First time at the helm from Clearwater to St Pete's, FL
The channel heading into Tampa Bay
Cliff Notes:
Sailed from Clearwater down to St Petersburg. About 50 miles in about 10 hours. Slow and steady;) Heading out for Isla Mujeres today. Hopefully will be there in about 5 or 6 days. Watch our progress on my spot tracker across the Gulf.
Full Post:
Stan and I untied from the dock at the Clearwater Municipal Marina, topped off the gas tanks and made way for St Pete's. We chose to go outside the ICW so we could shake the sails out a bit even though we knew it would take us a bit longer. We ended up with a really nice SW wind bringing us all the up Tampa Bay to our marina. It was about 50 miles and we made it in about 10 hours. We will most likely be heading out today for Isla Mujeres. A long 5 or 6 day passage to the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. You can track our progress with my Spot Tracker link on the left.
The western coastline of Florida has been much more beautiful than I expected. It was a constant white sand beach all the way from Clearwater down to St Pete's and I've heard it only gets better the farther south you go.
Clearwater's main attraction was all the activity that centers around Pier 60 especially in the evening when a cast of street performers come out to entertain the crowds gathered for sunset. The cast includes magicians, acrobats, pirates, drummers, and an extremely skinny white guy with sunglasses, a yamaka, and some sort of noise making device who is either trying to inform us he is an alien or aliens are coming. His tip jar is usually pretty empty.
Even the taxi drivers are fairly entertaining unbeknownst to them. When Stan and I went out to get provisions, our taxi driver was telling us how his cat had just died. He was chewing on a wire in his apartment, got through the wire, and electrocuted himself. The taxi driver got the cat off the wire and while driving it to the vet, the cat died cradled on his chest. That's not the interesting part. He then told us it was somewhat fitting because that was the same place the cat was born. The driver could see that Stan and I kind of looked at each other so the driver added ,"Yes, this cat was literally born on my chest. While I was sleeping, the mother jumped on my bed and gave birth on my chest. It was amazing." Indeed, "amazing." That is exactly what I was thinking.
Well this will probably be it for a while. Hopefully I can get something posted by next Friday after we get to Isla.
I uploaded some pics under the Clearwater link.
Cheers,
JB
