On to Gulfport

After a pleasant time at the bird sanctuary, it was time to move back south to Boca Ciega Bay.  Some friends from our part of Florida, Rich and Kathy, have made the crossing and are going to be there.  They told us about an anchorage just to the east of the Pinellas bridge that we checked out on our way.  From there we met up with them and anchored just off the city of Gulfport.  We anchored in the area when we were on our trip bringing Sanctuary home after we first purchased her.  At the time, we were in a hurry to get home and didn't stop to explore.  I'm so glad we did this time.  Gulfport is an extremely great place to visit.  David calls it a small version of Portland, Oregon.  Funky, friendly and fun. They had a street vendor Holiday Hoopla the second day we were there.  The Hoopla highlight was a boat parade with about 20 well decorated boats participating. We shared some great meals on Rikava and some ashore.  Rich's cousin graciously gave rides to do laundry and grocery shop.  The kindness of people never ceases to amaze me!  We spent one night in the city marina and were able to get the bikes out and tour the whole town.  We could easily have spent more time if we didn't have other spots we wanted to see on the list.  Highly recommend a visit whether by car or boat.

The sunrise at the bridge anchorage was phenomenal.

All this beauty holds its down side.  Red sky in morning Sailor take warning.
It did rain the rest of the day!

This bird was on our bow at the city marina.  His plummage was outstanding.

David was able to get really close to capture this one.

Cute cottages like this were all over town.  This was someone's home
as far as we could tell.

The large park was full of interesting works of art such as this mosaic crown.

The main water side street as seen from the dingy dock.

Now as seen from a local cafe/bar.



This youngster is on a dingy under the dock.  I know we seem to post a lot
of these but David and I both seem to have a weird fascination with both
the beauty of the bird and how close we can get to them.

A mosaic chess piece.

These are obviously played judging by the wear on them.  Nice to have
art that is not only beautifully unique but melodic as well.



Here comes my ride from Mass.  I had to walk about 3 miles and his
feet are good for a few blocks so he cleaned the boat.

The Gulfport casino and dance hall.  Nice people there gave us so much
useful information about the area.  There has never actually been in any gambling
but I guess it sounds good.for tourism.  The sculpture out front may look like
reindeer but they are actually pelicans.



After a long bike ride Monday, it was nice to sit
and have a drink at this arty sidewalk cafe.



Typical street in Gulfport.

Looks like a  close anchorage from a distance but not really.  Rikava
is in the foreground with Blue Moon to the left.  No one was ever on the
trimaran.

Snowy egret rules!

We are always trying to save energy usage to enable us to stay
longer at anchor without running the engine.  That being said, we do
like our creature comforts like lights, tv and watching movies
so generously provided by good friend Joanna.  To make that happen
we wanted to do a little electrical work so the cabin became a workshop.







There were so many beautifully decorated boats but they moved
too quickly for this photographer.

Our little contribution to the festivities.

David setting up our little traveling Christmas Tree.  We want to be at least
a small part of the parade.

It has turned out to be a good modification.  That little black circle next
to the light is a 12V (old cigarette lighter type) outlet.  With this, we can plug in a small
inverter that will power the tv and dvd player.  David installed one on the other side before
we left and that is where I put in a charger for the phones/tablet.