We are fine

I don't want my readers to worry when we miss a day's post. Our second day in Clearwater Beach Florida was a long one. By the time we anchored the boat for the night, I was too tired to blog.

There were three things we had to do on our last day. Laundry was one. There was a laundry just one block north of the free city docks. However, it turns out it was a full service laundry. It didn't take me long to figure out letting someone else do the work might be worth the money. Besides, it's the only laundry on the island.

While that was being taken care of, we found a little breakfast place that was dog friendly. We had a nice breakfast out on the patio. my lovely wife did a little shopping on the way back.

After picking up the laundry, we motored across the bay to the other free city docks. My lovely wife had some packages to mail and we reprovisioned at a Publix. Then it was back across the bay again to the northern city docks. We treated ourselves to a beer and hot wings at Cooters. The town docks are only open until 10 pm, so we had to anchor out in the bay again.

Today we finally left Clearwater and headed down the ICW. It was a great day of sailing. We were even able to sail down “The Narrows.” It's a tight area and is heavily built up. Three times bridges had to be opened for us to pass through with our sailboat mast.

I refueled the sailboat. We'd used 4.4 gallons of gas in 9 days. Even at marine fuel prices that was less than $20.

Currently,we are anchored near St. Petersburg Florida. It's not the best anchorage, but darkness comes quickly. It's windy, but protected from the worse of the chop. Better a less than perfect anchorage than sailing in the dark through busy waterways. Besides, we aren't going too far until the Bridge Masters come back to work in the morning.

There are small craft warnings for Saturday. My lovely wife and I plan on a short day's travel. We think we found a protected spot with beach access for the dog. Sunday the weather is supposed to be better, so we'll cross Tampa Bay then.

It's good to be moving once more.

-Sixbears