OVERLOOKING LAKE DORA FROM LAKESIDE INN

• Mount Dora Center for the Arts
• Mount Dora Chamber of Commerce
• What to do in Mount Dora
• Mount Dora Village Merchant’s & Business Association
• Wikipedia: Mount Dora, Florida
• City of Mount Dora

Mount Dora is a small historical Florida village on the shore of Lake Dora that has successfully made itself into an arts and convention center with plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation.

LAKESIDE INN PIER

JUST A FEW OF MANY MOUNT DORA SHOPS

HISTORIC MOUNT DORA TRAIN STATION

ONE OF MANY LOUNGE/RESTAURANTS

NESTING BIRDS DOWNTOWN MOUNT DORA

STREETSIDE HARPIST

TAKING IT EASY

WORLD’S SECOND LARGEST LAWN BOWLING COURT

VINTAGE FLORIDIANA

N. E. Taylor Boatworks

In our last post, “Escape to Tahiti,” we began a theme about escaping from the cares of every day life. We continue that today with a look at the N. E. Taylor Boatworks in Cortez, Florida (4628 119th St. W., Cortez, Florida, 34215; 941-794-2802). This is where the big boats go, boats that are big enough to sail on the ocean.

According to their website, Taylor Boatworks, which was founded in 1928 “is located in the historical fishing village of Cortez, Florida, established in the 1800s, which is now a museum for the locals and invited guests. There are many original hand tools that were used to build the boats. The museum is still located on the waterfront, under the original home place of the N. E. Taylor family…John B. Banyas, owner of N. E. Taylor Boatworks is the great grandson of N. E. Taylor and the grandson of Leo M. Taylor, who was also a boat builder, with many of his boats still being used today.”

Their services include all the basics of any boatyard, plus refurbishing of boats (from the “bones” up as you can see below), hurricane storage, and underwater salvage and recovery. They’ve also extended beyond their huge boatyard operation, of which there are selected photographs here, to partner operations.

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The Cortez Kitchen

One of those partners is the Cortez Kitchen. It’s located right on the same property as the Taylor Boatworks; here’s the Kitchen’s number in case you get lost (not difficult to do): 941-798-9404.

Every mention of the Cortez Kitchen online includes the word, “rustic.” Every one also says how good it is and how good their grouper sandwiches are. This blog post from Island Real Estate has the best review of the Cortez Kitchen I’ve found. It reports that, “They do offer live music usually on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Just a great all around ‘old Florida’ bar setting.”

The Metromix listing for the Cortez Kitchen says they have $1 drafts and gives the hours! A good tip.

Bayside Banquet Hall

Yet another Taylor Boatyard partner is the newly remodeled Bayside Banquet Hall (941-798-9400), a waterfront facility for large events with seating for 165 indoors, plus an outdoor tiki bar, accommodating around 100, overlooking the bay.

Cortez Bait & Seafood

The remaining establishment on the Taylor Boatworks grounds is the Cortez Bait & Seafood retail fish market (941-794-1547). Their bait includes thread herring, chum, sardines, and glass minnows. They also have food grade mullet and squid wings. Just a glance at their fish product page should make you ready to grab your fishing gear, and head for Cortez.

There’s a fun zoomable aerial photo of Cortez Bait & Seafood at marinas.com. There are a number of other Cortez aerial shots there to navigate as well. Lots of fun.

More Cortez resources

I covered Cortez before in Cortez, an 1880s Florida Fishing Village. Here’s a bit more history on the Cortez boat building scene from the Great Florida Gulf Coast Traditional Small Craft Association. They are, as their name indicates, only concerned with smaller craft. There are some beautiful boat restoration pictures on their site. I’m impressed with how many participants there are in their projects. Their main page gives information about the 4th Great Florida Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival.

The maritime museum in Cortez is highlighted, along with other attractions in Cortez at Cortez Village Historical Society who provide a PDF walking tour map for Cortez Village.

To finally “set the hook” in your desire to spend a day fishing, or even just sightseeing, in Cortez, go to the Manatee County EZ-fishfinder.com, that has tons of interesting boating and fishing videos and many pre-1940 pictures. It’s an excellent resource for planning a visit to Cortez.

Destressing

Water is a powerful destressor. It doesn’t matter if we’re just sitting on the shore looking at it, sailing a dinghy, fishing off a pier, deep sea fishing, or cruising around the bay in a beautiful, classic Chris Craft like the one pictured below being restored in the Taylor Boatworks, the water has a way of calming our most subterranean anxieties.

I remember sleeping on my sister’s 37 foot O’Day sloop-rig. It had an aft cabin, center cockpit, a big center galley and salon, a big forward berth, and two heads…what a beauty (she talks about her boat on Lothlorien). The gentle rocking at night brought an unparalleled sleep–deep and restorative. I’m sure there is a one-to-one correlation between the gentle rocking of water and the 9 months we spend in the womb. If you’re stressed, get yourself to the water soon, even if only to its edge. Visit Cortez.

CORTEZ VILLAGE SIGN

Barrier Islands South of Tampa Bay

Just on the other side of the Skyway Bridge from St. Pete (see map immediately below), is a string of barrier islands stretching from Anna Maria at the northern end all the way down to Venice, Florida, with just a short break at Lido Key.

Toward the north end of that chain, just south of Anna Maria, at Bradenton Beach, the barrier islands connect to the mainland by bridge at the small village of Cortez, which occupies a peninsula jutting out from the mainland and the small city of Bradenton. There’s an excellent arial shot and more information on that entire area–Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key, Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch plus many smaller communities as such Holmes Beach, Coquina Park, etc.–at the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Cortez

The village of Cortez, is the oldest surviving fishing village in Florida. It dates from at least 1880 when it was settled by a number of people from North Carolina. As you might imagine for such an historically rich area, there are strong preservationist organizations. Primary among these is the Cortez Village Historical Society. This preservationist attitude extends to the land, wildlife, water, and fish since it is upon those that the historical economy of the region depends, and still does, although to a lesser extent than at one time. F.I.S.H. (Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage) is a non-profit that has as its mission “preserving the character and heritage of Florida’s traditional waterfront communities within the natural environment that has nurtured people in fishing communities for thousands of years.”

For more links on Cortez and the adjoining area, see the Manatee County Historical Village page. There’s also a very nice (PDF) article on Cortez (in English) from the Mainichi Daily News, a Japanese newspaper.

AP BELL FISH CO. TRUCK

AP Bell Fish Company and Star Fish Company

An important part of the Cortez community is the Star Fish Company which dates back to the early 20s. In 1996, Karen Bell, of the adjoining AP Bell Fish Company, bought Star Fish and added a restaurant to the fish company and docks. FL-Seafood.com, has some pictures of Star Fish Company and other items of interest from the early days. Another commercial highlight in Cortez is the Cortez Market

STAR FISH FRONT SIDE

Grouper Sandwiches

Don’t be fooled by the tourist-trap look of the Star Fish Company restaurant. It’s the real thing and a very good friend who lives near there swears it’s the best group sandwich in the world, period. (I haven’t had a chance to confirm that yet but will soon.)

Grouper is an important fish in Florida. I remember my father telling me about it when I was in grade school and we’d come south to visit relatives. Its quality is legend. There have been periodic scandals involving restaurants that served talapia but called it grouper and have had to pay a hefty fine. There are strict laws against this and they are rigorously enforced. Once you’re had fresh grouper, though, there’s no mistaking another white fish for it. Anyway, because of the intense attention this issue has gotten in recent years, you can be pretty well assured that if it says “grouper,” it really is grouper!

My preferred method of preparing grouper is blackened which requires a heavy, cast-iron blackening skillet or griddle such as the Lodge Logic 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Skillet or the Lodge Logic Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle. More on blackened fish in this coming Saturday’s Inkwatu post.

For now, I highly recommend these three grouper sandwich recipes from, FoodBuzz (with whom I’m a featured publisher):

• a nice step by step grouper sandwich with Cajun jalapeno aioli;
• a step by step video for baked cornmeal crusted grouper sandwich with tartar sauce; and,
• a recipe for a grouper sandwich with curry mango mayonnaise

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STAR FISH BACK SIDE

Florida Anglers

Of course, if you visit or live in Florida, everyone (even me) fishes, at least once! It’s an atavistic urge that we’ve never lost and will always need. One good friend surf fishes. The mainstay for most folks is fishing off a pier or bridge. Some, of course, use john boats, or perhaps something a little bigger. Maybe, if you’re flush, a charter.

My favorite kind of fishing, which I haven’t done in a long while and which I intend to do again, soon, is night fishing under the Gandy Bridge. Here’s a neat YouTube video, Night Fishing at gandy bridge in Tampa Bay Florida, of someone (not me) doing exactly that. It’s short and worth watching. Another good one, just a couple guys in a john boat out on Tampa Bay, is Tampa Fishing by apollobeachsam. They really get excited and for good reason: they catch some good sized fish! If you enjoyed those, while you’re at YouTube, just do a search of their site for [florida fishing] or [tampa fishing] and you’ll see dozens and dozens of good ones. One I enjoyed, mainly because it’s the typical mix of people you see on any public bridge or pier, is this one of Fort Walton Florida Fishing Pier Jack Fishing.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on the St. Petersburg Pier, my understanding is that any child under the age of 16, whether or not they are a Florida resident, and all Florida residents, of any age, do NOT need a fishing license for salt water fishing (fresh water is a different story). However, non-Florida resident 16 and older DO need a license unless they are fishing on a charter boat.

However, I strongly recommend you read the relevant pages for yourself since I could be in error and regulations might change.

Here are the current rates for 16 and older Non-resident Saltwater Recreational Fishing Licenses:

• Nonresident 3-Day Saltwater Fishing = $17.00
• Nonresident 7-Day Saltwater Fishing = $30.00
• Nonresident Annual Saltwater Fishing = $47.00

BOATS AT THE STAR FISH DOCK

Florida commercial fishing

If you can, take in the Cortez Annual Commercial Fishing Festival. It is one of quite a number of seafood festivals in Florida.

Although there is a small shrimper fleet left and there are picturesque events like the Blessing of the Fleet in Tarpon Springs, the reality is that shrimp fishing in the USA has been throttled by farmed imports (see this news article for figures). Recreational shrimp fishing, however, is still a flourishing sport. (Bet you didn’t know there was such a thing…I sure didn’t until researching this post.)

Mullet is another fish heavily identified with Florida. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but I love it. It’s usually smoked and is one of the foods I typically order at Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish (see my Inkwatu post on that fine institution).

Although stocks of mullet are high in the Gulf, due to folks preferring white fish, the sales of mullet are way down. As a consequence, like the shrimp fleets, mullet fisherman are also going out of business, although for entirely different reasons. I’d love to see a resurgence in preference for mullet. Maybe if folks realized that mullet contains 1.1 grams of omega-3 essential fatty acids per 100 grams of fresh uncooked fish, which isn’t much less than sardines, they will start to request it.

CRAB TRAPS ON STAR FISH DOCK

One of my childhood memories is “fishing” for crabs in the Gulf off the seawall at Biloxi before there was a beach there. (That’s a long time ago.) You “fish” for crabs with a trap of string that lays flat on the bottom under the water. When you see or feel motion on the trap, you pull it up and the sides come up, trapping the crab. However, I have seen my daddy catch crabs by just tying a bit of bacon on a string and walking it along the bottom, yanking up the string at just the right moment with a crab stubbornly clutching the bacon. Commercial fisherman use traps too.

Florida has the Florida Stone Crab seen on many local restaurant menus, and the Blue Crab, also a favorite of local eateries. I like any kind of crab prepared any way I can get it. Absolutely no preferences—just give me some crab! I’m a little picky about soft shelled crab, which is a blue crab right after it’s molted its shell. It’s deep fried and you eat the whole thing since there’s no shell (hence the term “soft”). Cooked correctly, it is awesome.

FLORIDA GREAT BLUE HERON

Florida birds

The Florida Great Blue Heron, pictured above waiting for his grouper sandwich at the Star Fish Company, is one of several birds closely associated with Florida. There is a monster list of Florida birds at Wikipedia, but the ones that come to my mind are the flamingo (the type depicted by plastic birds on Florida lawns is really a Caribbean bird and doesn’t normally come this far north; often, however, the Roseate Spoonbill is mistaken for it), the snowy egret (a type of great heron), the ibis, and the pelican (the brown and the white).

The Cornell University website, to which most of those links go, is terrific. It gives you pictures, videos, bird sounds, and facts. You can get lost in there for hours.

A special thanks to two friends. One who first told me about the historic fishing village of Cortez, and another who lives near there and showed me the highlights. Thanks to you both for sharing your knowledge and pleasure in Florida with me so I could share it here.

CORTEZ VIEWED FROM THE WATER

INKWATU PHOTO: New York Tugboat

Harbor Tours

It used to be that I always poo-pooed guided tours. But at some point—maybe about the time I started getting tired of hoofing it around, lost, on my own—my attitude changed. What changed my mind was a horse and buggy tour in Key West I took only because I had a certain amount of time to spend before I could leave and I was looking for something to fill that time. That was a fortunate accident, because I discovered just how much fun a guided tour can be and how much one can learn from them. Ever since, I’ve been hooked.

On a recent trip to NYC that resulted in my New York Street Food post, the first day, I took the Circle Line Tour. Absolutely first rate! I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re ever in New York you won’t regret taking it. The 3 hour cruise is best if you have the time.

Tugboat symbolism

One of the things I saw on the cruise that struck an emotional note was the large number of tugboats! Trawlers, tugboats, workboats, harbor tugs, all terms for the same thing: the boats that assist in the navigation of enormous cargo and passenger vessels in the harbor. When I say, “emotional note,” I’m not indulging in hyperbole—tugboats have a meaning beyond their real-world “purpose.” Many everything day things do: flowers, food, cars, blankets, rocking-chairs…they’re symbols, literally tips of icebergs of meaning that reach deep and wide within our subconscious mind and represent things to us that affect us deeply.

I think it begins in childhood. Do you remember Little Toot? Scuffy the Tugboat? Scuffy was definitely in my Golden Book collection as a pre-schooler. If you’re younger you probably had your consciousness shaped by Theodore Tugboat on TV. (A confession: I even enjoyed watching Theodore as an adult.) If you suddenly realize you wish you still had your childhood books, just click on one of the links below. They’re still available—even VHS tapes of Theodore Tugboat (sorry, no DVDs).

So, what do tugboats represent in the emotional mind? Well…for me, it’s sort of an extension of the Little Train that Could (another favorite Golden Book): a small, seemingly insignificant and unimportant boat upon which the huge, mighty, and impressive ocean going vessels depend. Perhaps they’re an affirmation of the “common man” for me, an affirmation that none of us are really unimportant, that all of us have a meaningful role of some sort. If tugboats have an emotional connotation for you, I’d enjoy hearing about it in a comment.

INKWATU PHOTO: New York Tugboat

One online writer, obviously in finance and going through a career change, had this to say about the symbolism of tugboats for himself: “I have come to think of the lighthouse as a symbol of the old way of doing financial business that needs to be replaced. A lighthouse is an elegant structure that points the way through the danger, yet itself remains safely on the shore. A tugboat, however, gets right in the middle of things, experiencing exactly what the larger ship is going through, leading the way. Similarly, a financial institution should embrace the interests of its clients and share risks and rewards — not just give advice from a safe haven while collecting its fees. The world is changing right now and investors deserve a better financial institution.” He extends his metaphors into quilts by saying, “together the scraps of my career that will form the basis for the quilt of a new firm.” A nice thought and the kind of thinking I enjoy.

INKWATU PHOTO: New York Tugboat

Tugboat Enthusiasts

As I researched this post, I was delighted to discover that I’m hardly alone in my attraction to tugboats. The Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas has an excellent page with photos and tidbits about tugs all around the Americas, including the Great Lakes.

Youtube popularity is a pretty good indicator of how widespread interest is in a subject. Check out this simple little video of a tugboat pulling a barge on the Hudson. If you start to get hooked, you’ll see plenty more tugboat Youtube videos listed there.

Similarly with Flickr: there’s a Flickr tugboat group. There are countless pictures in it, but if you click here, you can see just the best of them in a Flickr slideshow by contributing members of the group. It’s really worth taking the time to view.

INKWATU PHOTO: New York Tugboat

The Great Big Site of Tugboats is the definitive site for tugboat lovers. In addition to detailed information on tugs and many pictures, it even includes a link to contact tugboat crew members and people in the industry. The Travels of Tug44 is an exploration of the many different types of workboats. Individual enthusiasts have their own tribute pages. A good example is Tugboats.com which features some historical tugs such as tug HOGA that was instrumental in helping after the attack on Pearl Harbor and, with her crew, “received a special citation from Admiral Chester Nimitz for her heroic work.” One group of photos that has proliferated on various sites across the web is this sequence that shows a tug slithering underneath a bridge that’s too low.

INKWATU PHOTO: New York Tugboat

Tugboat festivals

There are even tugboat festivals. In 2008, one was held in Penetanguishene, Ontario, with over 20 tugboats participating. It’s detailed in the Tugfest weblog. The ones I’d definitely like to see are either the Annual New York Tugboat Race with its display by the NYFD boat spewing its jets or the Waterford, NY, Tugboat Roundup–maybe both. Here’s more from the Working Harbor Committee “for the heritage and future of the Harbor of New York and New Jersey.”

Hopefully by now, you’re hooked on tugs (or maybe hooked again for the first time since you were 3 years old). If so, here’s some books for adults on tugs you might enjoy:

The little red lighthouse (Jeffrey’s Hook)

One highlight of the Circle Tour around Manhattan was Jeffrey’s Hook, better known as “The Little Red Lighthouse.”

INKWATU PHOTO: Jeffrey’s Hook Little Red Lighthouse

Here’s a brief quote from the Lighthouse Museum site (linked to above) that explains the significance of the little red lighthouse: “The Little Red Lighthouse stands proudly beneath the George Washington Bridge on the New York shore. She reminds us that all things big or small have a significant place in our world. The children’s book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Big Grey Bridge by Hildegarde Swift taught this lesson well. The Little Red served as a navigational aid before and after the bridge was built. When the light was commissioned in 1921 she served the Hudson River mariners, always keeping a good light until the USCG deactivated it in 1947. Swift’s book played a major role in saving the light, for it was the millions of children who loved The Little Red Lighthouse story who spoke out when the USCG wanted to sell and dismantle the light. The children won-and today all of us can enjoy its beauty.””

The Little Red Lighthouse still has many friends. The Lighthouse Friends page is quite informative, as are the NYC parks page about it and the Hudson River Lighthouse Coalition page. If you like technical stuff, check out all the specs at the National Park Service page for Jeffrey’s Point.

Here’s an Amazon link to the Hildegarde Swift book referenced above. In addition to The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge link, I also included a link to the North American Lighthouses Coloring Book. (Hey…who doesn’t enjoy coloring books?!)

Lighthouse Enthusiasts

Lighthouses have their enthusiasts just as tugboats do, only by powers of ten. Lighthouses are almost an obsession for some folks and—as obsessions go—I can’t imagine a better one. I’ve been in homes where every horizontal surface was crowded with a replica of an actual lighthouse. If you’re into those kind of knick-knacks, check out the Lighthouse Depot.

I don’t go quite that far, but lighthouses have a special place in my heart, too. One in particular, the Biloxi, Mississippi, lighthouse, has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. If you have a lighthouse in your life, please don’t hesitate to send a comment about it.

Marinas.com has a great list of lighthouses around the world. The Lighthouse Directory lists them by state and country. A beautiful site is Lighthouse Central which is just for Michigan—I had no idea there were some many lighthouses there. A Great Lakes lighthouse listing is the Coast Guard Light List. Planete TP–the world of public works has information on the earliest lighthouses with a picture of one on the Isle of Thasos, from the 5^th century BC.

Lighthouse symbolism

Of course, just as lighthouses have their enthusiasts, so too they have their deep psychological symbolic significance (which, no doubt, accounts for the attraction so many people have toward them).

I doubt if one could ever exhaustively list all the possible symbolic meanings that lighthouses have for people. Not only is there the first generation of symbolic relationships surrounding the idea (a beacon to the lost, a sign of danger where one might run ashore, land at last after a long journey at sea, etc. ad infinitum), but also numerous generations of meaning flowing outward from each of those first generation meanings (land at last after a long journey at sea » the long journey across the sea of time » the sea of a life-time » unknown dangerous creatures lurking beneath the Life-time Sea » etc. » etc.). Powerful stuff, but it’s obviously there for all of us.

Because lighthouses are so pregnant with hidden meaning, I think the notion of “lost” lighthouses (light houses whose locations are no longer known) and “haunted” lighthouses are especially evocative. Here are a couple books—of out many—on such lighthouses.

Before leaving the psychological aspects of lighthouses, please take a look at this site about the significance of lighthouses in sandplay therapy on the Sandplay Therapists of America website. One discovers a new delight at every turn: I had no idea there was such a thing as sandplay therapy, although I’ve always admired the the sandpainting of Native Americans in the southwest and the sand mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism. (This Wikipedia article discusses both.)

Finally, on the symbolic front, I wonder if a big part of the allure of lighthouses and tugboats is that they’re both associated with water, itself an extremely rich emotional symbol.

ALLEN LOYD PHOTO: Fishing Point St. Anthony, NL Lighthouse

lighthouse keeper vacations

Running away to be a lighthouse keeper is another escape fantasy many people have had (me too). Unfortunately, most lighthouses any more are either entirely automated and/or part of a State or National park service. But, there are a few jobs available. Try Lighthouse News to see some possibilities.

However, it’s still very possible to have your fantasy with a vacation as a lighthouse keeper! Here are some links for you to explore—there are many more you can find online, if the idea intrigues you.

• Ask Yahoo…becoming a lighthouse keeper
• Salmon River Lighthouse Marina (supposedly haunted!)
• WA State Parks–Cape Disappointment
• MI Tawas Point State Park Lighthouse (beautiful site)
• Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation (a lighthouse volunteer vacation)

I honestly think I’m going to give that vacation idea a try sometime. Or, maybe even apply for one of the jobs… if I can find one where the lighthouse has a good broadband connection!

The Newfoundland lighthouse photo above and the one following are by Allen Loyd, a friend and artist who camped up into and through Newfoundland this summer.

ALLEN LOYD PHOTO: Point Riche Lighthouse in Port Au Choix