Great Loop Date 12.15 - 28.2010: Half and Half (Family and Friends Along The Gulf Coast)...

Days #125-138: 2810.6 total miles
Ports #58 - 62

OB sat at the dock for 4 days while the crew recovered from vertigo after the night of thrashing at sea, celebrated successfully crossing the Big Bend with 5 other Looper boats and enjoyed the little Greek village of Tarpon Springs.  After the front that chased us across the Bend passed and let the seas settle down, it was time for NII Wishin and OB to visit friends and family spread down the West Coast of Florida.  We made plans for a New Year's meet up and went our separate ways.

Day #125: 12/15/2010 – Wednesday
Port # 58: Caladesi State Park, FL near Dunedin, FL

OB left Tarpon Springs a few hours after NII Wishin.  We only had 14 miles to navigate for our next destination at Caladesi State Park, across the ICW from Dunedin, FL.  The channel to the opening was not easily identifiable.  Luckily we chose to enter at high tide and had water under us even in the shallows.  Once we found the markers and the opening, the channel through the mangroves was beautiful.

The channel wound around until it opened up into the marina.

There weren't many boats in the marina...only OB and Dream Quest.  Dream Quest crossed the Bend with us.  Bob was the Astrologer that gave us the celestial tour during the Bend crossing.  He also dabbles in photography.  His pictures taken at Caladesi were amazing.

The first afternoon we walked the beach and were amazed at the shells.

The volunteers at the park told us the storm that followed us across the Bend had brought this huge number of shelled creatures onto the beach along with all the sea grass.  It also displaced many sea turtles that were in shock from the freezing temperatures.  Park rangers and volunteers were making regular rounds looking for turtles that needed transport to the hospital for treatment.

The birds were feasting on the mollusks.  Caladesi is uninhabited by humans and is kept in it's pristine natural state outside of the marina.  The condos are on Honeymoon Island to the north of Caladesi.

The next day (Thursday) we took Charlie for a walk through the park on their paved trail.  The sand trails were filled with burrs and Charlie has had experiences with those before.  It's not much fun for him or us to pull those nasty things out of his paws.

More of the natural habitat on the island.

Charlie loving his time off the boat.

The island even was home to Pricklypear Cactus.  I was a little surprised by that.

Leaving our footprints in the sand at sunset.

We saw a lot of these fellas, too.  I told Todd we should have brought a bucket to the beach and collected them for a crab boil!

The grassy dunes at sunset.

And the grand finale of our day and time at Caladesi State Park.

Day #127: 12/17/2010 – Friday
Port #59: Holiday Inn Harborside, Indian Rocks Beach, FL

Our stay at Caladesi State Park was short.  We needed to keep moving south.  Our next stop was Indian Rocks Beach to visit our Supply Priest, Harvey Buxton and two priests we had met during visit in 2009.

Passing Clearwater Beach.

A few of the little bungalows along the ICW at Clearwater.

A nice little neighborhood.

Another little bungalow.

This little island was in the middle of the ICW between the bungalows above and the condos across the way.  Probably a quiet little gathering spot away from the hood.

Our next stop, the Holiday Inn Harborside in Indian Rocks Beach, FL.

The other side of the Holiday Inn Harborside.  This was a pretty quiet time of year for the hotel.  The Tiki Bar was hopping the night after we arrived (Friday night).  It was packed the next night for the boat show, too.

Crabby Bill's...we had a good lunch here after we tied OB up and started exploring.

After lunch, we walked the condo lined beach.

This condo complex bit the dust after the market downturn.  It's in foreclosure and not a soul has lived there.  The sign in front listed the starting price for these condos at $450,000.  I wonder what they'd take for one now!

Our Supply Priest, Fr. Harvey, came to visit on Saturday night.  He learned a lot about our boat life.

Fr.Harvey was able to see the Christmas Boat Parade that night.  This was the lead boat.  There were 33 boats in the parade.

This one had Mr. and Mrs. Claus and their elves on the bow, waving at the crowd.

This mermaid was interesting.

This boat was really lit up!

Sunday morning we went to services at Calvary Episcopal Church in Indian Rocks.  We met the rector, Fr. Bob Wagenseil, during last year's visit.  He helped us get our dock at Harborside...as a matter of fact, we were in his old dock there (#47).  His wife, PT, picked us up for services Sunday morning.

Calvary Episcopal Church, Indian Rocks Beach, FL has a interesting history.  The church was first built on a barge in the canal behind the church.  Note how the cloudy cold weather keeps finding us.

A picture of Pregnant Mary hangs in the chapel at Calvary.  I loved this picture last year and finally got a picture of it on this visit.  A Benedictine nun painted it.  Fr. Ron Kowalski gave it as a gift to Calvary for hosting him for 22 months during his transition into the Episcopal priesthood.  We met Fr. Ron during last year's visit, too.

Sunday evening we went to Fr. Ron's church, Good Samaritan in Clearwater, FL.  They were having a Christmas dinner and celebration for the children of the church and the area.

The sanctuary and nave of Good Sam.  The altar and the baptismal font below were made by a parishioner at Calvary.  Both were beautiful works in carpentry.

The Baptismal Font at the back of Good Sam.  The Advent wreath is suspended over the font.  The Advent candles are distributed around the font.

Santa dropped in for a visit with the children.  He listened to their requests and gave them each a stocking filled with goodies.  Before Santa came, the children decorated the tree.  They did a pretty good job, didn't they?

Santa wouldn't leave until Fr. Ron came up to give him his wishes for Christmas.

 Day #130:  12/20/2010 – Monday
Port #60: The Club at Treasure Island, FL

We had a wonderful time seeing Fr. Harvey, Fr. Bob and Fr. Ron.  Monday morning came with good weather and time to move on to our next stop.  We didn't have far to go...only 11 miles.

The Club at Treasure Island also fell into hard times during the market downturn.  A large investor bought it at half the original price.  He's currently rebuilding the business and is offering transient boaters a free second night's dockage for staying.  Of course this caught like wildfire among the Loopers.  I don't think anyone has passed by The Club as they made their way down the ICW.  We saw three Looper boats that were there for the month while their crews were home for the holidays.  We also ran into three Looper boats that we had met at Rendezvous or Thanksgiving in Bay Point.

The Club was all decked out for Christmas complete with a life size Santa Claus.

One of two dining areas.  This one was the 'less formal' of the two and was for casual dining.

The Olympic sized heated pool had lap swimmers every morning.  The Tiki Bar was a popular spot, as well.  I thought the tables with the butane fire pits were nice but never saw one lit while we were there.  The evenings were cool enough to support lighting the pits.  I guess there just wasn't enough demand for them.

Can you see OB?

This was the marina behind The Club.

Charlie was able to get off for walks here, after not being able to get off on the dock at Harborside.  However, we had to wait until the tide brought the pilothouse up even with the dock.  We had three foot tides while we were at Treasure Island.  During the full moon, celestial tides are extreme.

This is how we looked at low tide.  Although the pilothouse door is higher than the cockpit (where this picture was taken), we still had about a foot and a half to step up onto the dock at low tide.  For me, that was a mighty big step!

We got our bikes out and explored some of Treasure Island.  First stop, the beach...and what a big beach it was.

This is the beach looking north.

We even found Captain Hook on one of the corners.  He invited us to rest up.  I think he was really hoping we had the map to the hidden treasure.  We didn't and he sent us on our way.

Like all good things, we had to move on and wave goodbye to Treasure Island and the Loopers that were there.  Although Bruce and Chris may catch up with us in Punta Gorda for New Years.

Day #132: 12/22/2010 – Wednesday
Port #61: DeSoto National Park, FL in the Manatee River near Bradenton (anchorage)

The Tampa skyline as we passed by in Tampa Bay.  We took the long road through Tampa Bay.  The other ditch looked really narrow on the charts.  We feel more comfortable in wide and deep water!

We had a few boats pass by during our trip through Tampa Bay.  First came this ocean going tug.  They are so much bigger than the tugs we've seen on the Great Lakes.

Right behind the tug came the Coasties (Coast Guard).  Look at the size of those guns on her deck!  We were really good around them.  We didn't want to see the end of those barrels any where near us.

Todd kept watching what he thought was an island.  As the island got closer, we decided it was some sort of ocean going freighter.  But the wheelhouse (where the captain sits) looked really different for a freighter. 

As it passed we could see it was an ocean going petroleum barge pushed by a very large tow.  Todd wondered if it might be one he leased.  He said he had worked with ocean barges and tugs.




Two miles out we could clearly see the Sunshine Bridge.  We have driven over it multiple times going back and forth to lower Florida and the Keys.  We always wondered if we'd go UNDER it one day....and here we were.

 

The Sunshine Bridge was one awesome structure to look at from the water level.  It is 5.5 miles long and took 5 years to build.  It opened to traffic in 1987.

We took OB into a cove near DeSoto National Park and anchored for the night.  It was quiet although we did have some wind through the night.  This was the first happy hour we had been able to have on the bridge in quite some time.  The weather was so unseasonably cold and just seemed to follow us EVERYWHERE we went.

Charlie was hoping for a happy hour treat, as well.

The cove only had four other overnight neighbors.

We didn't lower the dinghy because of the wind and the short duration of our stay.  In 1539, De Soto and his army landed in the Tampa Bay area to "conquer, populate, and pacify" the land.  The expedition did not yield the gold and treasure these men sought. Hundreds of Native American lost their lives.  The De Soto expedition changed the face of the American Southeast forever, and cause Spain to reevaluate her role in the New World.  DeSoto National Park was authorized in 1948. The mission of De Soto National Memorial is to preserve the controversial story of this exploration and interpret its significance in American history.

We had a beautiful full moon rise much like we experienced just one month before in Ingram Bayou.  It was amazing to think how far we had come and what we had conquered in one short month!

Day #133:  12/23/2010 – Thursday
Port # 62:  Marina Jacks, Sarasota, FL

OB's crew was up early to watch a beautiful sunrise over our DeSoto anchorage.  The celestial tides are extreme and the waters were still recovering from low tide.  Although we had 4 feet of water beneath us, the shoals around us made for a difficult exit.  We watched one of the sailboats ground as he tried to leave.  We looked at the charts and tried to determine our best route.  We did get out without grounding however the water got pretty shallow beneath us as Todd maneuvered OB through the shoaled areas.

Sunrise over our anchorage.

The skyline at Sarasota, FL, our destination.

Another interesting sign.  This one denotes itself as a red triangle for the ICW and a green square for some destination off to our west.  The confusion here was the chart told us we had to take in on our starboard side.  That was a direct conflict with the sign since it was telling us to put it to port.  We chose to follow the chart.  We never did figure out what NP meant.

Todd and I visited Marina Jacks last year with our good friends, Nancy and Pete.  They live in Sarasota and we planned this stop so we could visit with them.  We picked the absolute best marina for our stop.  The downtown area was just east of the marina with restaurants and shops galore.  The docks were floating and Charlie could finally deboard easily for walks in the wonderful park that encompassed the marina.

Best yet, Church of the Redeemer Episcopal Church was one block from the marina.  Our plan included spending Christmas here and celebrating it at this church, which we did.  I was able to dress up and wear heels for this one occasion...although I had very nearly outgrown my dress pants...VERY NEARLY.

We went to church both midnight Christmas and Sunday.  Even more surprising, Sunday I looked to my left and told Todd, "That man looks a lot like Frank Braden."  Todd looked and said, "That IS Frank Braden!"  Frank and Ruth were members at Trinity Findlay when we moved there in 1975.  Frank worked at Marathon and was the treasurer at Trinity until he retired in 1992.  He and Ruth moved to Sarasota after their son graduated from High School.  We caught up with them after church and visited.

Church of the Redeemer is a beautiful church will very tall stained glass windows on both sides of the nave.

Under the carillon tower was this compass rose mosaic as well as the cross on the wall made from conch shells.  The bells in the carillon could be heard through out the downtown area.  They peel out call to worship for all services as well as during communion consecration.  Every time we heard the bells, we were aware of the presence of our Lord.

This St. Francis garden and fountain is a quiet place near the columbarium.

We walked downtown with Charlie the first afternoon we arrived and came upon this little Junk Yard Band playing their hearts out on a street corner near one of the restaurants.  They looked to be Freshman or Sophomores in High School.  Their instruments were made from cereal boxes and yardsticks but were electronically wired to the amplifiers.  The drummer used trash cans, trash can lids, jugs and coffee cans.  They were pretty darn good.  We listened to them for 15 minutes or so while they played Beatle tunes and finally Christmas tunes.

Another beautiful sunset...this one was over the dolphin statues at the end of the park that surrounded our marina.  Nancy and Pete came by later in the evening.  We walked to a restaurant downtown (Patricks) and had a good meal.  We made plans for the next two days.

OB at her dock.  I totally forgot about tides while we were at Marina Jacks.  With the floating docks, I didn't have to worry about how high or low OB would go in the dock.  We did have a big front come through with gale force winds, though.  I had to reinforce the lines to OB, somewhat reminiscent of the gales in Leland, MI.

Todd with one happy Charlie on our walk Christmas morning.  This was the first banyan trees I saw on this trip.

Nancy and Pete are Golden lovers and would steal Charlie in a nano second.  So we bring Charlie to them for their annual Golden fix.  Nancy and Pete also visit us in the Keys while we are there.  Nancy and Pete took us for Christmas dinner at their friend's house, Lourdes and Mike.

Nancy, Pete and Charlie.  Nancy spoiled Charlie with a stocking full of doggie toys for Christmas.

We went to lunch at Nancy and Pete's house after church on Sunday.  Yep, that's my tall SISTA!  I met Nancy when she came to work in our surgery department at St. Luke's.  As with many of our RNs, I taught Nancy all the fundamentals of OR nursing.  She continues to make me proud as she demonstrates her excellent OR technique in her practice.  Nancy has been a traveler for three years (or so) now, working in hospitals all over the country.

Charlie loved running in Nancy and Pete's backyard.

That's one very happy Golden!

Charlie's so much fun to watch!

 A very special thank you to Nancy and Pete for making our Christmas on the water very much family and full of love.  You two are very, very special people.