Heading Down Florida's West Coast

Getting Fuel at Our Slip

Jane's Painting for Ted

After spending four days in Tarpon Springs, it was time to move on. We had become good friends with Ted, the marina harbormaster, and he was constantly helping us out. We knew that fuel would be needed somewhere before we reached Fort Myers, and when we asked Ted where would be a good place to buy fuel, he said that the best place would be the commercial fuel dock in Tarpon. And because he was good friends with the owner, he said that he would give him a call and have a fuel truck deliver to our slip. We were really happy with this arrangement and it was the easiest fueling we've had. To show our appreciation, Jane painted a picture for Ted's  wife. We said goodbye and headed out.

Coming into Clearwater

We were a little apprehensive about this stretch of the journey, because it runs through some notoriously skinny waters. The intracoastal waterway has a project depth of 12 feet, but we rarely saw more than 9-10 feet, and quite frequently the depths were down to 6 feet. Get outside the channel and you will likely go aground. This makes running this stretch very tedious and one has to be constantly alert as to where the channel runs. After we cleared the Anclote River entrance, we found ourselves almost immediately with 3-4 feet of water below the props.It was going to be a nerve racking run to Clearwater. But we did see some really great scenery and some very magnificent homes. We went on to Dunedin and stayed

Some really fine fish camps

at the Dunedin Municipal Marina. This is a really fine marina that charged all of $0.90 a foot, but had the best facilities we had encountered on the trip so far. It is located in a beautiful park and is well maintained and secure.We quickly made friends with two other boats and had happy hour aboard a Bluewater that was berthed next to a boat named Dunwurkin, which we thought was a really clever name and would work for our German-built boat. Happy hour went way too long and we staggered back to Bavarian Cream and crashed for the evening. Beginning to wonder if the liver will hold up for another 9 months.

Jane likes the big Norfolk Pines

We see dolphins everyday

Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Tampa Bay ship channel

Yikes! Let's get outta here!

Closer than it looks!

The next day we got an early start, hoping to knock off a substantial leg on our way to Ft. Myers. Again we saw some beautiful scenery and interesting cities. The big challenge today would be crossing Tampa Bay. Maybe we would have been better off to follow our fellow boaters advice and stay in Dunedin for the St. Patrick's Day parade that passed within a couple of blocks of the marina. But since we were pretty sure that we would be back to Florida's west coast, we decided to push on so we could spend time in places we would likely not visit again. Tampa Bay proved to be really interesting. After approaching from the north, we entered a long channel that runs parallel to the to the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Capt. Larry crossed this bridge on a motorcycle trip with a westerly 40 mph wind. The channel wasn't necessarily any more reassuring, as it was a cut through an extensive shoal with 1/2-2 feet of water on each side of the channel. As we approached the the bridge, things got really interesting as the channel crosses the Tampa Bay ship channel. We watched a large ocean-going ship cross in front of us, but neglected to see an equally large ship approach just as we were crossing the channel. It is really remarkable how deceptively fast these ships move and Capt. Larry had to put us up on plane to make sure we didn't get run down.

Blowing the dink up in the cockpit

Capt. Larry setting up the dinghy

Local sunbather cruising the anchorage

We decided to go into our first anchorage. The marinas were proving to be a lot of work getting into and out of, and we wanted to move on the next day. We read about a great anchorage off the ICW in in Skipper Bob's book on the gulf coast, and decided to try it. We left the ICW and sounded our way into the anchorage at Longboat Key which is just off Sarasota Bay. We anchored and Jane took a nap while Capt. Larry decided to haul the dinghy out of the engine room and get it set up. We took a dinghy ride into the gulf inlet. We met another boat flying a gold AGLCA burgee, which means that they had completed the loop, so we dinghied over to talk to them. They recommended some other anchorages and marinas along our route. We returned to the boat and had supper. The anchorage was absolutely beautiful and so much quieter than the marinas. We slept like babies.

A swing bridge opens for us

Albee Road bascule bridge

Fishing the black mangroves on the ICW

Bavarian Cream at anchor

Sunset at our anchorage

Full moon setting over the anchorage

The next morning we weighed anchor and headed south for Englewood, FL to go into another recommended anchorage. Along the way we encountered a number of bridges, most of which we could easily clear, but a few we had to request openings. We got to the anchorage and had very little water beneath us. After feeling our way in we were able to anchor in 9-10 feet of water. We had a long day so we decided to dinghy over to a restaurant for drinks and supper. However, it was low tide and the restaurant docks we about 7 feet above the water level. With help from a couple of barely sober restaurant patrons, we were able to haul ourselves out. We had a great supper but limited ourselves to one drink, because we were worried about getting back into the dink. When we saw another boat pull up to the dock we asked if it would be OK to pull the dinghy alongside their boat and use their higher boat to board the dink. We got underway and started to head out for Bavarian Cream when we suddenly found ourselves on a shoal with about 6 inches of water beneath us. The outboard was kicking up mud and bouncing all over the place. We got out the oars and got off the shoal and managed to return to the boat. Never did we think that our first grounding would be in the dinghy.

A osprey pair nesting

R16- Southernmost point of the loop

Downtown Ft. Myers

Steel drummer at the festival

"Memphis 56," very entertaining

The next day we headed out for Fort Myers. On our way out of the anchorage we followed a boat named Cigona with Covington, LA listed as its home port. Since this is in our back yard, we radioed and him and told him where we were from. He said he was headed back toward Louisiana and hoped to get there by the 4th of July! We made our way towards Ft. Myers and only was temporarily "lost" once. We passed a milestone as we approached Ft. Myers which was the southernmost point of the loop. Going into Ft. Myers on a pleasant Saturday afternoon proved to be daunting. We had never seen so many boats heading out to the barrier islands for time on the water. We must have passed over 200 boats in a two hour period and were practically the only boat heading toward Ft. Myers. We got settled into the Legacy Harbour Marina which is a really fine facility and were told to head to downtown for the Music Festival. This is a monthly event where 12 local bars and restaurants sponsor bands that perform in the street. We visited several bands before we stumbled upon a group called "Memphis 56" that was a rockabilly band. They played Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Johnny Horton, and the lead singer uncannily sounded like the real McCoy. But the real star was the bass player who played an electrified double or upright bass. When he started thumping that instrument the crowd came alive. Jane was moving so we danced in the street until Capt. Larry's knees gave out. He is paying for it today, but it was a really wonderful event.

Jane's blooming air plant