Still at Clearwater Beach

So, we've now been here at Clearwater Beach for a couple of weeks. Once we were here for a week, their rate structure made it really easy to decide to stay...and now it is after Christmas and we are still here...but we think not for much longer.

The highlight of the last week has been our granddaughter Sarah's visit! She is not yet 6 years old, but traveled like a pro all by herself on a plane to and from San Francisco. Sandy and her parents spent a bunch of time discussing this plan, and working with the airline carrier to make sure that this was both doable and safe. And it turned out great....Sarah handled it really well, and we had a fantastic time with her for 4+ days. The most difficult part of the entire visit, was the timing of her flights. She flew into Orlando, and with her arriving at midnight there, Sandy had to leave the boat at 8pm, and didn't get home with Sarah until 4 am! And her return flight was at 8am, which meant that we were up at 3am that day, and Sandy didn't get home until close to noon.

But it was all worth it and the rest of the visit was superb! Lots of beach time, a movie (The Good Dinosaur) a visit to the Clearwater Rescue Aquarium, fingernail painting, puppy playing, and general horsing around. It was at times like one big slumber party!

4:15 am upon arrival at the boat!

9 am the next morning after about 4 hours of sleep!

Some quality beach time!

 

At the Clearwater Aquarium

A pit stop for an energy boost from some "health food".

And of course we took a short boat ride one day.

Exciting Stuff!

Hanging out on the boat with Nahni...

And Grandpa Newt.

These 2 paintings are original works of art by Sarah, who gave them to us for Christmas...they are wonderful! The top one is a nature scene for Nahni, and the bottom one is a lion for Grandpa Newt. And they now have a permanent home on our stateroom door.

A great time had by all, and Sarah arrived home safely on Christmas Eve Day in plenty of time to be home for Santa's arrival!

For Christmas Day, we had a feast. Five other boats on our dock were also here for Christmas, and we had a pot luck dinner that was fantastic. We had ham, turkey, prime rib, BBQ ribs, asparagus casserole, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, rolls, biscuits, and a wide assortment of desserts. We must have had enough food for 25 people by the time it was all said and done. We had a really nice time, and some wonderful fellowship that made our Christmas both memorable and special.


Panoramic shot of Clearwater beach on a typical winter day.

Sunset view from our boat...it would be a lot nicer without all of the buildings, but we didn't make it down to the beach in time to see it over the Gulf...maybe another night.

Dunedin to Dunedin to Clearwater

OK...since our last installment, we haven't gone very far at all. The short version is that we left Marker 1 Marina, and drove all of about a mile and a half to the Dunedin Municipal Marina. This gave us access to downtown Dunedin, which is a really nice, quaint area for shopping, dining, and walking around. We stayed there one night, and then headed for Clearwater Beach Marina, which is where we have been parked for a few days, and will remain for a bit.

And now we're excited! Because, we've managed to arrange for our granddaughter to come for a visit before Christmas, and with the logistics involved, Clearwater Beach was the best choice for both proximity to airports and activities. So, we are here for at least another week, and looking forward to her visit this coming Saturday!

In the mean time, we've had some land based "adventures". Last Saturday, we figured out the Jolly Trolley (Clearwater area public bus system) and found our way from Clearwater back up to Dunedin...I guess our planning wasn't perfect on this one, for we could have just stayed where we were and avoided this little slice of adventure. Our reason for heading back up to Dunedin was to attend their Christmas Parade. And boy...was it ever a parade...much bigger than we had envisioned for this small town. There were thousands of people there!



Quite the crowd!

 

Nothing like a Coast Guard boat in a Christmas parade.

 

And where else in the world would you see a pink flamingo in a pink El Camino in a Christmas parade?!

 

And a minion in a monster truck?

 

Finally something that makes sense...Santa in a Fire Engine!

It really was quite a nice parade...lots of marching bands, and scout troops, and veterans, and kids dance groups, etc. It was a lot more fun than the time we spent trying to get there and back on the trolley. The parade lasted 2 hours or so, and we figure we spent 3 hours just trying to get there and back (and it is only about a 15 minute drive!). But it was all good!

And...we got back in time to see the Clearwater boat parade...right off the bow of our boat! No pictures worth sharing of this as the boats were moving too fast to get a clear picture of any of them at night. But there must have been 30 or 40 boats, and some of them were really elaborate...this was a real treat to see up close.

We've also spent some relaxing time cruising around the Clearwater Beach area...

Clearwater Beach on a clear calm day.

 


Just chillin' and having a Latte on the strip.

 

Sunrise over Clearwater

Clearwater to Dunedin...a really short trip.

Our stay in Clearwater after the crossing was at the Clearwater Harbor Marina. After the small and quaint marinas of the upper gulf coast, it was a bit of a shock to the senses to approach this stop...high rise condos, and huge overpasses...just a bit of a change from what we were used to seeing.

But this was a great marina. Good service, great facilities, easy dog walking, strolls to decent restaurants, etc. We enjoyed this stop, but knew that we were only staying a couple of days to recover from the crossing. So, after hanging out in Clearwater for a couple of days, we made our way back north up the Intercoastal to Dunedin to stay at Marker 1 Marina. Not only is this marina 1/2 the price of the choices in Clearwater, but Sandy won 2 free nights here at the Rendezvous...so it was a must that we come here for a spell. It's now Saturday night, and we expect to linger here through Monday night - our next precise destination has yet to be determined. Our friends from InSpeyered 2 also decided to stop here for a few days, so it has worked out perfectly.

Our transit to Dunedin was only about 7 miles, so we took some extra time and poked our heads out into the Gulf to see it when it was a bit calmer...a nice change.

Clearwater and Clearwater Beach as seen from the Gulf.

So far we've had a great stay here. We rented a car for the weekend ($45 from Enterprise for a Friday to Monday rental is tough to pass up) and have been making good use of it. Yesterday, we piled into it with InSpeyered 2 and made supply runs to both West Marine and Wal-Mart. Then after a short stop back at the boat to walk the dogs, we all made our way to Tarpon Springs for some Greek food for dinner. The portions (at Costa's) were immense, and we all barely ate half of what we ordered...all pretty darn good!

Then today, we had a special treat, as we were able to spend much of the day with our niece Lara. She lives nearby in Clearwater, and we were really glad that she was able to join us for brunch and a nice long visit on the boat. It was wonderful to catch up and see that she is doing great here!

 

 

An added bonus that we stumbled into was that today was also the evening of the annual Christmas Boat Parade for Dunedin, and the starting point for the parade was our marina. InSpeyered 2 was docked in exactly the right spot for viewing, so we were lucky enough to have a front row seat. Some of these boats had put an enormous amount of effort into decorations, and unfortunately our pictures likely do not do them all justice.

 



 



We also had a visit from a special Santa...here are Al and Jane with our visitor...

And finally, the obligatory sunset picture.

Our Gulf Crossing - Some Good News and Some Not so Good News

Dog Island FL to Clearwater FL
Loop Miles to date: 1202; Days on Loop: 52

The really good news is that we are safe and sound in Clearwater, staying at the Clearwater Harbor Marina. We arrived here on Monday around noon after about 19 hours in the Gulf of Mexico. We had planned on 18 hours, so that part was about right. It was really a tale of 4 different journeys...

First, as we departed Dog Island off the coast of Carabelle FL, it was a gorgeous afternoon...we were right on time with our 3 pm departure with our buddy boats InSpeyered 2 and Liquid Assets. We were the lead boat of our small flotilla, and we spaced ourselves out at 1/4 to 1/2 mile intervals so that we all had a little breathing room. For the first 3 hours or so, we had rolling seas off of our bow...some 2 - 3 foot rollers, which were not uncomfortable, but weren't quite the flat seas we had hoped for.

 

Here is our chartplotter showing our intended course...and you can see our position at the beginning of this journey. Still daylight and all is going pretty well.

Part 2: Then around dusk, the water flattened out and it turned into a wonderful night for travelling. It got dark...really dark, as the moon was not expected to rise until after 9pm. But with our radar, auto pilots, and AIS capabilities, we were on cruise control anyway. It was delightful...the stars were indescribably beautiful. More than you can imagine - clear as a bell and breathtaking. And then the moon rose and with it we could see once again, as the moon and it's reflection were like a little spotlight in the sky for us...but the comfort factor was about to change...

You can see that the colors on the plotter have changed for night viewing, and we are about 1/3 of the way there...nice and comfortable still. We are still making really good time at this point.

 

 

InSpeyred 2 on the left, and Liquid Assets back on the right...nice calm seas.

InSpeyered 2 at Sunset...only waves here are our wake.

Beautiful Sunset on the Gulf...really flat seas...for now.

Part 3: The wind had started to pick up out of the east, and at the same time we started to get some 2 foot seas hitting us on the bow. This was at about midnight or so, and it was ok, but not really as enjoyable as it had been. By 3 am, it was getting rougher and much more uncomfortable. We had to decrease our speed to increase our comfort level, but it was not much fun. We had 3 - 4 foot seas hitting us on both the beam and coming at us on the bow. Imagine being in a huge washing machine...that was us. We were often seeing some 5 and maybe 6 footers as well. We were never in any danger at all, but it was quite uncomfortable. At about 5 am, we collectively made the decision to head to Tarpon Springs instead of Clearwater, which effectively added an hour to our trip overall, but would get us off of the Gulf an hour sooner. This line of travel also increased our comfort marginally, so it was a good decision all around. Bottom line - we had miserable conditions for a solid 5 to 6 hours, but we all survived just fine.

Part 4: We finally got out of the rough conditions at about 8 am as we approached the cover of the Florida coast. We actually reached the Intercoastal Waterway at about 9:30 am, but then had a bit over 2 hours of travel to get down to Clearwater. This part was easy driving, but by this point we were all exhausted, and it seemed to take an awfully long time for this short part of the trip to be over.

Lessons learned:

• Dogs are amazing...our 2 weren't entirely happy, but they made this journey with us without complaint and without any accidents...really impressive.
• Our small little tug is a sturdy beast. We knew going in that it was, and we never had a doubt about our safety. The boat could have handled much rougher and nastier conditions...much more than the 2 of us would like to try to handle!
• Weather forecasters are guessing more than they will admit for this part of the Gulf. We had multiple sources of weather information...national services, local experts, weather gurus, actual buoy data from a buoy in the middle of the gulf, etc. And ALL were pointing to a nice smooth crossing. They were right for about 30% of our journey...the rest of it they missed big time.

Although we didn't enjoy the total journey, we still feel a great sense of accomplishment. We managed our way through some difficult sea conditions and battled our way to the other side. We are both very happy that this part of our adventure is behind us...and now we get to enjoy the sunny beaches of the west coast of Florida...nice!

Port St Joe to Dog Island

We were surprised on Saturday morning to learn that a window for crossing the Gulf had moved up a few days, and if we wanted to catch it, we needed to skedaddle. The window we were shooting for was to leave the Carabelle Fl area on Sunday afternoon, and travel overnight to Clearwater to arrive on Monday morning. So...off we went to find an anchorage at Dog Island, some 50 miles south and east of Port St. Joe. With our travel partners InSpeyered 2 and Liquid Assets joining us, we managed to depart by about 11 am.

Nothing like a floating house with its own boat...maybe a slick way to avoid property taxes?

In this 50 mile leg, we once again had a variety of scenery that we traversed..

Some lowland marshes...

 

InSpeyered 2 and Liquid Assets on some lake like spots...

 

And some scenery reminiscent of the Tennessee River.

 We found the anchorage called Shipping Cove at Dog Island to be gorgeous! There were already a half dozen boats there anchored with the same idea as we had...to wait for the right time to leave for the crossing. In short, the idea is to time your departure so that you don't get to your intended arrival in the Tarpon Springs or Clearwater area too early in the morning. There are crab pots to be dodged, and if you get there too early, the sun is directly in your eyes, and you can't spot them. So, you do the math and figure out what time you need to leave to arrive around 10 am, after the sun is higher in the sky...for us, that was 3 pm the next day (Sunday).

View of the beach at our anchorage at Shipping Cove.

 

The crew of Liquid Assets surveying their raft-up with InSpeyered 2.

We arrived at the anchorage just before sunset, and enjoyed a very peaceful evening, and a relaxing morning resting up for our long overnight journey on Sunday/Monday. Sandy tried her hand at some beach art, and although she didn't spend as much time with it as she had wanted too, the result (an angel) was superb!

 

Just wait until you hear how much fun we had on this crossing...soon to follow!