Sandrobber: 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.