February 2015 - Page 2
FL West Coast Cruise - con'd.
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Sunset at Royal Palm Marina in Englewood, FL
.
Very crowded Picnic Island in Venice near the inlet. Sheriff and Police boats on scene - for unknown reasons?
The best thing about the Royal Palm Marina in
Englewood is the sunset view! We stopped at this
friendly little marina because we have friends
nearby. Also, the little "Key West" style restaurant
right on the premises is excellent!
Feb 22 - Breakfast with Nancy's friends at
Wink's in downtown Englewood.
(Blue crab omelette with Hollandaise sauce!)
11:45 AM - Dep Engelwood
1:00 PM - Passing. Venice
2:45 PM - Arr: Sarasota - Marina Jack's
Today: 23.7 nm - 2.9 eng hrs
Watched the Oscars 'til midnight on cable TV
Minimalist attire is apparently de-rigueur for paddle-boarding.
Five hundred horsepower on a 27-ft boat seems excessive!
And 90-HP on a dinghy seems a bit much too! (I'm still
deciding whether to go with 70 or 90 HP on the Adeline.)
Feb 24 - 10:45 AM - Dep Sarasota - wind SW 15, FOG !
12:30 PM - under Skyway Bridge - thick Fog!
2:30 PM - Arr: St. Petersburg
Docked at St. Peterburg Yacht Club, guests of
Diane Fowler & JP of PDQ Moonstruck
Today: 30.2 nm - 4.1 eng hrs
Excellent dinner at SPYC w Diane & JP
Feb 25, 26 - Stayed in St. Petersburg - @ SPYC
40-year reunion! Nancy, Ann Gaddis and Debbie Watts graduated together
from St Joseph's School of Nursing in Bangor, Maine in 1975. Ann now
winters in Englewood, Debbie in Port Richey.
Feb 23 - 8:30 AM - met friends Tom & Nancy
Corindia at First Watch Café in downtown Sarasota.
Stayed in Sarasota - Nice marina, nice town
Docked at Marina Jack's in Sarasota. Can you spot Sno' Dog in this line up?
Some of the cars at Marina Jacks were as impresive as the boats!
I recognized the 1959 Buick immediately. Each model year was
distinctive back then. (From '52 through '62, I know them all.)
Very glad to have GPS and Radar along this stretch of the GICW.
If you click on this photo, you'll see we're we're only 1/4
mile from the Florida Skyway Bridge, yet there's still
nothing visible ahead. We could hear the cars on the
bridge before we spotted the bridge center pilars.
Here we're using radar targetting to keep track of traffic.
Visibility was less than 1/4 mile. Tampa Bay was officially
closed to all commercial traffic because of low visibility.
This spooky sunken boat appeared just past the bridge.
Finally, the fog lifted and this St Petersburg landmark came into view.
Arriving at the St Petersburg Yacht Club.
From today's Tampa Tribune: This boat, with four 300-HP motors, got lost in
the fog and ran up on the beach and into this restaurant. Apparently, it hadn't
occured to them to slow down! (Click on photo to see larger image.)
Addie checking out the St Petersburg Yacht Club.
Fellow PDQ owners, Diane & JP aboard Sno' Dog - for dinner.
Loved this sign in downtown St Pete.
St Petersburg has many lovely parks along the waterfront - Addie approved!
A visit to the Dalí Museum is a must while in St Petersburg.
But when viewed at a distance, the head of President Lincoln magically appears!
(This was, of course, done well before the era of digital photos and JPEGs)
When viewed close up, this famous Dalí
painting appears to be a nude woman.
I liked Salvador Dalí's very accurate depiction
of a 1972 Datsun B-610 station wagon!
Feb 27 - 10:45 AM - Dep St Petersburg - 58°, wind NNE 15
12:30 PM - Arr: Gulfport - Muni Marina
Today: 13.1 nm - 1.6 eng hrs
Cute little beach-front town, walking distance from marina.
Englewood to St Petersburg