In St. Pete

We are in St Petersburg.  Great trip. Wedid not get to leave as planned. As we indicated, we were leaving CarrabelleThursday to visit friends in St Petersburg.  Well, the husband has been working in Georgia and was finishing up Thursday and wanted us to wait for him so he could go on the boat with us from Carrabelle to St. Pete. ( he loves boating) he should get here about 7:00  so we waited for him.   We talked to another boat that left near Tarpon Springs last night and docked right next to us a few min ago and they said it was beautiful over night and a little chilly but no waves and a hugh moon.

So Bill got to Carrabelle and we left Friday Morning. Started the Genset and the engines, warmed them up, slipped the lines and backed Sandpiper into the river current and we were underway around 0900. Had been looking for a nice weather window and we got it.

This is us leaving Carabelle;

The roughest (maybe 2-3) it got was when we left the bay and into the Gulf at the pass of Dog Island  and St. George Island and a short way into the Gulf. It was the tide and within a couple of hours it got really good. Hit the bouy and set the autopilot and off we went for 27 hours. It was beautiful out there. Water was clear, saw lots of fish from flying fish, to porposes, to Maui-Maui, and some we got no idea, acouple of turtles and that night a lot of stars. That was awsome. Then at midnight the almost Full Moon. Hard to explain, you would just have had to been there. Here is a couple of pics to try and describe the trip.

The sunset

Breakfast - notice the heavy wave action in front of us

Bridge at St Pete

So we got  to the marina, Pam was waiting, and their were hugs all around. We checked in got to the slip, had an arrival after getting Sandpiper settled in. Then it was  Bill and Pam off to their home and we off to the shower and a LONG nap. Later we all got back together and had dinner. After they left us at our boat, we were trying to relax and lots of "gunfire" went off. It really was firecrackers and we were treated to a great fireworks show. Bill called and said he had arranged it just for our arival (yeah right).

Later  Carol discovered she had broken about a third of her right bottom wisdom tooth (probably from biting her tounge with me and Bill around). It did not need an emergency denist trip  so we waited until today (Monday) to get it fixed. Found a GREAT denist downtown about 1/2 mile from the boat. All is fixed and we ready again (as soon as the deadner wears off).

So now we are kind of settled in again. Got a couple of things to do on the boat (as always) but no major issues and she did GREAT on the trip. Will reprovision for our trip back to Carrabelle later, hope to go on a couple of day trips in the area and just see the sights of western Fla and visit some more with Bill and Pam.

All is well and Life is Good here. Hope is is whereever you are.

Steve and Carol aboard m/v Sandpiper