Easter Feast

Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, Back to St Charles Yacht Club

Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Independence Day have always been very big holidays for both of us. They always involve too much to eat and having fun with extended family. This year was certainly different. For our traditional Easter dinner, we had turkey sandwiches, chips and ice “sweet” tea. About the time everyone was gathering at grandma’s house, we were about 5 miles off the coast with a bright sunny day and the wind pulling us along at about 6 knots. It was truly beautiful. We just can’t think about the ham, green beans, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, layered salad, broccoli salad and pecan pie, pound cake, carrot cake, Italian cream cake, and caramel cake. We talked to everyone after we got into harbor and Uncle Monk said he ate my portion of the deserts.

The Naples Club has many nice boats in the harbor. There are probably over a 100 slips there and there are more Hinckley Picnic boats (http://www.hinckleyyachts.com/home.html) than you can imagine and the ones that aren’t Hinckley’s are Hinckley knockoffs. There was a Morris sailboat just a couple of slips down that was beautiful. Most of the boats were very well maintained. There was one old junker with a rebel flag on the side. There has to be a story there.

We had dinner at the Naples Yacht Club last night. It is a beautiful place; the interior finishes you just have to see to appreciate. Unfortunately that is where the beauty ended. The food was adequate and the service was marginal. Oh well you can’t have it all.

Tomorrow starts red on right. For those of you who are nautically challenged and don’t remember the early discussion of the ICW, red on right means we are starting our trip back tomorrow therefore; the channel markers will always, well almost always, be on the right going back toward Texas where the ICW starts. We plan to be in Clearwater by next weekend and then make the crossing back across the Gulf as soon as we get a good weather window. Paul is trying to get off to make the crossing. He has never been able to cross the Gulf. Michael will also be joining us but he has made the trip several times now and is getting to be an old hand at night crossings.

Carole asked me to write about the wild life we have seen. Well there were these two girls in these bikinis. She made me delete the rest of the paragraph and start over. We have seen birds and fish.

From Carole:
Oh yea, and the cute hunks on the beach in Naples but that is another kind of wildlife. It is always a real exciting moment when you catch the animals and mammals of the sea in their natural habitat. Wherever we go, I am always on the lookout. Flora and Fauna also really intrigue me. It is always so different from home. To see poinsettia trees and schefflera and bougainvillea hedges is just amazing when these are house-potted plants to us. We have seen beautiful flowers on perfectly landscaped lawns. But back to the wildlife, we have seen many dolphins, shore birds of all kinds, Ospreys on nests and babies, some big sea turtles and finally down in Naples flying fish. Today a large tarpon jumped up in front of us. And the very best was lots and many friendly lizards, John Patrick! So as we begin the trip home I will still be on the lookout for wildlife of all kinds and beautiful flowers. I must confess though, nothing was as beautiful as the entire wild dogwood in the woods the weekend we were home at the end of March.