Punta Gorda with Friends and Friendly Pirates

We arrived at Fisherman's Village Marina on Monday evening July 21st to spend a week.  The reason we selected this marina for a stay was that it had good reviews and also was the home of a Pirate Festival that we planned to attend.

On Tuesday evening our long time good friends, John & Sharon
Daffer came to spend two days with us on the boat.  We enjoyed visiting, shopping, sunsets and meals.  We were sad to see them leave but we made a plan to get together when we return to this area on our way home.

Thursday afternoon after the Daffer's left our good friend Glynn Grisham arrived for some appetizers
and to talk about old times.  He lost his wife, Judy, 6 months ago to cancer and he shared the video
that was shown at her celebration of life, which we were unable to attend.

The Pirate Festival began on Friday and we had invited my high school buddy, Cindy Cooper Jones, to join us for some fun and entertainment pirate style on Friday.  After a great lunch at Fish Market we watched and listened to Dirty James & the Rusty Anchors( Buff's favorite and we got the CD) Bawdy Boys, A-Tribe and saw the "live Mermaids" then back to the boat's flying bridge for some
quiet visiting.


The fun continued on Saturday and Sunday as we continued to visit the Festival by ourselves
seeing several more bands including Celtic Mayhem, which was my favorite (got the CD).  We saw
two different mature dance groups that were great entertainers.  If you ever get a chance to see "Hot
Fashz" or the "Calendar Girls" (yes, we bought the calendar) dance groups you should go see them.  Both groups member are over 50 and some well over that and they raise money for good causes.
On Sunday beside more music they had the pet custom and children custom contest.  What fun.  A rabbit actually won the pet custom.  The closing ceremony was dancers and fire dancers with lots of cannons going off.