Exploring Bahia Beach Anchorage

Hi, folks,

The last 2 days we've been exploring new anchorages - On Monday we anchored off the Veterans Hospital near Johns Pass off the ICW. It was fun motor sailing down the ICW - sunny, beautiful day with low humidity. What could be better?

Yesterday, we stopped at Treasure Island briefly to swap out our depth finder at the Nexus (brand of depth finder) dealer's place, then traveled across Tampa Bay to Bahia Beach. Our cruise leaders, Chuck and Sandi, heard that this was a great destination from cruisers in the St. Pete's Yacht Club. We found high tide depths of 11 - 14 ft all the way in to a canal type basin bordered by pretty mangroves and a few large homes. There is a Resort called Little Harbor (Bahia Beach) that has transient dockslips for $1.50 per ft per night (30 ft miniumum) and a reasonable restaurant. It might be a good stopover for the club or any cruiser who wants some luxury for a day or so. As for our group, we followed a meandering Crab Creek to a basin that was very pretty and quiet. Richard and I explored in our dinghy and later that night, played card games with our fellow cruisers aboard s/v Cavatina.

Today we are off to explore Anna Maria Island - looks like it will be a 4-hour motorsail from here. Pictures will be added later to this report when Captain Richard has time! -

Update - We had no depth problems exiting Bahia Beach at low tide, thank goodness - plenty of water all the way out to Tampa Bay. We watched Cavatina get stuck on the edge of the channel, but Sealark pulled them out. Anna Marie Island looked GORGEOUS going in the channel, but Sealark ran aground just inside Bimini Bay. Since Cavatina couldn't pull them off we decided to fore go going into Bimini Bay and went on to Long Boat Key. Eventually Sealark freed themselves using their sail and took advantage of a rising tide! They caught up with us and anchored near Moore's Restaurant at Long Boat Key. Eagle's Wings decided to tie up at the restaurant's dock (free). Will try their stone crab legs tonight. All in all an eventful day!