John and Mary's Loop Adventure: Clearwater, FL

As it tuned out we stayed in Hudson until Monday when we had a very nice and smooth crossing to the municipal marina in Clearwater, which is near the beach. Kismet was still here and helped us get into the slip. They crossed over with us but ran a little faster and came all the way to Clearwater rather than stopping at Hudson.

Two of the many sticks into Hudson from the Gulf.

After our delicious celebratory dinner the night after the crossing, we borrowed Kerm's truck and went to West Marine to look for a replacement VHF radio for the bridge. The original radio had been problematic for a couple of months and stopped transmitting during the crossing. We had two hand held VHF radios so were ok. After much deliberation John chose one which has an AIS receiver. AIS is a system that will identify commerical ships via radio waves before you can see them. It would have been great to have had this on the rivers. Better late than never I guess.

Friday night there was a second celebration for Kerm and Chris at a place right on the water with a great view of the sunset.

Southern Belle's gold flag with their mascot Waren and the Christmas tree Mary from Mary Frances gave them.

Having celebratory drinks of champagne aboard Southern Belle

The second night of celebrations.

Sunset views from the restaurant.

We had originally planned to leave on Saturday with Mary Frances and Duddon Pilot but needed another stop at West Marine and Chris and Kerm suggested we go check out the Pasadena Mariana where we were going to leave the boat while we go home for the holiday's. Well it was quite a long road trip all stop and go and Kerm's truck is a stick with a very stiff clutch. We had decided to have the boat hauled to have the bottom painted and an engine sea strainer installed at a yard that Kerm recommended in Tarpon Springs. We figured if Kerm had work on Southern Belle done there it must be good.

The initial thought was to have Kerm & Chris move the boat from Tarpon Springs to Pasadena but after realizing how far the Pasadena marina was we decided to just leave the boat on the hard while we are gone. So we decided to go to Clearwater first then head back to Tarpon Springs after stopping at Caladesi Island which is a State Park and highly recommended as a nice stop. The boat will be hauled first thing Tuesday morning, which will leave us enough time to get to the airport for our afternoon flight to Salt Lake City and the grand kids.

Sunday was supposed to be a do nothing day, well sort of. We washed the outside of the boat again, it seems to attract salt just sitting still. John put die electric grease on all the exterior electrical connections. Mary cleaned all the windows. We lowered the dinghy and had a leisurely tour of the canals with Chris and Kerm. They showed us their lot and then took us to a bar along the canal for a beer and fresh peel and eat shrimp appetizer. We then went back to their boat for a farewell drink.

We desperately needed to do laundry which was a bit of a challenge due to only one working washer. On Tuesday after finishing up the laundry, we took a long up and down the beach. When we returned Grianan had just arrived. We had last seen Greg and Kate when we left Panama City after Thanksgiving. Shortly after they arrived 5 other Loopers arrived. Even though they had a smoother crossing than ours they still had stories to tell. It is quite a feat to cross over 160 miles of open ocean in a small boat.

Wednesday we worked on the shower sump that stopped working this morning and took another long walk. Carol and Rich from Salt and Sand came in late last night from their crossing so it was good to catch up with them. We plan on having dinner with them and Ross and Nancy who we last had seen up in Sturgeon Bay when they completed their loop. They have a condo in St. Pete so they are not traveling with their boat this time. Its fun to run into friends we have not seen for awhile.