Treasure Island

This is one of our favorite stops.  It is so convenient to the beaches, shopping, disc golf and, of course, the local West Marine.  We can quickly ride our bikes to play disc golf with a bit further along are the Home Depot, West and a mall with about anything you need.  In the other direction is the grocery store and the beaches.  We were lucky enough to arrive a day after an international sand sculpting contest and the entries were still in great shape.  We had the double luck of a spectacular sunset.  No artist can match God's brush strokes!  Today was a relatively leisurely day of riding to breakfast then back to work on the engine alignment.  There must be some contagion in this area that sucks something from our power plant.  Anyway, it is now all back to nice and hopefully normal.  We'll buy supplies for our Thanksgiving feast then head on south.  We will be sharing our meal and gratitude with our new friends Jane and Kent in Bradenton.  We're all grateful to have good people with whom to share the holiday.  We'll all miss our family and home-based friends but you will all be in our thoughts and prayers. 
After Thanksgiving we'll start making more miles more quickly.  The current plan is to do a few overnight trips with stops to refill water and catch up on laundry.  We're now wanting to make sure and catch the forecast winds that should blow us easily to the Bahamas.

St. Pete Beach Pictures

palm tree at sunset with mackrel sky

not your average sand castle

what detail

contest winner

again awesome details

 

hope we look that good at sunset

More Carlouel pictures

Dockside of club

unique chandelier

on the floating dock

boat name after my own heart, this was inTarpon

not all work!

front of club

Carlouel Yacht Club

We are spending the night at the Carlouel YC.  It is one of the oldest clubs in Florida founded in 1937.  The name is a combination of the 3 founding member's wives' names.  It is situated with gulf front beach and along the sound side of Clearwater beach.  It is a magnificant building and the grounds can only be described as stately.  It has 2 pools and several tennis courts as well as the docks.  Apparently the only use the docks get is from transients, such as ourselves, and members using their boats to come to the club.  We met a very nice couple who were here for lunch on their sailboat.  We have dinner reservations and look forward to warm showers that don't move with the wind.  We're not sure where we go from here but it will be south.

Traveling to Carlouel Yacht Club

bridge opening for us

newly painted gears to keep the bridge working

we passed this sad boat on the way in- hate to see this type of thing but it is not uncommon

Tarpon Springs-2

We were able to get our clothes cleaned, supplies restocked and the groceries bought in one trip.  We took a cab from the club to the nearby shopping center but a nice man brought us back.  He was washing clothes as well and also a fellow boater.  The kindness of strangers is always heartwarming and fortunately not rare.  We were able to leave the slip at high tide and make it down the river to a spot that we thought would be safe near the end of the river by a power plant.  Due to the strong currents we swung on the anchor all night.  Plus, we were too close for our comfort to the public boat ramps.  We slept, but not soundly.  We were up at dawn to ride out on the tide.  Around here, you must always be aware of the status of the tides.  Unlike our part of Florida, the penninsula is like most of the rest of the world with 2 changes in tides daily.  We are used to only having to consider 1 change.
Shopping yesterday made us realize just how out of the mainstream we've already become.  We were clueless that this week is Thanksgiving.  For some reason we both thought it was next week.  In the same clueless vein, we have no idea where we will be on Thursday.  Hopefully just farther south.  Being a true southern girl, I will do my best to find a slice of pecan pie.

Tarpon

We have several George's in the family so it seemed like a good name for a boat

We weren't living under the bridge but very close

mangrove islands like these are common in this part of Florida.  they clean up the water and provide a home for birds, fish, etc

I wonder how many sponges it took to build this place

this tourist boat is named St. Nicholas VI-many of the sponge boats are dedicated to saints