We moved on down to Gulfport Municipal Marina in Gulfport, FL. We are looking for a place to stay for about a month, but it’s not easy to find. Florida has tough laws about liveaboards, and most marinas will only let you stay two weeks. There are a few that are designated as liveaboard marinas, but they seem to be full, at least this time of year.

We can stay at Gulfport for two weeks. Meanwhile, we’re on the list for the Harborage in St. Petersburg. They are more expensive than St. Petersburg Municipal Marina, which also has a liveaboard area, but I can’t get the guy from St. Petersburg to even answer my calls.

So for the time being we’re here. It’s a nice little town (though surrounded by the urban area of Tampa/St. Pete). I’ll try to get some pictures.

Got to see some family yesterday! My brother and his wife came down. They are one reason we’re hanging out here for a while, as they live in New Port Richey. Tarpon Springs is very close to them, but it doesn’t seem sailboat friendly (shallow marinas, difficult slips, strong currents) so this is our compromise. Anyway, it was great to see them and while they were here they helped us ferry the land barge down to Gulfport. They had been here before, just looking around. We all had dinner at a little restaurant on the main drag that had outdoor seating and welcomed Matey. It was nice.

The trip down was uneventful. We came inside on the GCICW. The wind was on the nose, so no sailing, and we were afraid if we went outside we’d be in uncomfortable chop with no steadying sail and we’d be dodging crab pots all day. So instead we dodged bridges. The ICW route had 5 opening bridges. Two of them had only one side that opened! (We think they were doing maintenance.) This is the first bridge we came to, and Bud is getting ready to shoot the gap. He did it well, of course. (I need to apologize for the photo, I used my phone as my camera got left in the car overnight. It usually takes pretty good photos, so I must have messed up.)

The marina itself is a treat because it’s very well protected and has no current. We got fuel, pumped out our holding tanks and are now set, for a while anyway.