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This is a blog about Peggy and Bob's Great Loop adventure which began in September 2008 in Lake Superior aboard "Baby Grand," their 32' Grand Banks trawler.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Snowbirds 1-30-09







This is our very first year spending “winter” in a tropical location. It feels a bit unreal at times and we do have a touch of survivor guilt for having abandoned our home, family and friends in the frozen land. As we walk the docks and streets, we see transoms and license plates listing home ports from every northern state.

There is a large contingent of boaters from the Chesapeake area in this marina and they have been doing the east coast migration down to FL every November and then trekking back north in April. Sombrero Resort Marina has hotel rooms as well, and some of these boaters this year, for various reasons, decided to drive their cars down instead. Although they are land based at night to sleep, they are down at the dock every day checking out the action. They are a fun group and we have enjoyed meeting them.

We also enjoyed a visit from Wayne and Jill Hansen and their adorable Bichon, Gracie. They live in Silver Bay, MN which is about as far north as you can get to Canada and they summer in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior aboard their sailboat, HMS Loon. Since Jill retired a year ago, they have been making extended trips in their RV and are now in FL for 8 weeks. It was fun catching up with them and swapping tips for living in small spaces. It was also heart-warming for me to see a small dog aboard our boat again and laugh at her antics.

I take a walk every morning across a small bridge to Flamingo Island. You would think with that name that there would be flocks of those pink flamingo lawn ornaments all over the place. I have been looking and found only this one solitary lonely pink flamingo flapping in the breeze. This flamingo needs company so I was thinking-- how about you send your frozen flamingo lawn ornaments now in the garage down here for the winter. They could be like those travelling lawn gnomes that get to travel around the world. They want to be snowbirds too and they will thank you for it.

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