December 10, Day 180 – In Tarpon Springs

Wow, can you believe it? We have been on the loop for 180 days. It doesn’t seem like it has been that long.

We woke up to wind and rain this morning – lots of it. We had a leisurely morning not doing much of anything. Did some Christmas shopping online and caught up on e-mail. It rained off and on for most of the morning, finally clearing up a bit around mid-afternoon. By then we had cabin fever so we headed out for a little exploring. We walked over to the other side of the bridge (towards Captain Jacks) and went to a marine store and a fish and bait store. Gerry found a new fishing pole at a reasonable price and bought it (he really seems to have caught the fishing bug). We then stopped in at Captain Jack’s for a drink and just relaxed overlooking the water. We saw another Monk 36 at this marina, but no one seemed to be aboard. It was a looper boat we had not met.

Back at the boat, Gerry went next door to get some Bahama information from Dahlin. We added that to our growing list of “must dos” in the Bahamas. About that time we got a phone call from Second Star. They were approaching Anclote Key after having departed the Suwannee River area earlier this morning. Unfortunately, the other boat we’d traveled with for so long, Emotion III, had problems getting out of the Suwannee River area and ran aground. They were waiting for a towboat to come help them. At this point we are unsure of any damage that may have occurred. We certainly hope everything is okay and that we see them soon.

With Second Star arriving tomorrow morning, we have decided to spend one more day in Tarpon Springs. We can do that, you see, as we have no schedule. We have made reservations at Clearwater Municipal Marina for a month (even though we won’t be there that long, it is still cheaper than paying for a 2 or 3 week period.) We will leave the boat there while we fly home to Maryland for the holidays and resume our Great Loop journey the beginning of 2010.

Later in the evening, we walked down the street a couple of blocks to the Lime N’ Coconut Bar and Grill. Had a great meal. We have found nothing but outstanding food in this town. Back at the boat, we were pretty tired. Guess we really haven’t caught up on our sleep yet, so it was off to bed early.

This morning we had lots of wind and rain. The weather forecasting instruments, i.e., American and Greek flags were blowing straight out.