With Orion Jr on her trailer safely tucked into a storage lot in Clearwater, we turned our attention to Christmas preparations, which meant shopping, travel and family time.  We also came to a final decision on something we had been studying since the fall and began moving our residency to Florida. 

Where is home?

Upon learning that we have decided to change from Virginia to Florida residents, most people assume we did it for tax reasons. And they would be wrong. We did it for health insurance coverage.

Back in September, Dave started calling Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, our health insurance carrier in Virginia to understand what options we had for 2015. We knew that our insurance policy which gave us coverage throughout the US (using a PPO plan) was going to end in 2014. Last year, Anthem representatives had offered some encouragement that by the time we were enrolling for 2015, there would be similar offerings in the exchange. (For 2014, Anthem only offered HMO's, which restricted you to in-state doctors.) With a lot of persistance, Dave made his way up the chain at Anthem to finally talk to someone in a position with some knowledge of the 2015 options. By late October, we thought we were set. Anthem was offering a plan with national coverage and we were eligible to sign up.

So imagine our surprise when we called back during open enrollment to learn that the plan described in the earlier call was not available where we lived in southern Virginia (although it was offered in Northern Virginia, where Congress lives). Despite endless attempts to follow-up with the employee who had given us reassurance in October, Dave never heard back. We had to either live with only emergency room coverage outside Virginia or look elsewhere. We knew from other cruisers that Florida had the coverage we needed. So, we contacted a broker in Florida and found that a policy existed that would work for us. To get it, we would need to establish residency in Florida.

That meant a Florida mailing address.

You don't have to be cruising for long before you start meeting a lot of people who have the same street address in Green Cove Springs. In conversations, you learn about St. Brendan's Isle mail forwarding service. This is how a number of people who cruise by boat or RV establish a permanent address. So, we signed up for their service and began changing addresses to have mail sent there. We wanted our change to start officially on January 1st, but to get driver's license, voter registration cards, etc., we would need documents with a Florida mailing address on them. The folks at St. Brendan's Isle have been very helpful in helping us navigate the change, including recommending we complete a Declaration of Domicile form to make the change of address effective January 1st, even though it would take us longer to get everything moved.

Since we spend more time in Florida than any other state, the change is reasonable. And health insurance isn't something we felt we could take chances with, so we are moving to the sunshine state. Although unless you looked at our mailing address, you would never know we had done anything at all. Such is the life of a wanderer.

Christmas Classic

It was going to be a rare gathering. All of Cathy's sisters and their families plus Bonnie's and Adam's families were gathering in Winston-Salem for Christmas. With everyone together there would be 23, plus 2 on the way. We never actually got a picture of all 23, but it was a great time to see the larger family and enjoy the interactions between generations, between all the kids, and with kids and grandkids. Wow!. It was a lot of work for the NC hosts, but the joy of time together was certainly something we'll remember throughout the year.

By New Year's Eve, we were back in Florida, bringing in the New Year with Dave's sister's family.  We even managed to stay up till midnight.  (That's the real thing, not cruiser's midnight (aka 9pm).  

It's not a big accomplishment, but still one worth noting. Over the past month, we traveled from Tarpon Springs south to the Manatee River near DeSoto Point, where we last anchored 2 years ago, connecting the dots of our track with that journey north in 2012. So, if you visualize a track that covers all of our coastal travels since we started cruising, it would be a continuous line, starting at Tarpon Springs on the west coast of Florida and continuing down around the tip of the peninsula through the Keys, back up the east coast and ending in Newburyport MA (with a side trip to the Bahamas). That might even qualify for half of the Great Loop, which consists of the connected waterways that circle the eastern US.   

Last Few Dots:

Dunedin
Since we only had to travel about 3 miles to go from Caladesi Island State Park to Marker One Marina in Dunedin, we could afford to take our time. After one last walk on the beach, we made ready to depart. Surprisingly the wind was up inside the protected basin and with short finger piers in a much larger slip, Jr got pinned on the outer piling before Cathy could get the engine to do what she wanted and get us off. As we made our way out of the shallow channel for Caladesi, we were at a lower tide and saw depths dip below 4ft before we cleared into the main channel. Thankfully, pulling into the slip at Dunedin was much less dramatic and we had lots of offers of assistance. Several "Looper" boats had recently pulled in and were on the dock to help us. "Looper" is the way cruisers doing the Great Loop describe themselves. Most of this group had just made the jump across Florida's "Big Bend", doing an overnight from Carabelle. 

We spent several days in Dunedin and enjoyed the company of this friendly group while we were there. In addition to some potluck social hours, we also shared some details of our solar panels and freezer/ice box set up with another couple on a small boat with similar issues. Within a few minutes of docking, we had them on board showing the systems. Within a couple of days, the solar panels were going on their boat. I guess we tipped the balance on that decision. 

 As we explored beyond the marina, we discovered that we were a little further (i.e. 2 miles) from town than we thought. With that discovery we waited for a day that would give us the time and the weather to make the trek. We were rewarded with a charming, historic town, some delicious Mexican food at Casa Tina's and, of course, some homemade ice cream at Strachan's. All of the businesses along the main street were working hard at their Christmas decorations. They each had responsibility for decorating the lamp post nearest their shops for the Old Christmas celebration and they were busy with preparations.

On our return trip, we stopped in a canvas shop to look for something and found another small trailerable boat fan. His boat was sitting just outside his back door. Even more intriguing was his work as founder of Threads of Hope, an organization that teaches sewing and provides machines to individuals around the world that are struggling. On his wall were pictures of a school his organization had recently built.

Dunedin to DeSoto Point

We pulled out of the marina at first light on Friday, December 5th in calm winds and partly cloudy skies that unfortunately obsured our view of the distant rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. By the time we reached Hurricane Pass (so named because a hurricane created it), the sun was high enough that we could begin to read the water. We were a couple of hours up from an extremely low tide. The prior day a local couple from the marina had run aground re-entering the inlet in their MacGregor sailboat. We were understandably ready to watch carefully. Cathy went to the bow to make out where the deepest water was. We navigated the bends in the passage successfully and shortly after had our sails up. The wind was good for most of the day, although we had enough distance to cover that we had the engine off for only about 3 of the 8 hours of our passage.

By early afternoon, we were making our way into Tampa Bay, between Egmont Island and Fort DeSoto State Park, which marks the northern edge of the bay's entrance. Although we had to cross the shipping channel, the big ship traffic was light entering and exiting the bay. As we approached the Manatee River entrance, rain clouds were approaching. We managed to stow the sails just before the rain arrived. It was shortlived though, so we were anchoring in dry conditions a few minutes later on the eastern side of DeSoto Point.   We had officially connected our track.

DeSoto National Memorial

DeSoto Point is named after Hernan DeSoto and a National Memorial that interprets his exploration of North America sits on the point that bears his name. We happened to time our arrival to coincide with the start-up of the living history interpreters arrival at the park. We watched the blacksmith make bullets and weapons, and learned about the Cracker horses, which are Florida's strain of horse that descends from those the Spanish left behind. We walked all the trails again through the mangrove hammock, enjoying the beauty of the park. 

We actually had a more pressing reason for returning to this location. Dave's sister, Wendy wanted to join us for a sail. Since the weather hadn't cooperated Thanksgiving week, we moved south to be closer to her when her schedule freed up again. As it turned out, we had a great sailing day. We made our way downriver toward the bay and into the wind. We tacked around the river's entrance and then had a great downwind sail back up toward the point. Wendy's motion sickness was kept at bay thanks to some meclizine and she had a great time. Maybe there are more sails in her future.

St Petersburg

We made our way back into Tampa Bay on a cold, rainy Monday morning, headed for St Petersburg, which sits on the western shore of the Bay. This route took us under the Skyway bridge, a massive structure that carries I275 4 miles across Tampa Bay. As we approached the bridge, it only seemed to get bigger, not closer. We had to keep checking the chartplotter to see how far we were from it. By noon, we had rounded the iconic St. Petersburg pier and picked up our mooring in the north basin in downtown St. Petersburg. The mooring field was mostly empty, but we knew why. Our trip up the channel from the bridge had taken us past dozens of boats leaving town after the just-ended St Petersburg boat show.  

Apparently, the sun shines so often in this area that the original publishers of the local paper would give away an edition for free if the sun didn't shine the day before. According to our 50 cent trolley tour guide, this occurred only about 4 times a year. Our luck had us arriving on one of those 4 days. It rained off and on all day. As we arrived at the dinghy dock, we were surprised to learn that we could not exit the dock without the dockmaster's assistance, since it required a key to clear the gate. Not so much fun in the rain. However, we shook off the weather and enjoyed our visit in this affluent downtown port.

We had made plans to stay for a week when we learned that our mooring ball was going to be one of the prime viewing spots for the Holiday Boat Parade on Saturday. In the interim, we explored more of downtown and got some of our work done as well. There are lots of parks, galleries, shops, restaurants and lots of good walking as soon as you come ashore in the city. We did a fair amount of exploring by foot, in addition to the aforementioned trolley tour. On Saturday, there was a pretty spectacular Farmer's Market in the nearby park, with 3 different performing venues, good food and some excellent produce. Mid-week, we took a tour of the stained glass windows at First UMC, a few blocks down from the marina. These Tiffany-style windows were astonishingly beautiful. Their colors and textures glowed in the morning light. The pier was a great place for a walk or a vantage point to watch the bay, but it is in a transition state. The impressive building is closed to the public as the community determines what will replace it.

However, by week's end, we were ready for the Holiday boat parade. We stood out on the pier watching the boats assemble for their grand entry into the basin to be reviewed by the spectators on shore. Once back on Orion Jr, we fixed some hot chocolate, turned on the Christmas CD's and sat back to watch the parade. There were dozens of boats in the parade. Their route brought them into the basin to make a circuit. We were on the outer corner where they made their turn just across from the reviewing stand. It was a front row seat! There were power boats and sailboats, large and small, single-handed and full of crew. What they had in common was the lights that covered them along with some more creative decorations.

Back to Clearwater

With the boat parade behind us, we were about ready to leave. Our focus was beginning to return to the haul-out process. So, on Monday morning, we headed out of the north basin for the Clearwater area. We joined up briefly with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway before heading out North Channel inlet to the Gulf for an outside run up to Clearwater. Since we were a day early for our haul-out and the weather was calm, we anchored behind one of many spoil islands that line the waterway and were formed by its creation. The next day, we had some time to kill, so we rowed over to the island to explore. They are state-owned, but "adopted" by a local family or organization, who cared for them. There were places cleared for camping, a small beach, and a couple of fire pits. It looked like a neat place to spend a night or two.

By Wednesday morning, Dec. 16, it was time to start prepping the boat for haul-out. We pulled anchor and 45 minutes later were in the same slip at Clearwater Basin Marina that had started this adventure. Dots connected. Time to move on.

Back on Dry Land

Although we're getting better at stowing everything and lowering the mast, it still takes us a good day plus a little to get Jr ready to be hauled. And this is a long, hard day. We had looked at several different boat ramps during our travels as possible alternatives for hauling out onto the trailer, but finally decided we liked the space and depth of the Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater where we'd started out. We were enough ahead of schedule that by Thursday morning high tide (around 10:30am), we were motoring over to the boat ramp to haul out. Dave backed the truck into the water and we floated Orion Jr easily onto the trailer. Dave winched her in and made her snug and then – we were done. It seemed too simple.

And it was. As we prepared to wash her off at the nearby spigot, we noticed the bow was about a foot back from the bow roller. This was not a safe way to travel. And she's too heavy to winch in tighter as she sits dry on the trailer. So, we had to head back to the water and get her floating enough to try again. Dave winched her in tight and began to pull out. Nope. She still wasn't snug. The third time was the charm. Now that we know what to aim for we should get it right the first time. The good news was that nobody was waiting for us to finish, since the boat ramps were pretty quiet on Thursday morning.

Some lessons we learned from our first successful hauling: 1) We need to remove the bimini bows completely before lowering the mast. The mast pin can't be removed until the mast is laying on the deck and it won't lay on the deck with the bimini bows in place. 2) We can't run the outboard completely out of gas at the haulout slip because we need to run fresh water through it. 3) The truck back wheels may have to go into the water to get the trailer in deep enough, but we can put chocks behind them as long as they are tied to the truck. 4) Hauling a sailboat out so close to an urban center makes you an interesting sideshow to the locals who have time on their hands. Sigh!