The real Florida

Hello from Tarpon Springs.

We arrived here at The Landings marina on Friday, via an anchorage at Cedar Key on Thursday night, where we were able to put in the dinghy and motor across the small area to an island. Dinah loved running on the sand as much as we enjoyed the whole experience. For the morning trip ashore, Jack took her to the nearby boat ramp amidst fishermen launching boats. Happily, both Thursday and Friday were good-traveling seas, with sunshine, and even enough warmth to travel the last 3 hours from the upper station! FYI, we have traveled about 1100 miles since we left Cuba Landing.

Our friends Joan and Tony on Destrier left this morning, planning to arrive in Ft Myers (some 160 mi) by tomo night. And we are leaving as soon as our laundry dries, headed only a few miles to Caladesi State Park, known for its beaches. We'll walk those beaches for you and soak up some sun.

We are tied up just across from the Sponge Docks where all the Greek restaurants are, as well as shops and information on the history of the sponge diving and the continuing Greek migration. Facinating stuff! Just up the street is St Nicholas Cathedral, and Greek schools, community centers, and best of all, bakeries! We have walked the area, biked much of the town on wonderful bike paths (former railroad tracks), and eaten Greek food at many occasions, some on our own and some with Joan and Tony on Destrier.

Happily, we have reduced the number of blankets on the bed at night, reduced the number of sweatshirts in the mornings, and are down to t-shirts and tank tops :) during the day today. (See picts). Windows are open, and we'll be traveling from the upper station today without the windshield. Ummm.

We attended the local UMC on Sunday... and were blessed by the service. And, by the way, we are realizing the importance of really welcoming visitors and of keeping one's church website current and accurate: that's one of the first things we check when we settle into a marina on a weekend. And we keep in touch, we also appreciate the conference listserv, the prayer chain info, the church-newsletters from home that we are able to access, and, of course, your personal emails.

You're gonna see picts of our calm waters, of the marina with a restaurant named for Jack :), displays of the sponges, us with Joan and Tony at Hellas on Saturday night, and picts to verify the warm temps, taken this morning!

Our intentions, always to be modified by the weather and the winds, are to move fairly slowly down the coast, and to get to Ft Myers within the next week. There are several anchorages that friends ahead of us have recommended, and we're looking to try them out!

No exercises for you armchair cruisers in this blog: sit back and enjoy the sunshine with us!

Sailing smoothly.
nan and jack