First Posted November 2013

  We got the chance through a friend of ours to do some cruising on the west coast of Florida.  That wasn't the plan but it sure worked out ok.

Friend Paul has a big boat that he was keeping in Palmetto and takes every chance he can to sail this really nice boat.  He had  a conference in New Orleans and our plan was to do  passage across the Gulf, spend a few days in the Big Easy and then sail back.  We had planned on being in NOLA for Halloween which would have been fun.  But as with all things sailing sometimes plans don't work out and you do something different.

Paul's IP

  We arrived in hot, humid , loving that!, Palmetto on a Saturday in October.  Paul had already been there couple of days so he was ready to go.  We had no sooner got our stuff on board and bent the main sail on and we we out into the Manatee River for an evening sail.  Maybe we should have read the directions?  The main is an in-mast furling system.  Paul had some work done on it and the guy left the sail without putting it back on and Paul had never put it on himself.  Easy right?  Attach the halyard, put the luff in the groove, haul away and furl it in.  Once out in the middle of the river things just didn't work.  Joan and I had never dealt with in-mast furling so it was a little new to us.  Paul figure the way to fix it was to go up  the mast.  Up he went in the bosun chair.  Good news is he had a big electric primary winch.  (Note self "get one of those")  After 45 minutes the sail was back in the mast and we thought we would try it again, same result. This time I go up the mast to unjam  it.  The good news is that from the top of a 64 foot stick you can sure see a long way.  The Skyway bridge over Tampa Bay is sure pretty from up there.  Next time I go up I'm wearing a helmet and pads as the wakes really throw you around.  No sail that night but we learned having at least one electric winch might not be such a bad idea.  The short of it is that the luff needed to be in the groove of the furler.  Once we got that sorted out, "yes dear next time we will read the directions."   We got the boat provisioned, squared away and off we went sailing.

  We had intended to look at a boat or two that were on our short list while we were down here.  There is a Gulfstar 44 up in St Petersburg and we called the broker and set up an appointment on Monday morning.  We decided it would be good to sail up there as it probably would take as long as driving with rush hour traffic plus we would be closer to the airport to pick up our other crew member.  Had a great sail out of Tampa bay past the historic Egmont Key and then into the Passe Grill inlet.  Lots of fun crossing the main shipping channel and then into the inlet that had lots of skinny water.  We get in and our enjoying the cruise when the wanna be rocket man comes and buzzes the boat.  Not sure what these are called but this guy was making passes at all the boats and was way below our mast height, and he wasn't a young guy, but still had a big grin on his face.

We ended up the day in the little town of Gulfport Fl.  This is on the southwestern edge of St Pete.  Nice little old Florida town with a nice pier and old casino.  They were ballroom dancing in the casino which was really fun to watch.  We dropped the hook and dingied in.  There were a number of places to eat and drink right on the water front.  You could eat and watch your boat at the same time.  Anchored at the dock was an old (1930s) steel hulled working sailboat.  There was a young guy on it who bought it and was fixing it up.  He was very proud of his ship and someday it will be a real beauty.

The next morning we got up and motored north up to the marina where the Gulfstar was moored.  It was very, very skinny water.  We ran aground 3 times.  Fortunately in soft sand so we were able to back out.  We finally made it to the dock with the broker helping us tie up.  He was more excited to take a tour of our boat than we were of the Gulfstar.  Really nice guy he got a chuckle about us pulling up in Paul's boat to look at rather tired Gulfstar.

 While there we were able to watch five or 6 manatee play right behind the boat.  They are such fascinating creatures. Unfortunately one had some very fresh prop marks right down their back.

  We left there to sail across Tampa Bay with the plan to spend a couple of nights at the St Petersburg Yacht Club.  While we belong to a yacht club it is not in the same class as this beautiful facility.  But then again I don't have to put on a collared shirt just to eat pub grub in the bar.