Last Season
One of our favorite activities in the marina is starting the day between 6 and 7 AM, perfect for watching sunrise, and heading to one of three coffee shops roughly at the same distance from our boat — two Starbucks and one Kahwa. Lately we have been going to Kahwa where I found this painting on the wall leading to the bathroom after too much coffee.
This is our last Snowbird season in the marina. After a quarter century in the St. Pete Municipal Marina, we are headed back at the end of March to our farm village in Bavaria to watch corn grow (48 25.81 N and 12 56.31 E). Look us up on Google Earth or Google Maps. Christl will work at her medical practice in our spacious apartment — which includes an exam room — and twice a month working in Munich at a clinic. I’ll be a happy camper in Bavaria continuing my Snowbird blogs on Medium, keeping up with technology as best I can for an octogenarian, and walking/biking whenever the weather permits.
I sold Sabra after 36 years with mixed feelings — sad at the prospects of not being able to sit in the cockpit in sunshine and watching the Moon chase Jupiter at night. On the other hand we are happy to be rid of boat maintenance and tensions over hurricanes, tornadoes, and extreme tides straining mooring lines in our absence. I met the new owner of Sabra through the Junk Rig Association in England. He will be here for a short while and then return to California with the boat. He is a rock’n roll band leader. He is pictured below with Bernie Sanders at a campaign gig warming up the audience with his music before Bernie’s speech.
We’ve had wonderful seasonal visits to St. Pete although the town is getting a bit too gentrified and too touristy for us. There is a delicate balance between a destination city and a sleepy town. The marina is also growing old and run-down. The “broken window” phenomenon is all to evident. No doubt the city has another great Master Plan for the marina. I have not regretted our decision to settle here as Snowbirds. It’s been a fun experience and we’ve met lots of friendly boating neighbors and city folks.
I started these Snowbird from Bavaria blogs in 2014 with a brief story Sunrise Departure, one of our favorite daylight experiences. As luck would have it, five-days before transferring the boat to the new owner six years later, we were rewarded with another spectacular waterfront sunrise. Someone up there must be wishing us a bon voyage.
We will be back in St. Pete as landlubbers and vacation renters. We are also tempted to sample the Mediterranean for sunny beaches and expand our cultural horizons and our breakfast cafes ordering a Cafe Americano instead of a Tall Pike.
