March 5, 2016.
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| Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks |
We left Tarpon Springs about 8:00 after taking a short trip along in front of the sponge docks. About 10:00 we stopped at a small island “Three Rooker Bar”, dropped the hook and walked the beach for a while. This is a beautiful small island with clear water, sugar sand, and lots of wildlife. At first we did not think we could stop because the wind and waves were on the beach but they eased off a little and we were able to get just around the end for protection.
Very nice, but it is Sunday and more boats began to arrive. After lunch we headed on south to our next stop. Cruising through the Clearwater, Florida area, especially on Sunday is kind of like boating around Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach when it comes to shit head big boat operators. Another day where seamanship and courtesy seem to be lost forever. At one point, as a large boat was heading toward us on plane, another huge center console with 900 hp (3X300 outboards) passed us only a few yards on our port side, between us and the oncoming boat, at high speed. Later, further down the waterway, I saw this boat tied to a dock with four young people no more than 20 years old on board drinking beer. Let’s see, four teenagers, beer, and 900 horsepower. There are so many things wrong with this picture, I can’t begin. I wish I had some pictures, but I was too busy avoiding crashes. We anchored in a very protected “urban” canal area of Redington Shores about 4:30.
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| Three Rooker Bar |
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| Dubhe anchored at Three Rooker Bar |
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| Dubhe anchored at Three Rooker Bar |
March 6, 2016.
We had planned to stay at Redington Shores for another day, but dingy access to land is not as good as we thought, and high winds are forecasted for later in the week, so we decided to move on so we could cross Tampa Bay ahead of the weather. At about 12:30 we stopped at the Gulfport Florida Municipal Marina for fuel, propane, and pumpout, but what the hell, we decided to stay overnight too. Gulfport is another one of the old Florida towns that we love (like New Smyrna, Tarpon Springs, Cocoa, etc) that do not seem to be ruined by high rise condos and too many people. It is a regular person type place, not glitzy. The marina is very nice and reasonable cost as well. We spent the afternoon in the “downtown” area of Gulfport, along the water…found a bar that had 16 oz Rolling Rock for $2.00, my kind of place. For dinner, we had leftover Greek food which turned out to be better than the first time.
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| Gulfport, Florida |
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| Best deal of the cruise |
March 7, 2016.
Today we will go a fairly short distance to an anchorage closer to Tampa Bay so we can get an early start to cross in the morning. Since it is short ride of just a few miles, we have a morning to take care of some business (like this blog, email, etc.) then we will leave by noon. The plan is to get across the bay before the wind picks up too much. Like any large body of relatively shallow water, a nasty chop can build up quickly. We plan to spend tomorrow night in Bradenton, Fl. I am posting this before the day is done, so next time I get to wifi, there could be changes! When cruising, we have to be flexible and change plans as conditions or opportunities change, and weather is generally the biggest factor.
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