Day 96: Sunday, December 9, 2012
Port to Port: Tarpon Springs to Dunedin
Underway: 11:26 am Motor Off: 2:30 pm Miles Traveled: 17 Stayed At: Marina
Mile to Mile: Today was a welcome short day down the intracoastal. We enjoyed a couple cups of coffee with John and toured his boat – he likes to spend as much time as possible on it on the weekends even if it is only at the marina sometimes. We wandered one last time by the sponge docks looking in some of the shops – this is the place to buy natural sponges of every kind imaginable. We tried without success to find a bakery with some type of fresh donuts or rolls. By some marina miracle, though, fresh donuts miraculously appeared when we returned to Aurora. John had asked his girlfriend, Lynette, to pick up a few donuts for us on her way over to the boat. They wouldn’t even let us pay for them. This marina life could get kind of addicting. Thanks John and Lynette, we enjoyed meeting you and hope your future adventures are as amazing as ours have been here at Turtle Cove.
We had to wait for the fog to burn off in the morning before leaving. Even though the sun peaked through finally in Tarpon Springs, as we turned south down the marked channel, the fog thickened and never really burned off for the rest of the day. We could also see the next set of markers but were thankful that the Sunday boat traffic was very light and we didn’t have to worry too much about getting run over
It was an interesting afternoon listening to the VHF radio channel 16. The Coast Guard was very busy trying to help people who were in trouble. The first call was a boat taking on water – we could hear only half the conversation but they asked the person in trouble a lot of questions over 20+ minutes trying to assess the situation and find out where they were. The second situation involved someone tangled in a prop – yikes. Scary. Later, near dark there was a call about someone in the water off a beach somewhere. We have heard very few emergency calls on our trip so far (thankfully) so this afternoon was unique.
We quickly made it down to an anchorage outside Dunedin Florida and planned to head in to the marina tomorrow morning. Our friends on Spiritus are there and loving it so we are excited to catch up with them, relax for a couple of days and do some exploring.