Friday - Sunday, December 3-5, 2021 (Tarpon Springs, FL (Courtyard Marriott)

It has really felt good to relax, be on land, drive and play tourist for three days. Of course, the biggest news is that the thrusters part arrived on Friday and was installed.  SUCCESSFUL!!!!!  There are several other items we asked for the marine services to check/repair before leaving on Monday.  Hopefully it will all get done.

We drove to Clearwater Beach to take a look at the two marinas that we will be at until mid January.  They both are beautiful but the beach marina is very busy with charter boats, no floating docks and tourists. The harbor marina is quiet and has floating docks which is more favorable.  Floating docks are so much better because of high and low tides and the movement.  We had to do some negotiating as you can only make reservations for one month and we will be in Minnesota a little over a month.  But Jim got it done.  LOL!!! While walking the beach we asked a couple to take this picture of us.  Out of all the people we asked, they were from Lakeville, MN.  


 The drive to St. Petersburg brought back many memories for me when Lacey went to school there.  It is such a beautiful area. 

We walked around in Tarpon Springs at the sponge docks which is a very touristy area with charter fishing boats.  It is a huge Greek community with such tasty Greek and seafood.  


While the boat is dry docked Jim did some cleaning/buffing to the lower hull which is too hard to reach when in the water.  We have never known the length of the anchor chain, so it was retracted and we painted every 25 feet.  This will help so much when we are anchoring and be able to identify how much chain is out.  Doesn’t she look odd out of the water!


We had dinner with Tony and Karen Long (Long Recess) one last time before we go different ways.  We both plan to leave Tarpon Springs on Monday but not sure when we will meet up again.  It still seems very odd to have Christmas decorations everywhere when it is 70 to 80 degrees.




Let’s not forget the fake snow and palm trees…..


We fly home in a week and sometimes I start to think of everything that I need to do before the girls, son-in-laws and babies arrive for Christmas.  But I’m not stressing out as it will get done one way or another.  Jim and I talk about how much we are going to freeze once back in Minnesota.  LOL!! 

Hopefully the last bit of repairs will be completed on Monday and we will float to Clearwater Harbor Marina.  

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