We left Longboat Key on a nice sunny day.  A bit sad to leave our new friends but eager to head on to our next stop.  Where to go?  We decided to travel about 35 miles and stop at Royal Palm Marina.  The cruise was nice.  We past Venice FL and Janis found her next home.  A white home with all windows and palm trees! The intercostal water way has a lot of things to look at and there are a number of no wake zones so it is nice to travel slowly and take in the views.

The weather would be changing to the worst (rain and high wind) and we wanted to get settled once we reached Royal Palms Marina.  We had a great view of the sunset from the top of our boat but the clouds came in too quickly. We enjoyed the short walks to the Tiki Bar with specials on 16 oz. Miller Lites.   The next day it was red in the morning sailor take warning! Very rainy day and it did not let up so we spent the day in the boat watching movies and lazing around.

The next day we walked the small town of Englewood. It was still raining but it was more scattered.  The town is nice and had a number of small novelty shops. The wind was increasing but it quit raining – we decided to stay a couple more nights. We found a few deals at the local rummage sale and thrift shops.  Mid week we found a local farmer’s market and Chris tried the local tacos.

Longboat Key Resort! Very nice marina! Excellent parking spot!

We had so much fun were still gathering the pic and stories. We pushed off from gulf port in the AM and traveled across Tampa Bay.  It was a nice sunny day and the wind was not strong.  Waves were 1.5 feet or so on the ICW and 3-5 feet in the gulf. No brainer ICW route! Paraiso maneuvered around a commercial ship and a tow barge in the big Tampa Bay then straight on into the ICW.  We had a nice ride with several more bridge openings and arrived at Longboat Key Marina at about 3:10 PM.  We found that our slip was up front 20 steps from the pool and 40 steps from the bath house! Hey, Turtle Cove was a ¼ mile walk. Celebrate the small wins! The place was the best kept marina I ever seen. We went for a walk to check out the marina and found that India Jayne was also here. Kit and Pam came over and greeted us. Also, the lock director from Kentucky River Authority (Jerry) was also a LBKR member on C dock! We met for breakfast and got reconnected.  The next day the wind was blowing very hard. We ventured over to the gulf to see very large waves as far as the eye could see. Lucky for us Longboat Resort was a much protected cove. The locals called this “tall cotton area”. Meaning break out your wallet and steer clear of snooty types. We found a little of both.

During our stay we visited the Ringling Circus Museum, a seafood and music festival, St. Armand’s Circle, friends stopped by and of course several trips to the beach. Kit and Chris went into every ice cream shop on long boat key! We left no sand dollar unturned. We all agreed that the north end of the island (Ana Maria) was the friendliest and homey feeling. On the third day the winds were very calm the gulf was like glass. It was the most peaceful water to date. Reluctantly, we will need to leave paradise tomorrow and say goodbye to Kit and Pam.

The group photo is Dennis and Lillian, Chris and Janis and Pam. Kit was taking the photo. In the statue photo, Chris and Janis looking up the nurse’s dress. Well Chris was anyway. The Ringling bros museum was fabulous! Above was a period circus wagon and a 00 scale circus event that was 150 feet long and 50 feet wide. A man worked on the model as a labor of love for over 50 years. The detail was unbelievable. The meridian 411 above was entering long boat key resort as we were leaving.

We had a beautiful day for cruising. We followed Red Eagle south on the ICW.  Our goal was Gulfport, FL. The ICW is like the river – there are nice houses with docks, condo buildings, and hotels all along the way with some areas of state parks.   We also had some bridges that we need to go under but they were not high enough so we had to call on the radio to have the bridge raised.  Some are on a schedule and others  will open when you call them.   We had no issues and arrived in Gulf Port at 3 PM.

India Jayne pulled in after we did.  They decided that they could not make it to Longboat Key since we had a late start.

We all went out to dinner at a local place and the food was good and beer was cold.  There was a great sunset. We found a special place for looper girls…….

The next day Red Eagle and India Jayne moved on to different marinas.  We stayed one more day to check out the town of Gulfport.   We walked into town and found that it is mostly hotels, condos, some small stores and restaurants.  The sand on the beach was very white and they had a place called a Casino that Chris got excited about but it was a dance hall built by the Army Corps that you could rent not a gambling place.  The trees are full of Spanish moss and appear to be very old trees. Very beautiful streets and homes.

Tommy decided to come to Tarpon Springs to welcome us after the crossing.  We toured the main street visiting the different stores and shops.  We became sponge experts by watching a video on sponge processing.  Of course we had to stop for a late lunch / happy hour! It was two for one hour but you had to drink both at the same time. No problem. The Marina had a club house with a pool and hot tub.  We decided to  let the hot tub heat up for an hour before diving in. It was nice to be outside and not cold. We had good Greek olive oil and bread as a snack.  We  plotted our next travel route showing Tom where our next port of call will be on the map.

Sponges, Football, Friends, and more!

Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage Greek Americans of any city in the US. There is still a small active sponge industry. Visitors can often view sponge fishermen working at the Sponge Docks on Dodecanese Boulevard.

We explored Tarpon Springs visiting the shops and making purchases.

Saturday Dave and Kathy Cromar visited us. Dave used to work with us back in the Tastemaker days and we had not seen him for a number of years.  We did some catching up and then went out to dinner.  Nice Greek food.

Sunday the club house opened their bar and had the football games on.  Fellow boaters joined us in watching the games.  The marina allowed us to bring our own food into the bar so we had a small buffet of snacks. Unfortunately Steelers did not win against Denver.  But we had fun watching the game.

Monday was chore day.  Return the rental car – clean the boat – laundry and such.  Tuesday we will be moving on to Gulfport, FL then on to Longboat Key, FL.

Boner here

The day began a bit slow today.  My owners decided I needed to have my nails trimmed.  They made a kitty burrito out of me by wrapping a green blanket around me and would not let me go until they were dam well ready.   My claws were pinched and pieces were flying. I escaped and went back to playing with my mices. Hey, they don’t stick to my claws! Hummm, all is well, so I thought!  

The monsters in the belly were started at a time of day later than usual.  It was late in the day and we going to be moving?  Normally we start moving in the early morning.  Hey why is my life jacket and a ditch bag laid out on the bed? Anyway, I took my post up on the top deck and enjoyed the late afternoon sun. VERY TOASTY, I took a nap to make the time pass by more quickly.  There was a nice sunset and then it became dark.  Hey guys I said, time for bed! I made several gestures to the top of the stairs but no one was following. Once it was dark the white vessel began to move around more than normal.  I did everything to try to hold on.  After about two hours I could not take it anymore. I started my wobble down stairs and stopped to deposit what I had in my stomach on a deck rug. wooo don’t remember eating that!

It did not get better down below.  I tried different positions and different places but could not get away from the rolling and bouncing movements.  I want to get off this boat! I found a wall with a corner and a pair of tube socks to hug and for the next 4 hours held on for dear life.

We finally stopped and it took a while for me to get my steady legs back.  Then this other person was here and I kept my eye on him as he ate food.  You never know what might happen. 

It was very rough trip across, all the weather models were not correct. 4 ft. swells on the beam. I didn’t know what that meant either. We do now! We had a flotilla of 8 boats in a 4 mile spread. We had a great sunrise and then had to begin to watch for crab pots.  We were tired but this helped perk us up. With the sun in our eyes the crab pots were hard to see.  We finally arrived at 11 AM to Turtle Cove Marina. We left as strangers and arrived 17.5 hrs. later as new best friends. Truly the blessings of the great loop. Yea for Tarpon Springs! We’ll sleep well tonight.

Monday 4:00 PM…… We now leave the the panhandle to make the 175 mile crossing to Tarpon Springs/Tampa. This morning all the captains and crews met for breakfast or phoned in and decided it was a go! We understand even EDDY (weather wagger) will join us on the crossing. For those following at home, follow the salami map line from Carrabelle  to Tampa and that is basically our route 135 degrees SSE. The gulf crossing is the longest trip off shore passage for the great loop. Dutches will be the slowest boat so they left at 1:03 PM. We will be at the outer marker #2 by 5:30 PM then a 10 MPH slow overnight track to Tampa-ish area. We expect to be at the #2 Tarpon Spring marker by 10-11AM Tuesday. Then we will settle in , take a nap, fuel up and celebrate when we get there (not necessarily in that order). In the last two hours, everyone is prepping the boats and getting that last hot shower with full water pressure!

At Carrabelle were checking weather windows, buddy boats, and certainly what does Eddy say….. to decide how to do the gulf crossing. We will gain at least 10 degrees warmer when we hit Tampa/Tarpon Springs. So that is our new focus!  Everyone seems to have a different cruising preference so were trying to decide which boat will match up with Paraiso. Paraiso’s last gulf crossing under Captain Chris’s command, was not so great: two breakdowns and fuel shortage.
Admiral Jan expects a little better performance this time.

On Thursday January 7^th AM we checked the weather forecasts and it was iffy as to weather we should make a overnight 10 mph crossing. We met a couple at breakfast (Doug and Melanie) that intended to a go fast Friday day crossing.  They have a Formula Cruiser (Clarabelle) and can go 25 mph which would take them about 6 hours to get to Tarpon Springs.  This is too fast for us because we would burn up all our fuel before we would get there.  We checked with Red Eagle to see if they decided to cross or not. They are holding at Apalachicola Marina.  Based upon some live discussions with Eddy they decided not to go, so we will spend another night and see what Friday brings.   By luck, India Jayne (Kit and Pam and new guy Bo) came into the marina we are staying. They travel at about the same pace as Red Eagle so we will most likely all make a night crossing with them and Red Eagle.  Now it just depends upon when the weather will let us.  We all went to dinner together and had a great time.  We wished Doug and Melanie safe travels on Friday.

Well Friday is here!

AM Friday we awoke to the large diesel engines of a Florida Fish and Game boat that is parked next to us. They were preparing to take the boat to Tampa and were heading out at 7:30 for a 12 hour trip.

So glad we bagged last night crossing it drizzled all night… Doug on Clarabelle was out of here very early with his 42 ft Formula followed by the FFGC boat 150 foot steel white water cruiser with a crew of 5 officers. Two hours later the government boat was back at dock. The deck hands said DAMMM it was rough out there. They had talked to Clarabelle and thought they were coming back in also.  We did not see them come back and worried about how their crossing went.  About 6PM Clarabelle called us and advised that they just made it to Tarpon Springs.  They had a rough ride but made it before dark.  We were very happy that they were OK.

We reviewed the weather reports in the breakfast war room. We all agreed that today would most like be OK but tonight and on Saturday may be craptastic to travel. Next weather window is Monday/Tuesday! At least Sequious crew will be in town!

Saturday we decided to visit a nearby WWII Museum.  It was packed with a lot of information.  Upon leaving the community farmers had what they called a “Second Harvest”. They offered us a box of food and drinks.  We guessed that they needed to give the food away or discard it, so we took a box and walked back to the boat. 

Sunday we planned to get together in the marina club house to watch the football games. We also heard that the Powerball was a record jackpot (1.4 billion) and we wanted to make sure we got a few numbers.  We took a walk into Carrabelle and found a gas station/deli that sold tickets.  We also found the smallest Police station.   Chris was arrested for a minute.

We are at The Moorings Marina in Carrabelle.  We will wait here for a good weather window to cross the gulf.  By chance our friend Tom was heading to Florida from Mississippi and met up with us in Carrabelle.  We hung out the first day of his arrival since he had been in a car for 8 hours and walked to dinner.  The next day we drove into Carrabelle  (not much there) and then went west to Apalachicola and stopped at a few marinas and shops along the way.  We walked around Apalachicola and found a place on the river to have a beer and a few oysters. Just look at that pile of shell! We were oyster drunk!

We observed the river in amazement because it was running very strong and fast.  The locals say that they have not seen the river like this since 1958.  The shrimp boats were having troubles docking and launching.  We understood that Red Eagle was going to dock there.  The Dock master confirmed this so we thought we would stop by later.  Janis sent a text to Red Eagle to be careful. Reply was no S@#$!  We visited a Maritime Museum, oyster processing factory and then stopped in a few antique shops looking for treasures.  We then sought out a good local bar and pass up a few that had table cloths and looked to “pretty”.  Finally we found just the place!  Bowery Station was a small bar. Very Friendly and $2 16 oz. PBR’s for Tommy.  He had one for Daryl!  We sat there for a couple drinks and then thought we should go see if Red Eagle (Sax and Sherri) made it into the dock.

As we got up to leave here come Sax and Sherri so we stay and had a couple more beerz with them.  Tommy met a new girl and made friends quickly since she didn’t talk much! I think Sax likes her too! Tommy may have to share……

The next morning Tommy was off to Tampa Bay area LOOKING FOR A SNOW BIRD’S ROOST, good luck. We need a place to visit in the winter.