Travel Day 85 to Clearwater, FL 12/1/21

A few statistics: 1118 gallons of diesel at the cost of $3708.00 and 3616 NM traveled.

Leaving before daylight we were amazed by the gorgeous stars in the sky. It was incredible. The sunrise was beautiful. The wind and waves were not predicted to be bad, however as the day started both picked up. We traveled with 2-3' waves every 3 seconds, and the wind was 17 knots. This lasted about 3-4 hours. The second half of the trip was a different story. The waves and wind dissapated and it was calm seas. It was an 11.5 hour day.

Clearwater Municipal Marina is is right in downtown. Unfortunately, the city is building a huge park complex right in front of the marina so the construction blocks main easy access. The docks are cement floating docks with locked gates, but the office and restrooms are a bit of a walk down a long floating dock. There were many other loopers there.

Some sights from Dunedin, FL.

Brenda, Sonny, Hal and I took an Uber to Dunedin, which was a great little town. After a quick breakfast bite, we had a great walk around. I bought a few Christmas presents, as well as Brenda. Then we took the Jolly Trolley to Tarpon Springs.

Tarpon Springs is known as the sponge capitol. We watched a little movie about how they are harvested and then went in to the store to buy some. I got a few sponges for cleaning and one for makeup. Brenda bought some and the cashier vacuum sealed them for her to make it easier to transport.

We met up with Chris, Mary and Skipper and had a delicious Greek meal at Dimitri's. I went to Hella's Bakery for some Greek pastries. We all walked the wharf and looked at all the old tour boats. We also ran into a husband and wife and their daughter who were from Long Island. He was a retired Nassau County policeman. They were looking at places to move to on both sides of Florida and their daughter was studying to be a speech language pathologist like me. I gave her my contact information incase she has any questions.

Brenda, Sonny, Hal and I took the trolly back because an Uber was going to be a half hour wait. We got back and just relaxed on the boat.