Tarpon Springs

October 31 - Halloween

Here I am posing on the sponge docks with my Halloween Costume. We arrived yesterday and my Mom met us for dinner. She lives only about 8 miles from here and drove over. We were able to borrow her car to reprovision some groceries and our cruise captain was able to fill his propane cylinder so that they can prepare dinner for the next week!

Tarpon Springs is a Greek community with lots of super restaurants, shops and bakeries. We feasted upon a lamb dinner while the others had Greek spinach and cheese pies. For dessert, of course baklava and my Mom and I couldn't pass up getting some custard creme eclairs. Will have to diet when we get back.

Check out our pictures below of our new friends Sandy posing with the sponges, Chuck in front of the sign advertising 2 for 1 drinks, Richard piloting our boat into Tarpon Springs and Sherwood, our almost 14-year old cat, hiding under my hat in the cockpit.

Tomorrow, we are expecting a cold front with North winds. Hopefully, they will help blow us back to Punta Gorda. We expect to go back slowly, visiing other destinations along the way hopefully arriving back in another week. Opa!

Caladesi Island State Park

Today we motorsailed to Caladesi Island State Park, the National Gold Medal Winner of state parks - and we now know why! It is only accessible via boat or ferry and if you have a boat, the 108 slip marina is just great - only $1 per foot per night on floating docks and electricity. Just a short walk from the marina is just a pristine beach, hiking trail with a gorgeous mangrove forest.

We spotted a huge gopher tortoise looking for food (see picture) and swam in the lovely ocean. I found a huge sand dollar shell in the surf along with a unique welk. Tonight the crews of Sea Lark, Cavatina and Eagle's Wings are collaborating on a pot luck dinner at the pavillion. Should be fun! We plan to stay here another night and then onto Tarpon Springs.

Clearwater

By Monday, many of our fellow sailboat cruisers had other commitments and decided to return home to Punta Gorda. However, the crews of Sea Lark, Cavatina and Eagle's Wings motorsailed approximately 4 hours to Clearwater Marina. After a memorable docking experience, we decided to check out the white sand beach and went for a swim. We even had time to watch a street show of great breakdancers on the pier.

On Tuesday, Richard and I rented a car so that my doctor could check me out post concussion. Fortunately, everything checked out well. The other boats went onto Caledesi State Park and tomorrow we will join them.

St Pete's and Gulfport

The next spot on our sailing journey was St. Pete's Municipal Marina. We motor sailed for 3 hours to get here and docked along the pier in the central basin. St. Pete's is such a great destination - we spent Friday and Saturday here. The Farmer's Market was really great - lots of yummy produce, spices, regional foodstuffs. We were able to get our autopilot control unit replaced by Dick Booth, the Nexus dealer. We also got the Nexus system interfaced to the new Garmin chartplotter. We even went out sailing to check that it was working properly. We also went on a trolley ride around the city and checked out an art show. Lots of fun and companionship.

We decided to visit a little spot, Gulfport with the club. The cruise leaders, Sandi and Chuck, arranged for dinner at LaCote Basque, a neat little French Restaurant. We must have had 20 people (2 tables). We also checked out the cute little shops in town and took a stroll back to our boat.

Longboat Pass and Emerson Point, Manatee River

We were blessed with gorgeous weather for the next few days and motored on the ICW through Longboat Pass. We had 17 sailboats at this point and dined at Moores Stone Crab Restaurant for a wonderful dinner celebrating the cruise captain's, Chuck Witzke's, birthday. Sandi even baked him a cake and the restaurant graciously served it to us all. It was fun getting to know so many nice people - what a great bunch of sailors!

It was fun dinghing through a residental canal to Whitney Bay, walking over to the beach, talking to the locals and having a soda at the little place in town.

The next day we traveled to Emerson Point on the Manatee River where we anchored for the night.

Marina Jack at Sarasota

Since the winds were not favorable for an outside passage on the Gulf, the club decided to "motor sail" up the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) to Sarasota. We encountered lots of bastule bridges along the way, which required us to call the bridge tendors on our Marine Radio Channel 9 for openings. Along the way we chatted with the skipper of Quebecca, a 20 ft red hulled sailboat that had just won a trophy at the Columbus Day Regatta at Key Biscayne. He was triumphantly returning home and invited us to visit him at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron docks.

Our friends, Marilyn & John Jorgensen, on Blue Goose caught up with us and we decided to splurge and go into the magnificent Sarasota Marina Jack Marina. There's a beautiful fountain with dophins framing the entranceway with very nice facilities. The rest of the club anchored outside the marina and joined us for dinner at the Tiki Hut Restaurant.

Upon return, I (Joanne) fell backwards going down the step ladder into the main salon. I don't remember falling, but Richard told me I was unconscious and unresponsive for 5 minutes! He ran over to get help from our friends and they got me up, called a cab and got me to Sarasota General Hospital Emergency Room. They did a CAT Scan and cautioned me that I had a concussion. Fortunately, I recovered well with just a few dizzy spells!

"North" Sailing Trip with Punta Gorda Sailing Club

Richard and I untied the lines and cast off from Eagle's Wings summer dockage at Burnt Store Marina to join the Punta Gorda Sailing Club (PGSC) on its northern cruising destinations. It was a cool Monday, October 19th, 11 am on Charlotte Harbor - just a fabulous broad reach sail with gusty winds averaging 15 knots. We left the harbor and motored down the Intercoastal Waterway to Cape Haze where we set an anchor at 3 pm. After a little nap we noticed two other boats from PGSC. Before we knew it, we had a dinner invitation and got to know Pat & Barry from CScape and Chris & Sam from Splendor. What a lovely evening!

Harvest Moon Regatta

A sudden blast of cool air followed by a 180 degree wind shift brought 30 kt gusts and pelting rain. Joanne, asleep below with a hatch open, was awakened suddenly by a large dose of salt water that washed over the side. We were aboard Ocean Star, a beautiful 50' Benetau, racing along the Texas coast from Galveston to Port Aransas.

Forunate enough to be invited by Steve & Alice, we hopped aboard Ocean Star docked behind their house in Lazy Bend early Thursday morning and headed down the Houston Ship Channel to Galveston with about 200 other sail boats to participate in the Harvest Moon Reggata, a race of 150 nm. With a front approaching the prevailing SE wind had shifted SSW making a reach along the rum line impossible for us. With steady shift to SW, we tacked back and forth all night making little progress until the storm hit. Then we eased our way down wind under the genoa alone, not racing, just easy sailing down to Port A. We finished about 11 PM Friday night and med moored in the City Marina next to Party Central. About fifty boats gave up either motoring down to Port A or turning back to Clear Lake.

Sharing the waterway We get a good start! Sunset on the Gulf

Saturday was the time share stories, take pictures, drink free rum (I didn't) , enjoy the big barbeque and attend the awards presentation (I didn't as I wanted to rest).

Sunday morning we sailed back on a reach. Winds picked up to 20 or so and then dropped to maybe six or so in the early morning. Ocean Star easily rode the waves that built to 6 ft with a few 8 footers. Sunrise found us at the Galveston jetties; fog settled on Bolivar Roads and the Houston Ship Channel. We were back home by noon on Monday.

Ken & Bill joined us for the race down to Port A and for the party!

Not everyone escaped the storm unscathed; an uncontrolled jibe bent this boom. We enjoy a great sail back home on Sunday!

We were extremely forunate to sail with Alice and Steve. Not many women take ownership for her boat like Alice does. Steve is a very lucky guy.

Fog settled on Galveston Bay Monday morning. A big ship appears out of the fog ahead of us in the Houston Ship Channel. We were over in the barge lane, of course.

richard