- 179.8 miles
- 23 hours 4 minutes
- 7.8 mph average speed
- 3-6 mph winds
After waiting for a weather window in Carrabelle for 12 days, the time finally came for us to make our Gulf Crossing! We left Carrabelle at 1:30PM and arrived in Clearwater at 12:30PM the following day. We made the crossing with four other boats, Out of the Blue, Aries, Two by Two and GoGo. It was foggy the entire way except for about the last three hours so we couldn’t actually see our buddy boats other than on radar and AIS and, of course, we had radio contact with them. Visibility was only a couple of hundred yards in front of the boat. Around 9:00AM, the fog dissipated just in time for us to start watching for the crab pots as we neared Clearwater. It was definitely worth the wait in Carrabelle for nearly perfect conditions for a peaceful and “no drama” crossing! We did, however, miss the sunset, sunrise, moon and stars!
Kevin’s cousin, Jerry, lives in Clearwater and we enjoyed having dinner with Jerry, his daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Vinny, at The Bait House. Kevin and Jerry had not seen each other for about ten years and had a great time catching up with each other!
Jerry picked us up the next day and gave us a tour of Dunedin. We really liked this charming little town!
After our tour of Dunedin, Jerry took us to Tarpon Springs, the “Sponge Capitol of the World”. We visited the Greek area known as The Sponge Docks and had dinner at Hellas Greek Restaurant. After dinner, we rode the Jolly Trolly to downtown Tarpon Springs for First Friday, a monthly art, food and music festival covering several blocks. We took the Jolly Trolly back to Clearwater and walked to a liquor store to purchase our celebratory bottle of champagne as we would cross our wake the next day!
The sponge industry in Tarpon Springs dates from about 1890. The practice of sponge diving was very common in Greece and many Greeks immigrated to Tarpon Springs and opened restaurants, candy stores, coffee houses, taverns and grocery stores.
