Tarpon Springs

Long way from home

Longer way from home

Longest way from home, Perth, Australia

Rescue number 2

Back of Tarpon Springs YC

Working boats

Huge work in progress

Tourist boat out to cruise the river and delta

Sponge docks from the water

Museum boat

This is a shrine to St. Michael the Archangel. The parents prayed for St. Michael to intercede with God for a miracle cure for their son. When the miracle happened, they built a shrine to honor St. Michael.

Lots of sponges

Fish camp-Florida style

This is now a private residence-used to be a church

Bridge about 200 feet away. Sounds like a great part-time job

Bayou near the club

We arrived in Tarpon on Saturday morning. We have wanted to visit the yacht club here before but thought it was too shallow. After meeting other cruisers who had been in here we decided to give it a shot. We have to navigate the channel at high tide but that just means a little more attention to planning detail. The club is worth it. Very laid back and friendly. A lot like our home club. Tarpon is a different sort of place. Definitely a tourist place but not completely. The part where we visit is still very much a working seafaring community. The main business is sponge diving with fishing and shrimping thrown in too. The marinas have boats from around the world and the yards can handle huge projects. This is all in the same area as the tourists shops. Definitely not Disneyland! The locals are nice people and like to share their culture. The predominant group are the Greeks. You hear Greek spoken in all the shops and one store sells talking toys that speak Greek as well as a wide selection of books and videos.

We went out for a dingy ride after Mass this morning and we must have listened to the sermon on helping others because we became a tow boat for two sets of stranded boaters! Okay, since I started this, the number is now three! Our first boat was mom, dad and 2 kids stranded not too far from their marina. In the process of towing them to help, this guy with 2 jet skis asks for our help so we take him back to a boat ramp where a buddy could get him out on a trailer. Tonight we were watching the sunset with a glass of wine and this large boat with lots of family aboard died right in front of the boat and couldn't get restarted. So they became rescue number three. Nice to be the answer to somebody's prayer since nice people have been the answer to ours in the past.

Tomorrow we plan to ride the bike trail to a nature preserve then pack up and leave on high tide to anchor off Anclote key and head back to the panhandle Tuesday morning. That's at least the plan to post the changes to right now.