JACKIE B III Going Loopy

Our trip down the Gulf coast of Florida  continues as we move from Clearwater Beach to Bradenton Beach (where we anchored) then to Longboat Key (where we stayed at a resort) then to Cayo Costa State Park (where we anchored). Our first travel day called for a bridge opening and viewing the worlds longest cable-stayed concrete bridge.  Even though it was a bit hazy,  the Sunshine Skyway Bridge was long and beautiful as we cross a  relatively calm Tampa Bay . The high point of our day was meeting up with my first high school Dutch Dance partner Cindy and her husband John. We enjoyed dinner with them and then they showed us around Bradenton Beach, a cute beach town…even in the rain. The next morning we discovered we had snagged an unmarked abandoned crab pot, which Mike removed with a boat hook. It was a short travel day since we just had to get to the end of the next island.  We decided to splurge for a few days at Longboat Keys Mooring.  We met up with Gold L...

  Our time in Steinhatchee is best represented by this photo.  We met lots of great Loopers here.  Steinhatchee itself is a quiet place with not much going on.  This may be in part due to the hurricane that went through earlier this year.  The Marina owners bent over backwards to ensure we had a great time here. We left Apalachicola with out new Looper friends, Tim and Brenda on Indigo.  The Gulf was cooperating. Steinhatchee had a great fish cleaning station and the birds absolutely loved it! We stayed here for there days waiting for the weather to once again cooperate.  This gave us ample time to survey the bottom prior to our departure because the low tides were REALLY low. We ended up leaving the dock before the sun was even up. This area is well known for the crab pots, so I perched myself up in the dashboard and kept a look out. The birds for some reason were wanting a free ride.  This pelican nearly made a landing but after four failed atte...

  Panama City will forever be remembered for the tornado coming so close to us. Good thing we purchased matching rain suits to make the dash to the shelter. Getting to Panama City was an uneventful cruise. Unless you count running with dolphins. Although the port of Panama City was surprisingly busy. We enjoyed beautiful sunsets And walks on the beach.  Of course Mike went Kiteboarding. This video we took on the way to the beach. …then the tornado came through. Our marina was thankfully spared but it came oh so close. It sounded like a freight train. These are photos from the resort where our marina was located.  The tornado literally passed within 300 yards of our boat. But we had calm winds the next day so we ventured on to Apalachicola. This place was quite charming.  The shrimp boats were just behind us on the wall. We stayed at a place called the Ice House right in the center of town. There were many shops and we found the brewery where a new favorite beer is br...

  Here we are at the Marina Grill at the Baytowne Marina for what we believe will be a 6 week rest. Along the way we were accompanied by numerous dolphins as we are discovering, they love to surf in our wake. I did not get the best video because the Blue Angles surprised us coming out of formation right above the boat.  I grabbed my camera and caught them making their final approach.  They had been out of town and were just returning to Pensacola Naval Air Station. As soon as we arrived at the marina, Mike rinsed the boat with fresh water given several days with it in the salt air. To our delight, the marina had our golf cart waiting for us at the dock. Unfortunately, it was much colder there than we thought it would be. Some Looper friends, Jaleen and Hunter, from Catniss joined us for one night, but left early for an unexpected weather window to cross the Gulf. For Thanksgiving we took the golf cart to the beach and walked along the gulf to the Surf Hut.  It was co...