Friday was a day of eating, napping and putting our bodies back together. It's amazing how an omelet, a nap and a shower can bring you back. Eric and I found a little neighborhood restaurant for dinner that served us an excellent "comfort food" meal. Then we went back to the boat and slept the clock around...for 12 hours.
The Clearwater Beach Marina is run by the city. There are fishing charter boats, a Pirate Ship for daily cruises (complete with line dancing), a "go-fast" tourist boat (called appropriately "The Screamer") and several other tourist attractions. The showers were clean, the WiFi was strong and we had cable for the TV...all the basics of a good marina.
Eric had some friends that came to pick him up, so we all went to eat lunch together. We found a great lunch spot on the beach and ate in the sun. The cold front that had brought us here so violently was beginning to wane. Nonetheless, we were all still wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants.
After they departed I walked out onto the pier to look at the Gulf from the land side. As I walked out the pier, I saw a photographer taking pictures of bikini-clad models in the surf. I stopped and took some pictures of the action.
A few minutes later one of the photographer's assistants accosted me on the pier and asked why I was taking pictures of their models. I shot back that it was a public beach and if they were doing anything private they should take it indoors. I think he was surprised that an old fart like me would get in his face so he left pretty quickly.
I spent Saturday night on my anchor away from the noise of the marina. Sunday morning, I motored over to the City's marina on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway to wait for my next crew to arrive from Vero Beach. While there, I scrubbed the "mustache" from Agaliha's bow -- maybe for the last time. I'm in big-time salt water now.
When Bob arrived, I was happy to see he had a rolling cooler of frozen meat and fish. Bob is a renaissance man who is the cook on every hunting trip he attends. The eating was going to be good, for sure.
We motored down the ICW for a couple of hours soaking in the views of the mansions on either side of the very narrow channel. We wondered out loud where so much money comes from. On the other hand, lots of boaters were yelling over to us, "Your boat is beautiful!" They probably wondered where we got our money, too.
The state of Florida honored us by raising six draw bridges for Agaliha's mast. The first four were "on demand." We pissed off a lot of drivers as traffic piled up waiting for us to pass. The last two bridges were on a schedule (not on demand), so we had to circle around for a half hour to wait. Oh well.
The ICW took us out into Tampa Bay. The course and wind were perfect for sailing. We gave the engine a rest. First, we were running "dead down wind" with the genoa out on the whisker pole. Later, we turned to sail under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on a broad reach in a 10 knot breeze.
We poked our way into a skinny anchorage. We could hear the traffic from the bridge, but we were protected and had a front row seat to a great sunset. Have I mentioned that I'm glad I made this trip?
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