St. Petersburg, FL - Chihuly Collection at Morean Arts Center

Thursday 12/14/2017
No Boat Travel

What with all the boat chores and doctor's visits, we decided yesterday that we would "take a day off" today and explore one of St. Petersburg's museums.  Since I grew up in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania with Corning, New York and the Corning Glass Factory in close proximity, I have always been a lover of glass. My curio cabinet at home is full beyond capacity with all the pieces I have collected over the years. So, when Clark suggested we visit a museum, I requested that we go see the Chihuly Collection on display at the Morean Arts Center.

Before we left to walk uptown to the museum, we saw the loopers, Donna and Teri, who we met yesterday on a Mainship 390 named Imagine Too getting ready to head on to their next destination. Clark had seen them arrive yesterday as he never misses a Mainship, and we walked over and introduced ourselves. We found out that they are on the last leg of their trip having started in Jacksonville, Florida.

As we prepared for our outing, we saw them leave their dock and head on their way to Sarasota.

Imagine Too leaving St Pete Marina

The museum is located in the 700 block on Central Avenue so we had a few blocks to walk to get there. Clark tried to warn me that part of Central Avenue was blocked off near the marina end of the street, but he let me lead him towards that street anyway. Once there he basically said, "I told you so!" I just had not understood that the whole block including sidewalks on both sides of the street were closed to all traffic. The end result was that we had a walk around the block to get back to a place where we could start walking the right direction.

Having declared today a vacation, we took our time walking up the street looking to see what shops we passed. We saw an ice cream shop that I thought had cute signage.

Subway Signage on Restaurant

Eventually we made our way to the Morean Art Center and bought our tickets. According to them, we are not senior citizens yet and we had no coupons, so we paid full admission. A trip across the street to watch glass blowing in progress came included in the entrance fee, however, so it was well worth the $20 each admission fee. Since the demonstration occurs on the hour, and it was almost noon, Clark suggested we go there first.

After a very brief wait, two men, the glass blower and his assistant, gave us a fabulous demonstration of the art of glass blowing. I have seen glass work demonstrated at the Corning Glass Factory, but the demos I saw there did not last 40 minutes in length and give step-by-step commentary on the process. Clark and I both thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Hot ovens ready for when the show starts

All glass is red when hot regardless of color. This piece being made will be green and black when cooled

Shaping hot glass on stainless steel table

 It takes two to do the job. One to shape the glass and an assistant to blow into the tube.

"Inflating" the glass by blowing into the tube

The object being made was built up in layers of glass - started with clear glass then added green and finally black.  Shaping of the object took place in between the additions of the colors.

Shaping the glass object

As the final step to making the fluted plate, the artist spun the glass using centrifugal force to flatten the bowl out into a dish shape.

Glass Bowl becomes a fluted dish by spinning 

After the demo we walked back across the street to the museum to check out the exhibits there. I found the intricacy of the works amazing. As we left the glass blowing demo across the street, the artist said he hoped the demo would help us understand how many hours of labor went into making the pieces presented in the museum display.

When we started the tour, we had no idea how large or small the exhibit would be. Having found the display to be relatively small when we reached the end, I told Clark I would walk through the exhibit again, backwards, to get another, more-detailed look before we left.

Welcome to the Chihuly Collection at the Morean Arts Center

Hanging from Ceiling

Mounted on the Wall

This made me think of the plant in "Little Shop of Horrors"
and "Feed Me, Seymour"!!!

Flower Garden floor display

Close up of plants in the glass flower garden

Colorful dishes that reminded me of clam shells

Of course, no museum tour is complete without a trip through the gift shop. Instead of buying, however, Clark took some pictures home of the more interesting items on sale.

Probably the ones we saw being made will end up here for sale

Hanging glass balls

Glass reptile - salamander maybe? Fish maybe?
It says "140" on it.
Don't know if that is the inventory mark or the price!

More items in the gift shop area

More dishes like the one we saw being crafted

We still had plenty of time left in the afternoon to do more exploring in town. On the way to the museum, I noticed a bike shop selling Brompton bikes. This is the brand of fold-able bikes that Clark and I have. I suggested that we check back after the museum to see what kind of accessories they might have for sale. With that in mind, we headed for the bike store.

Upon entering, we found the very amiable owner busy at work on a bike doing maintenance or repair or some such. Within seconds, he and Clark were chatting away like old friends talking about the bikes. We bought ours around 2012. We learned that, as production has increased, the price has gone down over the years. Although still not inexpensive, a bike bought today costs considerably less than what we paid, but we love them and have gotten our money's worth out of them for sure.

Besides talking about bikes with the owner, we did check out the accessories as I had wanted. We decided to check out our bikes to see what accessories might make sense to add. In particular Clark showed an interest in improving our headlight and taillight situation.

As we walked back to the boat, we stopped in CVS and Publix - not really on the way, but only a slight diversion. While there we got a call from the marina, that a package and letters had arrived for us, so we added that stop to our itinerary. My FitBit shows that I walked almost 5 miles today. My feet certainly felt like it, since other than the time we sat during the glass blowing demo, we walked the rest of the day!

Note: I wanted to publish this yesterday but the internet was so bad, it was not possible. Today it is working well. Hit or miss!

St. Petersburg, Florida - MRI results

Tuesday 12/12/2017
Depart: St. Petersburg, Florida 11:00
Arrive: St. Petersburg, Florida 12:00
Maintenance Run in Local Area

Clark chose today for a maintenance run of the boat. He had two objectives 1) knock a few barnacles off the bottom of Sunset Delight and 2) heat up the engines for an oil change. Yesterday, we had on long pants and heavy coats; today we had on shorts and t-shirts. Based on weather alone, today was definitely a better day to take the boat out for a ride. Expectations for weather tomorrow are back to long pants and coats again.

We left the lines on the dock since the lengths were already adjusted for the boat position we wanted to return to. Even so, it turned out to be a bit of a puzzle to put us back the way we were. The trick for this somewhat-ugly dock arrangement is to get close enough that I can actually get on and off the boat but stay far enough away that we don't get "hung up" on the cement dock and cause ourselves boat damage.

During our outing, we enjoyed views of St. Petersburg and local birds.

Flocks of Pelicans

A few sailboats were out enjoying the windy conditions like this one

and this one with a different sail shape.

We did not go far on our maintenance run - just an hour to go out in the bay and turn around. On our short trip, besides quite a few sailboats, we saw a barge, the same Coast Guard vessel we saw on our way into St. Pete, and a cruise ship. Because the weather report showed winds picking up in the afternoon, we went out before noon; however, by the time we turned to start back to the marina, we could tell the winds were already brewing.

As we made our way back, we saw small planes returning to the St. Pete airport. Perhaps they had the same idea we did to return before it got rough.

St. Petersburg, Florida airport

From out in the bay, we had good views of the city from the water.

Ominous Clouds approaching as we left St. Petersburg

Mostly clear skies on our return!

Approaching the St. Pete Municipal Marina,

we chased some pelicans out of the way

and passed a fisherman fishing from the dock
surrounded by hungry birds!

Entering Marina

We managed to work through the dock-line puzzle and tied the boat back in approximately the same position as before. Even though it was noon when we got back, Clark dove right into the oil change and ignored the fact that it was lunch time. Originally, he intended to do only the starboard engine today and the port engine after our next maintenance run.

However, after completing the starboard-side engine, the port engine was still hot enough to allow him to get both engines done today, so he kept right on working.  After four hours of working in the almost 100-degree engine room (he measured with a thermometer), he emerged happy having completed both engines in one day. Although I tried to coax him into at least a drink of water as he worked, he stayed focused on his "job" until he was done. He finally ate lunch at 4:00.

While heading back to St. Petersburg, the wind that had picked up during our little outing threw buckets of saltwater at the boat. So, while Clark worked hard in the engine room, I took a few buckets of fresh water and washed the saltwater off the railings, windows, and wooden bright work on the boat. This task took me no where near the four hours it took Clark to do the oil change, so I managed to eat lunch at a much more sensible time and then kick back with a good novel.

Given Clark had lunch at 4:00, we did not eat dinner until 8:00 when I served up all the leftovers collected over the past three days. I do love a good smorgasbord! Tuesday night is a favorite TV night for me starting with Lethal Weapon, so we relaxed in front of the television for the rest of the night.


Wednesday 12/13/2017
No Boat Travel

Knowing from last Friday's x-rays that I had broken my arm back in October, I was disappointed when the MRI scheduled for yesterday got cancelled as we did not have the insurance pre-approval required to perform the test. I have been very anxious to know whether or not  I had also suffered rotator cuff damage. One day I have almost no pain with reasonably good arm movement, and the next my arm hurts and the movement is restricted once more. What gives!? When I got a call late yesterday saying that the insurance approval had come through, and they could fit me in for today, I nearly jumped for joy (but it would have hurt too much).

Waiting for my appointment, I passed time this morning doing online Christmas shopping and writing out some Christmas cards. Then, after a quick lunch, Clark and I walked up to the post office and then grabbed an Uber ride out to the doctor's office. Whether taking Uber or Lyft, we seem to have trouble connecting with the drivers for pick up. Our driver today, however, answered the phone when I called her, and we managed to connect reasonably quickly and enjoy a pleasant chat as she drove us out to the doctor's office.

I have never had an MRI before, so this was a new experience. When I met with the MRI technician, he had a few questions for me, but the top of his list was "What kind of music do you like?" He told me to think about it and went to complete the MRI test currently in progress on another patient. When he finally came back about ten minutes later, I had an answer for him "New Country"!

The MRI tech took several minutes fluffing a pillow for me, giving me a blanket, and supplying me with headphones for my selected music. I felt very pampered until he started stuffing me into the MRI machine while telling me not to move a muscle for the next 30 minutes. Immediately after that, I told him my nose itched. Then the cord for the earphones wrapped itself around my neck and started strangling me. When I tried to adjust the cord, it pulled my blanket away. After a lot of fidgeting, I finally got settled in for the long haul ready to hang out in a metal cylinder for the next half hour.

Thank goodness for Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, and a cover for my eyes. They  all helped me remain relaxed and stationary through the process. Immediately after the test completed, I got to see the doctor and learned the good news that my rotator cuff is intact. The doctor's opinion, and what I had hoped to hear, is that with some physical therapy, I will be fine and do not need surgery. Yay! At the end of the visit, he gave me two shots of cortisone to "put out the fire" in my shoulder. It helped almost immediately.

With the Uber trip to the doctor's, the MRI test, the doctor discussion, and the Uber trip back to the boat, the appointment turned into an all-day event, or at least all afternoon. By the time we were back on board, I had decided that I wanted to go out to one of St. Pete's Irish Pubs for dinner to celebrate the good news. After a quick look around on the internet, I chose MacDinton's where we found a bit of traditional pub fare for dinner.

Walking back to the boat after dinner, we had a bit of a delay when we found the St. Petersburg "Jingle Bell Run" in progress on the street in front of the marina. We inadvertently timed it perfectly to arrive at the crosswalk at the busiest point in the race. We could see runners moving down the far side of the road with the middle of the road marked by paper bag lanterns.

Since the runners only ran on the far side of the road, we moved to the middle of the road to search for and grab the first opening to cross the road. We found none. As we waited, we found ourselves surrounded as the number of runners expanded to overflow to both sides of the road. Clark said the only way we could cross the road would be to join the runners long enough to cross over, so that is what we did. As we ran, it felt to me like we were boats being washed downstream by the current.

Our plan had been to come back to the boat to get a coupon and then go get dessert at Kilwins. Having successfully made it across the mass of people, we opted to forgo ice cream and hang out on board with a Christmas movie instead. Good movie! Good decision!

St. Petersburg, Florida - Cold, Wet, Windy

Thursday 12/7/2017 to Monday 12/11/2017
No Boat Travel

Now that we are not on the move every day, we have slipped back into the bad habit of sleeping in well past the 7:00 a.m. we targeted when traveling. Cloudy skies, cool-to-cold temperatures, and drizzle / rain tend to make us snuggle in to stay comfy in bed. On the bright side ... since we are bundling up in long pants, heavy shirts, and coats, we do not need to worry about sunburn!

When we woke up on Thursday morning (12/7), we found the neighboring buildings disappearing into the foggy mist.

Top of building lost in the fog

Foggy morning in St. Petersburg, Florida

Knowing we would be in St. Pete long enough to receive packages, we pre-ordered some items and had them shipped here. It seems like we take the long walk all the way around the marina to the marina office to collect a package or two nearly every day.  The marina office is nearby "as the crow flies" and easily seen from our boat.

View of Marina Office from our boat

Unfortunately, we can't travel "as the crow flies", and we have to walk down the street, across a bridge, and along the waterfront to get to the office. We pass the historic marker for "Demens Landing" on our way.

Historical Marker honoring a founder of St. Petersburg
from Russia

On Friday (12/8), I had a doctor's appointment to see an orthopedist here in St. Petersburg. We used Lyft to get a ride there. The doctor's office scheduler told me to be there at 12:45 for my 1:00 appointment to fill out paperwork, etc.  It is a 20-minute ride, and I allowed an extra 15 minutes to get there on time. Unfortunately, it took so long for the car to come pick us up that I barely made it for 1:00. The whole time I waited for the ride to appear (around 20 minutes), the app showed the car only 5 minutes away.

As it turned out, it did not matter that I did not arrive at the recommended time. The office waiting room had several folks who had gotten there before me. After a bit of a wait, a tech came out and got me to take some x-rays and then sent me back to the waiting room to wait some more.

Those who have been following my blog entries know that on October 24th, just before leaving on our trip to Florida, I fell about 4-to-5 feet through an open hatch in the salon of our boat. I went to the EMO in Middletown, New Jersey where they took x-rays and gave me the good news that they saw no evidence of a broken bone, and I should be up to 75% better by end of week. Needless to say, at the end of that week I was a long way away from 75% better.

Of course the orthopedist's office I visited in Florida took their own pictures. When I saw the doctor, I learned something pretty incredible, i.e. I broke my arm in the fall. Amazingly, I have been walking around, hopping on and off the boat, carrying fenders, and working boat lines with a fractured arm bone. No wonder it hurt! When the doctor said the bone was broken, I said, "... a hairline fracture?", and he said, "No, a true break." Since the break occurred about 6 weeks ago, it has almost healed. He said to allow two more weeks for it to be completely mended.

The x-rays taken in New Jersey showed my collar bone, which suffered no damage. An additional x-ray taken in Florida showed the break in my upper arm. Due to the location of the break, I doubt that I would have had a cast, but I do wonder what besides ice packs, heating pads, and lots of Motrin I might have done differently over the past few weeks had I known of the seriousness of the injury. Would I even be in Florida?

Besides the interesting news that my arm is healing from a fracture, I got some truly great news today. We will become grandparents again come June. Our son, Chris, and his wife, Heather, announced that they are expecting a boy! We could not be happier!

On Saturday (12/9), we decided to check out the St. Pete Farmer's Market. It's a large one with lots of good food. Honestly, we went a little crazy buying more than we should have including fruit, vegetables, bread, scones, a pumpkin pie, and lunch with cookies for dessert. Because the weather did not favor a large turn out, we got offered, and took advantage of, a number of discounted sales.

What had started out as a cool breeze and drizzle, turned into rain and wind that attempted to blow away tables and goods. In fact, one leg of the tent over the live musicians collapsed slightly due to the wind. The drummer looked at the tent askance since he was the closest to having the tent land on his head. Even so, he just kept playing. Clark and another market customer ran over and pushed the leg back up to support the tent. They got a smile and nod out of the drummer as he kept on playing.

Park near Farmer's Market

Scarcely-populated St. Petersburg Farmer's Market in the Rain

Besides the food and craft booths, we found a table with a collection of rescued birds. All of the birds on display have suffered some wing damage that rendered them unable to fly any significant distances.

Rescued Screech Owl

Rescued Hawk

Rescued Falcon named "Mel"
for Millennium Falcon from Star Wars
(full-grown, smallest of all falcons)

In addition to food and birds, we checked out the craft tables.

Hand-carved Santas for Sale

From block of wood to carved St. Nicholas 

Very Talented Balloon Artist making a balloon monkey
Is this Curious George?

We bought so much stuff that Clark's backpack was full to the top while I carried the bag with the pie separately. Clark suggested we head back to the boat to unload and then come back again to find a lunch vendor. After I had a meat pie, and Clark had a spinach and feta cheese pie, we found some multi-grain (oatmeal-like) cookies for dessert. Then we walked up to Publix to do the food shopping that we could not take care of at the Farmer's Market. Needless to say ... the fridge is very full!

Once we had stashed the food we bought at Publix on the boat, we made our daily trek over to the marina office to pick up today's packages. With it being the weekend, the fishermen were out in full force. Someone told me in passing that it is currently Mullet Fish season, so the fishermen are busy.

A few of the many
Mullet Fish Fishermen at St. Petersburg

Crane enjoying a fish discarded by a fisherman

The dreary, windy weather on Saturday caused the St. Petersburg Boat Parade scheduled for tonight to be canceled due to a "small craft advisory". Perhaps, one boater did not "get the memo" or did not care. A lone, decorated boat blasting Christmas carols came by out boat on their way to the dock at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

One-boat Boat Parade!

On Sunday (12/10) we mostly hung out on the boat except for our daily trip to the marina office. Along the way there, we saw a variety of birds.

Apparently Wires make good perches

Getting ready to dive for fish

One-legged nap time

Having received the soldering iron he ordered when we went for packages, Clark spent time in the afternoon rebuilding yet another alternator that he is redesigning to be externally regulated. While busy working, he noticed a big boat arrive at the marina. He came bounding into the salon to grab his binoculars, saying "Seastreak just showed up! I have to see if it is from New York."

Is that Seastreak at the marina?

Yes! Seastreak New Jersey to be specific.
Feels like home!

The pink glow in the background is as close to a sunset picture as we can get from the marina since we are surrounded by tall buildings allowing no view of the sunset.

On Monday (12/11), with Christmas rapidly approaching, we spent our morning online doing some shopping. We realized that we did not plan ahead for Christmas / Holiday cards, so I spent some time looking into that as well. After lunch we took the multi-block walk to the post office to mail gifts then to the drug store and Publix food store to pick up some items I forgot to get on Saturday's shopping trip. Afterwards, we made our daily stop at the marina office on the way back to the boat.

Clark ordered motor oil so he can do an oil change while here in St. Pete. When we got to the office, we found another three gallons waiting for us to carry back to the boat. Fortunately, the town recycling center is nearby, so we swung by there to drop off the cardboard on the way back to the boat. It's becoming a pattern as we have done it multiple times already. I certainly don't want all that cardboard on board the boat!

Fortunately, we have not had rain since Saturday, so our walks are chilly, not wet. I wish it would warm up just enough that I could ditch my coat. However, seeing the weather up north of here, even northern Florida, I count my lucky stars that I don't have to worry about hats, gloves, scarves, and boots as well!

St. Petersburg Pizza and Ice Cream

Wednesday 12/6/2017
No boat travel

We spent the morning doing boat chores including the dishes that I pretended did not exist last night. After lunch, Clark said we should go to the post office and then shopping for boat supplies. We walked the quarter mile to the post office to mail off some letters then haled a Lyft for a ride to our next stop.

In Florida, a boater staying over 90 days is required to purchase a sojourner's permit, i.e. temporary registration. We spent an hour at the tax collector's office trying to register our vessel. The first clerk to help us had no idea what we wanted even though we had the completed paperwork in hand. Ultimately, she handed us off to another clerk who at least knew how to process the paperwork. Because Florida does not prorate the charge for registrations, we decided to purchase the permit after Clark's birthday to save ourselves almost $200. The detailed explanation for this is a painfully, long story.

When we finally left there empty-handed, we called for another Lyft driver to take us to Fastenal to buy some wire connectors. The driver took us to the address supplied by Google where we found an art studio featuring work in clay. Fail! Fastenal had moved. We quick looked up Fastenal again and found an alternate location, so he took us there. Clark quick ran in and bought what he needed.

Next we asked the driver to take us to Walmart to buy motor oil. On the way there I determined that the store does not stock what Clark wants, so there was no point going there. The driver diverted to AutoZone and took us there instead. Fail! Clark ran in and found that AutoZone does not sell the special brand / variety of motor oil we need for Sunset Delight. Finally, we just had the driver take us back to the marina.

After all our running around, we only had a bag of wire connectors to show for our efforts. With the amount of money we spent on Lyft for the afternoon drive, we could have rented a car for the day. At least we had pleasant drivers. If I had spent less time looking at my phone and more time looking out the window, I would have gotten a good tour of the town.

Feeling no more like cooking tonight than I did last night, I suggested that we try one of the many restaurants St. Pete has to offer. Tonight I brought up the idea at 5:00 hoping that we would have time to find a place to go before I got "hangery" (it's a word - I looked it up). Unfortunately for me, however, Clark wanted to order the motor oil online before going out. By the time we had placed our online order and researched restaurants, I had a headache coming on. Uh oh!

We decided to check out two pizza restaurants to see which one we would like to try. As we approached the first one, about eight teenage girls walked into the restaurant in front of us. Since the place had only two tables, we decided to keep walking. We ended up at a place called 28 Grams where we found a very friendly owner using very fresh ingredients to make his pizza. The only drawback ... 28 Grams is a very small place offering only a bar and bar stools for seating.

After we left there, we walked over to Beach Drive in search of the Kilwins ice cream shop to have a sweet treat.

Chocolates, Fudge, Ice Cream
at Kilwins

Even though the fudge, chocolates, and candied apples appeared quite tempting, we made our way to the ice cream and made our selections. We sat outside to eat our dessert and then strolled slowly back to the boat.

Elephant statue on bench outside Kilwins

Alligator "lady" on bench down the street

Bird statue on next bench down the street

We walked through a park on our way back to the boat to admire the holiday decorations celebrating Kwanza, Hanukkah, and Christmas. 

Menorah, Dreidel, and "Peace on Earth" display

Manger Scene for Christmas

Candy Cane and Package Scene for Christmas

We heard the sunset cannon boom again tonight as we sat on board trying to decide on a restaurant.

Arrive St. Petersburg, Florida

Tuesday 12/5/2017
Depart: Manatee River Anchorage 11:00
Arrive: St. Petersburg Municipal Marina 2:00
Distance: 20 nm

Once again we had a leisurely morning before heading on our way. Our route today took us across Tampa Bay to Saint Petersburg, Florida.

We noticed when anchoring that the anchor chain on our boat appeared to be twisted. Since we have been anchoring in waters around 6' to 15' deep mostly, we have not had an opportunity to untwist our chain which is longer than the water has been deep. Crossing Tampa Bay, Clark noticed we passed over an area that showed 50' deep on our depth finder. He decided to put the boat in neutral / drift mode and drop the anchor to let it unwind itself. Prior to that, his plan had been to try to drop the anchor on the dock at a marina and untwist it manually. This worked much better with almost no work on Clark's part other than lowering and raising the anchor.

Crossing Tampa Bay towards St. Petersburg, we passed under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge on way to St. Petersburg, Florida

It's a tall one!
No bridge openings and no need to wait for an opening here!

Looking back after passing under bridge

As boaters know, but non-boaters may not realize, there are no rear-view mirrors on a boat (or at least not on any boat we have ever owned). Consequently, it is the pilot's job to look around and be aware of other approaching vessels including those that come up from behind. Clark is good at this. I have to admit it is not my strong point.

Making our way across Tampa Bay towards St. Pete, Clark spied a rather large vessel coming up from the rear. He pulled out his binoculars and saw that it was a Coast Guard vessel. Clark haled the CG vessel on the VHF radio and was told that they needed the whole channel for the depth of their cutter.  Since the water was deep enough, Clark moved over to outside of the channel to be sure to stay out of their way. Otherwise, they had wanted us to pull to one side to let them pass.

USCG vessel coming up behind us  in channel
(we are outside of channel to give them room)

We thought they would pass us, but with a strong current in our favor, we were moving at over 10 kts. It appeared that very, very slowly they might be catching up to us, but it was unclear. Finally, because Clark knew we needed to turn off into St. Pete shortly, he slowed the boat to let them catch up and pass.

USCG Vessel 556  "Joshua Appleby" 

As it turned out, the USCG vessel turned off towards St. Petersburg before we did, so we had no need to worry about crossing in front of them. Happily, we got a picture out of the deal.

USCG boat heading into St. Petersburg

We traveled a short distance beyond where the USCG boat had turned to take a channel leading us into the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina. After calling on the VHF radio twice and getting no response, Clark called the marina on the phone. They instructed us to pull up to the fuel dock where a dock hand greeted us with the mail we had shipped here, a paper with our slip assignment, and a key to the restroom. We did not have to tie up. I just reached over the side of the boat to get our "goodies" and hoped I wouldn't drop them into the water!


Finding our "slip" turned out to be a struggle, because they did not assign us a slip exactly. I had asked if I should plan for a port or starboard tie. What we got was a side tie. Normally this is great, but in this case, we were appalled by the condition of the end of the dock. The dock itself is made of concrete. The end of which is very rough from wear.

Pilings lined up in front of the concrete keep a docking boat from getting too close. This is good from an "avoiding scratches" point of view but bad for "getting on / off the boat". I could tell that if we pulled up parallel to the dock, I would be spending the next 30 days on board because there would be no way for me to get off the boat. I mentioned this to the dock hand. Ultimately, we tied up with our stern tucked in and our bow sticking out.

The level of difficulty for embarking / disembarking changes as the tide changes and the gap between the boat and the dock increases or decreases in width. Mandy, from Shell Belle, labeled the various antics one has to go through to get on and off the boats at dock "Boat Yoga" because you never know what position you will need to get into.

View from our boat in St. Petersburg Marina

Sadly, we did not get a sunset picture tonight even though we got notice of sundown when we heard the loud sound of a cannon boom. I did not feel like cooking, but I also did not feel like going through the ordeal of finding a restaurant that we both could agree on. Ultimately, I cooked hot dogs and called it a night.