4-29 to 5-5 Fort Meyers to Crystal River

We spent a night at the Fort Meyers Yacht Basin where we pumped out, took on water and made some much overdue updates to the blog. Then we anchored back at Cattle Dock point for a night(same as last time we were here). It was strange to actually know where we were going for the first time in 7 months. We went to Boca Grande (southern end of Gasparilla Island) and thought we would have lunch, go for a walk and then anchor for the night. After lunch our waitress told us that the local law is ticketing boats at the restaurant dock, and since the anchorage was really small we decided to just leave and find a new home for the evening. We headed a little further up the island and found a nice, cozy cove.

The next day we went back to Venice to spend a night. This time we were the only boat at the dock. Saturday we made it through Tampa bay, pretty easily this time. We almost made a wrong turn, but caught our mistake just in time. For our next stop we wanted to try somewhere new and settled on Gulfport, a small town on the north side of Tampa Bay that our guide book described as cute and arty.

As we were pulling up to the spot we were going to anchor I was thinking that my blog entry for this part of the trip was going to be pretty boring. No interesting photos, beautiful weather, we'd already been through this area. I looked over at a woman waving to us on another boat and thought she was warning us about a shoal, but then I heard her yelling "help!". Our first rescue mission!

Dave dropped the anchor and the dinghy, we donned life preservers and headed over. A man in his 60's with a bad knee and ankle had miss-stepped going from his dinghy to his boat and landed into the water. He didn't have the strength to get himself out and had been dangling there for 1/2 hour. We hauled him into our dinghy (not a small guy), pumped out his dinghy (it had flooded when he was trying to get himself out), and after he had rested a while we maneuvered him into his boat.

The man (Mike) seemed okay, so we went back to our boat, cleaned up, got back in the dinghy and headed into town. Mike and his friend Lucille were also heading into town, and since his dinghy didn't have a motor we towed him in. This is a full service operation. Mike offered to buy us dinner, but since he had just finished telling us about his bankruptcy we declined. We did accept his offer to tie our dinghy to the dock at his yacht club and a ride into town though.

Gulfport is a very cute little town, we had a delicious mexican dinner and got lost on the way back to the dinghy. We were close, but we couldn't find the exact mangrove covered corner where our dinghy was. After wandering for a while we finally saw a person in a marina (it was about 9 pm) and asked if he could point us in the right direction. Steve got in his car and drove us to our dinghy. He and his wife are planning on taking a trip something like we have.

The next day we headed back to Anclote Key near Tarpon Springs and anchored for the night.

And on Monday we anchored in Crystal River. Home?

I've loved travelling, but I am looking forward to being in a place I know (relatively speaking) for a little while.

The next day we went to the marina. This time we went to Pete's Pier instead of Twin Rivers. While we liked Twin Rivers, it is really more of a fishing marina - we were the only people staying there. Pete's Pier is a live aboard marina. It is rickety to be sure, but our view is beautiful, it is within easy walking distance to restaurants and shopping, and the neighbors are very friendly. The Mayor even came over to greet us! (He lives here).

Now we are working on what our next steps will be.