Day 167 & 168: The End of the Big Bend: Tarpon Springs

Day 167: January 1: We slept well despite the fireworks that lasted past midnight and woke to a foggy, chilly morning. The captains cranked the engines at about 7:00 and we got UW at 7:15, wanting to get off the river while the tide was high. 

John led the way out onto the Gulf. Despite it being high tide, we still saw depths of 4 and 5 feet at a few spots. We actually hit bottom for a split second before getting back into more acceptable depths. We cruised away from shore into deeper water, slowly edging toward port. 

We were about 3 hours UW when Paradise radioed that he had hit something. It turned out to be one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of crab pots that are sprawled all over the place. Summer Fling and we turned around and slowly made our way back to our disabled friend. Mel was hanging over the side, boat hook in hand, hanging onto the line attached to the pot. Mark was attempting to edge the boat forward and backward, hoping to free what must have been a tangled line. Eventually, when all else failed, he ended up cutting the line. Luckily that did the trick and we were able to continue our travels. We have been so vigilant watching for pots; we felt bad for the person whose pot was destroyed but relieved Paradise got away unscathed. 

Heading into the sun, the pots continued to be an issue. Sun rays flickered and danced on the choppy water, making it extremely difficult to see, especially pots that were white! They simply disappeared from sight. Fortunately we did not experience any more problems. 

We had originally planned on anchoring on Anclote Keys located three miles off the coast of Tarpon Springs just outside the entrance to the Anclote River. Winds were expected to pick up overnight and we didn't feel the island offered enough protection, being pretty much exposed and vulnerable to northerly gusts. So we contacted Mar Marina in Tarpon Springs and were told things were tight but they would figure something out for all three boats. 

As we turned to port and proceeded across the open water to the mouth of the river someone hailed us on the radio; he was happy to see three Loopers traveling together and told us how doing the loop was on his bucket list! Right after that another boater called us and recommended Caledesi State Park as a great place to stop for the night. We thanked him for the information, noting we already had reservations at Mar Marina. 

True to their word, the marina staff shuffled things around to accommodate us. Paradise was put at the end of a T dock, we backed in to a private slip in front of a private boat house on one side of a floating dock and Summer Fling, originally destined to spend the night in the travel lift hole, was told to tie up on the other side of us. 

Having arrived in Tarpon Springs, we had crossed the Gulf via the Big Bend route and had arrived at the beginning of the Florida west coast Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We were happy to be off the Gulf and looking forward to cruising in the more protected waters of the Intracoastal. 

Day 168: January 2: We planned on getting UW at 9:00 but things changed when our good friend David Murphy called. He and Sandra were on their way to meet up with us to return our rebuilt stabilizer pistons. John had tried to convince him to ship them to us since it was about an 8 or 9 hour drive from David's Alabama home to where we were in Tarpon Springs. Obviously we weren't going to move further south and increase the number of miles David had to travel so we scurried to make alternate plans. We alerted the marina that we wanted to stay despite the fact we had already been told there was no space available for another night. Fortunately the staff was understanding and managed to figure something out, including tying Summer Fling and us bow to bow along the private dock and loading an incoming boat into the travel lift hole. 

David and Sandra arrived around 6:00 p.m. We were so excited to be reunited! The six of us went to dinner at Captain Jack's Bar and Grill. Indoor seating was not available and it was pretty chilly on the open deck but "all you can eat shrimp" was worth it. After dinner we returned to our boat, enjoying the company, until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and were forced to say goodbye again.