Good Bye to Tarpon Springs

We had a wonderful time in Tarpon Springs.  We reconnected with the new harbor hosts and now gold loopers, Cindy and Chuck and missed Herb Seton about 3 times.  Bruce and I first met Cindy and Chuck on the Illinois River and again at Green Turtle Bay.  We met gold loopers, Rick and Monica of MoniJean, who also have a blog I have been following and had lunch together at the Rusty Belly.

We had a great day with Bob and Shelly of Allons, fellow sailors also from Minnesota.
Tarpon Springs is known for its sponges and Greek cuisine so we stocked up on sponges.  Bruce likes the big sponges and I like the little silk sponges that are great for cosmetics.  The restaurants were great and we sampled a few.  Shops for olive oil, cheese, spices and homemade soap are abundant and I left with some great products.

We spent a wonderful Christmas with our son Peter and his family and had the honor of being present for his swearing in as an attorney.  Peter just graduated from Stetson Law School in May.  Thanks to Jim Thalen who came to Pete's house to perform the ceremony.

Our grandchildren, Alex and Delilah are just a little excited to open all those gifts under the tree.

Two weeks in Tarpon Springs and time to move on.

Cruising to Gulfport→→→→

Gulf Crossing from Dog Island

It has been over a week since we made the crossing but it is still fresh in my mind.  It was definitely not an Eddy Wag recommended day.  We started with beautiful sailing weather for the first half of our trip which quickly deteriorated over the night crossing.  The forecasted 5 sec delay between waves was more like 1-2 seconds with 4-6 footers (occasional 8 footer, yikes!) and the winds were steady at around 17 knots with gusts up to 27 knots overnight.   The rough seas battering the boat made it feel like Lake Superior on a bad day.  It was also exhilarating learning to use the sails again.  We found that the Sea Hawk is much faster with the new sails than our old stretched out sails and we made good time even with our sails fully reefed.

Look closely and you will see that our boat is well heeled on a port tack (wind coming over the starboard side).

Sea Hawk early in the crossing

We met up with our buddy boat the Cormorant II at Dog Island and started the crossing at first light on Monday morning, December 11.

Cormorant II

This is the first time we had a buddy boat for a crossing and it was comforting to see their navigation lights and be able to check in with one another occasionally overnight.  We have made shorter crossings on Lake Superior several times, but never this long.  Marsh and Corinne are long time Canadian sailors and we enjoyed getting to know them.  We found how true it is that you do not want to come into Tarpon Springs before 10:00 am with the rising sun in your eyes to avoid the many crab pots.  We came in about that time and had to keep a close look out.  It was a long exhausting trip as it was difficult to catch any sleep with the heavy motion of the boat.  We managed to stay awake until that evening and slept very well that night, (and the next few nights!).  As hard as this crossing was it was great to be sailing again!  

Bruce is definitely the photo taker in our family.  I could never get such great dolphin shots.  The dolphins just laugh at me!

We found warm weather!  Exploring Tarpon Springs......

It’s Cold

I mentioned the cold in my last post, three days later it is still cold.  Cold temperatures, winds gusting up to 25+ knots, and snowy rain do not make for pleasant cruising.  We are pushing on and hope to get to Apalachicola today.  We erroneously thought we had no further need of solid fuel for our cubic mini wood stove which was jettisoned to make more room for more important items, hmmmm.

No fuel

The results of that are, we are freezing cold, the boat is dripping wet and nothing will dry.   All the lockers are damp at best, wet for some.  I quit using cloth towels to dry the drips because there is no room to hang towels that won’t dry and started using paper towels.  Bruce lost his Kindle when the port over his wall organizer dripped enough water into the pocket holding the device.  Even using the propane stove for cooking is a mixed blessing as it adds some heat but also adds to our moisture problem.  The Baileys Irish Cream is almost gone, and it is time to find some charcoal.  I think I’d drive a great distance to find solid fuel this afternoon, hopefully it will be within walking distance when we get to Apalachicola.
The solid fuel heat should go a long way towards drying the boat.  Then the big job starts as I will have to go through each locker, dry the contents and spray with mold and mildew inhibitor.  I have been using Concrobium which has worked great so far.
Hope the pay back days are over.

We made it:)

Looking for warmer weather...........

Chapter 3 Florida Cruising

December 7  Pearl Harbor Day

So here we are at MM 253 on the GIWW at anchor on a very cold dreary day. But we are on the boat  and our Pensacola refit is completed and I’m having Irish cream and coffee trying to stay warm.

We look like a sailboat again with new rigging, new 135 roller furling and reefing head sail, main sail with two reefing points, and stack pack main sail cover with lazy jacks.  Zern Rigging took care of our rigging needs and Shurr Sails supplied our sails.   Blue Coral made our half tower which now holds our propane tanks and solar panels.  We couldn’t be more pleased with the work and can highly recommend all their services.

Tammy, the office manager of the shipyard was wonderful and very accommodating.  We were in and out of the shipyard, many times without notice to Tammy and she always made room for us.

So here we are desperately trying to find warmer weather and starting a new chapter in our journeys.  Actually we are headed first to Tarpon Springs to spend the holidays with our son and his family.  We will be looking for that elusive weather window sometime early next week.  After the holidays we will head slowly for the Bahamas.

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Happy Sailing!