Left you hanging again....

Well you know we made it, but made it where??  We are in Little Harbor Village Marina on Tampa Bay in Ruskin, Fl.  It is a 45 minute drive from the Grand Kids and a great small marina at a small resort.  With Dorian and Todd coming for Christmas we wanted a place with a few amenities (at a reasonable price of course) and after searching all of Tampa and Bradenton area this was the one that fit both requirements. We've only spent two days here so far though, been visiting with our kids :-) and getting ready for Christmas (shopping....not my favorite thing, I am not a good "decision maker").

 This was an old motel, now a condo on the GIWW (Gulf Intracoastal Water way) spoke to me in an "old Florida" way...



versus the' Don Cesar' luxury hotel (in the distance) on St. Pete Beach...

the Sunshine  (huh) Skyway bridge on Tampa Bay.....another beautiful day on the water, hopefully when we head further south the sun will be shining and the bridge will glow!

St. Pete (the city, not the beach) skyline on Tampa Bay

Our new berth, we are the closest boat to the resort in the picture

Street View, not only the hotel to the right but condos on both ends of it

I was assured (that as far as they knew) this was real...pulled up by Mel Fisher when he was searching for the Atocha..it was a pair of them in a REALLY weird place and supposedly the original owner of the marina ( this being the second marina) was a friend, yada, yada I know it's confusing but just let it flow through you, I'm sure you don't want to hear the LONNNGG version

 and we have .......THE BEACH.....very nice even though it's not on the Gulf

 
A restaurant......

TIKI Bar

Tennis Courts...nice, but we'll pass, due to bad backs and ....too much information

A nice little store...they also have the usual beer and junk food assortment

Ummmm....probably not gonna go there either!

another restaurant....

beautiful pool on a quiet back bay

 and THE BEACH....as you can see not a lot of action here....

Gee, I feel like a travel host...maybe I should go global, or postal or something!!  Anyway, as our friend Chuck says  we are "lovin' life"! I fully intend to send a Christmas Greeting to Y'all....but if I forget (which is more than likely)

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

and Thank You for following our journey!!

WE DID IT!!!

It was a long 22 hours and my eyes were spinning in my head (that's not a joke) from exhaustion but what a feeling to have actually done something you dreaded doing and having it go so well.  We left Carrabelle with three other boats at 2pm on Monday and when we reached East Pass, the entrance to the gulf, we added another three boats to our flotilla.
This is Kim from C Quarters wishing us a perfect voyage...

Heading out....

and these were the seas as we reached East Pass and the dreaded ( by me) Gulf of Mexico......
  yup', you got it pretty much P.O.P.

We saw an awesome sunset....

and spent 13 and a half hours in the pitch black of the Gulf of Mexico. Thank God we were with buddy boats, the VHF chatter back and forth tends to keep one somewhat alert and since we were the second boat from the rear we had lots of heads ups. there were actually big fishing boats anchored about 40 miles offshore sleeping I guess, that was a surprise. All we were expecting to see were the two sailboats that left Carrabelle at 8 Sunday morning. I mean really who else in their right mind is out on the Gulf Of Mexico at 2:00 in the morning!!! It was a total blackout with the stars so dim and no moon.  If there would have been anything adrift there was no way you would have seen it until it was too late.  A rather scary proposition.

Bob passed out at the helm... He is the only one that slept ....we would close our eyes for an hour or so while still being aware of what was going on...so much for the watch system...we just aren't built that way...must take practice.  Journey the trawler in front of us were doing 4 on watches and they each slept like rocks on their off hours giving them 8 hours of sleep!!!  What is up with that!!!!!!!!!

The wind kicked up a little (as predicted) at midnight but it was kind of like being rocked very slowly in a big ole' cradle, and although it still didn't put us to sleep, it didn't make us seasick either.....that being one of my biggest fears.

When the sun finally started to show that it was somewhere hidden behind the clouds ...it was a YAY moment!

We arrived at Marker I Marina in Dunedin at noon.  First thing on the agenda....SLEEP!!

Synopsis of the trip....it was excellent for an overnight crossing one did not want to do.....would I do it again...not unless I had too....lack of sleep is not pretty on me....

It took 22 hours dock to dock

180 miles running at 8 miles per hour ( we still did the alternating engines as usual)

Burned 45 gallons of fuel  which equals 2 gallons per hour and get this .....

4 miles to the gallon !!!  that being our all time record for fuel consumption, unheard of !!!