My cousin John joined me for a cruise from Sarasota to St. Petersburg this past Saturday. We motored and sailed our way up to St. Pete via the Intracoastal Waterway, a total distance of about 33 miles. We left at a leisurely 9 AM and arrived around 3, backed Abundance into a rather narrow slip on E dock and met John's longtime friend, Bob Synhorst. We hung out all afternoon with Bob, had some drinks then went to dinner near the Municipal Marina downtown.

We really like it here, and we moved to A dock yesterday to be closer to the entrance and parking lot. We plan to be here for about a year while we make many improvements to Abundance and save some Boat Units.

It has been a glorious 8 months since we bought the boat - we have traveled many miles, met some really interesting people and learned a lot about cruising, and cruising with dogs, too. We are happy that we brought our boys with us and they have been a joy to have on the boat.

The photo is the Sunshine Skyway bridge as we passed under it in Tampa Bay.