February 5th 6th & 7th Days 208 209 & 210

On the 5th we headed up to the farmers market. It was a real nice market just up the street from the marina. We got some bananas, grapefruit, kiwi, broccoli, and stone crabs. The stone crabs are great never had them before.. They trap them and take one claw off, if it meets the size. They then return the crab to the gulf, within two years the crab will grow a new claw. They are sweeter than lobster and have a softer texture. You have to break the shell or I did with a hammer. We also went to the South Florida Museum which we spent 4 hours at. They have the oldest manatee in captivity in the world. Snooty was born July 1948 he is quite the showman. We watched a feeding and he eats out of the trainers hand. They also taught him to roll over so the vet can check him out. The rest of the museum had real interesting displays they kept us interested.
Yesterday the 6th Lin cleaned and organized the boat while I installed reserve engine coolant containers. This will make the pre-underway check of the engine coolant much easier. It will save me getting between the engine coolant tank and the bottom of the salon floor and trying to see down the tanks cap. It was pretty nice and we had time before the Super Bowl so I washed the boat to get some salt off. Football time, we cooked London broil, salt potatoes and salad, not the typical super bowl food of wings and pizza but it was sure good. Finally after many years of running and being in the gun club's super bowl Lin & I hit the third quarter score. So today we will stay here at Twin Dolphins and celebrate our win with pizza and beer at the local Italian restaurant. We decided to stay today as it is supposed to rain most of the day with heavier rain this afternoon. Tomorrow we will head out if the weather gets better. Our next stop will be in Sarasota and we may visit the Ringling Museum, time will tell. We may decided to bypass Sarasota and head to Venice(Florida that is), again nice not having a fixed plan

Lin & Rich
Savoring our super bowl win
Twin Dolpin Marina
Manatee River