Finding Florida

Finding Florida

Lake Okeechobee

Lake Okeechobee swollen with 12" rain in so many hours, waters enriched with fertilisers and chemicals drained from the sugar cane fields and flooding the coast with nutrient rich pollutants that spark the mother of all algal blooms on the east coast of Florida, and consequently starving the wildlife of all oxygen -result? hundreds of dolphins, pelicans, manatee, and other coastal sealife washed up on Florida's sparkling beaches, tho missed by many as it occurred before the influx of  Americans heading south for the winter, and suppressed by the state's tourism hungry government.

Crossing the state from one coast fringed by human excess to the other, this endless flatness, wetness, of remnant everglades, of intense cropping in sugar cane with its attendant black workers refugees from Cuba and other Caribbean hellholes, convoys of harvesters and smoking sugar mills dotted along ruled lines of concrete highways, morphing seamlessly into rambling cattle ranches, and broken only by the wake-up calls of buzzing crop-dusters, RV saleyards in the middle of nowhere, and Arcadia, the most original cowboy town left on earth, even if it's main street is marred with McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Burger King and Taco Bell.

Large heron and egret -sorry, Peli just flew off

One day in St Petersburg, named by a Russian railway entrepreneur, a city oversupplied with rental & retail properties as there is no work for many, but beautifully sited on Tampa Bay with gems of its own;  a retirement heaven, where big cars and bigger bikes thunder on the roads chewing up their super cheap auto gas, men & women in well worn midlife crises sporting long hair, leathers and tats; a cultural heart trying hard to keep the the city alive and safe -the Dali, an architectural masterpiece to house the biggest Dali collection outside of Spain, the only University I'm aware of that has waterfront promenades, solar powered recharge stations for students, and the Fountain of Youth on campus; research centres adjacent for sustainable energy and marine conservation, and a humungous Coast Guard base (-I can paddle board round them all each morning in less than an hour)

Students waterfront with solar device recharge timeout tables.
In fact there were recharge stations for electric cars as well.
And just beyond the sailing dinghy fleet is my yacht.

Spiral Stair of the Dali Museum

Dali's take on warping time - his melting clock

Ribs, ribs and more ribs - bring it!

In the main street "Central Street" I find it closed to traffic for the 3rd annual Scorpio Thunderbikes Meet, heavy metal being pounded out by a local band, beers flowing, and more leather and tattoos  on large 50-something blonde beauties than you can shake a Harley at. A  safe transit thru that, and I'm in the chute for the Ribs Fest - a collection of all the award winning Ribs recipes, with grits and salads and wings and coke and beers and bourbon and..and then? -Steppenwolf, pumping out Born to be Wild like it had just hit #1 - a mecca for the grey beards of the post war 70s dope heads. And everyone just so into it, happy to share whatever, and dance, and there must've been 60,000 there. A good nite out. 

Tampa Bay - no hurricanes, no lightning storms, yay
Half the yachties I've met in Florida have been hit by lightning resulting in
everything from total loss to total replacement of all electronics and electrics

First single-handed sail on Whakaari ( aka Pajarito)

Yacht found, Ring of Fire sailing project about to launch

After returning from South America 3 or so months ago, after ten incredible weeks exploring volcanic landscapes in Chile, Ecuador and Peru, summiting six significant volcanoes, and submersing myself in the waters around the Enchanted Isles, I have yet to write a single blog about the trip.

Why? My house sold! I actually finalised the sale from Cusco Peru, scanning and sending pdfs of the Sale & Purchase agreement with the help of the hotel receptionist, me with very little Spanish and her with even less English. It worked out ok.

So I've been yacht shopping, been to Florida for a whirlwind time of meeting with brokers and surveyors, head down-butt up in the bilges of several contenders, and I now own a Cabo Rico 40/42 bluewater cruiser that is perfect for sailing the Pacific Ring of Fire, and here she is:

The bowsprit - a place to commune with dolphins

The galley - heart of my floating home

Sails set, new adventures await

Somewhere in St Petersburg, Florida, for now.....

Needless to say, a busy time this winter ( tho I did a bit of work, honestly, and skied many vertical feet, climbed with my son Llewellyn, and soaked up some more of Aotearoa to take with me on my journey)

As with any second hand boat, there's a mountain of tasks to be done before pushing off, and I'll be spending a full month at the marina in St Pete's getting her 'fit for purpose' as they say. Hey, I've haven't even settled on a name for the yacht yet, and have all that de-flag/re-name/registration bureaucracy to go through yet.

I'm planning on leaving NZ by 28th October, and a month later heading down to the Florida Keys, onto the Bahamas then focus on exploring Cuba before it changes forever. That's my shakedown cruise before the Panama Canal ejects me into the Ring of Fire.

Wow - it's really happening!!

Just watched a 'made for TV' doco in the How the Earth Was Made series on the Ring of Fire - worth a look if it's new territory to you:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs4yNL1M8Gg

More details later but I'll be letting you know how to track me along the journey, and I promise, I will be posting blogs with stories and pics.

Hey, fate has determined that house sale or no, I am off to Ecuador to climb volcanoes and explore the Galapapos. Really? Yes, we fly out tomorrow!
Ive just finished a 3 week sailing trip exploring New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf, Northern Coast and Great Barrier Island on a Dufour405. Fantastic! We incorporated quite alot of walking to keep hiking fi, such as Rangitoto crater summit walk (twice), Gt Barrier's Mt Hobson, and other forest hikes. And along with plenty of SUP activity, dawn skinny-dipping and regular swimming I found it very practical to maintain a good level of fitness while sailing for extended periods.
(Of course the energy exerted in procuring snapper fillets for dinner helped as well, esp. when you go so far from the yacht that you run out of fuel on the return journey and end up rowing against the current to get home!?!)

So watch this space -I'll be uploading stories of Amazon kayaking, Galapagos diving, and attempts on three of the highest volcanoes of South America over the next 10 weeks.