We're in Palmetto. Yea!

Hello All:

We finally got a couple of really good weather days and crossed the Gulf from Steinhatchee to Clearwater. It is about 120 miles. We left at dawn and arrived close to dusk. The water was a little rough early in the morning but smoothed out as the day went on.

Yesterday we cruised the Intercoastal Waterway from Clearwater to Palmetto. We'll be here at Riveria Dunes Marina until the end of March. Today we are renting a car and driving back to Steinhatchee to get ours. We are planning to stop in Tarpon Springs for lunch - love that Greek food. I'll try to get pictures of the sponge fishing boats. We loved the ICW and are glad that we did not go outside. It takes a little longer but it was more interesting. We did not have any problems with bridges. There was only one railroad bridge that had to open for us. One highway bridge was really close. We had only about a foot to spare. Crossing Tampa Bay was no problem with calm waters and pretty good markings.

We are having a little problem with our navagation electronics - it is giving us about a 10 degree variance. That is something we'll have to work out.

I left the cord to dump pictures onto the computer at home so will have to show those to you later. We're going home around the 4th or 5th of January for a week. Would love to hear from everyone.

Happy New Year to all. See you out there somewhere!
Rob & Ann

We're home again 12/12

Hi Everyone - we came home on Dec 8th.

We left Steinhatchee, Florida (directly west of Gainesville for those of you who don't know where that is) and came home a few days earlier that expected. There was supposed to be several days of high winds and big waves so we decided to ditch it and catch up at home. We crossed the Gulf from Appalachicola (southwest of Tallahassee) to Steinhatchee on the 6th in fairly rough water - at least rough for those of us who are used to the inland lakes and rivers. Terry, a friend from Nashville, flew down and crossed with us. I have decided that 3-4 foot waves is about my limit. I did not get sick but came close. In fact, all 3 of us fought it all day. Not a lot of fun. We did see lots of dolphins in the bay which was very cool. Steinhatchee is a really beautiful little fishing village. Totally isolated, clean water - lots of atmosphere. We'll enjoy visiting it again. Apalachicola is also beautiful with lots of shrimp and oyster boats and little seafood factories lining the waterways. We are looking forward to going back there someday also. Hopefully when it is a little warmer. It was REALLY cold the last week or so. In the teens or 20s at night and 50s in the daytime - not what you would expect anywhere in Florida.

We have had THE BEST seafood. Appalachocola is the oyster capital of the world, I think. The restaurant at the marina had about 25 different ways to prepare them and you could order any combination. Absolutely fabulous! The oysters were taken right off the boat into the kitchen. Talk about your fresh seafood.

Our plan is to leave Nashville around the 23rd, cross the rest of the Gulf to the Tarpoon Springs area or on to Palmetto (the south side of Tampa Bay) if we have time. We have been invited to go to Bimini with Terry and Ann on their boat between Christmas and New Years - assuming the weather is good. Will keep you updated.

See you out there somewhere . . .
Rob & Ann