Crossing the Gulf to Clearwater Beach, FL

We had a wonderful trip across the Gulf, but it took us a whole extra day to get here! We left Pensacola Sunday morning, and hardly had any wind, but it was pretty lumpy, and poor Pete threw up after a couple hours of rocking around (he should've eaten his breakfast!!) Things calmed down when we got to deeper water, and both dogs were great the whole trip! I'd forgotten how gorgeous it is on the boat at night with all those stars, falling stars, satellites, and UFO's (kidding!). We took turns with 3 hour watches, starting at 8 pm, and only saw a few boats all 3 nights! It was like having the Gulf of Mexico all to ourselves! I was on watch yesterday morning listening to the radio and heard they were about to launch Space-X at 3:45 am from Cape Canaveral, so I woke Daren up so he could see the red streak in the sky. It was pretty cool to see it! How many people are up at 3:45?! A little yellow bird landed on our bimini top just before dark Monday night and spent the night inside the cabin, safe from the 2 bird dogs, then flew off the next morning! It was so cute, I took a picture! Yesterday morning, after 50 hours of motoring, we ran out of diesel! It was SO nice and quiet, and we had just enough wind to do 3 knots, so we didn't put the 2 jerry cans of diesel in until this morning, on the way in to Clearwater, which we decided was better than Tarpon Springs and a bit farther south. Our whole trip was 325 miles, took us 69 hours, with an average speed of 4.5 knots and a max of 8! (Aren't GPS's fun?) Also, we love Raytheon, our autopilot! We arrived at Clearwater Municipal Marina at noon today and topped off the diesel and water tanks. It's $2/ft/night to stay there... $72 for our boat, so we joined the boats anchored nearby! We rowed back to a waterfront restaurant and treated ourselves to lunch and groceries with the money we'd saved by anchoring! : ) A new friend from the anchorage, Stephanie, said this is the boat-friendliest town they've been to! She and her husband, Peter have 2 dogs on their 30' sailboat Tally Ho! We all walked our dogs on the beach and came back to our boat for a great visit. They've been all over the Caribbean and Bermuda and Cuba, too. We'd love to get to know them better, but are anxious to get down to Ft. Myers, and plan to leave in the morning.

Leaving Pensacola

It's not as easy as it sounds! We've had SUCH a great time here, it's tempting to stick around until sister Judy gets here in July, except for those pesky HURRICANES!! We said our goodbyes yesterday afternoon and anchored over by the Gulf entrance and Donut Island, where the dogs can run without fear of getting tickets from park rangers! We got things battened down with the idea of leaving this evening and sailing overnight to Panama City. Then Daren realized the wind would be right on the nose, so we'll leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) and go straight to Tarpon Springs. We should arrive in about 50 hours, on Monday morning. The weather couldn't be prettier, so we should have a lovely trip. It'll be interesting to see how the dogs manage without seeing land for so long, but it'll be a good experience for all of us! We'll let you know!

Fun in Pensacola!

It's hard to believe we're still here anchored by Judy's house! Here it is, May 8th, my sister Barb's birthday! The Regata Al Sol leaves tomorrow....without us! We've been having such a nice time, and we're getting lots of things done, but we keep thinking of more things to do! Karen's been so nice running me around! We went to Homeland Security for a zarpe (clearance from the US to Mexico) last week. It's never been required, but recently a sailboat "Judy Ann" was confiscated by the Isla Mujeres authorities for lack of one, so we're not taking any chances! It could be months before they get their boat back, so please pray for them. We went to Dub and Katie's for home church Tuesday night and it was really interesting...about the Gospel of Paul. They have been SO helpful letting me use their laundry machines and taking us to get diesel and propane and making copies for Mexico! I hope I can be as helpful to others, but they set the bar pretty high!! : ) Daren decided to get the full mainsail-repair treatment and we put it back on the boat Sunday afternoon. It's nice to know it'll last awhile! We had a couple days of nasty weather, so we moved the boat across to a protected spot by Perdido Key. The dogs loved running around and swimming in an uninhabited spot, but it was nice to get back over here in time for a surprise visit from our Missouri friends Terry and RaDonna last Friday. They'd driven to Alabama to see their youngest daughter and her husband and their latest grandbaby! It was fun to celebrate my bday just one day late with Boar's Head sandwiches from Publix grocery store. Yum! We all agreed this is the best view in town! Daren's doing some design work for our good friend, Don and we may be here a few more days or a week! We're still undecided about our next stop: Isla Mujeres or somewhere on the west coast of Florida! We heard from our Rockport sailing friends Sue and Al, who are on their way back to Florida from the Bahamas, and it would sure be fun to see them, as well as Alfred, Monika, Tom, and Jodie and Tracy. Meanwhile, Karen and her Dad are making some serious headway on the house, and I've been able to help a bit, too. Pete and Libby are quite happy hanging out at the house while Daren's drawing on the boat!