Captain's Choice blog: Moving on down the ICW

We ended our week+ stay at Marker 1 Marina by taking a bike ride back to Honeymoon Island and walking the 3 beaches for several miles. On Sunday we climbed aboard the Jolly Trolley and went to Tarpon Springs for dinner at Rusty Bellies. We had tried to go there last Monday but they were closed, who would have thought? They have their own fishing boats and it promised to be fresh seafood so Mark tried it all by ordering Rusty's Pot Belly with shrimp, crab, oysters, mussels, clams...it was a hit! We ran into Herb (Tarpon Springs harbor host) and he had just made reservations so we joined him, his sister and niece for good conversation as we ate.

Time to start making our way further south so on Monday we left for an anchorage outside Gulfport. Once again we were greeted by dolphins and pelicans along the way. We anchored in 10' of water along with a bunch of sailboats. Some of them are now inhabited by birds and I am thinking their owners forgot where they anchored them. Actually we are finding a number of derelict boats since entering Florida waters. We dinghied over to the Town of Gulfport...memo to self "do not go to small towns on Monday!", most of the little shops were closed but we did stop by O'Maddy's Bar & Grille for some chicken wings...they were good, not "Buffalo wings" but close and they do serve them with blue cheese!

The winds were pretty strong on Tuesday, but staying in the intercoastal keeps the waves down, moderate chop is how the weathermen describe it. We crossed Tampa Bay and settled into an anchorage right outside of De Soto National Memorial. There were several sailboats here (no loopers) and the channel to Bradenton is along side the anchorage so we could watch the boats come and go. We have found that now that we are in Florida the loopers have scattered. Some have gone home for the holidays and there are so many marinas and anchorages that we probably won't catch up with the majority until April when we all start up the east coast.
We were entertained by several dolphins as we ate lunch, they were frolicking in the water which is definitely a sight I will never tire of. We launched the dinghy and headed over to the national park. Another history lesson as we discovered that in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando DeSoto led the first European expedition through the Florida Native American territories in his quest for gold and glory. They were executing the order of King Charles V to sail to La Florida and "conquer, populate, and pacify" the land. They were met with fierce resistance from the American Indians and hundreds of lives were lost. It is stated in the visitors center that the Indians feared 10 soldiers with war dogs more than they feared 100 soldiers without them. The dogs would track and kill the Indians which led to a gruesome death. Other Indians were enslaved and used as guides and porters. The de Soto expedition changed the face of the American Southeast forever. Although rather small, the park has a trail that takes you through the mangroves along the Manatee River.

We enjoyed the quiet solitude of the anchorage and the water was like glass, the winds had totally died down. At some point in the middle of the night the winds picked up and the waves were lapping against the bow. The weather forecast for Wednesday was high winds and a 20% chance of rain, which beckons us to decide if we want to stay or move on. We decided to move on to an anchorage at Long Boat Key. Again we are greeted by several sailboats, dolphins but no loopers. This anchorage is right along the ICW and once we got settled we saw a couple of looper boats, yachts and sailboats pass by. This may end up being "home" for a couple of days, it has a restaurant, Mar Vista about 500 yards away and we plan to do some exploring by dinghy while here.