Since leaving Tarpon Springs Friday morning, we've made our way a hundred miles or so back south - toward Punta Gorda - where we'll leave the boat until fall.
Friday night we ended up at an anchorage near the American Legion in Madeira, FL. Leave it to a bunch of vets to know how to party, right? This was the plan B anchorage - tried a few miles north but couldn't get the anchor to hold.
Which ended up being a good thing! The guy singing at the Legion was really good - playing and singing just the kind of songs we like. I'm sure it was the age of the crowd. It was quite enjoyable to sit on the flybridge and listen to him play. I tried a video but the sound didn't come out very well - too much wind. But it gives you a sense of where we were ;-)
Steve was amused by the heron that seemed to enjoy siting on the dinghy of the sailboat anchored next to us!
Nice sunset. The only issue was the anchor alarm going off about 3 am. Really? Turns out we weren't dragging - I just didn't set the radius of the swing circle large enough. Oops - won't do that again!
We passed the Tampa Bay Bridge again Saturday on our way south to the Seafood Shack. Temperatures were in the high 80's and it was very humid - needed to plug in for sure. Air conditioning was in our future! Plus it was very windy and predicted to continue through the night.
Tampa Bay was kicking up a bit but not bad at all.
These nesting islands are right along the waterway. Tons of various kinds of birds were roosting.
Other sightings along the way: cormorants hanging out on someones's dinghy - what a mess it will be to clean up - yuck.
And of course a shark boat!
I have to say this is something we've never seen before! More fun for the viewers of the boat than the passengers though. But any kind of boat ride is a good one.
So Sunday night we ended up at the Royal Palm Marina near Englewood. It was again very hot and humid - with thunderstorms predicted.
Good time for a marina again.
And a very nice little town a short bike ride away.
Found a nice place for breakfast - and Steve found a cool turtle/fish/shark made out of wood.
The best thing was an ice cream 'truck' that was actually a building!
It's just painted like a truck - sure fooled me until I saw the back side that was obviously brick ;-)
Reminded us of course of my brother Dick who had an ice cream truck for a while. He made the BEST soft serve ice cream ever!!
My mom really enjoyed when he brought his truck over to the farm :-)
Tomorrow: plan A - spend our last two days at Cayo Casta State Park at anchor. It's just such a nice place and the anchorage is nicely protected from most winds.
Plan B - thunderstorms are due into the area tomorrow and will stay through Wednesday. Time to just head to Safe Cove where we'll be leaving the boat.
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