Tarpon Springs to Gulfport

We left Tarpon Springs a day after Gemini Dream. On the way out of Tarpon we stopped and bought fuel at a commercial dock. They sell a lot of fuel to fishing and sponge boats, so the price was a lot better than we had been seeing. I usually don't let the tanks get below a half and when we reach a place where the price is under $4 a gallon I usually fill up. They even gave me a better price if I would use my debit card instead of a credit card, so I saved an additional 7 cents or so per gallon.

It was a short run to Gulfport, FL so we decided to make it another slow run on the inside. Gemini Dream had intended to go outside the day before and had to turn back because of the fog and go inside anyway. We left around 9:30 and there was no fog in sight. The trip was very slow because of numerous no wake zones and minimum speed zones along the whole route. Every bridge was no wake, and quite a few residential communities were minimum speed (idle) only. We had a few playful porpoise meet us along the way, and a lot of inconsiderate boaters. It seems that very few people care about the wake they make especially when they are passing. We got rocked quite a few times along the route buy boats overtaking us. We did pass one boat, a sailboat, and we slowed way down and gave him a slow comfortable pass.

 

One of the many bridges crossing to the islands

This is what crab pots look like out of the water.  Wonder how many he lost!!

Waterfront property

 They have 2 types of "no wake" zones that you have to slow down for.  The "slow speed - minimum wake " zone you need to slow down enough to not make a large wake, which means the boat must be completely settled in the water, rather arbitrary.  The other is a "Idle speed - No Wake",  that means you can only go fast enough to be able to steer the boat, which for us is idle speed.  In the picture below, I had to go in and out of gear to stay behind the small boats.  I haven't tried only using one engine in gear yet.

Cindy's Observations:  It was the weekend so there were a lot of recreational boaters out enjoying the day.  There appeared to be a party on the pirate ship.  Reminds me of Captain Tim's  ship on the Illinois river at Grafton.

Idle speed - No Wake!!

ARR Tourists!!

We made it under this one with the antenna down.

 We passed a lot of expensive homes and golf courses right on the ICW and more no wake zones to go through.

Cindy's Observations:  Here is the bridge entering to Treasure Island.  This day was never going to end.  It seemed to take forever to get to Gulfport.

Golf Course

Entrance into Gulfport Municipal Marina

We arrived at Gulfport and bedded the boat down for a months stay.  We got to a place where we could leave the boat that was not terribly expensive and decided to take a whole month to come home for Christmas. 

Cindy's Observations:  That first night we watched as the boats paraded past us with all their Christmas lights a glow.  Sailboats make a grand display with strings of colored lights on the rigging.  There were 29 decorated boats in all.  The next day we walked into town for lunch at O Maddy's.
Gulfport was a finalist as a Best Food Town in Rand McNallys 2011.  At the end of the city pier were anglers fishing for flounder using cut up squid for bait.  
On the Gulfport Pier, which was dedicated to the Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew in 1987, were concrete benches in the shape of giant cleats.  How fun.

In the park was an interesting ground sun dial shaped like a T.  Step stones with months carved on them running north to south is where you stand to cast your shadow over the top stones, running west to east with hours carved on them. it was very accurate.  Little lizards were sneaking around us on the sidewalks. The next day we did all the laundry and prepared for departure.

Gulfport Sunset

We will be back in early January to start off again.  The boat is in a slip that we can monitor with the Marina's TV camera.  Go to www.mygulfport.us/City_Departments/Marina/Marina_Web_Cam.htm and see if you can spot it.  You may need to load the software that they provide to be able to control the camera.