Wednesday April 29: Safe Cove Storage

On Monday morning, Plan B won out. Go directly to Safe Cove - do not pass GO. Thunderstorms predicted for Tuesday and today.

So we traveled along the green path from Englewood to the storage yard near Punta Gorda. 50 miles worth as we had to make a large swing around Cape Haze to avoid the shallow areas.

Steve made the most of his last fishing opportunity - alas no takers again.

Which was ok with me since we had just a few nights left on the boat and still had a fairly full fridge.

Charlotte Harbor is really a surprisingly large body of water. It seemed like we would never get to the north end of it!

And even once we made it to the north end and the entrance to the place where Safe Cove is (red X on the picture right), it was another hour and a half to get actually to the place!










The whole area is a slow zone so that makes it take that much longer ....

A new experience for us though: a self operated lock! It was almost a non-lock as the "lift" was all of a foot at most.



First step is to stop at the dock on the lower end and push the START button.

The lower gate slowly opens and a recording tells you it's safe to enter the lock. So we did!

Once inside, Steve pulled and held the chain - which made the front gates open about 6 inches. This allowed the water to flow into the lock.

The same recorded voice said it was ok to proceed out of the lock - but please be sure to stop at the top dock to close the door behind us!







Easy enough! Time to keep following this waterway around to our destination. But first, we had to avoid the wild pig that thought crossing our path was a good idea! I literally could have run it over had I continued in forward!

Only the second swimming pig we've seen on our travels - the first was on the Little Marco River near Marco Island.

Swam pretty fast, too! Especially for just having hooves instead of feet or flippers ;-)

Also spotted around the boat after we docked was a cute baby alligator! Maybe a couple of feet long.

Didn't seem to be afraid of us though - it must be used to people being around.


Some of the area we passed by on the way in was a housing development. It seemed that all of it was supposed to be homes - guess there weren't enough takers for all of the lots available.


This person added a bit of art the the side of his home.

Maybe it reminded him of the keys, who knows - but fun to see.










The work to get the boat ready to be stored for 5 months began in earnest yesterday - after the rains stopped.

Dinghy engine; run the fuel out, change the lower unit oil.

Honda generator; drain, run the fuel, change the oil.

Mast: take it down and store on the flybridge.

Inside of boat: put anything like pillows, blankets etc into garbage bags, pack everything that goes to Guppy (including new cushion covers) into the suitcase we used to bring the material down last fall.

Clothes: pack what we need for the next 5 months in Ohio/Guppy/summer travels.

Tomorrow; haul out at 11:00 am. Pick up a car, pack up and go!  At least that's the plan .....

Sunday April 28: Englewood

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.

Thursday April 23: Tarpon Springs - and a new Milestone

We basically had one day to spend riding around once we were settled into the City Marina at Tarpon Springs Wednesday night. The temps are again quite warm so an early morning ride was the way to go.

Of course we didn't think it would rain when we left for breakfast at the Tarpon Springs Diner.

So the question is: do you ride FAST so you are in the rain for a shorter period of time ... but because you are riding fast, you will run into more rain drops as you travel.

Or do you ride SLOW - in the rain longer but running into fewer rain drops in the process.

Which is the best way to keep from getting soaked? I've often wondered and figure there must be some way to determine which is the better approach (obviously the best approach is to go slow for safety reasons, right Matt?).

After drying out and sitting out the rest of the rain Thursday morning, we went to the Spongeorama just down the street to their free movie and history of the sponge divers. Quite interesting actually. For more history, click here.

This place is totally Greek! Our sister-in-law Elin recommended this place on the main drag for a great dinner - but we just never seemed to make it there (at least I think this is the place!).

Lots of sponge shops along the main dock area. Not something that I've ever used actually. Wonder if they are better than the artificial ones ....

We did find the park located in the middle of the city. Last time we were here (in 2011), the manatee were here in the north, hanging out in the warmer waters.

Didn't see any though. Maybe they are all farther south by now.

Of course we were reminded of the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" just riding around looking at some of the homes. Going to have to watch that movie again one of these nights - it's GREAT! Might need to get some Windex ....

Steve took a LONG ride over to the park that runs along the shoreline. Very nice beach and walkways.

Then as I recorded our travels for the day (date, place, time traveled, miles traveled etc), I realized we have now traveled over 17,000 miles on Yesterday's Dream!! Over 4 1/2 years.

Plus another 2,500 miles traveled on Guppy. Wouldn't you think we would be tired of this by now??!!

Tomorrow - headed back to Port Charlotte. Haul out day is Thursday April 30.

Wednesday April 22: Tarpon Springs

The winds and rain were finally finished so we pushed out of the St. Petersburg harbor Tuesday morning and headed south and then north toward Caladesi State Park - a 45 mile, 6 hour trip.

It was so calm - for about the first 30 minutes! Then the north winds came up - which was actually a good thing. It blew away much of the humidity that was making it uncomfortable warm for the past few days.

The clouds stayed with us most of the travel day but eventually the sun broke through.

The Tampa Bay Bridge (which we traveled under on our way into Tampa Bay) is now to the south of us. Fortunately there was a waterway north of the bridge that we fit under so there was minimal backtracking to make our way north.

Much of our travel was very close to the gulf. Only a small strip of land separating the gulf from the ICW.

When I first saw this porta pot on the crane, I thought they hoisted it up for the day to keep it safe. I'm sure you've seen this kind of thing except usually it's a generator on a trailer or something that would have some monetary value so the porta pot surprised me!

And then I saw the guy on the top floor - guess it makes sense to have the  porta pot where no one has to walk all the way down to use it :-)


Lots of small spoil islands along the waterway - and plenty of folks that enjoy using them! There are even boats (far right) that provide transportation back and forth. We do love our beaches!

It was a really good dolphin day today. Steve went to the front and there was a baby dolphin swimming with it's mother!

So cute.

Steve couldn't resist taking a video also!

We ended up being the only boat at the dock last night - well, it was us and the no-seeums anyway! Made for a warm night as we couldn't open up the boat.

Steve found a nice trail around the island.

Lots of wildlife and there was also some pretty good information about the formation and history of Caladesi Island. Click here for more info: history of island.

Tons of small lizards just about everywhere. There are rattlesnakes as well - I'm thinking this might be a nice snack for a snake, right?













And a gorgeous beach to boot! What's not to like about this place?






This beach actually is now connected to the beach at Clearwater due to a hurricane in the late 1980's.

Doesn't seem like it's possible for a hurricane to change the landscape that much but obviously it can! For more info, click here.

After waiting until after noon for the tide to come in, we headed for our last northern stop: Tarpon Springs.

The route into Caladesi State Park is shown on the charts to be four feet so with an additional couple of feet, high tide gives us plenty of depth.

Once we made the turn north, it was surprising how open the water was. A few small islands to break the waves coming from the northwest across the Gulf but that's about it.

There's another park on the northernmost corner of the picture left that is a very popular (based on the number of boats we saw) spot to spend the day. Once again, there were many tour boats that would take folks to the island for the day (out of Tarpon Springs).

The Anclote River runs a mile or so inland to the port of Tarpon Springs. The last quarter mile is lined with shrimping boats and sponge boats.

This one was full of sponges just collected (not sure how far they have to go to get this many). They were being rinsed at the rear of the boat before being unloaded.

We're here for a couple of days before turning back to put Yesterday's Dream in storage until we return in October.

Monday April 20: Last Day at St. Petersburg

It's been a nice last couple of days here. This is an extremely bike friendly downtown - a dedicated bike lane totally separated from traffic!

Sadly we only discovered it today :-)

We ended up spending one more day here than planned due to the storms rolling around the Florida area.

Last night's lightening and thunder show was the closest we've seen in a while. It almost seemed as thought the lightening was hitting some of the high rises around the downtown area - the flash and the thunder were almost simultaneous.

The museums are all done! The history museum right across the road from the marina was small but interesting.

It presented both the history of Florida itself as well as the history of the development of St. Petersburg.

Best? There was a movie :-) Highlights of the movie focused on the first 'for hire' flight: from St. Petersburg to Tampa - a short 20 minute flight compared to the hours travel by either railway or car. Huge signed baseball collection as well.

This is one of the boats that went out yesterday for the Poker Run. Think this might just be the truck that hauls it??

Crazy huge with 3 doors - and a parking ticket! Oops .....

Today was the Holocaust Museum. Truly sad and amazing that anything like that could have actually happened. One of the goals of the museum was to tell the story from the eyes of people from the area who actually were there.

Very well done.

The last few days we've also ridden around The Pier. A structure built in 1973 that I'm sure in its heyday rivaled the Navy Pier in Chicago. Sadly it has been closed for some time due to structural issues. Now it's just sitting there - although it is still open to anyone that wants to walk, bike or fish around it.

And so it is definitely time to go. We've overstayed but weather will do that to you sometimes. Tomorrow there is still some chance of thunderstorms but we'll be in very protected waters and should be able to be to Caladesi State Park before more rain is coming through.