March 24-25 Our southern-most destination

For 5 hours in the open Gulf waters, we dodged thousands of crab pots.  We know now where all those stone crabs come from.  We made it to the mooring field at Boot Key harbor in Marathon Key on 3/24 around 3pm, which marks our most southern destination for the loop trip.  We moored here for 2 nights.  They call this place “the neighborhood”, where about 200 – 300 boats are moored at a time. Most boaters are overwintering, but there are some that have been here for years!  The harbor is full of good watering holes.  The first day we hit the Dockside for a cold one after being on the water most of the day.  The next day was the NCAA tournament with Carolina vs Kansas.  So, we had to find a place that had cable TV to watch the game.  And that place was Castaways, where our favorite bartender-Sarah, is holding one of their beer glasses that I procured for the beer glass collection!!

March 23 Anchoring in the everglades

The high winds had us staying in Everglades City for 2 days, as from here there is no safe harbor until you reach the Keys, which were 2 days away.  It was a calm day on the Gulf and we made way for the Little Shark river, which is located in the Everglades National Park.   We stayed offshore because the mosquitos could carry your boat away if you anchored among the mangroves.  Except for a 5 ft tide change, it was calm, with a fabulous sunset (2 pics).

March 21-22 The Everglades

The weather called for 15 to 20 knot winds but seas of only 2 ft, so I figured we would be okay on the Gulf.  That was not a wise choice.  We made a wide sweep around Cape Romano in order to avoid the shoals there and end up about 15 miles off shore.  For about 2 hours we were in waves 6ft +.  It was just like being back on Lake Michigan.   We made way for the nearest safe harbor, which was Everglades City.  We docked at the Rod and Gun Club, a famous historic inn where a lot movies have been made. (first 2 pics).   The narrow Barron river offered a great view from our boat (next pic).   We took a bike tour with a ranger from the Everglades National Park (next pic).  We learned about Edgar Watson (next pic), who was a successful farmer.  But, apparently his success was partially due to some foul play: instead of paying his employees, he often killed them before pay day (final pic)!  When that was found out, the entire town of 32 men got together and they opened fire on Mr. Watson at the Smallwood Store.  Everglades City was colorful in other ways: 1) around 1979 the entire adult male population (except 2 persons) were arrested for drug smuggling, and 2) it is now the stone crab capital of Florida ! So, we had to have some stone crabs, yum.

March 19-20 First successful mooring ball experience

In Ft Myers, we met with Tom Conrad and Patsy who are expert loopers. They advised us of a new float plan which included mooring at Ft. Myers beach.  This was actually not the first time we picked up a mooring ball, since we wrapped one around our prop while in Atlantic City, NJ.   But, it was the first time we actually moored properly on one.  The first pic shows the mooring field.  The next pic shows all the shrimp boats in the harbor.   It seemed that Ft Myers beach was split between beach recreation and working boats.  It was a nice peaceful night, knowing that we did not have to worry about dragging anchor!  The next day we made a short trip to Naples and moored out again.  We mostly stayed on the boat as Naples looked like it was a rich person’s town – so that did not include us!

March 16-18 A busy time in Ft. Myers

We left the sanctuary of Pelican Bay and headed toward the most congested boating experience possible. Coming toward Ft Myers is a narrow channel called the miserable mile, where we must have passed about 500 boats in that mile! (first pic).   We met up with friends from Canada, John and Marsha, onboard Kadadi at the Legacy Marina in the heart of downtown Ft. Myers. We had originally planned to start out with Kadadi from Mobile Bay and do the night crossing of the Gulf of Mexico with them. However, we missed them because we were 3 weeks late getting to Mobile Bay.  We finally caught up with them 6 weeks later.   John helped us all day on Saturday cleaning the salt spray off the boat (2^nd pic). That night, we listened to Irish folk ballads by Brian on the accordion (next pic).  It was St Patricks day and Ft. Myers was exploding with music, food, and green beer.   On Sunday, we re-provisioned and then we were off again, saying goodbyes to John and Marsha (last pic) and hoping to meet up with them again on the east coast of Florida.

March 12- 15 The Pelican Bay

It was a good day on the water and we made way to Venice, Fl.   It was very slow going due to the no wake zones and manatee areas.  So after about 8 hours of putting along we slipped into the Crows Nest marina and just rested up.  The next day we made it to Pelican Bay.  This a state park located on Costa Key.  The anchorage is splendid and it is a very popular spot.  We were lucky to be there during the weekdays because it did not seem crowded.  We hiked along the beach on the Gulf (first pic).   We took the dinghy into a small alcove where we spotted 5 manatees (2^nd pic). The last pic shows the anchorage on Pelican Bay.  We stayed 3 nights at anchor here because it was great place.

March 9-11 The Manatee River

We departed St Pete in the afternoon, due to a late arrival of one of our supplies.  That gave us time to watch the Tar Heels in the ACC tournament game against Maryland.   We crossed Tampa Bay into the Manatee River where we anchored outside the town of Bradenton.  That night was rough, lots of current and some winds.  We were slowly dragging anchor, and it was not a pleasant anchoring spot.  So, we ducked into the Twin Dolphins marina for couple nights in order to finish watching the ACC Tournament with peace of mind.   We learned a lot about manatees at the Manatee Museum (first  pic).  Then, we took in the ACC tournament at the Kool Kangaroo (next pic) which was about a block from the marina.  It was good stay, except for one occasion.  It sounded like rain most of the night from inside the cabin of the boat, but when we went topside, it was all dry !  No Rain !  So, what was the noise?  It sounded like static electricity, especially in the bilge of the boat.  We went into every hatch looking for loose wires, or the batteries bubbling over, and disconnected all the electric to and from the boat.  But to no avail.  The noise persisted.  We scratched around for about 3 hours until one of the locals told us it was barnacles on the pilings opening and snapping shut their shells as they filter water!   He went through the same exercise as we when he moved here 3 years ago!   Whew, what learning experience!

March 4-8 St Pete (Part II)

We ordered supplies to be shipped in to St Pete Municipal Marina, so we need to wait out the week.  So, everyday we embarked on a small boat project and then hit the sights of St. Pete.  Sunday was a bike ride on the Pinellas Trail, a 20 mile ride in 40 knot winds to Indian Rocks Beach.  Due to the winds, it took almost 3 hours.  But here we met friends on my sister, Phyllis, who sent our mail with them.  It turned out that 5 of 7 days were very heavy winds, so it was okay to be in port for awhile.  Other days included the following: the Salvador Dali museum, Detroit Tigers spring training against the world cup winning Netherlands, the Boyd Hill preserve, the Vinoy Hotel, and a visit to the white sands of St Pete beach.  The biggest boat project was rebuilding the windlass to get ready for some anchoring in warm weather.  The first pic is the spring baseball game and then a shot of St Pete’s beach with its white sands and clear water. The final pic shows the outside of the Dali museum (no pics allowed inside), that displayed 96 paintings of the artist. We took 3 tours of his works, what an artist!  (Note--could not upload the museum pic)

March 2-3 St Pete

We started out of Turtle Cove in order to catch the high tide at 0830.   We set out for St. Petersburg and made it after about 9 hours.  It was slow going due to the many ‘no wake’ zones along the intracoastal waterway.  The winds were whipping up and the waves were fairly high on Tampa Bay as we entered St. Petersburg.  So, we docked and hunkered down for the nite.  The next morning we found that the marina was square in the middle of the hub of St. Petersburg.   A trip to the farmers market was only 1 block away (first pic).  Later that day, we enjoyed a waterskiing show at the St. Pete’s Pier (next pic). There will be more about St Pete, since we decided to stay here for a week.

March 1 The sponges of Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs is the sponge capitol of the world.  In the early 1900’s, the expert fishermen from Greece heard about the abundant sponge beds in the Gulf and they started the sponge diving and selling industry.  Today, the Greek influence dominates the area around the sponge docks.  The first pic shows the a typical work boat at the sponge docks, with their collection of sponges from a day’s work.  The next pic shows alligators at one of the eating establishments.  We were getting into some serious alligator country.

Feb 27-29 Crossing the Gulf

The first pic shows 3 boats, (Trip Time, BlueSkies, Ookpic) waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf from Carabelle to Tarpon Springs.  That weather window came on 2/28 as Buddy was coaching us to leave at 1pm that day in order to arrive at 11 am the next day (2^nd pic).   We were anxious to get underway since we had been in Carrabelle for 5 nights just waiting for the weather window.  The third pic shows our triage leaving Carrabelle harbor promptly at 1pm.   It was a long night.  The waves were about 3 ft and breaking over the bow most of the night.  Christine and I took 2 hour shifts at the helm.  The next pic shows the darkness on the Gulf, but you can see a stern light from Trip Time if you look closely.  We welcomed the sunrise in the morning (next pic) and arrived at Turtle Cove marina around noon on 2/29.   It was a lazy afternoon in Tarpon Springs for us after making the crossing.