December 11, Day 181 – In Tarpon Springs

Today was cold and windy. What happened to the weather of a couple of days ago??? This is Florida and people kept telling us once we’d crossed the Gulf we’d have good temps. With the weather of a few days ago, we thought that was true, but the last 2 days have proved to be quite cool.

We had a nice leisurely breakfast and around 10:00 or so we began to wonder when Second Star might arrive. We called them on the radio and found out they were quite close. They had spent the night in the same anchorage we did after crossing the Gulf. Unfortunately, they had a lot of wind and spent a very uncomfortable night. They were definitely ready to get ashore once they were safety docked.

We spent an hour or so catching up on each other’s adventures since we last parted company at the Dog Island anchorage. They had had some good, some bad, and some downright UGLY. As we mentioned before, they had problems leaving the Suwannee River area and, in fact, had run aground. They were able to get off, but Emotion III was hard aground and could not. At this point, we still did not know the status of Emotion III. Later in the day we got an e-mail from them. They were still aground at Suwannee River, along with the first towboat that had come to pull them out. A second towboat was called in and they were waiting for higher tides to try and get them off and then tow them back to Steinhatchee where they will haul the boat to check for any damage.

We spent the better part of the day wandering Tarpon Springs with Michael and Jana, showing them some of the places we had been. We ended up at Rusty Bellys for some wonderful Bloody Mary’s and a couple of appetizers.

We all headed back to our respective boats where Gerry loaded his new fishing reel with line and rigged it for fishing. Oh joy …. more fishing on the windy Gulf. We plan on making the 17 mile run to Clearwater tomorrow, weather permitting.

At 8:00 we all met for dinner and walked to Hellas for a traditional Greek meal. The food was excellent and the waiter was very entertaining with all kinds of stories. Each couple shared a combination platter, but it was more food than we could eat so there were plenty of leftovers for tomorrow. Then it was back to the boat and off to bed. It had been a fun day.

When in Rome, do as the Roman's do ... or in this case .... when in Greece (or Tarpon Springs), do as the Greeks do. Gerry just had to have a Greek fisherman's cap. He looks quite happy with his purchase.

Michael, Jan, Gerry and Linda out for Greek food at Hellas.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I decorated for Christmas today. Here are the little fish balls hanging from the Monk's Vineyard paddle we purchased in Hastings several months ago. Quickest Christmas decorating I've ever done.