Back in the Intracoastal Waters Again (Clearwater) 12-10-08

We undocked at 9:30 in Tarpon Springs with strong SE winds from a dock that you had to hold your breath to exit. Bob did a masterful job maneuvering our little single engine, no bow thruster Baby Grand. It is overcast, sticky FL humid at 68 degrees and I know that any of you in the northern climes would trade places with us now that you have snow and cold.

It is a short trip of 23 miles to Clearwater along the Gulf the Intracoastal Waterway—so glad to see you again. We have missed your protected waters and signposts to keep us out of danger. We could have stayed a few more days in charming Tarpon Springs, but with storms forecast for tomorrow, we decided to move on. No hurry today so we cruise at 8mph which is way less than our last diesel guzzling trip at 10mph.

We pass Anclote Island and Light which marks a dangerous reef. Here’s a picture of a Spoil Island made from dredge—in a few years, you will probably see a realtor’s sign advertising home sites at outrageous prices. We passed under the Dunedin Causeway Bridge which has a clearance of 23 feet—we are 21 feet so we went through slowly, looking up all the way. Here’s Bob checking the paper charts, Chartplotter and depth sounder—who says that men can’t multi-task.

We pull into Clearwater at 12:30 and were greeted by a multitude of boats. We had a reservation at the Clearwater Municipal Marina and chose it as they had Valvtect diesel fuel at $1.86 with tax and Boat US discount—that is a deal. There are a lot of Loopers here and it was great to catch up with everybody and meet new Loopers. Everybody was busy washing their boats to get rid of the encrusted salt residue. After the work was finished, we went over to Sunset Pier to walk the beach and enjoy a glorious sunset and full moon.

Tourist Time in Tarpon Springs 12-9-08

We slept so well last night. I woke up anyway at 5:30 because I am on that clock again. It was 50 degrees and I decided to cook the Spice-Rubbed Pork loin and potatoes au gratin that I couldn’t cook yesterday due to all the crab pot duty. It is supposed to get to 75 today so using the oven in the early morning makes sense too.

We moved from Port Tarpon Marina to Tarpon Landing Marina which is downtown as we wanted to explore the area and be tourists. A better option would be the Tarpon Springs Municipal Marina but they did not have space for us this morning. Tarpon Springs is is an authentic Greek fishing village complete with sponge and dolphin tours, plenty of Greek and seafood restaurants to tempt you and lots of shops to explore. There is even belly dancing at Zorba’s. You can take the Tarpon Trolley bus for $1.00 and get a narrated tour of the town and then decide what you want to do.

We had great gyros at Santorini’s on Dodecanese Blvd. We also visited the Shrine of St. Michael where Greek icons of the saint are located and are believed to help the sick. The Safford House is a mansion museum that looked very interesting but is only open on Wednesdays and Fridays now. The painter, George Inness, Jr., has several large paintings on display at the Unitarian Universalist Church and tours are available. His works have a remarkable ability to capture light.

Spring Bayou Park is an amazing place to while away an afternoon. There are 14 manatees residing there and here is a picture of a mom and calf. It is a great place to people watch and enjoy the lush scenery. The Pinnellas Trail is now a 34 mile bike and walking trail to St. Pete’s but it will be expanded to 75 miles in the near future. We didn’t do that much distance but did feel entitled to a treat. My internal GPS (Get Peggy Sweets) got us safely to the National Bakery where we had a healthy serving of baklava.

Tarpon Springs is the “sponge capital of the world” and we toured the factory and learned about how Greek divers harvest them. One boat reportedly was out for 2 months harvesting, returned with 18,000 lbs of sponge, but if it had rained heavily, the sponges onboard may have kept absorbing water and sunk the boat. I am doing a lot of boat washing down here in salt water land and decided to get a deluxe natural sponge. Maybe it will make the job easier?

Bloomin’ Flower Field of Pots 12-8-08

Golden Lily, Highlander and Baby Grand were all aground this morning at 6:30 am in the Twin Rivers Marina. It is a stressful way to wake up but we quickly devised a plan to depth sound the marina and the Salt River channel by going out in the dinghy and using a premeasured boat pole to get depth readings. Bob and Jim brought back the good news—the entrance was not as bad as we thought; the bad news—since high tide will not come until 12 noon, it may be difficult to get to Tarpon Springs before dark.

Our plan was to keep pulling our stern boat lines to see if we could wedge the boat out slowly with every inch of tide water coming in. Baby Grand only draws 3’10” and by 8:15, we could inch her back safely enough and then turned on the engine to power off—success. Plan was for us to go first and give depth readings to Golden Lily and Highlander. Shell Island was reading 5’—it looks pretty in the picture but can snag you. The other boats tried to leave at 10, but Highlander, unfortunately, found a shallow spot and grounded again in the marina. With the help of a Boat US tow, they got off and went safely to another marina and will try again for Tarpon Springs tomorrow.

By this time, we were already on the Gulf on the way to Tarpon Springs and were confronted with yet another challenge—mine fields of crab pots with floating lines that wiggle just below the water trying to grab our propeller. It was a blooming flower field of pots out there in assorted colors, usually dark which were harder to see especially when the sun is in your eyes and you are hand steering.

Dodge and weave was the sport of the day all the way to Tarpon Springs. We let down our guard just before approaching the Anclote River and ran over a lurking gray one. We shifted immediately to neutral, held our breath and both wondered aloud who was going to dive under the boat and free the propeller. We looked under the boat from the swim platform and could not find any debris or line. Maybe we lucked out and the cutters and/or the "shoe" extension from the keel worked. Bob started up the engine slowly and I looked for problems--none. Phew, were we lucky!

We were rewarded for our hard efforts today by many visits from dolphins. Here is a frisky one who played in our bow wave for 10 minutes. We made it to Tarpon Springs by 5pm and tied up at Port Tarpon Marina fuel dock for the night. We are tired, very tired.

Would it have been easier to take the overnight 160 mile trip from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs instead of the 3 legs from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee to Crystal River to Tarpon Springs? Fast trawlers certainly have this as a possible option, maybe we should have. It would have taken us 20 hours away from land and if there were engine problems with a single engine boat….

Anxiety and Fun in Crystal River 12/7/08

The day started with a jolt when one of the Looper boats discovered that they were aground in the Twin Rivers Marina. This was very disconcerting as we had all asked the water depth and were assured that there were no problems. Being aground in the marina also raises questions about getting out safely back through the 7 mile channel to the Gulf. High tide came at 10:42 but the Looper boat did not really float until after 11 am and then was aground again. We had to wait for tomorrow to go anywhere so what to do?

Enter Tom and Debbie, our Looper friends who live in this area. They devised a perfect day of fun and entertainment to showcase the beauty of this area as well as offer local information about the tides and challenges of boating in this area.

We looped with Tom and Debbie from Joliet to Alton. They were transporting their 32’ PDQ catamaran from Lake Michigan to Crystal River, FL. They are a new couple together with so many adventures between them and they inspire confidence with a “can do” attitude. Sometimes you meet people in your life and you instantly think, “these guys are great”—that’s how we feel about Tom and Debbie.

When we last saw them, their sailboat, Catrina, had the mast down to get through all the locks and was running on 1 outboard engine. She has now morphed into this beautiful butterfly sailboat with mast up proudly and fully rigged. Tom and Debbie took Jim and Barbara from Golden Lily, Jeannette and Charlie from Highland and Bob and I for a ride on Catrina to explore the beauty of the Crystal River Wildlife Refuge. What a treat! We did see dolphins and manatees, but again, my camera was not quick enough to capture the moment.

Tom built his own home, complete with a 360 degree cupola overlooking the canals and wetlands, in Crystal River and they graciously gave us a tour. He is definitely a Renaissance man which is so nicely complimented by Debbie’s sense of fun. We topped off the day with an early dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants, Crackers.

Thank you so much for giving us such a great day.

92 Miles to Crystal River 12-6-08

Jim and Barbara from Golden Lily, Jeannette and Charlie from Highlander and Bob and I met this morning at 6 a.m. to review the forecast and decide if this is a go day. It is an agonizing process as there is no real right answer for everybody. Today’s NOAA forecast looked great for our immediate area but mentioned west winds building this afternoon which would mean beam seas. NOAA forecasts have not always been right the past few days and when this happens, you tend to question their accuracy. We evaluated that most of the day looked good, so let’s go for it. However, if we stayed, there was going to be a pancake breakfast in Steinhatchee as well as the holiday parade so no choice was totally bad.

We left with gray cloudy skies and a light East wind with a 1 foot chop on the Gulf. Here’s a picture of crabbers setting their pots and we did find a number of them. Baby Grand is the slowest boat and the lead was taken by Golden Lily, followed by Highlander and the boats initially had a 1 mile spacing which increased to 6-10 miles as the day wore on. All of us stayed connected on Channel 69. The cloudy, sometimes foggy day, was brightened by a solar breakthrough which cast a halo on the water ahead and urged us forward.

We monitor Channel 16 and heard 3 distress calls to the Coast Guard and towboat companies from boats in our area that were “dead in the water”, “having engine problems” and one from a 13 foot hydrofoil with kids aboard with no insurance. We began to have some concern about our situation when a Boat US Towboat operator interrupted us on Channel 69 and advised us that the tide charts that we were using for Crystal River were not accurate, that there was less water in there and that boats with a draft over 4 feet might go aground.

This created immediate panic and problem solving. Our boat, Baby Grand, only draws 3’10”, so we volunteered to go into the 7 mile channel first and scope it out and relay our depths to Highlander and Golden Lily. Here’s a picture of them following us through the notorious Shell Island section. We did find a few 5’ sections in the channel, but generally, there was plenty of water depth. Here’s a picture of us approaching the Twin Rivers Marina at 5:30 at sunset. We made it.

This day had a relaxing ending when Tom and Debbie, who live in Crystal River and are former Loopers, met us at the marina and took us all out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There is goodness in the world.