Last stop before open Gulf water

We cleared ST Petersburg Municipal Marina a bit after 8 AM and cruised south down the western side of Tampa Bay until we turned west to go under the causeway leading to the Sunshine Skyway and into the ICW. We were lucky in bridge timings as well as with a following current most to the way today. With the winds a bit adverse to a quiet anchorage at Anclote Key, I decided to check out the power plant canal just off the Anclote River a couple of miles east of Anclote. We arrived at the canal and anchored at bit after 3 PM. This place is well protected from the wind and wave action of the bay out at Anclote. We are also just off the boat ramp at a public park and subject to the wakes of the boats being launched and recovered there. All that activity will probably become minimal as darkness comes on.


Seminole rafted alongside, and Mary and Jackie put together a nice steak dinner. We may not be able to raft tomorrow night in the more exposed anchorage of Cedar Key.

Mary got a slow start today as regards her recovery, but tonight she is much more animated and herself again.  She will need to be for tomorrow.

Our trip to Cedar Key will cover about 70 statute miles of open water, probably full of crab pot floats. We will not be going all the way into the harbor there because the channel is so long, and we would have to reverse many miles down it to get headed for Dog Island the next day.

The seas are predicted to be around 2 feet or less, and the light winds from the south. During the night tomorrow, we hope to see light and variable winds at anchorage off Cedar Key. As we head out toward Dog Island for the 123 mile run on Wednesday, we are again seeing small seas predicted and 10-knot or less winds backing from south to east and then northeast.

Of course, predictions are just that, and our boat is only 42 feet long upon a big ocean. We will be prepared for whatever Mother Nature serves up – we taken nothing for granted. This brings to mind that in the sunken nuclear submarine Thresher there is reputed to have been a plaque which read, “Oh, God, your ocean is so big, and my boat is so small.”