Marker 1 Marina Dunedin 11/11/17-12/11/17

We had lunch at Frenchie's Outpost

Frenchie's.  Right across from the Marina

Well it's been a while.  We have very much enjoyed our month off at Marker 1 and now its time to move on.  We unloaded the motorcycle when we arrived and used it extensively to explore the area and also to scout out our next marina.  About three weeks ago we rode down to the Bradenton/Sarasota area and visited 8-9 different marinas. One of them was Riviera Dunes where the new manager Bill Chamberlain was the manager at St Johns Yacht Harbor where we were living for 2 years prior to our departure in April.  It was good to see Bill and he gave us a nice tour of the facilities but there were no available slips with the exception of one slip being rented by its owner.  Bill's body language and lack of kind words for the slip owner pretty much warned us off of this slip but he did make recommendations for other marinas for us to look at.  We finally settled on Galati Yachts Sales Marina on Anna Maria Island and booked from 12-15-1/15/18.  It is a very nice marina, more orientated to yacht sales and a big yard working on many million dollar yachts.  The slip we took is one of the furthest away from the marina and restaurant and will be very quite.  It backs onto an island of mangroves and has nice afternoon shade.

There is Debbie checking out the slip at Galati

We have had a few visitors stop by or come to stay.   Wendy and her sister Susan for a tour of the Dunedin Farmers Market and lunch at Ozona Blue Grill.  We like the Ozona Blue so much we had dinner there 4 times over the month.

Duniden Market

There was a great produce stand at the market

Sue, Wendy Debbie and I at Ozona Blue Grill

Captain and crew

Lois came and joined us for a week and Debbie rented a car for the week to take the two of them off to see the sights. Their first stop was to Tarpon Springs which is just a few miles north of Marker 1.
The next day they went to St Petersburg to see the Chihuly Exhibit. Dale Chihuly is an artist who creates beautiful pieces in blown glass.  His most famous work is the ceiling at the Billagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

Dale Chihuly and the ceiling

Debbie next to one of Chihuly's creations

Stairway going up to the art gallery

The following day they went back to St Petersburg and went to the Dali Museum.

Dali's Hallucinogenic Toreador

The three of us when out to a great dinner.

Back to Ozona Blue for dinner with Lois

We were docked at Marker 1 when they had the annual Dunedin Christmas boat parade.  The marina served free brats and beer to all and there were some great costumes to go along with the lite up boats.

Free Beer and brats

Lots to see and watch.  One boat even had a live band performing on the foredeck.

Ho ho ho

I can't say we did much in the way of boat cleaning but we did have to have a compressor changed on one of the AC units and also made modifications to the air returns on two of the AC units.  Supposedly there was too much restriction which caused the compressor to fail prematurely (just about one year).  I worked on the aft sliding door and one of the wing doors where we had been getting water in when it rained.  The leaking has stopped and now I need to change out some paneling to get it back to ship shape.  It only took two years to find the leaks!!  Debbie has been hard at work needle pointing a throw cushion.

Now she is working on filling in all of the white area with a green background and then sew it up as a cushion cover.  She has so much more patience than I do.

I watched with admiration when a diver and his assistant showed up with these huge props one day.  The diver "Squid" an ex Navy Seal got in the water after hanging the two props in the water and manhandled the props into position and onto the shafts by himself., with a combination of muscle and come alongs.

A 37" 7 blade propeller being reinstalled on a big new Hatteras 

Squid is behind the helper.  This was our view for the last month.

Abby went to the poodle parlor and is sporting her new Christmas collar

Who knew but there is a Beatles museum in Dunedin that Lois and Debbie visited.  And its free

Beatles Museum

Marker 1 is located on the Dunedin Causeway leading over to Honeymoon Island State park.  Either Debbie or I would take Abby twice a day for a walk or in my case a bicycle ride to the beach along the Causeway.  Abby always got way more compliments than I did! Lots of runners and cyclists everyday.  People would go in the evening to watch the sunsets.

Low tide on the causeway

We met Mike and Rosie from Swingset one day as they drove through the marina in their dingy.  They had one of the best blogs on the loop that I ever read and I will share a link to it and an excerpt from one of my favorite posts they made. When I asked if they were Mike and Rosie they came over and it was weird because I felt like I knew them even though we had never met.  Anyways they were very gracious and chatted for a while.  Check out their blog at  http://swingsetonthehook.blogspot.com/   Mike is a great story teller

Arrived at Marker 1 Marina 11/10/17

We left the anchorage early, around 7:00 because the tide was falling and the water depth coming into the anchorage was pretty skinny last night.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time hunting an exit path.  We followed the ICW which is a very narrow channel with about 6' of water in these parts south to Dunedin and the Honeymoon Island Bridge which we needed to have open so we could pass.  We pulled into the Marker 1 Marina around 9:00 AM and got a pump out and then moved to our dock. We had some boat chores to do and then dropped the motorcycle down.  Caitlin the manager took a photo of Abby and posted it on the Marina's Facebook page.

  I had an order at West Marine that I needed to pick up but the truck doesn't come in until 3:00 so they figured they would have my order by 4:00. After lunch we rode down and checked out the Dunedin downtown area and found some places that had been recommended to us by Eddy of Eddy's Weather Wag.  He does a daily report on the  Gulf crossing conditions between Carrabelle and Tarpon Springs for the Loopers.  We found where the Farmers Market is held, a BBQ place called Eli's which is only open three days a week and only has three things on the menu.  Supposedly very good and an institution in these parts.  There was also Jensen Brothers Fish market which we drove past and the Dunedin Brewery.  I think Dunedin has more than 10 breweries and also has distilleries.  Definitely a drinking town with a fishing problem.

Marker 1 had some packages from Amazon and we took those back to the boat.  We got a water filter for the ice maker which we hope will make the ice taste better and also a water filter for the hose for when we fill the tanks on the boat. Also got a tricolor LED light for the dingy for night moves and a new USB cable to update my Garmin GPS's. Next was ACE hardware for some more stainless steel screws and new 120 volt plugs for the fly bridge. The ones we had were not the best quality and the plugs for charging the IPads worked intermittently. 

We arrived at West Marine at 4:00 and they had just finished unpacking and we picked up a new heavy duty boat hook (longer and beefier) new flag staff (broke the old one unloading the dingy) a new US ensign ( hey new staff, new flag) and some more engine zincs.  Now I have enough projects and things to do on the boat for a good while.  The 7' long boat hook was fun to ride back to the boat with!  Debbie was jousting....

Back aboard it was time for Abby's walk and I took the bicycle and we rode over to the Causeway and Abby ran along the beach and then back on the sidewalk to the boat. Dinner aboard although we checked out some places we want to go for dinner and will in the weeks to come.

Tarpon Springs to Anclote Island 11/9/17

I got dog walking duty this morning so we took the bike and rode through the downtown and the sponge docks over to the dog park about a mile away.  I felt when we entered the "large dogs" section that Abby was the little princess in her party dress meeting the local trailer trash. There were all kinds of mutts all doing their best to hump her or sniff her butt. She was quite intimidated at first but she became more comfortable as time passed and ran and played with the other dogs.  After about half an hour she was tired and we rode back over to the marina.  I don't think I will be hearing much from her for the rest of the day. I spent the morning sorting out why I had not received a renewal for the motorcycle in the mail.  The plates expired in August but I hadn't noticed and now I had to find out why.  It appears that when I changed the address on my drivers license it automatically changed the address for the registration of the motorcycle to Charleston County.  The DMV told me they would not renew the plate until the property taxes were paid and that I had to pay them in Charleston County.  I spoke with the Tax Auditor in Lexington County where I work and paid them last year and he advised me to just pay them in Charleston County and ask for a special mailing address so the renewal went to my address in Lexington. That took an hour or so and I also checked on the property taxes for the boat.  The reason I changed my drivers license was to save money on the property taxes in Lexington County for the boat.  Lexington wanted $11,000.00 dollars property tax and I ended up paying less than $800.00 in Charleston.  Lots of hoops to jump through but well worth it. While it looks like there are as many hoops to jump through again this year and I got started in finding all of the information required to have the lower rate in Charleston County.

Debbie had gone off shopping at the Sponge Docks and we were to meet at Rusty Bellies for lunch because we were too full to go last night.  I completed the motorcycle renewal and got it mailed off with the forms and check.  We had a very nice lunch on the water at Rusty Bellies, Debbie had shrimp and I had a whole grilled fish, Porgy I think, that was very good. Beer today I'm done with Sangria!!   After lunch Debbie dragged me to a shop where she had found nice men's shorts that she wanted me to try on and I did.  They were nice and I got two pairs.  Thanks Honey.

A statue dedicated to the sponge divers that this Greek inspired community grew up with

Abby goes to the Dog Park

She didn't know which way to turn, so many dogs

Cute little Australian sheep dog

We had to wait for the tide to come in before we could get out of the Anclote River, so around 3:00 we headed off as two other Loopers docked at Turtle Cove.  We didn't go very far out the river and anchored behind Anclote Island for the night.  It was a peaceful evening on the hook and we are excited about moving to Marker 1 Marina tomorrow where we will stay for a month.  It's been non stop travelling for 7 plus months and a stay for a month should be a nice break.

Tarpon Springs 11/8/17

We unloaded the motorcycle this morning because we wanted to do some shopping and also because we wanted to go for a ride.   We are now in central west coast Florida and it's time to slow down and stay somewhere for awhile. We had made inquiries at Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin (just north of St Pete) and wanted to stay there for a month.  When we had called last month, they were unable to take a reservation as far out as we had called and it was basically a first come first served basis.  We decided to ride down to Marker 1 and check the place out to know if we wanted to stay. When we arrived the place is pretty big and we liked the feel and location.  It's very close to Dunedin which has lots of shopping and restaurants and it's also close to Honeymoon Beach State park and the causeway leading over to the park.  Not too far to the airport in Tampa and we liked the dock that was available.  Also the price is right $11.00 a foot a month including power and cable TV.  They have a small pool and we think we will be happy.

This is Marker 1 Marina. We will be on the far top left of the docks on the left of the causeway.

After we had made the arrangements we rode back north to Tarpon Springs  and stopped off at West Marine to make some purchases.  The things I wanted they didn't have in stock so I ordered them online and I will pick them up on Friday as they are having a 10% off sale Thursday and Friday. We stopped at Ace hardware and bought some screws to complete the assembly of the chairs we recovered last week then off for lunch.  When we went to Costa's last night I forgot my hat and the food was very good so guess what, we went back for lunch.  Debbie had a shrimp souvlaki and I had a pork souvlaki along with a (wait for it) Greek salad and 4 sangrias.  I told Debbie many times through dinner how happy I was to be in Florida and know where we would be for the next month.  I'm sure after two weeks I will be ready to move on but maybe not, it just feels good. Debbie walked across the street to the Greek bakery and bought two Baklavas for us to enjoy when we got back to the boat.

We went back after lunch and made a grocery list and rested for a bit. We ate half of the Baklava and  then it was off to the grocery store.  On the way we passed the dog park and I thought it might be fun to take Abby over to play tomorrow.  We got everything back on the boat and we had planned on going out for dinner at Rusty Bellies but both of us were too full and decided we would go to Rusty Bellies for lunch tomorrow instead.  

We watched a movie The Double with Topher Grace and Richard Gere.  Not bad..... then off to bed.  Tired!

Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs 11/6&7/17

We got up this morning and we had the day to pass before we would leave for Tarpon Springs.  The plan is to leave late in the afternoon and travel overnight so that we arrive in Tarpon Springs with the sun high enough to be able to see all of the reported thousands of crab pots that line the coast off of Tarpon Springs.  We calculated that we should leave around 4:00 PM and that is what we did.  I walked down the dock this morning to watch a fisherman unload his catch into a buyer truck from a local fish market.  He had red grouper, red snapper and black grouper.  I'm sure there were others but that is what they identified to me.   Each one of these plastic totes below weighed in at around 110 lbs and there were about 6 of them.  The fish were all well packed in lots of ice and some actually looked like they were half frozen, anyways still very fresh.  The fisherman was about 70+ and he goes out with his wife to fish.  They usually stay out for 3-4 days and then come in and unload.  He takes care of the boat and she does the fishing.  Looks like a very hard life and I was amazed in what good shape the old guy was in.  I'm sure the sea toughens you over the years.

Red Grouper

The cold chests with all of the catches

Red Snapper

We had a big lunch aboard so we wouldn't have to deal with cooking tonight while underway.  I even had a couple of beers hoping that I could have a siesta after lunch.  The siesta never happened and we ended up busy with new arrivals coming in and finally two boats came in that needed our spots as they had reservations and the marina had been very gracious in allowing us to stay almost until 4:00 PM.  A late check out if you will.

I hope SeaTow has another boat here because this one doesn't look too good.  There are quite a few abandoned or sunken boats in Carrabelle and I'm guessing the economy is not very strong.  It's sad to see the parts of old Florida falling apart.

We worked our way out of the river into the sound and then passed through East Pass which is the deepest and best marked of the three passed out of the sound.  There are a couple of jogs as you follow the deep water through the pass and then it is a straight line to R4 off of Anclote island near Tarpon Springs.  The beginning was a beautiful afternoon cruise and then the sun went down and we were well out of sight of land and it got dark.  Not just dark, really dark.  So dark we could hardly see the burgee on the bow pulpit and nothing else. I don't know about others but I didn't feel all that comfortable plowing along at 10 knots and not seeing a thing. I kept thinking that others have done this for centuries and that's just the way it is.  We also have radar which to my thinkng is a huge comfort and AIS which helps too.  BUT neither of them will show you a half submerged container or sunken boat!! Anyways we didn't hit anything and all was well.

Around 8:00 PM the moon rose as a huge orange ball and turned a bright white as it rose in the sky.  Once it was up it cast a light across our path and you at least felt there was a chance of seeing something before you would hit it.

Heading out onto the blue yonder

The sun setting to the west, nice calm seas and a west wind to push us along

The guiding moon

Sometime in the middle of the night.  The radar is set on a 12 mile range and there was no one else out there

The view of the navigation and instrument panel

Debbie and I took turns standing watch and trying to get some sleep. We had chicken vegetable soup with left over pasta as one of our many snacks and then later on we had popcorn.  No drinking on this cruise that would need to wait until tomorrow. There was some very good music playing on Sirius radio and it made the time fly along while it lasted. I love it when you know every song and like it too. We got to a point where the water starts to become shallower and it is a well known place for the fisherman to place their crab pots.  We didn't want to run into any and risk fouling the props, so we stopped the engines and drifted until the sun had come up enough for us to see.  The problem we expected was that the sun would come up and blind us from being able to see anything on the water until it got high enough.  Good sunglasses helped a lot and also we were heading about 30 degrees off of the sun so it really wasn't too bad and we made it to an anchorage where we stopped and slept for a few hours before going in to Tarpon Springs.  The main reason we didn't go straight in was that with the almost full moon the tides were higher and lower than normal and we saw some very skinny water coming in behind Anclote Island and when I called the marina to confirm our reservation she suggested we wait until 3:00 PM when the tide would come up before we made our way up the river to Turtle Cove Marina in Tarpon Springs. Somewhere in the morning I thought I had picked up a crab pot line or just a line and when we anchored I dove under the boat to check.  No lines and everything seemed good.  I cleaned off the scaling from the zincs so they would work again and checked to be sure they were all in place.  Everything looked good and I spent about a 1/2 hour in the water which was very refreshing.  Debbie and I had a nice nap after and woke up around 2:00 PM to head into Turtle Cove.

The sun will be up soon

There is the sun.  Good Morning

We checked into Turtle Cove and unloaded the bicycles so we could go out for an early dinner at Costa's Greek Restaurant.  We showed up around 5:00 PM at Costa's and ordered Greek Salad (one of their specialties. I ordered the Greek Combo Platter and Debbie had the Soutzoukakia.  Debbie had wine and I had 4 sangrias.  We were so stuffed we rode back to the boat and rubbed our bellies hoping that we would feel better soon.  It wasn't too long before we went to bed for the evening, but before we did we had a visit from the Harbor Host Herb Seaton who won the True North award as the Harbor Host of the Year. He delivered a map and showed us where everything is and also brought us a box of Streusel Cakes.  What a guy!  Thanks Herb.

The menu from Costa's

Port St Joe to Carrabelle 11/5/17

We really enjoyed Port St Joe.  Nice dock neighbors and a friendly atmosphere all around. The decision today is, do we go outside the long way around 50-60- miles to Apalachicola or go up the GICW in a canal and get to Apalachicola in under 30 miles?  It's a beautiful day but I have worries about the two passes to get us into the bay where Apalachicola is located.  On the charts it looked pretty good but then I spoke with a dock neighbor and he said that the channel shifts constantly and it might not be as good as it looks.  With the combination of an iffy pass and almost double the distance we regrettably will take the ditch as tomorrow we will be out in the ocean for about 18 hours to cross to Tarpon Springs.  We arrived in Apalachicola and didn't see anything or place we wanted to stop so we kept on going to Carrabelle.  This decision was influenced by the fact we had been conversing with Herb Seaton the Harbor host from Tarpon Springs and he has expressed an interest in buddy boating across to Tarpon Springs tomorrow night. He is now ahead of us and we will meet in Carrabelle.  By continuing on today we will take 20 some odd miles off of the crossing tomorrow. Carrabelle has the C-Quarters Marina with reasonable rates, cheap fuel and a restaurant with oysters nearby.  When we left out of Apalachicola there is a narrow dredged channel leading out to the bay and we came across two markers that didn't seem to be right.  Now the decision is which one is wrong and which one do you believe.  I'm not sure if I made the correct decision or not but we could see our wake rising over the sandbar close to port and we were almost against the green mark to starboard.  Saw 0 feet of water and felt a couple of shudders and maybe a little lift as we passed through.  I hate those feelings.  Anyway we didn't get stuck and made it safely to Carrabelle where we were greeted by Herb at the dock.  We ended up having docktails and going out to dinner at Fathoms for oysters.

Well the first thing the waitress said to us was she was sorry but they were out of oysters.  What a let down! Herb and I had the grilled grouper and Debbie had a shrimp quesadilla.  It was pretty good but like I said I had had oysters on the mind for days. We walked back over to the boat and watched an episode f Downton Abbey and then bed.

Port St Joe Marina

The breakwater off of Port St Joe

Debbie and Abby.  Two walks this morning

Drift Away at Port St Joe. That's me adjusting lines.

The Office and restaurant bar at Port St Joe Marina. Happy hours (3) everyday and they will cook your catch if you clean it first.

Panama City to Port St Joe 11/4/17

We left after breakfast and headed outside to the ocean for our trip along the coast to Port St Joe.  The ocean was calm with maybe 6" waves and a following breeze to push us along.  The beaches are endless here and beautiful white sand with no one on them.  It is Saturday so there is a lot of fishing boats out and pleasure craft enjoying the warm fall weather. It was about a 3-4 hour run over to Port St Joe and we checked in around 2:00 PM.  Nice small friendly marina with lots of locals.  The guy on the Ocean next to us is from BC and lived in the Okanogan valley.  Damn Canadians everywhere you go.

I checked in at the office and got the WiFi codes so we could work on the blog and start planning our crossing to Tarpon Springs.  This is usually done as an afternoon departure with an overnight crossing and arriving off of Tarpon Springs late enough in the morning that the sun is high enough so you can see the crab pots in the sun's reflection on the water when you are near Tarpon Springs. Some find this very intimidating but I see it as an adventure especially since the weather forecast is very good and there will be a full moon to guide us on our way.  We have been discussing with another 50+ trawler about buddy boating across.  I guess we will see if they make it to Apalachicola in time for our departure Monday afternoon.  The time changes tonight but for us it will stay the same since we crossed back over into the eastern time zone.  That was easy no clocks to change or sleep schedule change.  I will still wake up at 5:30!

Debbie and I gave Abby a bath, she is so well behaved and now she looks and smells great.

Next up was to do the final assembly of the chairs we have been recovering.  It went well and we celebrated with cocktails trying out the newly recovered chairs on the aft deck.

When we had dinner at the Italian Restaurant the other night I had the Veal Piccata and enjoyed it so much that I thought I would try making chicken piccata since I had all of the ingredients and it sounded pretty straight forward. It turned out really well and I will make it again.  We watched a double header of Downton Abbey and then off to bed.

View out onto St Joseph Bay from our dock