Suncat Trader Cruises: January 2008

Our Christmas card

Christmas Greetings from Ft Myers!

We’ve now been at Ft Myers for about a week, generally relaxing, playing tourist and enjoying a visit from our son Stephen.

During the past week, we toured the Edison and Ford winter estates and drove up to Sarasota to tour the Ringling Circus and Art museums as well as their incredible mansion the “Ca d’Zan”. These museums are well worth the time and one learns quite a bit about the people who built them, how they lived and how they made their fortunes.

Jean with Henry Ford

Ford winter estate

We also took an airboat ride through the Everglades. No alligators but we saw some wild pigs and a lot of birds. Last Saturday night (a week ago) we participated in a downtown wine tasting with John and Pat of Gypsy Time. This event introduced us to 10 restaurants and 12 different wines and a whole night’s entertainment, all for $5 per person!

Does Steve know how to drive this?

Today we went to the beach. It sure seemed strange to be swimming in the ocean on the day before Christmas. They are playing White Christmas on the radio and we see lots of white sand not snow!

After we left St. Petersburg beach we stopped at an anchorage behind Longboat Key with Gypsy Time and Summertime. We had a nice walk ashore and saw some large peacocks that roam on that part of the island. The next day we anchored off Sarasota and walked around downtown a bit. We started for the circus museum but discovered it was way too far to walk. The next day we went to Venice, stayed at the free dock and walked to town twice. Venice is a very charming town and was good walking and biking.

Venice

After that we stopped at Caya Costa State Park, anchoring in Pelican Bay. The entrance was unmarked and very shallow. We followed a track given us by Mike on Explorer. Once anchored, we walked over to the beach and took a swim. It’s a nice park and is only accessible by water. The next day we had to wait until noon to have enough water to leave and then powered our way through a rain storm to the Marina here at Ft Myers.

Happy Holidays!

Steve and Jean

These weeks seem to go by all too quickly. We just left Clearwater Beach where we have been enjoying the sun and sand immensely.

We spent Thanksgiving week in Pensacola where we docked at the Palafox Pier Marina which is right downtown in the center of the historical district. While we were there, we visited the Naval Aviation Museum which is located on the Naval Air Station. It was great. They had planes from before World War One all the way through to modern jets and our tour guides did a great job explaining the history of many of those planes as well as the ships that carried them and some of the people that flew them. We also toured two history museums downtown, walked and biked and worked on the boats a bit. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant with Ray and Linda from Summertime and Rolf and Kathy from Norske. We wound up staying a few days longer than planned because of the weather and it seemed a bit cold for Florida in November, but we had a good time anyway.

From Pensacola we went to Fort Walton Beach and from there we went to Panama City. (Son) Bill and Stephanie joined us there and we enjoyed some shopping as well as an interesting trolley ride back from delivering their rental car to the airport. From there we had a nice quiet night at anchor in Saul Creek with Gypsy Time and then we went into Apalachicola where we spent a day playing tourists. We attended a holiday street fair and rode our bikes around town a bit to see the fine Victorian homes. We then went to Carrabelle where we spent two days waiting on weather. We walked, shopped, worked on the boat, played cards with Bill & Steph and attended a shrimp and oyster feed organized by George on Time Out and attended by about 10 looper boats. Bob from Catch Me If You Can provided the after dinner entertainment.

The next day we were again delayed by the weather. Howevcr, we decided to go about 20 miles to Alligator Harbor to anchor to get a jump on the trip to Stienhatchie the next day. However on our way out of the harbor we decided that conditions would be favorable for an overnight crossing to Tarpon Springs so we altered course and set out for Tarpon Springs instead, joined by Gypsy Time, Mystic Bond, Fifth Quarter and Black Dog. Black Dog had done the trip before and recommended that we stay in over 50 feet of water to avoid the crab pots. It turned out to be really good advice. We and Gypsy Time saw no crab pots that night while the other two boats were in shallower water and had to play dodgems all night to avoid the crab pots.

The crossing turned out to be a really good move. We had no wind and a gentle swell all night and the night turned out to be warmer than expected as we were surrounded by the warm Gulf of Mexico waters. Bill & Steph were a big help in running the boat and having the extra people let everyone get some sleep. We arrived in Tarpon Springs about 10 AM a bit tired but excited that the last bit of open water was behind us as we could run inside all the way to Marco Island from there. The passage from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs was 154 nautical miles dock to dock.

After a short nap and a shower we then proceeded to explore Tarpon Springs by walking over to the “Sponge Dock” area. Tarpon Springs is famous for its sponge fishing industry which was largely pursued by Greek immigrants. There were many shops selling sponges and Greek items and a number of Greek restaurants. It was a bit too much of a tourist trap but we had a nice walk and enjoyed the sights and the warm weather as it seemed much warmer than it had been in the Florida panhandle.

We had planned to stay two days in Tarpon Springs but Bill and Steph wanted to have some beach time so the next day we went to Clearwater Beach where we wound up spending 3 days. We had a nice walk on the beach, cooled off in the water and enjoyed dinner on board and cards with the kids that evening. The next day, they had to leave so we found a rental car and sent them on their way back to Sanford/Orlando airport where they would fly out the next day. Jean and I then spent a relaxing day walking around town and enjoying the beach again. We were joined that evening by Gypsy Time, Summertime, Catch Me If You Can, and Folly. We walked over to the pier for the sunset, toured the vendors that were set up on the pier and watched a few of the entertainers in the park. It was reminiscent of the sunset festivities at Key West but much more subdued. We then all had dinner at Frenchy’s, a local establishment which must be famous for something as there are 5 of them on Clearwater Beach!

The following day was Saturday and that was the evening of the lighted boat parade. Although we were not going in the parade, we all spent some time decorating our boats
with lights, etc and we were fortunate to have the parade pass right in front of the marina just off our bow. It was a lot of fun to watch, with Christmas songs being played on some of the boats and everyone tooting horns at the most well decorated boats. I have to admit that being from the north I still find it strange to see Christmas decorations with Palm trees and the temperatures in the 80’s. I’m getting to like it, however, especially after we heard that Maine got 1 to 2 feet of snow this weekend.

Today we walked around town a bit and left about noon, accompanied by Gypsy Time and Summertime. We traveled about 20 miles and are anchored for the night behind St. Petersburg Beach. It’s warm and sunny and we’ve had to run the air conditioner some to stay comfortable.

In checking the log, we have now traveled over 5600 nautical miles with over 2000 of that coming since Chicago. We are looking forward to enjoying Florida this winter with a trip to the Bahamas still under consideration. In any event we are still having a great time.

The following pictures are from our stay in Pensacola

Steve and Jean
Aboard M/V Sun Cat