Spring Cruise is Done
11 May 2014 | Back at Home
Wow, it's been a while since I've reported in, we have finally returned to home base after three months of cruising. We enjoyed Key West so much that we stayed there until early April. Duval Street is, well, Duvall Street. If you like to people watch, that is the place to be. Spring Break made the area extremely crowded, especially when there were three cruise ships in port. We met up with Bobby, Sissy, Rick and Suzanne and hit several bars, took them sailing and just hung out. I think our favorite place was Cowboy Bill's where Sharon and Suzanne entered a tricycle race and Sharon rode the mechanical bull. We went there several times, nice dance floor and good country music. El Siboney was an awesome Cuban restaurant where we had paella. We left Key West in mid April and made a crossing to Boca Grande channel and anchored at Cabbage Key for a couple of days. Hiking and exploring the island after having lunch at the restaurant was fun. We continued up the ICW, east winds allowed us to sail most of the way only starting the engine to pass through the numerous bascule and swing bridges. The scenery was awesome. We stopped in Lemon Bay and again at Bradenton Beach where we met up with Liz Black, a wonderful friend from our Freedom, Pa days. We made our way to the St Petersburg Yacht Club where we picked up our crew and made final preparations for the Regata del Sol al Sol, race to Isla Mujeres, Mx. My crew consisted of Bear Hansen, Commodore of Navy Yacht Club Pensacola, my son, Randy, son-in-law Tom Stachura, Michael Hall and Jeff Krantz. We started the race on Friday, 25 April and arrived in Isla Mujeres on Tuesday, 29 April. It was a fun race except for the last day where we encountered the Yucatan current and headwinds. Sharon and I left on May 5th at 0630 and crossed the Gulf of Mexico in just 83 hours and 34 minutes, from anchor up to in the slip. What a great time we had!