The Best Part of Sailing Florida

The following day and night were uneventful (just how we like it) and we arrived at Tampa Bay about 1 am. We anchored off Egmont Island before heading into the St, Petersburg Municipal Marina. This was a great place to be as it put us right downtown. It looked spectacular at night and was a very convenient location for activities, although there isn’t any overnight parking. However, there is a parking garage within walking distance. This isn’t usually a concern for us of course, BUT...

This is a short post because it was a short visit, but also busy one. We sailed about 35 hours from Dog Island Florida to St. Petersburg. The weather wasn’t great the first night, but as I mentioned in my last post, we had delayed leaving as long as we could. Although lightning flashed off our port side it seemed to stay close to shore and the heaviest rain stayed forward of us as we sailed along.

We picked up a couple of hitchhikers who were also trying to avoid the storm and gave them sheltered passage through the night. One was a sooty tern who took a spot up at the bow near the base of the roller furling and a second that tried out a few different places, moving from the dinghy to the top of the outboard motor and finally settling down on the top of our antenna dish. They landed just before sunset and were still there when my shift ended at midnight but were gone when I returned to the cockpit 6 hours later.

...MY SISTER WAS COMING DOWN FOR A VISIT! YAY!!

We had such a great time while she was with us, it is always too long between visits. We wandered the town, strolled through the pretty parks, took lots of pictures and hunted down some great pizza. We also went out for gelato. Twice. In the same day.

The weather was gorgeous and she had never been sailing before, so we took her on a day sail back to Egmont Island. We had planned on anchoring out and spending the afternoon on the beach but by the time we dropped anchor it was decidedly choppy and we had to scrap that idea. She lives in Florida where beaches are a dime a dozen, so she was content to enjoy the time on the boat. Since we usually only sail these days to get from point A to point B, we have come to miss sailing just for the fun of sailing, so we all enjoyed the day thoroughly!

Our time with her was so short that we didn’t want to waste any of it on boat chores, but we were in dire need of a restock. And LaurAlee needed a spa day. So, while Chris stayed behind to meet with a diver that would scrape away the barnacles and algae growth, Cathy and I made a run to Walmart and West Marine.

Time flew by so fast! Way too fast. But she had a job she needed to get back to (she has four of them). It was hard to say goodbye, I would have loved it if she could have taken off to travel with us for a week or two. She doesn’t fly, so I knew it would be unlikely to happen in the future unless we came back through to pick her up by boat.

Returning here isn’t in our plans, but plans change! I REALLY LOVE sailing here and the beautiful beaches, and I LOVE having my sister around so I would not completely rule out a return to trip to Florida in the future. Weirder things have happened!