Dunedin, Florida

It was just a 7 mile jaunt down to Dunedin and Marker 1 Marina on Saturday the 19th which allowed us to wait for the tide to rise before we left and to greet a flottila of 5 boats that came into Tarpon Springs Saturday from crossing the Gulf. We were the keepers of their float plan and it was fun to compare crossing stories when they arrived.

Our plan is to stay in Dunedin until Monday the 28th, do some exploring, meet up with some loopers we have not seen in awhile, head to some beaches...whatever "floats our boat". Speaking of floating our boat, this is some pretty skinny water (shallow). You have to pay very close attention to tide swings (which can be up to 4 feet). There are times we know we are actually sitting right on the bottom (very soft and mucky)...just crazy. I am still trying to figure out the docks as they have very short finger (side) docks about 15 feet long (at home they are 30,40 or 50 feet long). Here we always have to stern (back) into our slip so that we can get off the boat. The problem is trying to get the dinghy off the back, so we are reevaluating the best way to accomplish that.
The marina is in close proximity to the Pinellas Trail, which is a 39-mile-long bicycle and pedestrian trail which we plan to take advantage of. They also have a Jolly Trolley, for just $5/day you can get on and off as many times as you want and it runs from Tarpon Springs to Clearwater. The best part is it will pick you up anywhere on the route, just stand in a safe area, flag them down and they stop.
For you baseball fans this is the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Some of the highlights of the week so far; we spent Sunday in downtown Dunedin with Colleen and Dave from Moon Shadow at the art and craft show and lunch, a looper get together at Cricketers, exploring Clearwater Beach and walking to Honeymoon Island.

Happy Thanksgiving from Florida! For Thanksgiving we rented a car and drove to Daytona Beach to spend the day with good friends, Bev and Ozzie (best man in our wedding) and their "southern family". Food was wonderful and the company was fantastic! Thank you again for including us in your Thanksgiving plans! Friday morning before driving back to Dunedin, Ozzie and Bev took us for a tour of Daytona Beach which included driving on the beach. 

Sponge Docks at Tarpon Springs

 

Prudi from Rascal's Retreat, Eric & Robin from

Robin's Nest and Mike & Becky from True North

The chefs, Bev and her sister Barb

The Thanksgiving tree where we hung

our leaves with what we are thankful for

Ozzie, Bev, Karen and Mark

People are starting to decorate their boats in the marina

for the parade December 3