Davis Island YC

This club is the last on our list for Florida Council of Yacht Clubs on the west coast of Florida.  Too bad we waited so long to visit.  It is a superb place to meet some extremely nice and friendly people.  This is a sailing/racing club par excellence.  They have a wide variety of boat types and they host many nationally famous regattas.  All the people were so inviiting and made us feel so welcome.  When the storm was due to hit, one of the past commodores arranged for us to be in a more comfortable slip.  We really enjoyed our time there.  With bicycles we were able to get out and explore downtown Tampa and the surrounding neigborhoods.  If we weren't trying to jump on a weather window to cross the gulf, we would definitely stayed longer.

Our view from our first slip.  The club is located in a small, circular
basin that is theoretically a seaplane basin.  There is an airport just across the
basin from the club so we had fun watching the comings and goings of some
very unique and interesting planes.  Seaplanes are extremely rare but
boats still have to avoid anchoring in certain areas.

The main Tampa ship channel runs the other side of the little spit of land that
joins the main part of David Island with the club area. We saw quite a few ships
using the channel.  Still looks funny!

The DIYC club house from across the water.

We had front row seats to watch the weather roll in from
the safety and comfort of the bar stools on the second floor.

I took the official photo of David for the upcoming newsletter introducing the
new Fort Walton YC officers.  He had on shorts and flipflops that you can't see.

The houses on David Island ranged from overblown mansions to quirky cottages.
This was one of my favorites.  A gardener's yard with creative accents.

I loved her Florida santa and sleigh.

Sadly, the basin near the club is full of boats that have seen their better days.
This boat obviously burned to the waterline yet still remains to impede the
movement of other boats.  The city is trying to clean things up but it's slow going.
Some homeless people have squatted on some of the derelict boats creating a whole
other layer of beaucracy to deal with.
 

This boat was aptly named Shoestring.  I guess rather than rescue is original
dingy when it sank, he just got another one.