Final Days in Clearwater

For just a minute we need to jump back in time to Clearwater. We didn't share about the awesome festival that Clearwater held on the beach (to honor our leaving?). There were three days of festivities, but the best for us were the free dances held on the beach.

The first night was a reggae band with members from all over the Caribbean. We couldn't hold still..the music was jivin' mon. There was one barely four year old boy next to us who really had some moves! All of us around him were cheering him on. When the lead singer asked for volunteers for a dance contest, he ran right up front and started shaking. Wow could that little guy go! We see a dancing career in young Enrique's future.

The second night was a funk rock band out of Orlando. Their first set has us dancing again. What fun to feel the sand in our toes (sorry Tina) while the Gulf breeze kept us cool. At 9 o'clock the band started playing "I Just Want To Celebrate" and then the fireworks started. Literally. There was a 20 minute fireworks display being set off from the end of Pier 60. Incredible!!

On Sunday evening, the night before everyone was scheduled to leave and go their separate ways, we had a pot luck dinner on the dock. Glass Slipper prepared a London Broil on the grill. Mike grilled the Mahi Mahi that the fishing boat near us donated. Liza, Wrinkles and Nemeid provided salads, Enchantress supplied potato salad, Island Tyme brought brownies and Tom and Molly brought Mac and cheese and Key Lime Pie. All the food was set out in Glass Slipper's cockpit for a serve yourself feast. Lots of laughing and some tears as we prepared to say goodbye to this incredible group of people. It will be hard to beat the comraderie we felt here.

 

 

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Clearwater to Gulfport

We did it....we actually pulled out of Clearwater. Six of our fellow dock mates left yesterday to cross the Gulf heading north. Sad to see them go. Goodbye hugs and tears are the hardest parts of this cruising life. We left this morning with Don and Gail of Island Tyme heading farther south. They had hoped to leave yesterday, but the wind was not cooperating. There was some conversation again this morning about the wind being wrong, but we decided we just had to get moving along. At 10 am we pulled away from the docks. Lots of good memories!!

We both pulled out like old pros and were soon chugging down the channel. Winds looked promising as we passed the entry buoy, so we pulled up all our sails. This was our first time with the staysail fully rigged. It worked like a charm and the new snatch block was just what we needed to keep the staysail trimmed. We were able to hold about 3.5 knots in the light winds. Then we dipped below 3 knots and dodging crabpots became a little tricky. Mike went to fire up the engine, but nothing happened. Hmmmm...this happened once before. Mike opened the engine compartment, jiggled a few things, and presto...we had a running engine! Guess Mike gets to install that shiny new starter after all.

The wind was supposed to stay from the east, but you guessed it, it turned right on our nose. We fully believe that whatever direction a sailboat hopes to go will be directly into the wind. We kept our sails up for motor assist and our speed quickly climbed over 5 knots. It was so nice without the motor, but, oh well, we wanted to reach Gulfport before dark. As we turned east toward the North Channel we watched Don and Gail sail over the horizon heading south to their destination. We know we will see our good friends again later this summer, but it was still hard to watch them disappear.

The water in the Gulf was a gorgeous clear emerald green against a bright blue and white sky. We even had a visit from a few dolphins. We enjoyed a motorsail at 5.8 knots which was a nice change of pace from the slow progress all day. Even though we would only cover 30 miles today, it seemed like a long trip. We must be out of practice.

At 5 pm we dropped our 44 lb. Rocna anchor in 9 feet of water. Ahhhhhhhhh, that is better. A tasty supper aboard and a beautiful sunset capped off the day as we relaxed in the cockpit at our Gulfport anchorage.

 

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Even Chores Can Be An Adventure

Needing parts to install a replacement inverter, we decided to combine the trip with some other necessary chores. Some might think a 14 mile ride on itty-bitty folding bikes would be something to dread. Since we enjoy biking and some exercise we look at this as an adventure. Brenda made up some sandwiches and filled up our water bottles for a picnic lunch during our ride. Two bikes, two backpacks, suntan lotion and away we go.

We stopped at two auto parts stores for boat thingies, Michael's to purchase some Velcro and then headed off to the worst store in the world to Mike. Yes, the cell phone shop. We have older Verizon issued cell phones and wanted to see if we could get a cheaper plan with more data. The best we could do without signing up for a contract (not happening) was to reduce our plan by $27/month and gain about 4 gigs of data. It wasn't as good as we hoped for, but it was free which we liked.

Since our tummies were starting to growl we looked for a nice shady spot to eat our picnic lunch. Very near the Verizon store there is a small park dedicated to saving a beautiful Camphor tree. The park has nice benches spread out in the shade of this amazing tree. What a perfect spot to park our bikes and enjoy our lunch.

Refreshed and ready to pedal some more, we headed to West Marine for the final parts Mike needed to complete the inverter install. Success! We had everything on our list and it was time to make our way back home to Wrinkles. We needed to rest up for tonight's group outing to a free beach concert. Reggae music on the beach! Sweet! More about that later.

 

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