Last night we dropped the hook after an delightful, albeit short, sail down Tampa Bay, beginning our move back south down the West coast of Florida. This was our first sail in over a month and it is always great to be back on the water. We anchored in the Manatee River, just north of Bradenton, Florida. For those of you who keep track of us on SPOT (by clicking on the photo above), when you can't find us on SPOT, that typically means that we have been stationary for awhile and you can expect that we are enjoying the last location shown by SPOT. Another fun way to find us is to sign up for
Marine Traffic, which has the positions of every AIS (Automatic Identification System) equipped ship and boat on its world maps. After you sign up, you then create a "fleet", which would include us, and then you can see us anywhere in the world in real time! You will also receive emails whenever we leave or enter a port. Similar to SPOT, but a little more to it. Kind of fun!
We have spent the last four weeks in St Petersburg. The St Pete Marina is right downtown, easy walking distance to the weekly Farmer's Market, the
Dali Museum, the private collection of
Chihuly glass and the neighboring Morean Gallery where you can watch a glass-blowing demonstration, in addition to all the shops, restaurants and more! We did all of the above, as well as a private tour of the historic
Vinoy hotel, hit the Gulf beaches, shared time with family and friends and generally enjoyed being on land.
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Scenes from the weekly Farmer's Market,
a block from the marina. This is February!!! :) |
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This and the next few are from the Chihuly
private collection - amazing work! |
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| Click on any photo to enlarge |
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| This filled an entire room - glass landscape eight feet tall. |
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| These three are from the glass blowing demonstration |
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| The Vinoy Ballroom with Chihuly Chandelier |
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1200 pounds of art glass!
Click on any photo to enlarge |
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| Loved the old elevator dial |
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| Our free dessert at a local restaurant, Sea Salt - cotton candy! |
St Petersburg is a very bicycle-friendly area with trails that take you from city to beach, and a bike lane on almost every major roadway. We had been using our little 16" wheel Citizen folding bikes, but you can't really make many miles on them. They were great for grocery runs or other short trips, but we got tired of peddling so much and not making much headway. There is a cool shop in St Petersburg that sells only folding bicycles. Michael at
Two Fold Bicycle Shop set us up with some cool new
Tern bicycles - 20" wheels, easy shifting through nine gears, lighter weight - an all around great new ride! It has been fun putting on the miles!
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| Our new rides! |
Greg's Mom and sister visited for about a week and we took in the Florida Botanical Garden.
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| Greg's sister and Mom |
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| Greg and Mom |
St Petersburg is setting up for the Grand Prix the second weekend in March. Greg was lucky enough to see them unload the promo car and they insisted on taking a photo. Pretty cool!
So, as mentioned, we headed away from the dock yesterday and enjoyed a night at anchor after a very spirited sail and a day of work for Greg. We were enjoying the sunset once again and looking forward to waking up on the water, hearing the birds, feeling the breeze and listening to the water lap against the hull.
Wait - our first bite of dinner and here comes a Coast Guard work boat pushing a barge. They settled about 150 feet off our port side. See those tall poles on the barge with the crane? Instead of using an anchor, they drive a piling down into the seabed to secure the boat, and there they sat all night. Fortunately, the boys quieted down about 9pm. The second photo is the view from the starboard side. Not bad.
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| Greg took this great photo of the moon |
This morning, though we woke up to fog and overcast skies, it only took a couple hours before the sun was shining brightly again. No sailing today, just a motor down the West Coast of Florida's waterway, under a couple bridges and around the bend to another sweet anchorage. No one to bother us this evening.
We passed our Coastie friends along the way. Based on radio conversations, they seem to be repairing day marks (the posts with the red triangles and green squares that guide us along the way) and then going into maneuvers with a helicopter a few miles offshore. They headed out that bridge that you see on the left there.
Tomorrow, we head back to Marina Jack in Sarasota to spend a week before moving on again. We'll let you know what adventure we find along the way. 'Til next time -
