Friday, January 15, 2010

I woke up at about 8AM and took a walk along the waterfront. Exploring the sponge museum and the Greek restaurants that lined the streets. Everything was closed. The town officially opened at 10AM. I took a few photos of the town and wandered back to the boat about 9AM. Dave was awake. We made a pot of coffee and drank the warm brew while tied up at the dock. At 9:30 we untied the dock lines and headed out..

The temperature at the time of our departure was 55 degrees. The sky was blue. The weather had finally turned like the Florida weather we had hoped to experience. The Intracoastal Waterway starts or ends in Tarpon Springs depending on your direction of travel. The folks who built the 160 mile Intracoastal GIWW started the mile markers on the south end at Sanibel Island. Mile marker 0 is at the south end of Sanibel. Mile marker 150 is located at Tarpon Springs. This means that there is 150 miles between Tarpon Springs and Sanibel.

Because the weather was so nice, Dave talked me into going on the outside. He said that we could make better time because we could sail and bypass all of the bridges that boaters using the Intracoastal had to contend with on the inside route.

At 9:30 AM I cut up some hot dogs and scrambled four eggs. We had a hot dog ommlette on the Gulf of Mexico. Again with toast Texas Style prepared in a frying pan.

At 10AM we put up the mainsail. There was very little wind and we were forced to motor sail most of the day.

At 5:30 PM the GPS lead us right into the channel that leads to Bimini Bay on Anna Maria Island. We tied Water Mark up at the gas dock at the Galeti Yacht Sales Marina. Right next to Rotten Ralph’s. Rotten Ralph’s is a famous local restaurant/bar right on the water. I had made arrangements to meet Roy and Judi Schoenherr. Roy and I met in high school actually I think it was grade school. We were college roommates our senior year at Western Michigan University and I was the best man at their wedding in September of 1970. They spend the winter on Anna Maria Island and joined Dave and me for drinks at Rotten Ralph’s.

Rotten Ralph’s is a down home style, yet on the waterfront establishment in need of fresh paint. Some how it was perfect in its contrast to the Yachts for sale next door at Galati. The least expensive boat in the harbor could be purchased for $1.3 million dollars. This over the top motor yacht burned 250 gallons of fuel per hour. There was one boat in the marina for sale at the bargon price of 3 million. It burned 300 gallons of fuel per hour. At $3/gal that is close to $1000 per hour to operate the boat! Wow, there are some really rich folks on this planet if they can afford to feed that much fuel into a boat. Then again maybe there aren’t as the boats that burned that kind of fuel were for sale at the docks.