Tarpon Springs

We have had a good week here in the Greek capital of Florida; highest percentage of Greek Americans of any U.S. City. Dodecanese Blvd has several Greek restaurants, shops and markets and is crowded with tourists. We enjoyed a meal at Hella's with friends the other night where Kim and I enjoyed stuffed grouper, mainly because we couldn't pronounce and didn't know what the other dishes on the menu were. We have walked, rode bikes, kayaked and dinghy-ed all around the place and have yet to see all the sights, but we have thoroughly enjoyed the places and sights we have encountered. As you all know we are living on a boat, so guess what... something always needs fixing on a boat. We had the davit worked on at Aqua Yacht Harbor back in November, in fact it's one of the main reasons we stopped in there. Well we haven't had an opportunity to use the davit since, except for a small test run, but have now run into problems. A few days ago Kim turned on the breaker but it tripped before I applied power, she reset and turned it on again and everything went fine, we were able to hoist the dinghy off and back aboard Overtime. The next day we attempted to use the davit again but the breaker would not stay set, Bob, from Kharma, and I thought the troubled was in the controller wiring so we resolved that issue and the davit worked fine for our test runs. Next day the breaker would not stay set. Upon further inspection we discovered that the technician doing the repairs at Aqua had pinched the power cable under the swivel area where the davit sits on the standpipe. Apparently the rotation of the davit back and forth was causing the breaker to trip intermittently, the davit would work for a time then short out other times until the back and forth action finally wore through the cable enough that it would not work at all. Luckily I had enough spare cable to make repairs and we got it working again. I'll be writing a letter to Aqua informing the service manager of the problem. We also resolved another problem, I had intended to use my anchor light as an all around white light thereby replacing the previously existing forward facing mast light. I didn't realize at the time that the anchor light turns off whenever the running lights are turned on, therefore I could use the anchor light when at anchor but when the running lights were turned on the anchor light would go out, not what I wanted to happen. Anyway, I obtained a new LED mast light-fixture and we, my buddy Bob and I, created an “L” bracket to make installation at the top of the mast possible, inspected the wiring to determine which wires we needed to attach too, drilled holes, found screws and nuts that fit, lowered and raised the mast then wallah, I had a forward facing mast light that worked as designed. My next project was to replace the impeller in the dinghy motor, a 9.9 Honda 4-stroke engine. After watching several YouTube video's I was able to complete that project without causing any damage. Next issue I tackled was the loose steering, Aqua had also worked on this problem, they discovered the actuator seals were no good, fluid was leaking out of the system. They had the seals replaced and I expected the steering to work much better, however it was about the same. The good news is I don't see any evidence that it's leaking now but I don't think they properly filled the reservoir. From what I've learned you are supposed to work the wheel the full rotation back and forth to remove air bubbles from the lines while adding fluid, while I didn't notice any bubbles I was able to add about an ounce of fluid, hopefully this will reduce the play in my steering; I won't know for sure until I take her out again. Speaking of taking her out again, we were planning to head over to Caladesi State Park Saturday morning but looks like the weather will delay that trip until Monday or Tuesday of next week. After spending a few days at the park we will work our way down the coast to Stock Island Marina near Key West where we have reservations for the entire month of February.

Kim's Korner:

Where to start? Tarpon Springs is the sponge capital of the world and the biggest Greek community in the U.S. Have you ever tried to see how many Greek restaurants you can fit into a few blocks? Tarpon Springs has and they have succeeded - really good food! One of my photos tells more if you are interested. So we kind of stumbled into a big deal here - Epiphany! We had walked to Craig Park which was really pretty and asked about these row boats that were tied together by rope and these kids were trying to get them in place. People were everywhere. So we learned that Epiphany takes place on Jan 6 and celebrates the baptism of Christ. Tarpon Springs has this huge ceremony and this year 48 boys between the ages of 16 and 18 will be diving into this bayou (where manatees come this time of year because it is warm) to find the cross that a bishop has thrown into the water. Anyway - very cool stuff and again - I have a photo explaining more of the details. We plan to watch the procession from the Greek Orthodox church to this bayou and hope to see something. From the photos I've seen from previous years, this place is packed! But I feel honored that I have gotten to experience the preparation and learning of such a neat celebration. Did I mention manatees? Two of the days we have been here, the manatees were there - awesome! There were over 10 one day but you can't see much. A snout or belly or back - I did see a tail but it was so quick that I didn't get a picture. So when you see my photos of what looks like water - look just a little closer - it's a manatee! And you know our boat is a Kady Krogen Manatee :) We've biked some of the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail, kayaked, dinghy-ed, and had the best gumbo at Rusty Bellies that I've ever had in my life! And we've been having fun experimenting with grilling and cooking grouper, grouper throats (yes - grouper throats - very, very good!) and crab cakes. It looks like weather is going to keep us here a bit longer so we plan to rent a car (Enterprise has awesome 3 day weekend deals) and go to Clearwater and St. Petersburg by car and trolley. Stay tuned!

Click here for pictures.