The voyage to get the “Rognvald“ from south of Tampa to Tarpon Springs.
On Saturday Ron picked me up at my house and we drove over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, the same bridge we would be going under in less than 24 hours. After we got to the marina, Ron and his wife transported lots of stuff aboard and removed some as well. Onboard went food, and the good stuff.
After a while I came aboard and I sat talking to the guy who owned the “work in progress” boat next door while Ron went to work. This boat next door looked like the owner was a handyman, and not a sailor. In the cockpit were chop saws, welding equipment, scuba tanks, and all kinds of rusty things. Nothing like the beautiful meticulously maintained 37 foot Pearson yacht belonging to Ron!
All the while Ron was below getting prepared for our sail on the morrow. Ron worked out the bearing and distance between each of the markers we would encounter all the way. Ron also filled the tanks with water, checked the oil in the engine, checked the tightness of the belts on the engine, and went over everything with a fine toothed comb. We had dinner of great food his wife had made, that was great! We then grabbed some sleep.
Sleep was wonderful, the gentle slap, slap of the waves on the stern, the gentle rocking of the boat…wonderful. Then we got up at 6 AM and had breakfast. Ron checked and double checked everything, then we said goodbye to the neighbor and slowly slid out of the slip … we were off. We motored out of the marina and then raised the sails (the “feathers” Ron calls them). We then motor-sailed on a west-southwest bearing headed for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
As we approached the bridge and dropped the sails we saw a huge container ship following us, and so decided to circle to let him by. As we waited, another container ship moving even faster appeared on the west side of the bridge. So we circled again and watched him come under the bridge racing into Tampa Bay. The ship behind us then came through and headed out to sea. We then were alone and went under the bridge with no problem.
Up come the sails again and soon off goes the engine. We were sailing along going north about 350 degrees and had a nice breeze out of the east off of the land. I had lost my old tan and was glad Ron had some sunscreen aboard. There was no bimini but I stayed under the dodger a lot. It made for a good view out the bow, to both port and starboard. We sailed at 4 to 5 knots all the way north until we came to the outer marker of the Clearwater channel with ease. The old steel structure with a red sign that used to be here has been removed. I used to sail out of this channel and did day trips out into the Gulf for many years and was always looking for the old structure and red sign upon return, but now there is only a green day marker with no writing on it out there to mark the beginning of the channel.
We dropped the sails and came in the channel, as it was Sunday there was a lot of traffic, crazy power-boaters all running this way and that, but we made it under the bridge that went to Sand Key.
In the past I always did the dog leg and turned east to go under the 60th street bridge, but Ron knew of a better way, as we were just going to stay on the hook over night. We followed the 15 foot deep channel with sand bars on each side around to the north and came out where there was a wide area adjacent to 60th street. There we dropped the hook. It was a perfect spot for the night. Ron let the engine idle for a while to cool off. Ron then got out the food his wife had fixed for us, a quarter of a chicken each, cooked to perfection. Ron warmed it up on the stove and we had full bellies. We swapped tales for a while and then off to sleep, the wonderful sleep only those living in a boat can experience.
In the morning we fired up the “iron genny” and motored back through the narrow channel and out into the Gulf. There was not much wind and so we motor-sailed. The water was at times so calm it was like a mirror. We motored up to the outer marker of Tarpon River, passed Caladesi Island, Honeymoon Island, and Three Rooker. Three Rooker is no longer three little sand bars but two islands in their own right. Ron told me that I should start up a tour guide service with all the local knowledge of the area I was telling him about. When we came to the outer marker and headed east to come in toward Tarpon Springs there were a number of dolphins all around. I think we saw about a dozen. I was glad that Ron had the bearing from one marker to the next as it is very shallow except for the 15 foot deep channel. The channel winds this way and that past the south end of Anclote Key and by the power plant on the north side.
There were a few boats coming and going but we were successful in finding the Mar Marina. They used a red nun float collar as a channel marker at one point where the old day marker had once been. There was a brand new 80 foot blue hull $4 million dollar yacht in a slip there that we were told to tie up port to port next to. We circled a bit to allow some traffic by. Then Ron expertly slid the sailboat up next to the dock by the yacht and I just stepped onto the dock with a bow line. We tied her up and boom we were there.
Good sailing, good trading sailing stories, great food, and a good time.