Saturday, January 22, 2022 (Clearwater Harbor Marina - Longboat Key Club Moorings, FL)

 Long story short, on Thursday (1-20-22) we were waiting for the new thruster propellers to be delivered and that didn’t happen.  They finally arrived on Friday, however the diver had car issues and didn’t arrive at the boat until late morning.  It took him approximately 5 hours to figure out how they were to be installed.  No fault of his because of the new design of these things.  He about froze in the water.  Jim had to poor warm water down his dive suit to warm him up a bit.  But in the end SUCCESS!!!!  And they work!!!! So we now have a plan to leave Clearwater Harbor on Saturday, January 22.  The weather is chilly with slight rain, wind gusts at 10-15 mph with swells of 3-4 feet.  We are going anyway.  

Leaving the harbor was bitter sweet as we did have a great time there and made new friends.  Looking back at Clearwater as we headed down the ICW.




As we float down the ICW we were surprised as how narrow the waterway was.  We were traveling during low tide but the water was only approximately 5-6 feet.  Row upon row of homes nearly on top of each other.  We only saw a glimpse of a few dolphins.  

It didn’t take long before we started crossing Tampa Bay which is an open waterway into the Gulf of Mexico.  The wind picked up as did the swells, but it was well marked.  Just stay in the channel and watch out for those damn crab pots.  They aren’t supposed to be in the channel anywhere but some may stray. And, there is a fine line of them being right on the channel line.  Here we are looking out over the bow starting the process of crossing.  




It took us nearly 3 hours to cross but we must say it was very pleasant.  Just keep watch and keep going.  LOL!!!!

The first town that we entered after the crossing was Bradenton, FL.  This is where we had planned to stop for several days but decided to change the plans after staying in Clearwater longer than planned.  There were several bridges that needed to be lifted for our passage but all went well.  As we were waiting for the Siesta Key bridge to raise, the Coast Guard came up behind us with it’s red lights flashing.  Yep, just like the state patrol and other law enforcement.  Two officers boarded the boat and only wanted to perform a safety inspection.  I frankly, was happy about this because I have been wondering if we had all of the necessary safety features on the boat.  They were onboard nearly thirty minutes and we passed the safety inspection with flying colors.  Two other officers stayed on their boat and they all were very polite and respectful.  However they mean businesses!! As Jim says, “We dodged another bullet”.  LOL!!!

Later we passed this little gem that would be heaven for kids to play on in the water.  


Longboat Key Club Moorings in Longboat Key, FL is in our horizon and we are excited to stay at a new place and add more to our adventure.  However, we didn’t realize that our boat would be a perfect dingy for the size of the boats at the marina.  LOL!!!!  We were guided to our slip and Jim backed Our Nauti Time into the slip using those bow thrusters.  Slick when they work…….  This is an absolutely beautiful resort!  The shuttle picked us up and took us to St. Armands which is on a little island called City Island.  The marina office secured our dinner reservations at Crab-n-Fin which was fantastic.  St. Armands appears to be an upscale little village with a town square lined with shops.  Definitely going to do some shopping while here.  One call and the shuttle picked us up and transported us back to the marina.  Wow, I can get used to this!!!

We are anxious to explore this area as we plan to stay several days.  Dinner reservations have been made for tomorrow, Sunday night so all is good.


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