St. Petersburg Municipal Marina - 1/18/11

We woke up this morning to major fog which was not expected to lift until after 10:30 so what should we do until then.... either wash our boat like Skip is doing, or ...

GO SHOPPING! This was an interesting nautical shop that had a little bit of everything in it.

We finally pulled out of Clearwater at noon and headed for St. Petersburg in beautiful weather and calm water.

As we headed for the GICW we passed some gorgeous homes that the first mate thought she would "love to live there". I told here she would need to find another husband because it would take at least 2 of us to afford it.

A major portion of the 37 mile trip was thru narrow parts of the GICW and as a result were no wake areas as well as the bridge entrances and manatee zones. We didn't see any of the sea cows but had to keep alert just in case. Apparently they move very slow and quite often get hit by the boats.

Then we found more fog which was coming off the Gulf which was just a few hundred yards starboard of us. It was a little strange going out of sunshine into a fog bank that limited our vision to just a few hundred feet.

When we came past Indian Rocks and Indian Beach we started having visitors with us. They didn't jump our wake like they did in the Gulf but swam right off the bow wake. Ricki took many pictures leaning over the rail of these guys.

St. Petersburg was first noticed before we came into the bay but this picture is after several miles north on the bay as we were coming into the marina.

The marina is a little confusing to get into. The first landmark we looked for was an airport control tower then we had to turn into a small entry that was pretty shallow before coming to the fuel docks. The municipal marina shares water with the yacht club with tall buildings all around.

Quest is one of two boats on the transit dock tonight. We will be staying here until Friday morning when we will be crossing the bay to Bradenton and Twin Dolphins Marina.

Tomorrow we will get to see daughter Christine and the kids, Sidney and Riley. They flew in late today and will join us on the boat Thursday for the trip across the bay on Friday. I am sure they will be glad to leave the chilly, snowy Pennsylvania for the balmy 70's we have here.

Our position is N 27 46.342 W 82 37.775