11/29/2018
Depart: Regatta Pointe Marina Bradenton 12:45
Arrive: Gulfport Municipal Marina 3:25
Distance: 21 NM
This morning good news came with a phone call telling Clark that he could come collect his display unit. As soon as we could get ourselves together, we made our way out to the front of the marina to call for a ride from Lyft. Magically, Lyft must have read my mind that I would be needing a ride because only the night before I got a 10% off coupon in my email. Good timing on their part as I would have gone to Uber as my default choice.
We did not get off the boat last night after docking, so we got our first look around as we walked out to the street for our ride.
 |
| Regatta Pointe Marina, Palmetto, Florida |
 |
| Floating Chapel at Marina |
 |
| Now a private home |
 |
| Restaurant, Restrooms, and Laundry Facilities |
The Lyft driver took us to our stop, waited for Clark to collect the unit and pay, and then drove us back to the marina. Very carefully, Clark carried his display unit back to the boat.
 |
| Raymarine Chart Plotter Display |
Since we needed groceries and Publix was only .9 miles away, we grabbed our bikes and took off for the grocery store almost as soon as we got back from our Lyft ride. It was a bit chilly but we still enjoyed the outing. We even found some sights to explore on the way back from the store.
 |
| Palmetto Historical Park |
 |
| Palmetto Historical Park |
 |
Military Museum
at Palmetto Historical Park |
 |
| Chapel at Palmetto Historical Park |
We have started to see more and more Christmas decorations. Today we found Santa on a boat.
 |
| Santa on the flybridge; The Grinch on the bow |
We finally left Palmetto just before one and headed over the bay to the St. Petersburg area and Gulfport specifically. As we prepared to leave, Clark said, "We can take the shorter way or the longer way to get there." Obviously there was a catch to taking the shorter route. Apparently, it offered a lot more areas of low water to watch out for. Naturally, we took the shorter path.
 |
| Shoaling to the port |
 |
| Shoaling to the starboard |
 |
| "Danger Shallow Water" |
 |
Carcass of an old shipwreck
near Danger Shallow Water sign |
I shouted out depths as we crossed to the Gulfport area. The depth differences were amazing. Keeping to the channel, we saw 22 feet and 0.9 feet of water and just about everything in between. We had to be on constant alert. We were very happy to see the entrance to the Gulfport Municipal Marina.
 |
| Gulfport Marina - just around the corner |
We were last at this marina as part of our Great Loop trip in December 2015. It brought back fun memories to come back here.
 |
| View of the marina from our boat |
 |
| Gulfport Marina docks |
 |
| The docks at Gulfport Marina |
 |
| Docks at Gulfport Marina |
Clark's cousin, Dawn, lives in a town near Gulfport. Since we would be in the area, he made arrangements for her to meet us for dinner tonight. She picked us up at 6:00 and drove us to the Gulfport Family Diner. We had a short but very pleasant visit while she took a break from work.
When the waitress came to tell us she needed to collect the rest of our dishes for the last load in the dishwasher, we knew we had overstayed our welcome and needed to leave the restaurant. Dawn took us back to the docks where we decided we needed to commemorate our get together with a group photo.
Clark tried to set the camera timer to take our picture. It did not work well. We laughed so hard that one of the local boaters on the dock came up to investigate our antics. Clark talked him into taking our photo. When Dawn said, "... and we haven't even been drinking", he replied, "Yeah, and I believe that one." As he took the pictures, he kept making comments about the guy with two gals.
After multiple attempts, we got a couple of keepers.
 |
| Dawn and Ev |
 |
| 3 Trouble makers - Clark, Ev, and Dawn |
No comments:
Post a Comment