Clearwater Beach to.... Clearwater beach?


So today was a 'wash and wax the boat day.   I realize I won't get any sympathy from the frozen tundra but.... This is hard work.  I got about a quarter of the boat done.  Tons more to do.   Anyway.... It got too hot so we went for a dinghy ride out into the ocean and then around Clearwater beach to see the sights and dolphins.  

We came back to the dock tonight and we're settling in tired and all of a sudden Christmas music is playing all around us.    We didn't even have to move the boat for this one!!  And all different boats from last time...

So we went out to see why the ruckus.  
 It seems that another boat parade decided to take place..
. And about 30ft off the bow of my boat. 
  Go figure.   Clearwater beach does it up right.  
More boats and more houses than Dunedin.... 
 a much larger area to parade through.  The boats just kept coming.. What an awesome treat....

Less than a week from now we start moving again, but not for long.   Headed to Cortez for a while so we can visit the frozen tundra for Christmas with family.  

 Oh and Friday afternoon/evening we took a little trip to downtown Tampa (since we had never been there).   They do Christmas well do there too.  
Believe it or not that building is the ROWING club for a private high school.   Well, it's actually run by the city but the school uses it.   34 million in Exxon oil spill money will make for a nice boat house....

They obviously use it as an event space and share it with lots of other groups too...  

And every city that is 79 degrees in winter needs an outdoor ice skating rink.   The makers of Rosa Parks circle should take notes from the architect here.   It's cool (literally) in the rink and hot and humid immediately outside the open tent.   
And yes, they were even rowing at night with lighted boats.   Pretty cool. 
ecen the cranes are lit up ...  

The Riverwalk in Tampa is enchanting.  

Comments

  1. Kenneth Paul DykstraDecember 14, 2023 at 6:29 AM

    Very interesting and how fun. Now I want to go check out Tampa. I've only really just driven thru to get to Anna Maria Island (via Sunshine Bridge). Thanks Dan!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Youngs Point ON to Fenelon Falls ON

Image
We left Youngs Point lock wall this morning about 8am with two hours of cruising to get to our first lock.   What a beautiful day.   We had two lakes to cross.  Clear Lake (which is clear)...   And Stoney Lake which is.... Granite.  The beaches are done and the navigation is critical.  It's a common thing to have solid granite just a few inches below the surface on both sides of the boat just 10-20 feet away.  As long as we are in the designated channel it's fine....   But prop repair and replacement is a big business here... Still... Driving past this kind of scenery all day would never get old... (Until it froze).  Eventually we journeyed through four locks today... And up to a fifth.    Lock 28, 30, 31, 32... And sitting just under lock 33.   Yes we are aware 29 is missing.  28 and 29 used to be a set of two (a flight lock) but in the 1960s they automated it (hydraulic controls rathe...
Read more

Fenelon Falls ON to Kirkfield Lock

Image
We are officially nowhere.   We had a pretty short trip today.   We left Fenelon Falls when the lock crew showed up at 10am and could put us through.... But ended up stuck there for a while because the lock (which is automated) was blowing circuit breakers and wouldn't open for the lock master.    As we exited the lock we saw the rocks on the left.  Neatly stacked by humans to draw attention to the massive shelf of rock just below the surface and just off the channel. Without those little stacks it would be easily possible to run into that sheer rock cliff under the surface.  After a while she figured out how to get it to open and we were able to break free and head to our second lock of the day.   This one was tiny and an easy pass.    They informed us, however, that our next lock was the Kirkfield Lift lock and it's on a maintenance day meaning they were not taking any traffic until 1pm so we might as well go slow...
Read more

Ludington MI to Grand Haven MI - and Gold Looper Status!

Image
We are back at North Shore Marina!   The place we started and the place our boat calls home.  We have a new slip (next to where we were last year) and we have a port tie which is best for our boat.   How we tie up here will take some getting used to... We left Ludington today and it was a bit breezy (15-20 knot winds).  It was our best day to get home in the next five though so we went.   You can't see it but the waves were coming up high enough to splash us all the way on the top deck.   Lumpy for the first 30 miles.  Until we reached silver lake sand dunes.  Then we could turn about 30 degrees and quarter the waves a little.  The white caps died down also.  It was kind of foggy today so we couldn't see very far.  More of a haze as it didn't affect navigation but made pictures difficult.  That's the light house at Little Sab...
Read more