We got out of the slip at 7:10 this morning and 45 minutes later we were in the Gulf of Mexico. 150 miles and 7 1/2 hours later we were in sight of land and the river that would take us into Tarpon Springs. Because we made the crossing sooner than we had originally planned, we didn’t have a chance to call any marinas for reservations. That turned out to be a problem, but fortunately the harbormaster at the second marina we called gave us the name and number for a woman who has a restaurant right on the river with a sea wall where we could tie up. We have no electric or water connections on the wall, but we have a full water tank and a generator to power our lights, fridge, etc., and a great Greek restaurant right there, so life is good. Tomorrow morning I will call a couple of other marinas to see if we can get a slip nearby with power and water. This looks like a cool area – and of course the weather is going to turn bad on Thursday, so we need a place to stay for a couple of nights.
This is what the water looked like on the Gulf. The splash is from our boat as we were doing about 23 mph at this point. We saw at least a dozen dolphins, including a couple that were jumping off our bow and another jumping just off our stern.Palm trees!Sunset from our boatWe had dinner at the restaurant where we’re tied up. Someone who lives here recommended the chargrilled octopus, so Rich had to try it. I had a bite of it and it was delicious!I forgot to include this photo in yesterday’s blog. We passed this phone booth as we walked to dinner last night. It’s the world’s smallest police station! Originally the police phone was in a call box on the outside of a building, but people kept making illegal long distance calls from it, and the policemen would get wet whenever it was raining and they had to use it, so it was put in an old phone booth.As we walked back from dinner last night, we walked through a little park dedicated to the military. The Blue Star Highway sign caught my attention because there’s a Blue Star Highway that runs past Saugatuck MI. Our condo was adjacent to it and people used it as a point of reference all the time.
