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| Our marina at Apalachicola was not necessarily a high-class resort. All the commercial boats went there for fuel. |
We waited until about 1 PM on April 29 (after the
Admiral had even more oysters for BREAKFAST!) before we departed Apalachicola
for our overnight crossing. The key is
to time our arrival at the Clearwater sea buoy for late morning, so the rising
sun does not prevent us from seeing all the crab pots.
We had been watching a weather window for the past
couple days & the forecast held for winds S 5-10 with waves 2’ or
less. The forecast was spot on, and
actually improved as we traveled farther south.
About 5-10 miles offshore, we had some visitors on the
boat. See photos. I hope they both made it back to shore, since
neither one of them will float.
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| Our first visitor 5-10 miles offshore was a cattle egret. Sue saw him fly towards the boat & he hid behind our dinghy for an hour or two. |
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| Shortly after the egret left, a swift of some kind flew around the helm station for 5 minutes before leaving. Surprised us! |
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| Sunrise on Saturday morning |
After sunset, it is amazing how dark it becomes on the
open water. We had no horizon until the
moon rose about 3 AM, and had to navigate using the Constellation Orion for a
heading reference. As expected, “Otto
the Pilot” didn’t work very well that night.
We made the Clearwater sea buoy at 0815, only 15 minutes
later than planned (over a 20-hour trip).
There must be an engineer somewhere close by. We went to Clearwater Beach city marina, the
same place we went to 3 years ago when we made the crossing.
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| Brian, Jess & family enjoying the beach |
After sleeping for a couple hours (20-hours underway is
way too long), we met up with Jess & Brian & their family, went to the
powder-white sand beach, and watched the sunset “celebration” at Pier 60. We had a good time, but I warned one the kids
to beware of the herons & egrets who like to eat “Cheetos fingers”.
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| Didn't know there we so many different kinds of sponges! |
The next day we took the “Jolly Trolley” (which I had
read about on one of the boater websites) up to Tarpon Springs, costing us a
whole $5 for both of us, both ways. We
acted like tourists, walking the sponge dock area, and leaving many good Yankee
greenbacks with the locals. The dinner
at the Greek restaurant “Hellas” was fantastic.
It had been about 45 years since we had been in Tarpon, and, y’know, a
lot of it was still the same!
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| One of the sponge boats behind another old relic. Note diver's suit behing mast & net containing sponges above pilot house. (Click on photo to zoom) |
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| Sponges everywhere in Tarpon Springs |
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| Boaters beware! |
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| Passing a good time in Tarpon |
Our last day in Clearwater was spent cleaning the boat,
scraping about ½” of salt off the deck, before going back to the beach to
squish some more sand between our toes.
We’ll need to depart Tuesday to get across Tampa Bay before the cold
front comes through, followed by lots of wind.
Waves are forecast 4-5’, and you ain’t gonna find me out there in that!
Thanks for the photo of Jess and her family. Hearing about the birds who hitched a ride on your boat is really cool. Reminds me of the story of Noah's ark. I wonder how many cattle egret happened to find that ark and thought "Geez, glad this is here!" Makes you wonder what possessed them to set out over the open water.
ReplyDeleteI checked my bird app and did some online searching but couldn't identify the little swift-like bird. It seems too big and spotted to be a pine warbler but too faded and beige to be a yellow-rumped warbler. But it's something like that. :)