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Category Archives: Boating

TruPlug Could Save You and Your Boat Simply By Plugging That Unexpected Hole in the Water!

Simple, useful in an emergency, for sure!
Simple, useful in an emergency, for sure!

APtravelnews-New Product Review-April 11th, Port St. Lucie, FL-Bob and Barb “On The Water Again.”-Yes, during my daily boating adventures when I lived on the water in the Keys, I wish I had one or more of these new TruPlug units. Soft, pliable, but very, very strong, it can be jammed into a hole or crack in your boat to stop the leakage caused by the damage.

Writing this, due to the fact that about every boater at one time or another has run over something that causes a breach in the bottom or side skin of their boat. An impact breach, like getting hit by the bow of another boat, or hitting a piling, can be devastating, but these floating units can save the day by inserting, pushing & twisting it into the breach, or through hull hole!

This item is a soft, cone shaped plug, designed to conform to the irregular and unpredictable shapes of a hull breach or a round hole too! For an emergency, you should have a few in your boat! The unit is a true stop-gap solution for an emergency leak. The item is a tapered 9-high by 5-inch wide at the base life saver, in our opinion! They also have a very neat smaller TruPlug unit suitable as a key chain that also floats. If you lost your hull water plug, this will work, if you need a plug for your bait box drain, you got it! A great temporary plug, anytime its needed! Go: www.truplug.com 

Flexible and will push into any crack or hole!
Flexible and will push into any crack or hole!
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A plug for all reasons and also, never see your boat keys go deep six. I will be using mine soon, lost my boat plug!
Great pliable and floatable key chain!! Will save those keys and a trip on your boat if you lose any plug on the boat!
Great pliable and floatable key chain!! Will save those keys and a trip on your boat if you lose any plug on the boat!

The Quest for Best Ice Box/Cooler Led to Techniice The Rolls Royce of All Coolers

APtravelnews-April 9th,-Port St. Lucie, FL Bob & Barb “On The Road Again” searching for the best ice box/cooler in the world! Looks like we found it! The Techniice unit, based on our trial between all others, including every Yeti Model held 50-percent of its ice over 24-hours sitting on a hot pavement. All the rest bled out their waters.

Early ice boxes / coolers / chilly-bins / Ice chests were made from mostly metal and sometimes wood. The Early Esky brand Ice Boxes were made from galvanized sheet metal on the inside. A lot has changed since then. Techniice™ Chilly Bins / ice boxes / coolers / chests employ the best of modern technology, are made using commercial grade UV stabilized High Density Polyethylene and manufactured using Rotational Moulding and then injecting high performance multi compound insulation under extreme pressure to the walls and the lids of our ice boxes/coolers. There are several models some have wheels, some do not! We wanted the unit without wheels for our boats. 

Techniice™ ice box coolers , Ice chests and Reusable Dry Ice packs are recognized around the world for their legendary ability to retain temperature in the world’s harshest climates. Techniice Products are built to full commercial specifications for transporting perishables over long distances for extended duration’s. Techniice™ iceboxes & Reusable dry ice packs are used by some of the world’s largest companies and government organisations including Qantas (Jet star), Meals on wheels, McDonald’s, BHP, Air France and of course the Atlanta and Beijing Olympics to name a few. Believe me, I had so many different so-called coolers, ice chests, etc. The best, the very best “promise” is the Techniice units! See: customerservice@techniice.com  Go: www.techniice.com 

Hurricane Memorial Palm Tree Sculpture in Pet-Friendly,Laishley Park

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Sculpture of the remembrance of Hurricane Charley, that brought together many local residents to make it happen!
Best ice cream ever is across the street from Laishley Park! I had my Pistachio and Barb jumped on Mint Choco Chip!
We stopped in at “Ice Cream With a View, Harbor View SCOOPS AND BITES. The jury is in and this is the best ice cream ever. Located across the street from Laishley Park! I had my Pistachio and Barb jumped on Mint Choco Chip! 

APtravelnews-April 6th,-Port Charlotte, FL. Bob and Barb “Stopping to Smell The Roses.” After hurricane Charlie devastated Punta Gorda, Gasparilla and Port Charlotte area to name a few, locals and snow birds alike chipped right in with “good heart” labor and dollars, to begin the process of recuperating their beloved area. The Spirit of Punta Gorda Sundial was summarily installed to commemorate, and in remembrance of what Hurricane Charley wreaked on this area of S.W. Florida. Artist Peggy McTeague planned the sculpture for installation at the edge of Charlotte Harbor leading into the Peace River in Laishley Park. The park is dog-friendly and parents and their children friendly, as well! Go: www.charlotteharbortravel.com for a wealth of information on how you too can visit and enjoy this special place in Florida!

Athens caught a fish! He was so excited to catch a catfish just steps away from the memorial sculpture.
Young Athens caught a fish! He was so excited to catch a catfish, just steps away from the memorial sculpture.
View from Laishley Park and the ice cream shop!
View from Laishley Park, Punta Gorda, and the ice cream shop! P.Charlotte and environs is water, water everywhere and that’s just great for visitors and locals alike!
The pins in the maps represent visitors from the US and the world that have visited the ice cream shop and Laishley Park!
The pins in the maps represent visitors from the U.S. and the world that have visited Scoops and Bites ice cream shop and Laishley Park!

Flats and Light Tackle With Capt. Mike Slattery, Palm Island Outfitters, In Charlotte Harbor

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Captain Mike Slattery in his “sweet spot”

APtravelnews-April 5th,-Port Charlotte, FL.-Team Bob and Barb “On The Road Again” and Stopping to Smell The Roses”, this time the salt air! We met Captain Mike early morning in Cape Haze, on the bay! Mike took us out for some light tackle fishing and our first fish was a very fat and later on tasty sea trout. Capt. Mike knows his fish and area-he was brought up here and for the past 9-years has been chartering hundreds of days a year. He developed his business at a 4-Star Resort area on Palm Island accessible only by private boat and a neat ferry-barge “back and forth.” Mike is a pet-friendly charter guy and so Terry came along with us during our quest for tight lines and a couple of filet’s which we definitely enjoyed having it cooked up, at the nearby Waterfront Fishery Restaurant. We viewed manatees, bottle nosed dolphin and saw Ospreys carrying their mullet dinners to their nesting fledglings. We ran a bit offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and found a beautiful small Triple-Tale fish to admire and release. A fine sea trout grabbed a bait off the bottom and ate it deep. The 20-inch fish was too damaged to release so it became our luncheon fish filet’s that the Chef at the nearby Fishery Restaurant cooked up for us! Mike told us about how development as in other areas is strictly watched over and enforced to keep the beauty of what has been here for so long doesn’t get degraded as in other areas along Florida’s East and West Coasts. “See all those tree-lined areas, they are water-front, government protected parks. That really helps keep the creep of multi-story and other housing in abatement.” We did feel we were traveling through and by “old Florida” and it was a great feeling to know we were experiencing some of the best of Florida here. Mike in the off fishing season does sea side style furniture with fish and other bayfront style cutouts. Mike also fishes and sets up charters through his Palm Island Outfitters Guiding business, that runs out of Palm Island. A cable TV company run by Captain Mike called Charlotte Harbor Chronicles profiling the best of what the area has to offer. www.charlotteharborchronicles.com  and go palmislandoutfitters.com for more information. You can call Captain Mike Slattery by phone at (941) 626-6946

 

Standing up high on the console gives the Captain a better view of the fish on the flats!
Standing up high on the console gives the Captain a better view of the fish on the flats!
Bringing Terry aboard using a neat harness that supported his weight perfectly!
Bringing Terry aboard using a neat harness that supported his weight perfectly!
Was cold no Barb is not with child! Several sweaters. This trout was hooked in gills so we took this fish for lunch!
Was cold no Barb is not with child! Several sweaters. This trout was hooked in gills so we took this fish for lunch!
We found a Triple Tail and released it! Terry wanted a snack!
We found a Triple Tail and released it! Terry wanted a snack!