Week 25
Emerald Coast of Florida and Gulf Crossing
This week starts our journey in the state of Florida. We intend to stay here for few weeks as we want to see different cities. The start of the week was not that pleasant as it rained everyday. We left Panama City in the rain but it cleared up as we got into the Scipio Marina in Apalachicola, the heart of Florida’s forgotten coast. It was still cold so no water activities just yet, just biking and visiting the historic town. While in town, we had dinner with loopers and played bingo at the bar.
We stayed two days and left for Carrabelle. It was a bright sunny morning but not even 30 minutes in the ride, we got hit by a thick fog in the shallow water only about 5 ft deep. We could barely see the red and green markers and I was praying not to hit ground again. We survived but it was one of those memorable scary moments. It’s amazing how quickly the weather conditions change in the water. We got to Carrabelle and surprised to see at least 20 looper boats in the area, all waiting for good weather to cross the gulf.
On December 12th, the good weather finally came in and we had an extremely joyous overnight gulf crossing. We started at Dog Island at 3PM and got to Tarpon Springs at 10AM. I would say the water condition is perfect that night, saw amazing sunset, moonrise, cruising in the dark until sunrise came. Another memorable experience I will remember for a long time.
We checked in at the Downtown Tarpon Springs Marina, went to sleep till the afternoon and attended Cote’s family Christmas party, a family friend from Rhode Island who relocated here in Florida.
The shows the travel from Panama City to Tarpon Springs including the gulf crossing.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 26
Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, St. Petersburg to Bradenpoint
Our stay at Tarpon Springs was fun as the marina is right there in downtown. The town is known as the “Sponge Capital of the World”. There’s so many good restaurants and shops and they have a nice bike path that leads to everywhere you want to go including the area where we saw manatees. The town has a deep Greek Heritage and I really enjoyed the delicious Greek food for 4 days.
The next stop was Clearwater which is a popular destination in Florida. The city is beautifully decorated for Christmas Season. We had a good dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. We’ve been here before, we stayed in a hotel, but getting here with our own boat and riding places with bike made it a different wonderful experience. On the second day, we explored Clearwater with our bike but it started raining so we head back to the marina with crab legs to go for dinner.
We left Clearwater and stopped at an anchorage in St. Petersburg. The ride was niche as the condos and houses by the intercoastal waterways are very nice. Next day, we continued to Safe Harbon Pier 77 at Bradenpoint and waited for our kids to show up right after midnight. Their flight was delayed.
Below map shows our route from Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, St Petersburg and Bradenpoint, Florida.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 27
Christmas with my family in Florida
Our kids flew into Tampa airport and spent Christmas with us. I’m so blessed to have them with me. I didn’t realized how grown up they are now until they show up at the marina with their own rental car. I guessed, there is first time for everything. We spent the first few days at Safe Harbor Pier 77 Marina near the Anna Maria Island and later move the boat to Safe Harbor Regatta Pointe in Palmetto near Tampa.
Steve is thankful for my son coming because they did some boat works he wanted to be done. My daughter and i went to the beach while the boys are working. We did something fun everyday. We went to a manatees lake, dolphin tour, safari tour, Busch Garden, watched Wicked and made a Christmas dinner at the boat.
When they left on Dec 27th, the boat seemed bigger.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 28
Burnt Store & Sanibel Island for New Years
We left the Palmetto marina and headed south. The scenery along the inter-coastal water way is interesting filled with beautiful waterfront houses and condominiums, some trailer parks, and lots of mangroves. There are a lot of fast moving boats that went very close to us and create huge wake, they said those are the normal Florida boaters. There are sections where you can spot dolphins playing near your boat.
We got to Safe Harbor Burnt Store marina in Punta Gorda. The marina is part of a gated community with beautiful and diverse housing styles. They have lots of amenities like golf course, tennis/pickleball courts, swimming pool, bike path but is not close to the beach. I met some nice residents while playing pickle ball. One day, K-Plan picked us up at the marina and drove us to the Fisherman’s Village filled with nice Christmas decor and they have good restaurants.
Three days later we cruised towards Sanibel Marina. Sanibel Island is located off Fort Myers, is a renowned vacation spot known as the “Seashell Capital of the World” due to its east-west orientation and lots of diverse shells. It has the best bike path system I’ve seen so far. There is a restaurant inside the marina that closes at 8PM even on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day, I have a tradition of doing polar plunge but we went to the wrong beach and missed it. Instead we just rode the bike to the lighthouse and i did my polar plunge there, the warmest polar plunge ever.
On Jan 3rd, friends from Rhode Island sailing group came and visited us for a day. We had a great lunch and after that the wives went to the beach and did some shopping while the guys were talking about boating stories.
January is the NFL playoff season so we spend lots of time in the boat watching the games in the TV.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 29
Marco Island to Key West
On Jan 4th, we left Sanibel and move to Rose Marina in Marco Island. The marina is pretty busy, lots of boats that do tours, fishing, snorkeling, dolphin watch, etc and they have a huge building for boat works, Our slip is next to a cruise ship that travels around Florida. Every other day a cruise ship gets there before morning and leaves at 5PM so the passengers can do all the day tours in Marco Island and Fort Myers area.
We spent the week in Marco Island as we are waiting for good weather to cross to Key West. Luckily there are enough things to do in Marco but my favorite is the pickleball and the beach. We hang out with two other loopers, K-Plan and A cool change 3, had dinner and drinks at the Tiki Bar at the marina. I haven’t had tequila shots in a long time until now.
We drove to the Everglade and did an air boat ride and saw a huge alligator, that must be at least 12 ft long The boat driver has some interesting stories and showed us the skin of a 20ft snake they caught in the river. Then he gave us a thrill when he drove super fast along the curvy river passing tons of mangroves. It feels like a 30 minute roller coaster ride and for extra excitement, he drove really close to the mangroves.
Finally on Jan 10th, the weather got better and we were able to cross the gulf and reached Key West. We decided to anchor for the night.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 30
Key West
It’s Steve’s birthday and we’re staying in the anchorage. He baked his traditional birthday cake (Hummingbird cake) and it was delicious. We went swimming off the boat and watched football for the rest of the day. I hate to say that while watching football, a boat passed by and created a huge wake and throw the cake to the floor. What a mess.
The next day we moved to Stock Island Marina and booked a 1-month stay as it is cheaper as suggested by the loopers already here. The marina is in protected area, calm even on windy days. It has no restaurant but has a bar at the pool. It has a little beach area where we did few docktails and a tiki hut where Cathy @ Warbler, hosts daily yoga for the loopers at 9 AM. I’ve never tried yoga before but I joined because the group is so fun and friendly.
The marina is 6 miles away from downtown Key West but easily accessible by bike via a well maintained bike path. Some loopers went out one night to see a tribute to Jimmy Buffet. On Saturday morning, I rode my bike to play pickle ball and met really nice people in the court, some of them live in Key West permanently and some are snow birds. I played a lot that day and I like it.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 31 – 32
In memory of my Mother In Law, Dorothy Ann Adkins, who passed away just 80 days after his husband of 70 years passed away. She looked so happy and beautiful as she joins her sweetheart in heaven.
May 11, 1933 – January 22, 2026
Week 33
It was an easy flight from West VA to Key West. After all the extreme cold weather and travel delays, we are now back in the loop world. Uber from the airport to marina is a breeze.
We’re back in the boat but we didn’t do too much. We went to the grocery to get our provisions. I either play pickle ball or do yoga every morning. The pool is so cold that I could not get anybody to swim with me.
The loopers in the marina had created a nice bond and friendship. Since there is no restaurant in the marina, we’ll do a potluck dinner and we always have too much delicious food. But my favorite of all is the margarita docktails at the beach when we sip our cocktails, watch the sunset with our bare feet in the sand.
You can’t be in Key West without doing any of the Ernest Hemingway attractions. This week we watch a comedian tell his version of stories of Ernest Hemingway’s life called Hemingway, the funny way.b. Some jokes are really funny.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 34
Super Bowl & Trip to Dry Tortugas
Sunday morning, some looper wives went to the store to get stuff for the Super Bowl party at the marina. The marina was so nice to allow us to bring our food at the bar and watch the game. The game did not end the way I wanted but the food are delicious.
The next day four ladies went on a walking literary tour along Old Key West and the guide shared stories about the great writers of Key West and where they live or used to lived.
Tuesday night, we had a little get together to discuss the Dry Tortuga trip and Dragon the LIne picked us up and has dinner at the Hogfish Bar & Grill. Then Wednesday morning at 8 am, a flotilla of 8 boats left Stock Island to go to Dry Tortugas. The trip was pleasant as we waited for a good weather to travel. We all got there safe and enjoyed the beautiful island. We did the fort tour and snorkeling at the lighthouse. We left the next day and headed back toward Key West. As we are not going back to Stock Island like the other boats, we separated from the group and anchored at Boca Grande Key. Then next day we checked in at Galleon marina in downtown Key West. And then more fun begins.
Here are some of the pictures from this week’s adventure.
Week 35
Downtown Key West
I’m so grateful that I insisted to stay few day in Galleon Marina in downtown. Here everything is within walking and biking range. Too many restaurants to choose from, lots of attractions to explore, beaches and lots of shops. This is the kind of stop i really enjoyed.
We took the Train tour, the tour guide is great and i learned some good stuff about Key West. Stopped by the iconic southern tip of the United State and the Hemingway House.
The marina has a nice pool, a small beach and a tiki bar so I kept myself busy in marina besides shopping. I even won a bingo in the pool bingo. This guy from Long Island told me, “hey come sit next to me, I won yesterday, today it’s your turn”. And I won.
The loopers got together one day while in Key West. We are all spread out staying in multiple marinas but with the Nebo app communication, we’re able to have a large group to do our traditional docktails.