The Tardis Project

May 3, 2020 The question of a dinghy for Tardis has always been a quandry.  I could see myself rowing into the WoodenBoat School or Mystic Seaport with all the old salts nodding approvingly.  (“Now there’s a wood boat guy.  No rubber ducky for him.”) But where to store it and how to transport it

April 21, 2020 I struggled with the title to this very boring post.  Getting from Cedar Key back to Fort Myers wasn’t a cruise, which implies something relaxing.  It wasn’t a “dash”, since I had plenty of time to get back and make my haulout and plane reservations.  It wasn’t a journey, which implies exploration

April 13, 2020 On one of those lists like”One Thousand Places to See Before You Die” Cedar Key would rank 7,413th — but at least it would make the list. The charm of the Cedar Keys are their isolation (60 miles from Gainesville and Ocala) and the town’s reputation as an artsy/hippe/fishy town that has

April 7, 2020 Yesterday I was down at the shop sorting junk (by myself) when I began to think how I used to detest meetings after 40 years of them.  But a meeting with coffee and bagels and some of my nicer associates wouldn’t be bad right now.  So the Peggy Lee World War II

April 3, 2020 Since a few of the half-dozen readers left for this blog may be looking for something to do while locked down, I’ll do a few posts on the last month of the Florida cruise. Potentially, it was the best cruise the Tardis ever took — the boat ran great, interesting places, beautiful

March 29, 2020 After escaping from Florida (more in the cruise later),  I arrived home to a stack of mail and in it was a copy of Water Craft, a British magazine that is sort of like WoodenBoat, but more oriented for small craft, builders and designers.  When I opened to the contents page THERE

March 7, 2020On December 26, 2012 renowned sailors and Great Loop bloggers Katie and Jessie landed here at Twin Rivers Marina in Crystal River with their diesel engine “pissing” coolant. Mechanics from miles around dropped everything to come to the aid of the two distressed mariners and quickly diagnosed the problem as a rusted freeze

February 14, 2020 Somehow I missed the launch last December of Friedbert Hennemuth’s exquisite Luna.  This is indeed the “Luna” version of Mark’s Olga 28 design with a small diesel coupled to a saildrive. What beautiful work!  Folks give me a hard time about the amount of brightwork I have on the Tardis, but Friedbert

February 8, 2020 This is our February home in St. Petersburg at Harborage Marina.  A great slip in a quiet corner of the marina.  The ramp goes up to a seawall with fantastic views of St. Pete and also leads to a shower area and laundry. Great trip up from Venice — 46 miles including

January 31, 2020 Coming to you from Venice, FL after a beautiful trip up from Fort Myers.  Spent four nights there in a slip at the municipal marina that was literally right downtown.  So a good place to provision, decompress and get the boat set up for cruising. Then on north with the boat running