Blue Moon Sails Away: On the way to Clearwater

The trip from Tarpon Springs was comfortably slow. The wind wasn't in our favor so we motored down the ICW from Anclote Key to Clearwater Yacht Club where we had made reservations. The way was scenic and relaxing, until, wait for it, we ran aground!! To sailors, this is quite embarrassing and I was at the wheel so doubly embarrassing as the "woman driver" stigma. In my defense, I was within the channel on the chart plotter and inside the marks but close. Like all sand, it had moved where it wanted and it wanted to be inside the channel and under our keel. I tried all the usual things of backing off, turning to deeper water with full power to no avail. Then we raised sail, David hung on to the end of the boom all in an attempt to lean the boat enough to break us loose. Mind you, we pay for towing insurance but it is the call of shame and last resort for Mr. Tye. With a falling tide and sunset approaching, we made the call.With an hours wait ahead of us, we watched the other boats navigate in the deeper water just feet away. Then, a power boat came by throwing up a huge wake. Ordinarily we'd consider this to be extremely rude but that day we hoped the wake could lift us off the bar and we'd power to deep water. Thankfully, that is exactly what happened and we bumped our way along to better water and on to the yacht club. Once past all other grounding possibilities, we call Towboat US and canceled the cry for rescue. Once we were settled and went to the Tiki Bar for refreshments we met our rescuers. They were on the return trip from a parade in downtown Tampa and a few on board were sailors and immediately recognized our plight. They had hoped they had shaken us free and we were all happy with the outcome. Small world for sure. Sorry no pictures of the grounding, I was a tad busy.

Houses along the ICW. This is typical in Florida now, huge houses built close together all along the water. In more urban areas, the houses are replaced by condos to stack the tourists in.

Dunedin Bridge going up for us. Sorry drivers.

The bridge works always fascinate me. The giant gears and machinery to make it all work

This a a gulf side spoil island. Since it takes much more of the brunt of wind and waves, the vegetation is mostly scrubby mangroves. The spoil is the result of dredging the channel.