Day 97: Monday, December 10, 2012
Port to Port: Dunedin, Florida
Underway: 8:04 am Motor Off: 8:15 pm Miles Traveled: 0.25 Stayed At: Marina
Mile to Mile: We lucked out last night – the fog cleared overnight and conditions were dead calm all night – we slept like babies. Today was a really short travel day. We anchored out in front of the Dunedin Municipal Marina last night and we could have waited for the incoming tide and drifted into our slip. And we had a welcoming committee even though it was only a little after 8:00 am when we arrived. Eddy from Spiritus was on one of the transient docks waiting for us – hmmm? They randomly found us at Turtle Cove. And now, he just happened to see us come into the marina early on a Monday morning. I wonder where he hid that GPS tracker. (We did text them last night that we were here but still, what are the odds?)
It was a very welcome homecoming (although he did forget to bring me a hot coffee). We didn’t even get docked before we all sat down on Spiritus to have coffee and catch up on our mutual adventures. This is going to be a fun place to spend some time.
We were lucky and the harbormaster had a very convenient slip available on the same pier as Spiritus and only a short walk across the parking lot to the bathrooms and showers. This marina is completely full and has a waiting list to get a permanent slip so we are grateful for the quiet and calm inside slip.
After getting the boat re-docked, it was time for few boat projects. The anchor light isn’t working so I needed to trace the problem. After testing the circuits, fuses and wiring (and moving everything around several times), I found the problem was a broken wire in an impossible to fix place just below the opening on deck where the wires come out to a plug. We’ll have to jury-rig something until I can run some new wire. I also found a source in Clearwater for a thermostat and spark plugs for Boris.
Cindy and I were going to take the bus the 2.6 miles to Clearwater but decided to start walking when it wasn’t expected to arrive at our stop for another 40 minutes. Well, after sightseeing, taking pictures and a detour for an amazing rib sandwich, we decided to save the trip for another day and walked back to the marina to get ready for dinner on Spiritus. Linda’s friend Ruth also joined us (she is a retired nurse and avid wind surfer/kite boarder/sailor) and we enjoyed a great dinner of pork tenderloin ala Eddy and rice while we all watched a rip roaring thunderstorm send lightning flashes all across the bay – our first storm in a long time. A pretty amazing first day in Dunedin, Florida