Spring is springing here in the Wolverine state.

Although the hydrangea bloom looks a bit "used".

So with the promise of warmer days ahead, I started the 2015 boating season...sort of.
I took a drive with friend and polishing expert Jim to the Cheboygan Village Marina to visit my boat and spruce up the hull sides before spring launch.

This was the first I'd actually seen the boat in the storage area and was quite pleased with the handling and care they use in storage.  The boat is stored on a cradle and covered to prevent anything from dripping on the boat from another boat above.

In my case, there were no boats above it anyway.  So Jim and I spend the next few hours cleaning and waxing the hull.  Unlike most of my former storage facilities, there was plenty of space between boats to be able to work on it.

We gave it a good shine.

After finishing up that task, we drove up to the Mackinaw City marina to check out the summer slip and conditions there.

Yup, lots of water, one boat, and...

Yes, that's ice clogging the harbor entrance.  It's not quite so "Springy" in the Straits area.  We noticed a little ice here and there along the drive north between Cheboygan and Mackinaw City.  It's going to be a couple weeks before that place is going to be very inviting to boaters.

I learned there is an all new management and staff at the marina this year.  That's a little disappointing because the former staff was so competent.  I met the new dockmaster at the marina and he seemed enthusiastic so we'll see how it all develops with the new crowd.  The bar was set high by the previous management.

Anyway, at this moment, the scheduled 2015 launch day is May 13th.  Weather might alter that a bit, but I picked a day to at least get on the schedule.  Because of the timing of the Memorial Day, that's only one week ahead of the holiday.

I'll be hoping for a warm-up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been tackling a task that's been waiting about 20 years to be completed.  The wiring in the basement was a mess.  A previous owner's attempt at a basement rec room and wiring was something to behold.  I've got it mostly cleaned up now with just a couple minor issues to fix.  It looks much better now.

Need to get all those little jobs finished up by the 13th of May when the real fun begins.

The Straits has gone from frozen to slush...

 so it's about time to point the minivan north and let the natives enjoy this 90° Florida heat.

The pool is even approaching the "too warm" state.

We decided to go "celebrate" our imminent departure with a casino cruise out of Port Canaveral.

We caught a shuttle van near our place early this morning and traveled to board the Victory 1.

According to articles I dug up, it's a 300' ship with 4 passenger decks and 600+ slot machines and a couple dozen gaming tables.  I thought the ocean would be a nice place to enjoy a 90° day.

We boarded as a couple tugs left the harbor to tend to barges offshore.

Then had to wait until a cruise ship passed.

Lines were cast and we were on our way out of the harbor.  The beach was busy.

The boat motored the required 3 miles offshore and motored at a slow pace in a couple mile lap just north of the port.  We spent the first hour dining at the buffet lunch on board, played for a couple hours, then enjoyed the slow cruise for the end of the trip.

It was a nice trip.

About the time we docked, we were treated to a launch from the Kennedy Space Center.  That was cool but not nearly as impressive as I thought it might be.  This was an unmanned payload headed to the space station.

So that's it for the winter.  Friday the trek north to the land of leafless trees begins.

Can't say I'm not looking forward to going north.

Need to get the Sea Ray ready for launch next month.  

It's the last day of March.  Seems to be a rhythm developing with the frequency of my posting to the blog.

We ventured out of "the park" today for a bit of a road trip.

We were here.

And could be here.

Our neighbor snapped a shot of the northern estate after this morning's 4" snow fall.

I think I like it here at the beach just a little bit more at the moment.

Anyway, we went over to Clearwater Beach west of Tampa on the gulf and walked a couple miles of the beach.

It has to be the most powdery sand I've ever been on.  It's like drywall dust and about that white as well.

We ambled down the beach wading along the way.

I'll wager no one is cooling their feet off in the surf on the Great Lakes right now.

The water temperature was probably around 75°.   A little refreshing at first, but very comfortable after a couple minutes.

We went to a local eatery "Cooters" for their Tuesday all you can eat crab.  Then shopped our way back to the car.

I ran across this little plaque in one of the shops.  Seems like the way to do it...at least around these parts.

It was a fun day...certainly better than shoveling snow.

Well, it's been a month since we returned from the Caribbean Cruise and I can't really say we've been up to much.

I pulled up the view from the Straits this afternoon...

It doesn't look like there's any threat of boating up there for a week or two yet.

On the other hand, we've had our days here in the sunny south that weren't exactly toasty.

Of course those days, it was well below zero in Michigan so I don't feel too bad about a couple chilly mornings at the freezing mark.  At least the water here isn't frozen.

Speaking of water and the sunny south...

That's not so much the case today.  When it rains down here, it usually rains a bucket full.  Hard to believe water can actually pond on this soil.  It's sandy like the beach.

In other news, we took a "fun" day and went to Disney World for something to do.  We went to the Animal Kingdom in the morning.

It was about what I expected.  A fancy zoo with a few rides mixed in.

That kept our interest until about noon, then we shuttled over to the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon.

We hit all the popular attractions there, Tiki Birds, Space Mountain, Bear Jamboree, Presidents, etc. then hung around for the evening electric light parade.

That's a pretty nice show.

Outside of that day, it's been time plugging away at the reconstruction of "work island".  Good news is that the construction is complete.

There's new paneling on the walls, new electrical and lighting, new window trim and mini-blinds.  Only thing left to tackle is to replace the flooring...eventually.

Tomorrow is March and northern boating should be on the horizon, although after looking at the conditions, I'm not too confident that it's going to happen anytime soon.

It's official.  We're going back to Mackinaw City for the 2015 boating season.  The cash and contract were sent this week.  We were offered a slip at St. Ignace, but decided Mackinaw City was a better fit for us.  We did enjoy it there last season.

Now for current events.

We cruised last week on Royal Caribbean's "Vision of the Seas" .

It was the usual family cast of characters.

We traveled to Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico, and Cozumel, Mexico.

Arriving at Roatan, we found that it isn't always sunny in the Caribbean.

As a matter of fact, it poured rain all day long so our island experience was more or less limited to this.

Our excursion to the beach and snorkeling was cancelled.  We did stroll through the market at the pier later in the afternoon but spent that day enjoying activities on the ship.

The clouds parted the following day in Belize for a fantastic snorkeling adventure on the barrier reef and beach stop at Starfish Island.

The reef was awesome.

Son Brian is getting real comfortable with his snorkeling.  Here he is diving down to the reef.

There was lots of life to view.  The guide even caught a lobster.

The guide even caught a lobster.

After the snorkel, the best part of the excursion, rum punch...or I should say, UNLIMITED rum punch.  The boat somehow seemed just a bit more unstable after a few glasses of the punch.

Then it was onto Starfish Island for some swimming and sun.

That was one of the best excursions we've ever taken.

The next day was on to Costa Maya where we discovered a decent snorkel opportunity right at the head of the pier.

We toured the local markets at the pier and did the same at Cozumel, opting to forego any activities there.

So ended a great week in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Construction.

We found a little water damage to the sub floor in one area and repaired that.

While I have the mess made, I'll re-panel the area, remove the old and worn curtains, install blinds and carpet and update the electrical.

Beats the crap out of shoveling snow.

Our northern neighbor sent us a few shots of the northern abode this week.

Happy to be here, to say the least!