Florida: Tarpon Springs 3

Day 162
No Travel

When I made my morning stroll to the "head", I passed by / under a ton of boats (literally tons of boats). They are racked and stacked in multiple buildings providing many opportunities to find them overhead on any given walk around the marina. It is more than a bit unnerving to look up, up, up and see several stories of boats and boat engines directly overhead.

Sample boat racks.
Note the buildings in the back with row upon row of boats.

 In the photo above, the boat on the top, next to the blue-hulled boat in the racks, seems to be the favorite perch of an osprey. It begs the question - is there a nest in that boat or one near it? Who would know with it way up there?

Around the corner from the towers of boats is a small turtle pond. This is Turtle Cove Marina after all, so of course they have a turtle pool. I found one looking up at me as I walked by to visit the "head".

Turtle in pool at Turtle Cove Marina -
his head is out of water and the rest of him is submerged in the center of the photo.

I am definitely getting the hang of this "boat time" environment as evidenced by the late start for today's activities. I lingered over breakfast and spent a good deal of time reading a romance novel. Eventually I motivated myself to head over to the marina clubhouse for a shower. Clark had a miscellaneous set of boat chores to take care of, so he was well occupied and would not be missing me for a while.

Somehow an abundance of laundry appeared in my laundry bag. I don't know how it got there. I remember I did laundry in Carabelle before we crossed over the Gulf. I did laundry just before we left New Jersey, and we only spent one night in a hotel coming back. How then did I end up with two bags full of it?? To multitask, I packed up my laundry in my wheeled tote bag and dragged it with me to the clubhouse to wash while I showered. I also threw my Kindle in my bag to continue reading while the clothes dried. I have to say that if the laundry needs to be done, waiting for it poolside cannot be beat as a venue!

Sitting pool side with Kindle in hand waiting for my laundry to dry.

After I got back to the boat, we had lunch and then decided that we should do our kayak ride before it got too late in the day. Climbing into and out of a kayak is easy as pie for Clark and an ordeal for me. My leg muscles are not very strong. This, in combination with my lack of balance, makes it tricky to negotiate. I told Clark I would go out in the kayak if he could find a place where I had some room to climb into it.

Clark took me at my word and brought the kayaks down and floated them over to a nearby dock. Nice, but the kayak was almost two foot below the edge of the dock. I can proudly say that I managed to get myself in without making a spectacle of myself. The fact that I had a potential audience for a disaster did not help much. A woman and her collection of children were fishing on the dock next to the kayak. I am sure they would have found a big splash an interesting addition to their day's activity.

Catfish on the hook
caught by a boy with his mother and siblings at the dock

The sad thing about my awkwardness with the kayak is that I do truly enjoy going out in my kayak. Today was no exception. The weather was perfect and the scenery was interesting. We saw pelicans everywhere including in the tops of trees. I thought that rather peculiar given their webbed feet but the view of the fish must be ideal from up there.

In addition to pelicans, we saw a number of other birds including a flock of what I believe were hawks. I have seen gatherings of hawks in New Jersey with three maybe four birds. I could not begin to count the number flying overhead today! It was pretty awesome. The photo below does not do justice to the scene.

Sky filled with birds (hawks?) majestically gliding through the sky.

It seems that Clark had a very specific destination in mind for our outing on the kayaks - Spring Bayou where apparently manatees gather in the winter season. My first hint that we might see some was the warning signs.

Manatee Zone

Protection for the manatees

I got so wrapped up in the scenery and the weather that I totally forgot that it is December. As I rounded a curve in the stream I burst out laughing. Clark looked at me strangely and asked me what was so funny. I told him that I could see the Christmas tree in the park around the bend and just found it crazy that I was out in a kayak in shorts paddling towards it.

It's hard to see but between the two men seen on shore,
in among the other trees, is in fact a Christmas tree.

Close up view of tree and Christmas "train" in park 

As we neared the park someone called to us from shore that several manatees and pups were in the "pool" in the center, so we continued around the bend to see for ourselves. Clark got himself up close and personal with one of them and took a video. I think they were eyeing each other out there! I decided to hang close to the edge of the pool to avoid any accidental bumps if they came up in an inconvenient spot like directly under the kayak.

After the excitement of boating with the manatees, we made our way back to the boat. On the way, we passed an impressive mermaid statue and the abandoned "A Glorious Church" building which was built in 1926 by the First Babtist Church.

Mermaid Statue at Spring Bayou

"A Glorious Church" in Tarpon Springs, FL

When we got back to the floating dock to disembark from our kayaks, I just stared at that dock almost two-foot higher than the level of my kayak and wondered - how am I going to manage this?! Of course Clark sprinted out of his kayak with no effort whatsoever. I tried to lift myself up to disembark and found the kayak wobbling wildly, so I sat back down with the idea that I might get help from Clark.

Instead of coming round to offer assistance Clark struck up a conversation with the mother of the children fishing at the dock. Now anyone that knows Clark knows he can talk and talk and talk. Given that trait, I decided I would just sit back on relax while I waited for the conversation to run its course. Eventually, after what felt like an extraordinarily long time, the mother and her two children said their farewells.

With that distraction missing, Clark turned to me to ask if I required assistance whereby I told him that I wasn't sure how to get myself out of my kayak. He talked me through it. Bring your feet back, stand up but keep your weight low, sit on dock ... When I was sitting on the dock, he said, "There, wasn't that easy?" My answer, "No!" But hey, I got it done without taking a saltwater bath, so again I was proud of my accomplishment!

After our little bought of exercise, Clark and I were both tired and hungry. I cooked on the boat for dinner tonight. While I was making dinner, I whipped up one of Clark's favorite desserts - applesauce cake. As I cooked, and then afterwards as we ate, we watched the old favorite movie "The Sound of Music". I never tire of the beautiful music and the touching story of the Van Trapp family.

We have yet to see more of this town than two Greek restaurants and a nearby Publix food store. We heard about the Sponge Docks from many folks including the woman who was fishing with her children. Tomorrow we have a few tasks that require use of the rental car, but perhaps we will find some sightseeing time in there somewhere to at least get ourselves to the Sponge Docks for a look see.