We anchored in the harbor of Cedar Key, as the dock water is too shallow for our 5-foot draft. We have taken walks on the Key and the story of wall to wall cottonmouth snakes is untrue. We didn't see a one and I spoke to a local waitress about the problem and she said that they are found in the woods and swamps, but not in town. She did say that some times there are sharks in the bay, but very seldom. The guidebook says that a 20-foot Mako shark was stranded on the shallows and couldn't get off. So far we haven't seen anything but playful Dolphins.

We anchored north of Atsena Otie Key seen in the background with its long pier. There is a lot of current between the Atsena Otie Key and Cedar Key. The boat often pointed downwind even with winds up near 20 knots, and the nylon rode wrapped itself aroung the keel when the tide changed and would not let go until the tide changed again. Soon after we did get the 200 feet of 1/4" 2000lb high test chain rode that can be handled by hand.

We have been lucky not to have to pay a marina fee for three days now so we have been living it up by eating at the Captain's Table Restaurant in town. We motor in our dinghy and leave it on the white sandy beach next to the restaurant. The water was pretty rough today so we have decided to wait to go to Tarpon Springs on Tuesday or Wednesday when we should again have a north wind and better weather. Tarpon Springs is directly south of Cedar Key and a north wind would let us sail on a run. According to the guidebook, Tarpon Springs will have a Greek flavor as in the past Tarpon Springs had a thriving sponge industry. A banker from Philadelphia hired many sponge divers from the Greek Islands and some stayed and brought up families there. I'm looking forward to seeing the city, and eat in a Greek Restaurant.

We finally left Cedar Key today about 12:00 PM, for our third night crossing. We got up early, 6:30 A.M. to leave, but got socked in by fog. We decided to go for breakfast and come back after the fog lifted. When we came back the tide had gone out and the boat was so low at the docks that we couldn't get on the boat and had to wait until the tide came up around noon. All this meant that we had to make the trip to Tarpon Springs at night

Boy, are we on a steep learning curve.

We were able to turn off the motor and sail across the Gulf in absolute peace and quiet. I love it when that motor goes off, the sun goes down and all you hear is the splashing of the waves against the side of the boat, or the wind whipping the sails, or the plaintive cry of a loon ahead, and frequently a porpoise taking a deep breath. We even had dolphins swim up to the boat and play with our boat for a while. Then the magnificent stars begin to twinkle. My breath catches in my throat as I realize what an incredible experience this is.

Mark took the first watch and woke me up about 10:30 P.M because he was falling asleep at the wheel. I took the next watch and listened to John Denver and Ken Lonquist tapes to drown out Mark's snoring. About 2:30 AM, all of a sudden the boat seemed to be stuck and the GPS indicated that we were not moving. The sails were full but we were stopped dead in the water. I couldn't figure it out, the depth finder indicated that we were in 25 feet of water and the GPS indicated we were about 30 miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico. I panicked and woke Mark up. We discovered that the boat had caught crab traps and the buoy was snagged around the keel or skeg of the boat. We took the boat grappling hook to snag the part of the line that went to the crab pot and pulled it up so we could tie line to the boat and give the part that was caught under the boat some slack. Then we were able to get the buoy end loose from the other side of the boat. When we removed the buoy from the line we were able to pull the line out from under the boat. After we got the line to the other side we reattached the buoy and released the line. This method worked like a charm as long as the motor was off.

Mark woke me up this morning because he was hungry after standing watch since 2:30 AM. I made some fresh apple cinnamon compote to go with some pancakes. Boy the fresh air sure makes us hungry.

We landed at Tarpon Springs today about 1:00 P.M. and found our way to the Landing Marina. Marilyn and Gary on Puttsin were there. We might leave together for Clearwater tomorrow. We ate at Pappa's, a Greek restaurant just over the bridge from the marina. I had a Greek salad, a shrimp cocktail, and lamb roast. Good Food. Mark had grilled grouper.

We stayed two days in The Landings Marina in Tarpon Springs. We walked about 1.5 miles to the grocery store and called a taxi for a ride back to the marina. We did some window shopping in Tarpon Springs, it definitely has a Little Greek Island flavor. Merchants have all variety of sponges, and shells. We saw some Lumpa sponges like Muetti likes for washing her face. It was very windy and dusty and was hard to not get dust in your eyes. We saw a boat that was for hire called the Miss Milwaukee. Would have like to learn her story. We changed the crankcase oil on the Sankaty for the second time and looked for a pump out, but no place in Tarpon Springs had one.

We left Tarpon headed for Clearwater, I took the helm and Mark worked on converting the holding tank so that we could go out into the ocean and pump the holding tank into the water. There seemed to be no other alternative. As I was steering the boat along came a boat that was waving at me, so I waved back and guess what, it was the Coast Guard. The boat turned around and headed for our boat. I yelled at Mark that the Coast Guard was coming, but he didn't hear me. They asked if we had ever been boarded before and I said no. Then he said "This is your lucky day". I was petrified that Mark was doing something illegal and we were going to get a huge fine, but it all turned out alright. They wanted to see our documentation, life jackets, flares/flare gun and fire extinguishers. They also wanted to know if we had any weapons aboard. They told us that we totally complied with all the requirements, and to have a nice holiday. I started to breathe again, and then they left as quickly as they came.

We finally found a marina that would pump out our holding tank in Clearwater, and then we sailed to Boca Ciego Bay and anchored for the night next to the Sunshine Parkway.

This morning we sailed across Tampa Bay and are headed for Venice Inlet which we hope to make tonight. We had to go under a lot of bridges which had to open to let us pass under. We really didn't have to wait very long though.

As we were sailing across Little Sarasota Bay, the depth alarm went off. The depth meter read 9 feet, 9 feet, 3.2 feet, 9 feet, 9 feet. I nonchalantly said to Mark that maybe it was a dolphin swimming under the boat; 10 seconds later, up popped three dolphins about 50 feet from our boat. We both had a good laugh. They didn't stay long though, just kept heading the opposite direction that we were going.

Near Blackburn Point Bridge, a dolphin, who we later named Stetson started to follow us. He was about 8 feet and he followed us for about 3 miles across Blackburn Bay. He came up right next to the boat as if to say "Hi". He was so friendly that you would swear he was a tame one.

I got a few good pictures and I sure hope they turn out. We even introduced Stetson to Neffy. He sure was interested in her, but she didn't exactly know what in the world he was. I talked to him for a long time and he kept coming up next to the boat by me. Once in a while he would go up ahead, but he would always look where we were when he came up and head for where I was sitting. It was quite a thrill to see a wild dolphin so friendly and tame. Most of the ones we have seen have been shy and seldom came near the boat.

Tonight we anchored in Venice Inlet among million dollar mansions on the shore line. Two other boats were anchored with us.

As we were coming down the ICW toward Fort Myers Beach, we passed countless numbers of marking buoys. On most of them there was a huge nest and many of them had Osprey in them. Unlike Osprey back home, these Osprey had lost their fear of man. We sailed right past them about 20 feet away and they didn't even flinch. At first I didn't know what kind of bird built that type of nest and then I saw the white section of head with the characteristic brown horizontal stripe of the Osprey.

We found a free anchorage in downtown Fort Myers Beach and stayed three nights. We could hear a singer with a beautiful voice singing folk songs from some nearby bar. Only problem we had was that a house alarm went off one of the nights and kept going off all night long. In the morning Mark said that a guy with a pontoon boat came up to the house and beat the alarm with a boat hook. He was really mad. A neighbor came out with a cell phone and had the owner on the other end. He used a few profanities.

We took rides on the trolley system and went to a Wall-Mart in nearby Ft. Myers to get supplies. We walked around the Fort Myers Beach and did some window shopping, and finally bid the city goodbye and headed for the Gulf.

Last night we anchored behind Coconut Island near Marco Island. A nice man named David from another sailboat came over in his dinghy to say "Hi" and to welcome us. He had seen trawlers and motor boats all day and was happy to see a kindred sailboater.

I made chicken soup out of the left over chicken, watched a movie, took a shower and headed for bed. As I crawled up into bed I heard this commotion over on Coconut Island. It seems that a bunch of students had motored out and were having a PARTY. They had a bonfire going which was big enough to light up the entire sky. About 2:00 A.M., a police boat came out to visit them and they were quiet for a while after that.

Today we are going to explore Marco Island, maybe even call the Wilds.

We sailed across the Gulf of Mexico from Marco Island to Key Largo on an overnight cruise. The weather was perfect at the time and the future weather indicated that we might not make it to Key Largo to spend time with Ruth, Willie and family. A cold front was coming through in a day or two bringing very strong winds and high seas. We sailed across with a full moon, a gentle wind, accompanied by a family of dolphins for a while, Mark and I took shifts at the wheel. After 28 hours we saw Key Largo in the distance. We sailed into Tarpon Bay and immediately anchored and were rocked to sleep by the waves, with the winds singing its lullaby. This was at 11:00 A.M. but we were so tired from the sail across the Bay that we didn't even notice that it was light outside.