Glad We Could Help

Breakfast at Salt Cracker Fish Camp

A new marina restaurant is going to start operations tomorrow and needed some volunteers to help train their new staff today. "Let's see, eat a free hot breakfast just to help you out?" "We're in!"

We were seated in their outdoor patio where the sun was shining. Hot coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, omelettes and home fries. What a great way to start our day.

As you can see in the picture there were surprisingly few people. You'd think there would have been a long line for this deal.

Later that day we were told they still needed people to train their lunch staff. "Gee, two free meals in one day." "We're in!"

No Jim, that was not Bud Light. Good old Yuengling draft.

Brenda ordered a pulled pork BBQ while Mike had a blackened Grouper sandwich. Both of the sandwiches were pretty average tasting, but on a scale of 1 to Free they were good enough. Sure glad we were around to be so helpful today.

 

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Enjoying Clearwater

Clearwater Beach Marina

We decided to just relax and enjoy Clearwater Beach Marina instead of pushing on southward. We have taken nice long walks around the area and along the beautiful beach, biked around the area, stopped at a couple of outdoor bar/restaurants for a cold drink and met some wonderful people.

The 2 for 1 Crew

We are getting to know Don and Gail aboard their lovingly restored Endeavour sailboat as well as Lee and Eileen aboard their robust Choy Lee sailboat. Sharing drinks, meals and laughter with these fun people reminds us why we wanted to go cruising in the first place. Listening to all the life experiences within the group seems to have us all laughing so hard our sides hurt. It is really special to have three cruising sailboats parked next to each other with crews that get along so well. Today we all boarded a local trolley together at 1 o'clock to go into downtown Clearwater for lunch. The 2 for 1 happy hour was well abused as we laughed the afternoon away. We ate a nice meal with our drinks and eventually settled our bills to leave. We made it as far as the next table when someone suggested another 2 for 1 drink before we left. We settled into the new table and started all over again. Brenda and I need to practice drinking if we are going to keep up with this crowd.

Tomorrow Brenda and I plan on taking the bus to Dunedin for a day of exploring.

 

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Fishing in Clearwater

Clearwater Harbor Marina

Patrick (aboard Tranquilo II), Brenda and I took our little RIB (The Ernie T) out to do a little fishing. Patrick, showing his ever present confidence, promised Grouper for dinner. We motored over to some concrete post ruins recommended by the locals which turned out to be a great recommendation. We rigged up some live shrimp and began pulling in Sheepshead, Pinfish, Spotted Sea Trout and a beautiful Ladyfish.

The Ernie T

Mike and Patrick

We had fun fishing, eating our sandwiches and jabbering for a couple of hours. It was surprising that although cozy, we had enough room for two people fishing and one person enjoying the boat ride on such a small dinghy. We kept the Trout and four of the Sheepshead which Patrick cleaned up and put in Tranquilo's freezer. The local sheriff's boat stopped by to say hello and once they saw we were well equipped with safety gear and that "The Ernie T" had it's stickers up to date they wandered off. It might also have helped that both Brenda and Patrick had their regulation sheets out trying to identify the Ladyfish.

Tranquilo's dinghy

The next day we tried fishing from Tranquilo's bigger dinghy which certainly gave us much more room. The water leaking into the dinghy at the seams wasn't such a great thing. We tried some new fishing spots before returning to the same spot as the day before. The fish weren't as cooperative this time, but we had fun bringing in several Sheepshead that were just a little too small to keep. Patrick saved the day when he pulled in a really nice sized Sheepshead that would give us plenty of meat for our dinner that evening.

Since it was the last night Tanquilo II, Docktari and Wrinkles would be together, we decided a fish feast send-off was in order. Brenda and Mike biked over the Memorial Causeway Bridge to join the get together and had a lovely ride. We stopped to take some pictures of the bay and the fun circular bike ramp that got us back down to street level.

Brenda going around and around.

We all enjoyed cool drinks, talking about things we had done together and each boat's future plans. Patrick played chef cooking the fish while each boat supplied a dish to pass. The Sheepshead was fried using a "Long John Silver" recipe found online and the trout was baked with a fish rub. It was truly a grand feast with more than enough fish to feed 7 people.

First batch of Sheepshead

Spotted Sea Trout

We said our sad goodbyes to these lovely people hoping that someday, somewhere we would cross paths with them again. It was a beautiful bike ride home to Wrinkles that night, but tomorrow Clearwater just won't be the same.

Safe travels Docktari and Tranquilo II.

 

 

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