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| Mom, Yoli, Alan |
Dec. 17th: We pulled anchor and left Crystal River at 7am for a 64 mile trip back out into the Gulf of America. Just as we passed the last channel marker we did not quite run agound but very close to it as we came upon 3ft. depth very quickly and backed out. We sucked sand into our Generator and polished our props on the sand bar. Luckily we backed off and went around it. So much for excitement for the day, could have been much worse 5 miles from shore on a sand bar. We headed out with another looper, Terrapin on a marine trader trawler. Since we needed to be at the marina by 3pm, we had to burn some diesel at 17mph and leave them behind. We kept the throttle down for an hour or so to meet our destination at 2:30pm. It was another smooth water day in the Gulf and amazingly shallow with the 3ft tide out. It would have been a much easier trip if it were not for all the crab pots we had to avoid. We pulled into Tarpon Springs City Marina about 2:30pm for a nice stern tie up with a starboard floating dock, my favorite.
Tarpon Springs is known for sponges. They dive for sponges here and you can buy all kinds. The town also is of Greek heritage and has some of the best Greek food around. We had an awesome dinner at Hella's Resturant & Bakery. The Greek margaritas were excellent as well as the Grouper, and Gyro I had. We will spend three nights here before our next stop on the Great Loop in Palmetto Fl.
Distance: 64.5nm Duration: 7:10. Avg Speed: 9.4kts Max Speed: 17.7kts
