Days 233 -235

Clearwater Fl - Gulfport Fl

• Start 8:00 AM
• End 11:05 PM
• Underway 3:05 Hours
• Distance 20 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 4273
• Av Speed 6.4 knots
• Weather Sunny , 54 Degrees, Wind 3 Knts NNE

It is good to be moving again, it was a quick easy trip from Clearwater to Gulfport Municipal Marina. We had planned to spend two days in Gulfport, but with the storms and tornados that came through we stayed three days. The first thing we did when we arrived was to fuel the boat. We have not gotten fuel since Carrabelle Fl, in early December. We could have waited for fuel, but Gulfport Municipal Marina typically has the cheapest fuel in the region. The fuel was $3.02 a gallon, and is the cheapest we have seen in several months. We did time it perfectly; the dockmaster told us it was going 32 cents, later in the day.
All of the transient slips are floating docks at the far end of the marina. It looked very narrow, and I needed to turn the boat around either on the way in, or to leave. When I asked how wide the fairway was, I was told 85 feet. When I turned around, I discovered it is 55 feet wide, and Nothing To Plunder is 54 feet long. When I was spinning the boat, I looked like I was going to touch the bow of the boat in front of me, while our dinghy was almost touching the dock behind us. The dock was perfect to finish waxing the boat. I did the starboard side in Clearwater, but I did not have access to the port side. I did not realize how badly the boat needed to be waxed. Saltwater has been much harder on the boat then freshwater is.
On our first day in Gulfport we meet up with Sissy & Ray and their daughter and son-in-law Lauren & Broom. Sissy is Angel's oldest friend. They recently bought a house in St Petersburg. It is always fun to meet up with friends along the way. (I forgot to take pictures, I am out of practice after sitting for a month)
As always when we get to a marina we google "Things To Do Near Me". One if the top ten things to do in Gulfport is the Catherine Hickman Theater community theater. This season they are doing a musical version of Gilligan's Island. It was hilarious and very much worth the $22 tickets to go see it.
Early Sunday morning a powerful storm went through the area, with multiple tornadoes in Fort Myers about 80 miles from us. Even with the marina being very well protected we did a lot of bouncing around. By the afternoon, most of the weather had cleared out. Once it looked like all of the rain had passed we ventured out to a local bar to watch the Eagles get beat by the Buccaneer's. Of course keeping with our good luck, as soon as we started pedaling the bikes, it started raining. Of course the rain stopped as soon as we got to the bar!
Monday was a lazy day, we had planned to travel to Palmetto. It was still windy out, and there were small craft advisories for Tampa Bay. We could have safely made the trip, but it would not have been fun, and docking the boat in the wind would have been very difficult. We are in no hurry and the goal is to have fun.