Near disaster

Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday)at 5 pm, a hurricane-force squall passed over where we were peacefully anchored for the night near St. Petersburg. We knew we were in for some strong weather, so we found an anchorage rated best for its holding quality and well suited for the wind direction. I laid out LOTS of chain in the 8-foot bay. However, it became far worse than expected, and we nearly had a disaster.

I was about to take a shower, but the rain, lightning, and wind had begun to get REALLY hard so I decided to watch the show. It was a good thing I did. At first it was fascinating, because it was blowing as I'd never seen it blow, with sheets of white blasting over the water. That's when I took the picture above. But then it got totally wild, with the rain blowing in so hard we could not see a thing out the windows and the boat was swinging and surging violently.

We were still in ignorant bliss about how exciting this was, until the docks from the homes behind us came into close view and we realized we'd dragged anchor. We were about to get slammed into the docks of the very homes in the picture above, and be a story on the local news station. See how far we dragged anchor?

I quickly started the engine to pull forward, and luckily Bert clued me in as to which direction I needed to go. For the next several minutes, it was wild chaos to keep from getting slammed because I would go in one direction with a surge of the engine to get away from the docks just a few feet away, but then the hurricane blew me too far in that direction and suddenly I would be near the homes on the other side of me. So I had to slow while spinning the wheel the other direction, and then thrust the engine again. Bert was pointing out each new hazard as he keenly watched around as best he could; visibility was only about 20 feet. (We also had to watch out for another boat anchored not too far from us.)

This went on back and forth, each time barely escaping a crash. And the whole time, the anchor was still down. I'm sure it had some effect on how my boat was responding, but I didn't have time to think about it because I was constantly averting disasters. Finally I got a few seconds of control, and I had Bert push the button next to me to raise the anchor. It took a while, but I was able to maintain control while the anchor eventually was lifted.

At that point, we used the Garmin to guide us farther out in the bay, while Bert watched for the other boat and some posts we remembered. Whew, we finally got away from everything and could re-anchor once it calmed down to "normal" high winds and rain. We later turned on a local news station and they were showing "tornado" damage to a gas station and several homes, saying how much force the squall punched as it passed over. It continued to rain on and off all night, but the wind never approached what it was during our "hurricane".

This dolphin and his buddy were playing right in front of the bow as we departed Crystal River last Monday morning. It was a perfectly calm and warm day on the Gulf, such a change from the previous Saturday. We traveled about 70 "boring" miles (what a relief) to Tarpon Springs, which is where the Intracoastal Waterway starts up again. We got to use Otto, so it was a relaxing day.

Tarpon Springs is Greek! It is world famous for its sponge industry. In 1905 a Greek man started a sponge-diving business that grew into Florida's leading industry in the 1920s. Greeks flocked here over the years, and still do. We docked right at the end of the famous waterfront street where all the sponge boats dock and the sponge markets thrive. We had our choice of about 8 authentic Greek restaurants, and we chose Mama's.

This is picture of me in front of one of several sponge merchants, and it was only about 50 yds from where Breaking Away was docked. The whole street, while authentically Greek and with an active sponge industry, was touristy. But I loved it.

See, they really did sell sponges. Everywhere. I thought they were expensive. $10 for an average-sized one.

And here is one of the many sponge boats docked there, with their Greek names. Actually, this was one that carried tourists out into the local waters to observe the divers at work retrieving the sponges from the bay floor.

Yesterday morning, before we departed Tarpon Springs, Bert and I did some serious laundry. We packed the dirties into our backpacks and rode about three miles to a laundromat. Waited. Packed in the cleanies, and rode back.

By then, a strong southerly wind had picked up. We were sure glad we weren't out in the Gulf! We traveled the rest of the day until about 4:30 against that strong wind, into big chop considering we were in protected waters. One of my placards with the boat's registration number blew off into the water (bummer), and Bert saved the front flag that got blown off its holder. We were the only fools out on such a bad day. The entire boat was salt-stained from all the splashing and blowing (but the hurricane cleaned all that off!!). Little did we know then how much stronger the wind would get.

This last picture shows the 12-mile-long Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay's mouth. The clearance is 175 feet there in the middle. Today we traveled 57 miles with a strong tailwind, across Tampa Bay, past Sarasota, and here to another Venice Beach. Along the way, Bert and I kept exclaiming about the never-ending string of huge mansion estates, with their private docks, yachts, swimming pools, and homes large enough for at least families of 15 to 20.

Soon after arriving at our marina, we rode a few miles to a grocery store for much needed supplies. We then had a fabulous Happy Hour with three other Loopers docked here (one had done the Loop twice). It was so much fun sharing stories of where we'd been and what we'd experienced. This truly is an amazing adventure for all of us.