Clearwater Beach cont…

Here are some other photos of our time in Clearwater Beach. The first one is Louie with David. 

James serenading us one night. Nice to have our very own musician on the dock. 

Fish caught by one of the many fishing boats who take folks out in the gulf to fish.  There are boats that hold just a few folks and several that hold a lot. 

The ever present Pelicans waiting for fish scraps. 

The StarLite Majesty leaving for a dinner cruise. It was full every night.  

Beautiful skies. We never got tired of sunrises and sunsets. 

A shark boat that took tourists out and about many times a day. 

The pirate ship took people out day and night. All of the tourist boats passed by our dock. Every time the pirate boat passed our dock we heard this. “And now I have one more question. Who let the dogs out? Who,Who, Who, Who? ”  The crowd on the boat always joined in. From time to time we would all pop out of our boats and yell along with them. 

I have to mention that James and Stacey cooked BarB Q one evening. Everyone brought a dish. So good. 

Clearwater Beach was such fun. A boating community. We made some life long friends. If you have not been there lately for vacation you should consider it. It is a wonderful beach. Family friendly. They have made a lot of improvements in the last several years. 

It was time to go. Weather windows had been appearing only to disappear. This time six boats agreed (not an easy thing) that it looked as good as it was going to. Tomorrow would be our day to cross. It is a 26 +/- hour overnight trip from Clearwater to East pass by Dog Island. A few more hours to Apalachicola. Oysters!!!  We had our last docktail gathering. It would be goodbyes in the morning. 

Moving to Clearwater Beach – March 26

We made a spur of the moment decision to go ahead and move from the harbor by Clearwater to the Clearwater Beach Marina. They suddenly had room for us. It was a bit of a Chinese fire drill but we made it. Stacey and James were there to catch the lines along with some of our new dock friends. We settled in for the night. The next day was Easter. Martha and Wally invited us over for dinner. Delicious. Soooo good. After they dropped us off at the marina we decided to walk over to Pier 60. The place where a lot happens. Lots of activities for all ages. 

The next day (Monday) we had lunch with Dean and Sue at Salt Water Cafe the original Frenchy’s restaurant. We originally met them in Marco Island. They were finished with there trip and back home. It is always nice to catch up with other sailing friends which we did.

Tuesday was a rainy/foggy day. Stacey came over to Liza and our weather discussions began in earnest. The big question was when will we have a weather window to cross the gulf. Little did we know at the time that we would have this same discussion with lots of boaters for 24 days. In between waiting to cross and wondering when we could we had such a good time. There were so many fun boaters on our dock. 

Wednesday the Sheehans and their friends (from Pensacola) were in town in their boats staying at Clearwater Beach Yacht Club. We walked over to join them for dinner. Again catching up and sharing adventures. 

We spent the next 20 plus days doing the following. 

Tequila Tuesday’s. We caught the bus at the marina that took us to a great Mexican restaurant on the city side.  Fun was had by all. 

Waiting on the bus to go home. 

We went on a dinghy trip/picnic with 6 others to an island they named Dink Island. 

There it is. No one on the water that day but us. 

Great way to spend the afternoon with friends. 

Another night we had homemade Louisiana gumbo made by Eileen on their boat. Lee and Eileen were perfect hosts. 

It was absolutely delicious. She really knows how to make it. 

Docktails occurred quite often. 

We took the trolley to Dunedin. 

Wonderful painting on the side of a building. It was huge so I just took a sample. Wait I found a bigger one. The painting was a fund raiser. People paid to get their pet in the photo. Proceeds benefited animals. Not sure of details. 

We stopped by Skips and went to the Flanagan’s Irish Pub. 

A fun day all in all.  So you can see that we were not bored in Clearwater Beach. 

In between the fun things we did our regular chores. Went to grocery, drug stores, washed clothes, washed the boat etc. 
Clearwater Beach has beautiful sand. While we were there they had an event called Sugar Sands. A sand sculpting event plus, children’s events plus  parties every night on the beach and fireworks.