More Tarpon Springs

In catching up I found a few more pictures of Tarpon Springs. The main drag down by the sponge docks is a bit touristy and tacky, but worth doing nonetheless.

The main Greek restaurant, of many, is Hellas. They have a cheese appetizer they set on fire at your table that is a lot of fun, and a bakery next door that is far too tempting.

At the end there is a nice seafood restaurant with the odd name of Rusty Belly's. George, Kristy and I posed with Mr. Belly. Heather took the picture, allowing her to stay out of it.

Much of Tarpon Springs seems to be just a few feet above sea level. We had a front come thru before we left, with the wind really blowing hard from the west. After a couple days of that, and during a high tide, we had a torrential downpour. 

Hope everyone has flood insurance.

Another Day

We didn't make it far today, not quite 20 miles south. We started out pretty well, but got caught up doing paperwork and such to get settled into our nomadic condition. We're now anchored across from a VA hospital.

More importantly, on the other side of the Welch Causeway bridge is - a McDonalds with a dingy dock! What a great idea!

Looking the other way to the west, another nice sunset.

Heather had a scrip that she asked for 3 months on, and instead they gave her 3 pills. Tomorrow we pick up a mooring in the Vinoy basin for three days so we can pick up that scrip, change the oil, try to get something fixed on the house for the new room mates, and more paperwork. Civilization seems to rely heavily on you having a permanent address.

Living on the Boat

A lot has happened since New Year's Eve. George and Kristy flew back to Arizona on the 2nd. We did errands and chores for a few more days in Florida, then flew back to Arizona on the 6th, same day as Madi returned from Japan. We eventually got Madi's moving pod repacked and headed up to San Jose. Koji flew down to Phoenix but got sick, then me, so Heather and Madi drove Madi's car to San Jose on the 13th with Koji in the back, leaving me at home to recover and then keep packing. Heather flew back to Phoenix on Tuesday the 17th and we packed our guts out, finishing moving out of the master suite in the house a few hours before our flight to Florida left on the 21st. We got back to the boat and everything was fine. A few more days of organizing and provisioning and we were (mostly) ready to leave the marina on the 25th, today. After topping up on diesel we headed back down the river and turned left. We're now anchored in the southeast corner of Clearwater harbor, just north of the Belleair bridge. It's taco night.

We've officially moved out of the bedroom we've lived in for over 25 years, and two of Chelsea's new room mates are moving in this week. We still have quite a bit of stuff in what was Madi's room. We come back in March to finish sorting thru that. Maybe we will get completely out of the house, maybe not just yet, but we now live on the boat, and are just visiting Mesa. The nearest commitments Heather and I have are some medical appointments and a handbook meeting in March. We want to get to the Dry Tortugas and Key West next month sometime. But day to day, we'll just see what happens.

New Years Eve

We spent much of the day doing little errands and resting up for New Years Eve. We went back to Rusty Belly's for dinner and drinks, then headed back to the boat pretty early. We talked for a while then watched the movie "About Time". We talked some more and watched part of the first episode of Firefly while counting down. We had bought a Greek bread with a lucky coin in it. You cut up the bread and everyone gets a piece. Whoever gets the coin is lucky. Mysteriously, the person who cut and then gave out the slices of bread also got the coin - Heather! Not suspicious at all. I guess you do make your own luck.

New Years Eve Eve

We needed to abide by the standoff distance from the Greek bakery specified by the restraining order so we decided to head south and play tourist. We drove to Clearwater and ended up parked on the bridge because it was full of folks for an event associated with a bowl game in a few days. We finally got to Frenchys on the beach and had lunch looking out at the gulf over the white sand and breakers. Afterward we headed to the Florida Marina in Tampa, which was fun.

 

We wanted to go to the Columbia restaurant for dinner, which has been run by the same family since 1905 and seats up to 1600 people, but we were still full, so we saw Rogue One at the theater in Ybor City. Afterward we put our name in for dinner, but we must have been 1601-1604. When we were finally seated we had a nice dinner with their specialty salad and tapas, followed by tasty and moderately sized slices of key lime pie and berry cheesecake, plus a brick sized serving of a white chocolate bread pudding that was awesome.

Tarpon Springs

The marina we ended up at is up the Anclote river a few miles in a little place called Tarpon Springs. A hundred years ago there were only natural sponges, and the best folks at diving for them were Greek. A quaint little community grew here which is very walkable, with shopping, restaurants, and a Greek bakery that is turning out to be quite lethal. We spent most of the day after the crossing just resting and cleaning up.

Big Bend Crossing

We arrived in Pensacola early evening on Christmas, and rented a car to get to Panama City. After caffeinating we made the uneventful drive in the dark, taking the inland way, and got to the boat about 10p. We were up early to provision and return the car because we had a window starting as early as that afternoon, staging near Port St. Joe. It took a little too long to leave the day after Christmas, so we settled for a trip to the fuel dock and positioning ourselves for an early departure. This was our last sunset in Panama City.

I got up long before sunrise for my last shower for a while, and it was clear and the stars were bright. Should have left then. By sunrise a thick fog had formed, and it was interesting getting out to the gulf. We passed Port St. Joe late morning a decided to keep going while the weather was good, which meant little wind or waves, but quite a bit of fog. We ran all night at a fairly slow pace to conserve fuel, but by mid morning the next day we had to add our reserve jugs of diesel to the tank. We were close enough to pick up the pace with our remaining fuel, arriving at the Turtle Cove Marina about 5:30p on December 27th. It was a pleasantly uneventful first crossing in our boat, about 33 hours dock to dock.

The marina was nice and within walking distance of sponge docks, an interesting little area with  shopping and restaurants. We decided to stay put, so this is the boat's home for the next four weeks.

Up to Christmas

On the 20th Madi flew from San Jose to LAX in the early morning, then caught her flight to Japan mid-day. Chelsea and I drove from Mesa to Las Cruces that same day for Christmas with Heather’s folks. Madi arrived in Osaka the next day, while the rest of us visited in New Mexico. We drove back to Mesa on the 22nd, this time with Heather, then went up the hill to Prescott on the 23rd for Christmas Eve Eve with my family. After visiting and a great dinner, back down the hill we went.

Christmas Eve itself turned out to be kind of a down day. We only did a few things in prep for leaving on Christmas, flying back to Panama City with George and Kristy for the jump across to Tampa.