Leaving Tarpon Springs – More Photos

We loved Tarpon Springs. One of our favorite stops. We spent a week here at this little city marina and loved every minute of it

Tarpon Springs 12/24-28/05

We are in Tarpon Springs. Has been warm and sunny here. What a good stop for us. Great food and friendly people. It’s like being in Greece. We can hear the Greek music from our slip. We leave here next Thursday. We had a fun visit from John and Terri Anderson for a Greek lunch on Monday. So good to see old friends from home.

Our niece, Christina, came to spend part of her day off with us. We mostly hung out on the boat and later in the afternoon she drove us to the library to get internet access. Then we went to Hella's for Greek salads and Gyros.

Christmas 12/25/05

We spent the day on the boat catching up on things and calling relatives. Lisa's brother Mart, who lives in Dunedin, picked us up this afternoon to take us to their house for Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful time and are happy that our timing brought us to this stop during the holidays so that we could be with family.

Crossing the Gulf 12/23/05

We crossed the Gulf today after waiting several days in Carrabelle. We had beautiful weather. Only 1-3 ft. waves. The hardest part was looking for the crab pots as we approached Tarpon Springs. We are staying at the Tarpon Springs Municipal Marina right on the sponge docks.

Still in Carrabelle - 12-22-05

Still here waiting to cross the gulf. Looks like early tomorrow morning (Friday) we finally leave here for Tarpon springs. There will be 4-5 boats leaving at the same time to make the trip together. Safety in numbers.

Jim is Thinking Maybe he Should Go Back to Work

Carrabelle, Florida 12/19/05

A beautiful day to drive to Carrabelle today. We arrived early afternoon. There are at least 4-5 other "Loopers" here waiting to cross the Gulf. We are all watching the weather closely for wind and wave height for the optimal crossing day. Earlier today it looked like tomorrow would be the day but this evening when a bunch of us were at dinner it started to sound like the weather for tomorrow was changing. We will check again in the morning but it doesn't sound good. We will be leaving with at least 2 other boats that are going the same direction and speed that we are. When we do go we will leave about 6:00am and arrive in Tarpon Springs before sunset.

Apalachacola, Florida 12/17-18/05

A long, gray day cruising in cold drizzling rain. We made Apalachaicola at sunset and joined our friends Wade and Suzie and some boater friends of theirs at Papa Joe's Oyster Bar. Tried fried oysters for the first time and we really liked them. The next day we walked into town did some window shopping and stocked up at the grocery store. We leave Monday morning for Carrabelle where we will wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf to Tarpon Springs, FL.

Panama City, Florida 12/14-17/05

We arrived in Panama City Wednesday afternoon. We got settled and Lisa's Cousin Norma and her husband Herb came to pick us up. They took us to their condo on Panama Beach for the night. We had an incredible dinner and evening of fun. Thursday night they came to the boat for dinner. Friday we went Christmas shopping downtown and went back to Herb and Norma's again for dinner this time with another cousin Pat and her husband Jerry. Herb and Norma were such gracious hosts to us during our stay in Panama City. They made themselves totally available to help us get around not to mention the wonderful meals Norma prepared.

Ft. Walton Free Dock, Florida 12/13/05

On our way to anchor for the night just past Destin we were just passing Ft. Walton and noticed another "Looper" tied up to a little dock. We checked it out and found out that it was a free dock with a pump out but no power. Beautiful new docks right in town. We spent the night and went downtown for dinner with a couple of other "Loopers". The park next to the dock was heavily decorated with Christmas lights.

On our way to Panama City we saw a lot of dolphins swimming along with us like they were playing with the boat. We also saw the Blue Angels flying overhead on and off during the day.

Fairhope to Ingram Bayou, Alabama 12/12/05

Today we head out on the water again to Ingram Bayou off the ICW. We enjoyed an anchorage there with a couple of other sailboats. We are headed toward Panama City to visit relatives. Enjoyed an anchorage off the ICW with a couple of other sailboats.

Fairhope, Alabama 12/08/05

We got up this morning and though the weather forecast looked grim with gale winds and thunderstorms it was quite calm so we called the marina in Fairhope to see how the water was there and they assured us that it was not windy yet. Since we were so close we decided to go before the wind kicked up. Mobile Bay is only at the most 12' deep except for the shipping channel. You do not want to cross here when it is choppy out.

We had a great crossing and arrived at the marina late morning. Our friends Wade and Susie from MissHapp were still here and a couple of other boaters we have met along the way.

We had heard about Fairhope from Mike & Carol Gordon whom we met while at Burnham Harbor in Chicago. They have been angels to us during our stay here. Many rides to and from town and a lovely evening at their cozy home and dinner downtown. They even loaded us up with a stack of books to read from their library. You sure can't beat that southern hospitality.

Anchorage - Mile 10 12/07/05

Everyone left Bobby's Fish Camp this morning and lined up at the last loc,k for us, until Lake Okeechobee, FL. Since we took our time we lost track of those ahead who went on into Dog River just past Mobile. We opted to anchor just 10 miles north of Mobile and as we were radioing to those ahead of us we got a surprise call from Kip on Aanoosh. He had heard us on the radio and told us where he was anchored. It was close to where we were so we joined him on mile 10 just east off the river from where the Amtrak accident happened years ago.

We had Kip over for dinner and had a great time getting to know him better. Kip is traveling with 3 dogs and a cat on a 30' sailboat.

Bobby's Fish Camp 12/06/05

We left Demopolis in the dark about 6:30 this morning. 28º with frost all over the boat. Jim lifted a line off the bow of the boat and it looked like a gigantic, frozen, pretzel. We left here with about 6 other boats. Family Matters, Silk Purse, Destination Unknown, Morgan and Joyuss. We followed each other down the river in a cold, cold fog.

Our destination was Bobby's Fish Camp. Just a dock on the river to tie up to and when there are this many boats we raft off each other. Most of the year this is a camp and stopping place for fisherman on the river. They have a restaurant there which boasts the best catfish on the river. This time of year they are closed during the week but when we went through the Coffeeville Lock the Lock Master radioed all of us to say that he would call Bobby's to see if they would open it up for us since there were so many of us. Not long after we arrived and got tied up we were in the restaurant ordering our catfish dinner. There was quite a crowd as a couple of other boats showed in addition to the ones we traveled with. A good time was had by all.

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Columbus to Demopolis, AL 12/01-06/05

Arrived in Columbus, AL Thursday night and stayed until Saturday morning. Headed for Demopolis, AL we spent one night anchored out. The weather suddenly warmed up and we had a summerlike night including a warm day to travel down the river to the marina. This whole area is very remote. Lots of fishing camps and fishing boats along the way. Again this portion of the river has a personality all its own.

We met several boats already docked at Demopolis that we had met in Tennessee, Family Matters, Wings and Silk Purse. Some of us got together to play a boat game, have dessert and discuss future route plans.

This morning we went into town early to pick up our mail and visit the library to get and send emails. We will be headed down the Tombigbee River towards Bobby's Fish Camp tomorrow early morning.

Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway - Columbus, MS 12/02/05

Arrived in Columbus, MS yesterday afternoon. We decided to stay an extra day to grocery shop and relax a little. It is exciting to be cruising but after 3 full days it is nice to sit an absorb our surroundings. We ran into the Brown's on "Act II" whom we met at Grand Harbor. We enjoyed an incredible dinner at a local restaurant and appreciated each other's company. Jim cleaned the boat today while Lisa brought the website and blog up to date.

We leave tomorrow morning for Demopolis, Alabama. We will probably anchor out one or two nights. Depends on the temperature and weather. We don't like to leave the generator on while we sleep and it has gotten pretty cold at night here. In the 30s a lot lately. Wednesday we woke up to frost on our windows.