Clearwater Pictures

Photos from our beach walk to Caladesi Island this morning. It's not really an island since we were able to walk the five miles to it.

Click on any picture to enlarge
Huge, private beachfront homes in Clearwater


On the beach looking towards Clearwater


looking towards Caladesi Island


Bikini babe in front of "shell" tree


Here is where I went on strike - taken from a bench in the shade


Blue sky, green sea, white sand, and (expletive deleted)crab boat


Proof I completed the walk - from the rear of our boat

Family visit

We visited my Uncle Jim and Aunt Perilie Saturday and stayed overnight. A real bed and a 20 minute shower in a non-public bathroom were novel treats for me. Aunt Perilie cooked a wonderful dinner and Uncle Jim and I shared a few trips down memory lane. The house they live in now is the replacement for the original house lost in a tornado years ago, but I remember first water skiing on their lake 40+ years ago.

We watched 2 adult and 2 young sand hill cranes walk their beach and backyard several times. The male was very aggressive in protecting his young.

Jim and Perilie treated us to a delicious Sunday Brunch at their Country Club. On the way in De Anne noticed the sign calling it a country club and yacht club. Jim told her there was only one party pontoon boat, but she had to see for herself so as we were waiting for the car to be brought up she broke ranks and discovered, just as she had been told, there was only a pontoon boat. This was her second time AWOL today. Early in the morning she went for a walk, got lost, stopped at a Publix for directions and ended up walking about 5 or 6 miles.

Their home:



Sand hill cranes (taken from the screened porch) click on picture to enlarge:

A busy social life

We have been working on our tans at the beach as good vacationers do; however evenings have been busy. We had Lynne and Kent (No Bad Days) over on Monday and visited their boat Tuesday. They are doing the Great Circle Loop.

Wednesday we took the bus to Tarpon Springs to see if we missed anything by not going into town when we were anchored at Ancote Key. We wandered the main drag and walked the docks - even bought a couple sponges (what Tarpon Springs is famous for). We followed Lynne's recommendation for lunch and had a great greek meal.

Back in Clearwater De Anne, having not yet had enough fun, dragged me down to the beach to check out the free entertainment. It turned out to be New York based break dancers. One of them went into the crowd and grabbed two young black men for a competition, then they grabbed a slender, young white man - obviously for a laugh. Unfortuately they didn't stop there. Just to round out the humor they pulled me in. I guess it was some formula selection requiring an old, fat, white guy. The young white guy won, and I came in second. My prize was an autographed picture of the group. Of course I had to stay for the whole performance after that. We took a short, sunset beach walk, then back to the boat. Skip and Rose were on the dock looking for Kent and Lynne who were gone. We shared some Greek pastry we had brought back from Tarpon Springs when Kent and Lynne returned. It turned out they were in the crowd watching my performance. I might have to check YouTube for Clearwater or Pier 60 breakdancing just to see if my humiliation is complete.

Today we went back to St. Petersburg to visit Jim and Abby at the downtown marina. We arrived just as the yacht broker was leaving. They have decided to sell their boat and will be leaving for Michigan in just a few days. We took the trolly around town and had lunch at a great little cafe they had found in downtown St. Pete. They still have a 23' gaff-rigged sailboat on Lake Michigan and we wish them the best of luck for a summer of sailing up there.

Back at the marina we spent some time conversing with our new neighbors, Steve and Lucille on a Catalina 350. He is a retired Naval Officer and since Tristan has recently passed all the tests for Officer Candiate School and is awaiting a report date we were very interested in his perspective as a career Naval officer. It's hard to believe but Tristan is now a lean, mean, fighting machine.

Tomorrow we are renting a car and traveling to Haines City FL to visit my Uncle Jim and Aunt Perilie.
The Bounty - built for the 1960 movie. Jim and Abby reading the signs.


Start of a sailboat race to Mexico. The Pier to the right.

Adventures with Skip

It was time for the afore-mentioned Regal yacht to be taken to St. Petersburg for shipping, so Skip invited us to go. A day on a new, big yacht? We threw our sailor's pride overboard and went over to the dark side.

We cruised up the intercoastal at 8 knots in the no-wake zones and 35 knots in between. Skip showed us all the anchorages not mentioned in the cruising guide. He also can identify every sailboat by make, model, and size from about a mile out. After pulling the boat we took off the 4 props (2 counter rotating per engine), and had lunch at a great water-side cafe where Rose joined us. Afterwards we helped (sorta) pack up the boat for travel.

I can heartly recommend the Regal 4460 to anyone looking for a superb motor yacht in the 500K+ range.

Skip and De Anne

The intercoastal

De Anne at the helm - front and back.....




Entering St. Petersburg

On vacation

This may elicit some groans and eye-rolling, but we have decided to take a vacation. I know some of my readers may consider us "on vacation" already; however, Clearwater Beach Florida is a top-rated beach and by some considered the best on the Gulf. We agree and don't want to leave so soon, hence a three week vacation right here in paradise.

We realize that getting to the Bahamas before hurricane season and having the time to really cruise the islands is slipping away. We would have to hurry, which is a bad idea for cruisers. The Florida weather this year has been terrible (not that we would know, but all the local sailors we have talked to have said so). As followers of this blog have noticed, our progress has been slow and compounded by delays in Mobile during January and Feburary. We will continue to move south during May and June in order to be positioned for the crossing to the Bahamas in November. We would like to spend a week or two in Sarasota and some time in Charlotte Harbor, plus it is almost a cruising requirement to spend at least a few days on the Little Snake river in the everglades. After that we will take a mooring in Ft. Myers for Rising Star and then perhaps some land travel to visit neglected friends and family.

A new pirate ship showed up today. De Anne and I were invite aboard for a tour by the owner. He told us the owner of the Clearwater pirate ship (see earlier blog entry) yelled obsencenities at him even though he is just staying overnight on his way to his new home port in St.Augustine. His captain is Ron.

Lots of exotic birds

A view of the islands north of us

One of the beach entertainers, a fire juggler

Clearwater FL

We are settled comfortably at Clearwater Muncipal Marina. Just across the street is a wide, beautiful beach and the water is a striking green. The city provides free entertainment on the beach every night. Until today the weather has been beautiful even though a bit too windy for us to be tempted out to sea.
Tomorrow's planned departure has been cancelled. No beating out on the Gulf for us! Last Saturday's sail to Clearwater was fun and comfortable - we intend to keep our heads down until we can get more of the same.

We were going to anchor in the bay just outside the marina; however, with the high winds that keep blowing through prudence and comfort dictated staying in our slip. I extended our stay with the dockmaster. A week ($10 per foot) is the same price as 5 days ($2 per foot) and a month ($15 per foot) is equal to a week and a half. I am thinking of taking the month and waiting for calmer weather to arrive. I may even send De Anne out to get a job on the pirate ship. They had a help wanted sign out today. And speaking of the pirate ship - every time they come back to port (5 times a day) the last song they play is Who Let the Dogs Out? I now know precisely when they cue the music so some evening when I have had too many rum & cokes and/or gin & tonics I may start singing it about 10 seconds early, distract their customers, and ruin their cute little finale.

A trolley runs from Clearwater to the southern tip of St.Petersburg. Today we rode it to the end to see our next harbor entrance - North Channel at Pass-a-Grille island. Just after we arrived the first wave of a major storm blew in. We took shelter, waited for a clearing and walked the channel boardwalk. The next wave hit just as we were getting back on the trolley. We got back to the boat just as the third and most serious line of storms hit. I had already doubled up some dock lines but the wind was so strong the dock lines were stretching and I had to shorten several. The boat was pitching and rolling which caused me to have to time my leap to the dock. Graceful I ain't.....

Storm front moving in at North Channel, Pass-a-Grille


Rising Star in Clearwater

Boycott crab!

We have decided never to eat crab again. Into Tarpon Springs and then, all the way to Clearwater we dodged a few million crab pots. Each pot owner paints his pot bouys a different color and I curse the guy who chose sea-green as his color. I despise the ones who use too much line (leaving 20 feet floating around just below the water) and the ones who lay pots in a random pattern. There are so many pots I cannot imagine how a single crab lives through the season. The bouys are about the size of a grapefruit and very hard to spot if there is any wave action at all.

We are experiencing culture shock in Clearwater Fl. After several months in Alabama and the Panhandle the noise, cars and vast amount of people is overwhelming. Just coming into the pass with charter boats, tour boats, and other yachts was mind boggling. We are use to passing the occasional boat and waving. Here it was like a rush hour on the highway. Of course we were the old granny as the slowest boat. There are even intersections, but without lights, so you make your turns and hope the other guy is chicken. Lucky for us guys in expensive boats don't want to hit a cheap, old sailboat.

Jim and Abby have had more excitement. The painter on their dingy broke while they we anchored outside of Crystal River. The Sheriff's Dept.found it washed into a marina. Gary and Lisa (Ocean Spirit - 44') arrived in Clearwater this morning. I happened to look out and saw them approaching the marina and was ready at the dock to take their lines. We have been hopscotching with them since Port St. Joe. They were the experienced cruisers I commented on in an earlier blog when I said we wouldn't leave Carrabelle until they did. I lied. We left first and they waited two more days for a much more pleasant night out.

We took a walk this morning and met Skip and Rose, long time cruisers who have settled in Clearwater. Skip does some occasional work for Regal and as one thing leads to another, we were aboard a new Regal 4460 that Skip was commissioning and needed to move out of the marina. They gave us a water tour of Clearwater, then took the boat and us back to their home on one of the canals. They then drove us to West Marine to pick up a new battery for our extra dingy motor we bought in Carabelle (electric Saltwater Riptide trolling motor). Their cruising boat is a Westsail 32. Thank you Skip and Rose for an unexpected fun morning and all your hospitality!

We may leave the (expensive) marina and go on anchor until the next weather window (maybe on Wednesday) when we plan to sail to Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay.

A hard day's night

Written Thursday 6:00pm at anchor between Ancote Key and Tarpon Springs
We left Carabelle Wednesday morning in a most unceremonious way - backwards. As we pulled out of the slip the river current caught the back end of the boat and yanked it downstream. We went with the flow literally and figuratively. About a half mile downstream where the river widened and the current was weaker we turned the boat around and kept the pointy end forward for the next 140 miles.

There was no wind the first 10 miles of the trip or the last 10 miles, but plenty in between. Sailor friends will appreciate that we topped out at 7.5 knots around 2:00 am with no headsail and only a double-reefed main. De Anne claims to have hit 8 knots but that was while I was asleep at 8:00 pm and she still had the jib up. To add to the festivities the seas were just a few points off the beam. (waves hitting the boat sideways) so keeping a compass bearing of 135 meant trying to stay somewhere between 150 and 120. Our wake was a big, lazy "S".

On the good side we made better time than I dreamed possible and had a full moon providing light all night. Sleep time was on the floor with a pillow. It was too rough for sleeping on the settee, even though we have a lee cloth (sling) setup for it. At my 3:00 am nap I was sleeping without even bothering to remove my inflatable PFD and harness. On a more delicate note: from now on I will remember mal-de-mare requires using the downwind side of the boat. There are some things best not done into the wind. Sorry, but I must offer my readers the good, the bad, and the ulgy.

Written Friday 3:10pm on anchor
We were buddy-boating with Jim and Abby on Escape - a Morgan 33. Because we motor at 3 knots under power we left first. We had set up for VHF checks every even hour. After trying to raise them at 10:00, noon, and 2:00 we figured they must have had a problem and not left the marina. We since found out that they did leave, took down sails when the weather picked up, and motored. Unfortuately they had engine problems at midnight, couldn't get the sails up because of snarled halyards, and had to call for a tow into Crystal River which is about 50 miles north of us. They lay ahull (adrift in the water) for 2 hours before the tow arrived.

I had to dive on our prop today. On the last leg in Thursday our speed kept dropping. I finally guessed we were picking up some of the floating weed . It was a good guess. I had to dive 6 or 7 times to clear it all. Lucky for me I had a great dive knife that Lee Bridges had given me just before we left Indianapolis.

Our rudder was making odd sounds after our robust Wednesday night sail. I got behind the aft cabin and figured it was the packing that was wearing a bit faster at sea than it would have on Lake Monroe. I tightened down the collar, compacting the packing and the rudder is tight again. I will replace it on my next trip to West Marine.

We will leave our anchorage behind Ancote Key Saturday morning and sail south. How far we don't yet know.

Saturday 9:00pm Docked at Clearwater Fl.
After waiting until 10:30am for the fog to clear we sailed from Ancote key to Clearwater. De Anne loved the sail since it was tacking upwind the entire time. Of course that made a 16 mile trip actually 25 miles. NOAA lied to us again, claiming west winds when they were acutally south. An hour after we docked the wind changed to the west. We just got back from the beach where we ran into a few thousand people.

Ancote Key -


A tacky floating tourist trap -

Waiting and waiting

We arrived in Carrabelle two weeks ago. I scan three weather reports daily with no weather window in sight. Because we are making a jump of 140 miles I must check the 0 to 20 miles out, the 20 to 60 miles out forecasts and the Tarpon Springs 20 to 60 mile forecast. Coordinating 3 is enough, so I don't even bother with the Tarpon Springs 0 to 20 mile forecast since we feel we can stand anything for 20 miles.

I am looking for 2 days and 1 night of winds less than 20 knots and seas less than 6 feet. Additionally the wind must not be from the southeast because then we would have to tack. (Sidebar for our nautically-challenged friends: since a sailboat can't sail directly into the wind it must sail a zig-zag pattern upwind to make progress.) Tacking could add another 50-100 miles to the trip and add a second night out. We have been teased a few times with east winds, north winds, and even west winds, but the old familar southeast winds return after a day or less. There is an old nautical saying: Gentlemen don't sail upwind.

There are 5 other cruising boats, in just this marina, waiting for the same window. We watch the big 40 footer and 48 footer with experienced criusers aboard knowing that if they won't venture out there is no sense in us even considering it. It's been bad enough that the fishing boats have stayed in port. One of the cruuisers mentioned today (tongue-in-cheek) that he was considering buying property here. When we all do go it may look like the Spanish Armada in the Gulf.

All is not grim however, we have made more friends, Jim and Abby on a 33 Morgan (who may buddy-boat with us), Thursday night we won a Trival Pursuit contest at 2 Als resturant, last night was a cruisers pitch-in on the marina porch (cruising women sure do know how to drink!) and, of course, the beach is within walking distance.

De Anne and Abby walking the beach: