up and abandoned - all throughout Florida.  Some of the boats are sunk at docks, only their masts or rails showing.  The sketchy live-aboards are just as easy to spot - their sails or torn or missing, the bottom is thick with marine growth, and the decks are covered with various bits of collected junk, often covered with tarps.  It doesn’t give us a sense of safety to anchor nearby, and we make good use of padlocks in the anchorages here.

However derelict the anchorage, though, the beauty and serenity of Turkey Creek more than makes up for it.  We saw blue and green herons, ibises, osprey, and in one great moment, we saw a manatee rise out of the water to forage along the shore line.  We spent two mights in Palm Harbor and went ashore every day via a fifteen minute dinghy ride up the creek to the small seawall behind our friend Dianne’s house, where we tied up to her cypress tree.  We had a good time catching up, going out to dinner, and visiting Dianne’s husband Dave, who is now residing in assisted living due to his advanced stage of Parkinson’s disease.  We’ve known these dear people for over thirty years.  It was so nice to be able to spend time with them.  And the second night we were there, Dianne, Dan and I went out to dinner with mutual friends Ed and Joyce to catch up with them and share boating stories.  

On Monday we took Tommie to the vet in Melbourne.  She’s fine, but she needed an international health certificate in order to come to the Bahamas with us, and this clinic specializes in providing such a service.  The people were all exceptionally cheerful and friendly, even though Tommie was in rare form - “Miss Growly Grumpypants” was what the vet called her.  Don’t worry, I assured them, as Tommie snarled and hissed, she’s all talk.  Well Tommie decided to make a liar out of me, lashing out every chance she got.  I was the only recipient of her claws; the vet was more experienced at seeing it coming and got out of her way.  They brought out the dreaded towel to wrap her up so they could finish the exam for her clean bill of health.  We got the certificate, Tommie had the last say about her adventure - one last strike at me just so I was clear about how she felt - we paid the bill and left.  On that note we bid goodbye to Dianne and set off back down the creek to the Willie Dawes.  

Miss Growly Grumpypants taking cover once back on the boat.

    We made it to Pine Island that night in time for a pretty sunset.  Tonight (Tuesday Dec 20) we are in Manatee Pocket enjoying a little liquid sunshine.  We are hoping to get to Key Largo by the weekend.  

sunset, Pine Island