In the afternoon we decided to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. This is not your typical aquarium however. The emphasis here is on the 3 R’s – Rescue, Rehab and Release of sick or injured marine animals. The most famous animal here is Winter, a dolphin that lost its tail in a crab trap. She was rescued and a company made Winter a prosthetic tail which she has learned to use quite well. In addition to other dolphin, the aquarium also has river otters, sea turtles, sting rays and various local fish.
After our trip to the aquarium, we stopped in at the Island Way Grill. We had a couple of appetizers and a drink. Very good. We’ll be back tomorrow when we use the gift certificate our friends gave us.
Back at the boat we sat on the enclosed very warm flybridge for awhile and watched the boat traffic. However, as the sun went down, we moved back inside because it got cold quickly. We are expecting our last shipment of “stuff” to arrive tomorrow so we have a tentative departure from Clearwater on Wednesday. Not sure it’s warmer any further south (listened to the news tonight about the threat to the citrus industry in Florida; possible snow in the Florida panhandle) but we are getting antsy and feel the need to move on.
Here's a picture of our weather station this morning. It was 39.3 outside and our "weather boy" was dressed in long pants, coat, scarf, hat and mittens. I like it better when he has on a swimsuit and there is a beach chair beside him.
Speaking of beach chairs, here's a couple of guys that were working on their tans this morning ... no matter what the temperature.
This is a shot of the river otters. They were very entertaining.
One of the sea turtles
Here is Panama ... one of the dolphins. They always appear to be smiling.
This is a shot of Winter's prosthetic tail
... and here's one of the dolphins playing with a ball
A shot of Spot, the moray eel. You can see its head on the left and its tail on the right.
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