Settling Into This Florida Lifestyle: St. Petersburg and Sarasota

We left Clearwater Harbor Marina on January 20.  It was about 4 hours to our next destination, Harborage Marina in St. Petersburg. We are traveling at about 10-12 mph and have become very comfortable with this pace compared with the speeds of our previous boats.  The Gulf Intercoastal Waterway has been most enjoyable as we are able to see the beautiful Florida homes which seem to get bigger and bigger as we head south, together with the many, many large yachts we are now seeing. Talk about eye candy! The beginning of the week in St. Petersburg was spent reprovisioning and cleaning, which both seem to be weekly chores that never go away. We had a great lunch on the water at Fresco's Bistro in downtown St. Pete's. 

Friends from Monona and also fellow Madison Yacht Club members, Randy and Jill, joined us for docktails and dinner on Wednesday night, 1/22. It was so good to reconnect with friends from home!  We drove into St. Petersburg and took our chances at a little restaurant on the edge of downtown called 4th Street Shrimp.  Kind of eclectic, but great fish! Don't think we'll ever tire of the great seafood we have been enjoying. Over dinner Randy and Jill told us about the Gasparilla Pirate Festival on Tampa Bay and the festivities in Tampa all weekend.  We formed a plan.  Randy & Jill rejoined us on Saturday morning, 1/25, and WaterMarks set course for the 20 mile crossing to Tampa.  We were told to be careful as there would be many boats and lots of pirates all heading in the same direction. It took us a couple of hours to make our way over to Tampa and as we were warned there were boats of every shape and size everywhere. It was like Rhythm & Booms in Madison on steroids. We estimated at least 600 boats. We timed our arrival to the outskirts of Tampa just as the Gasparilla Pirate Ship with canons shooting crossed directly in front of us on its way to the Tampa Convention Center to "take over the City." As the Pirate ship headed down the channel to Tampa, most all the boats followed it. This channel was bumper to bumper boats all converging on downtown Tampa and then it was like hitting a brick wall. We thought maybe we would be able to throw an anchor and enjoy the festivities downtown, but there was no way to do this. Coincidence, we were following a nice cruiser boat from the Oconomowoc area...it's a small world. We hand signaled (boats don't have blinkers) that we needed to turn around and we were finally able to make the turn and head back the channel and bay and back to St. Petersburg. Randy and Jill stayed with us overnight and left early on Sunday morning. We had a great time catching up with friends from home...helps a bit with the home sickness we occasionally experience.

Monday morning, 1/27, we threw lines and continued the trek south to Sarasota to the beautiful Marina Jack marina. The yachts keep getting bigger and bigger. We saw one we liked...$8M plus ours (and it's used) and we would be set for a party with everyone we know! This marina sits right on the edge of Sarasota's downtown and is home to 3 restaurants on the water all connected with walking paths. Nice venue. It is Wednesday, 1/29, and we are awaiting the arrival tomorrow of our friends, Gary & Kathi, who will spend tomorrow through Tuesday with us. Kathi spent a lot of time in Sarasota while working and is anxious to show us all over the city in the next few days. Weather has been perfect...sunny, low humidity and low 70s since we've been here but is is expected to change for the next few days so some Sarasota exploring and shopping by car may be on the itinerary.