Nov 27, 2017
We didn’t want to stay on the
restaurant dock another day, so after a morning search for coffee which
produced one old café serving Greek coffee to some very old guys we headed over
to Clearwater and the municipal marina there.
Finished recuperating from the crossing and reconnected with some of boats
we had met waiting for the Gulf crossing.
Nov. 28 - Dec 3.
The first order of business was finding someone who could fix our
generator which had ceased to function back up on the rivers. We don’t use it too much since we are usually
in marinas with power but it did need fixing and all the mechanics in Florida
are really busy. John spent the morning
on the phone while I ran errands and checked out the area on my bicycle. He got lucky and found someone who said he
was finishing up a job early and could come by that afternoon.
He and John tried to figure out the
problem while I tried to stay out of the way.
The mechanic ordered a part and said he’d be back the next day. We had
some great Puerto Rican food I had found
for dinner. I had not been able to find
a marina reservation in St Petersberg since there was a big boat show there so
we decided to stay in Clearwater and rent a car to see Tampa and St Pete. They are all really close together and we
could get to free days at the marina after we paid for 5.
Clearwater has decorated dolphis around the downtown as its mascot
The next morning I did one of my favorite Looping activites, walk to a
coffee shop for a latte. This one also
had great strawberry crepes.
Then I spent the rest of the morning planning the rest of our trip. We feel like we have morally “crossed our
wake” since we crossed the Gulf and are only 100 miles from Ft Myers, but
having spent a month there in February and planning a week there before the kids
come, I didn’t want to get there before the 16th.
The mechanic came back with the part, put it in and thought we were
fixed, but after running for 30 minutes the generator quit again. Another hour came up with a different
solution which required ordering more parts, but John should be able to put
these in so they are headed to our next marina.
I went to pick up the rental car and went to the movie “Lady Bird” I think the 40 something male reviewer in the
NYTimes was much more impressed than me, but it’s fun to go to the movies here
because there are lots of movies that will never get to Rifle.
Thursday we played golf at Crescent Oaks golf club and had a great
tapas meal afterwards in the little beach town of Dunedin. There are some really cute little towns along
the coast but they are surrounded by suburbia, shopping centers, strip malls,
housing developments and 6 lane streets. Neither of us like it much.
Friday we headed to St Petersberg to the boat show and enjoyed looking
around. There was another Great Harbor
37 there for sale. The price was good compared
to what we want for ours and John talked to a few people who were interested in
the boat and gave them our card. An hour
of traffic back to Clearwater and I opted for stopping for my favorite simple
meal. Rotisserie chicken, baggette and a
salad on the boat.
Saturday was golf again at TPC Tampa after visiting a small farmers’
market on the pier above the boat. A
great track, beautiful weather, but play was a little slow for a twosome stuck
in the middle of foursomes. But a nice
place to spend the afternoon. Maybe a
slow boat is making me more tolerant of slow golf. Decent restaurant at the course and home to
listen to the golf commentators talk about Tiger’s comeback.
Sunday I took John to a golf course early and came back to the boat to
enjoy my morning coffee in the pilot house overlooking the marina, with fresh
Florida strawberries from the Farmer’s market for breakfast and catch up on the
ColoradoCowboyAfloat. Off to church and
return the rental.
Beautiful old church and an amazing Chancel choir with 20 member, half of them men.
 |
| Very nice organ too. |
