The Big Blow - Clearwater - Gulf Port - St. Pete

December 23

Merry Christmas

I hope this blog finds everyone in great health for the holiday season.  Merry Christmas to all.  It is about time for this dude to get off his duff and start flying!!!


So I had a bit of an epiphany the other day.  The Shorebilly looks an awful lot like a 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxy.  Tell me I am wrong ...



We laughed at this.  At least now I know where Aspen got its design inspiration.

Clearwater Florida

Clearwater was a surprise.  I knew nothing of the town other than it was the home of Scientology.  Separated by a small bay there is Clearwater Beach and Clearwater the city.  Unable to get into a Clearwater Beach marina, we went to the city municipal marina.  This marina was five star being relatively new, located in the heart of town, gated and clean.  The Xmas decorations were out and the place was stunning.


The town's walkways and parks were close to perfection with long winding pathways and open parks.  Just gorgeous.  



But the surprise came when we went into downtown Clearwater.  Clearwater is the home of Scientology.  Apparently this organization does not want people around its headquarters.  To enforce this, the organization or members of the organization bought up all the surrounding businesses and then shuttered them.  The downtown area had half to two thirds of their businesses closed.  In the entire town there were only a couple of restaurants open.  Even more spooky, the people walking around were all dressed the same; dark blue/black suit, brass buttons, baby blue tie and a vest with a baby blue back.  And by all people, I mean men AND women were all dressed the same.  It was like a trip into the "Stepford Wives" movie.  Everything was perfect and everything was the same.

Gulfport and the Big Blow
 
Leaving Clearwater we headed to Gulfport. only a 25 mile run. Gulfport was perfect.  It was a classic old Florida town more focused on locals than tourists.  The restaurants and town area were located on the Boca Ciega Bay with great food and fantastic views.  We had a blast in the breweries, restaurants and shops.


People think I have a thing for plastic women....

The Big Blow

When we were in town, around other loopers and at the marina office, everyone was talking about the storm that was coming in.  I didn't give it a ton of thought for we were in a well protected marina.  As a matter of fact, it was likely the best protection we have had yet on this trip with the marina being surrounded on all four sides by land.  However, the dockmaster set my expectations of extremely high tide and all power turned off for the night.  WOW.  This guys was being quite serious so I better as well.

In preparation, We ran multiple spring lines to allow the boat to float way up or down without losing front to back position in the slip. A spring line is long line going from the bow or stern going as far back or forward as possible.  The thinking is that the longer the line, the less angle change in the line when the tide changes.  The bow and stern lines were then tied in a "loop" allowing them to slide up and down the poles while not changing right to left position.   

The storm came and WOW, what a blow.  We were up most of the night keeping an eye on things.  The Shorebilly did just fine but the dock master was right and the tide came WAY up.  The boxes you see on the dock are ~2 feet tall.  Mind you, before the storm it was ~ a 2 foot step UP to the dock.


What you can also see from this picture is that even with extremely high winds that had the Shorebilly tugging against her lines all night, there is not a ripple in this marina.  WOW.  Ever wonder what a storm looks like to a boater:


Through the night I was texting and calling friends at the Clearwater Beach marina, which did not have nearly the protection.  They were getting slammed with 2+ foot waves at the dock.  Boats were breaking free and ramming other boats.  Those beautiful docks got destroyed.  The marina ultimately had to shut down.  

The next morning Terri and I went in town to get breakfast.  Different story.  The town was flooded.  Boats littered the beach.  Cars were under water.  



This poor guy was a young man living aboard his boat.  It broke free of its anchor and slammed into the break-wall cracking his hull and then sunk.  Everything he owned was lost.


It was a long night but in the end, all our looper friends came through it tired but fine.  I feel for those in the pics about that had a tougher time.

St. Pete Beach

We are now hunkered down for Christmas at St. Pete Beach.  It is a beautiful beach community with white sand shores and perfect sunsets.  We will be here a total of 9 nights.

Linda and Scott from Faith are staying with Scott's brother not far from us.  Using his brother's truck, they picked us up and took us to the Enchant holiday light show at the Tampa Bay Ray's stadium.  So cool.



Merry Christmas

Terri and I are all snuggled into a nice safe marina for the holiday.  The Shorebilly is decorated and shiny to celebrate.  Wish we were around more friends and family, but that is not to be this year.  


 
Merry Christmas everyone!

Love Terri and Aubrey

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 25, 2023 at 8:48 PM

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all aboard the Shorebilly too! What an adventure !

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Everglades

Image
 January 11 The Everglades Having grown up watching Gentle Ben, I was always awestruck by the very concept of the Everglades.  I couldn't wait to actually see it.  The idea of boating through it on my own craft was never really a childhood thought.  It was too far fetched to consider.   I have talked a bunch about the Shorebilly and it's versatility on the trip.  Big Ben introduced the world to the airboat and made the shallows of the region notorious.  One of the giant advantages of the Shorebilly her draft, which is only ~2 feet.   Our first stop was Goodland.  Here are two views of the navigation into the area.  Dark red means less than one foot.  Light red means 1 - 4 feet.  These are essentially the same view just one is zoomed way in.  Red is bad .... Click to enlarge But the Shorebilly went through without any problems.  In the shallow areas I simply tilted up the engines and glided over everything.   This from a boat that was able to also tame a 180 miles open water cro
Read more

South Carolina - North Carolina

Image
April 11, 2024 Day 330 The InterCoastal Waterway We have really enjoyed the InterCoastal Waterway (ICW).  Lots of areas (New Jersey .... Western Florida ...) list waterways as ICW.  However, the ICW from the Florida Keys to Norfolk Va is managed and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).  Thus it tends to be deep and extremely well documented.  For example, in my carting software (Aquamaps) I can overlay the USACE survey to see exact depths.   To make this easier, a gent named Bob developed "Bob423 Tracks".  No idea where the 423 comes from. Bob423 Tracks presents the optimum path through the ICW trying to keep boaters off the bottom.  Almost daily Bob reads the reports of "shoaling" along the ICW and adjusts 1000+ mile route and posts these tracks for free for all boaters. There is great comfort in having an exact route to follow.  But that is not the charm of the ICW. We were less than enamored by the Florida ICW.  It was opulent and excessive to an ex
Read more

The Bahamas

Image
March 10, 2024 (Day 298) Finally, a day I can catch up on the blog.  I have attempted this several times but the marina wifi was not strong enough to keep a link.   Those of you following us on Nebo are probably wondering why we are stuck in Florida so long.  Some have asked if we are having boat problems or health issues.  No,  all is good.  The device we use for tracking us, Nebo Link, does not work with the Bahamian network so what it shows is as the last place it could communicate.   We are in the Bahamas! The Crossing The crossing ... the crossing ... AGAIN??? Yea, it seems to be that I talk about that a lot.  But you know ... heading 70 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean is more than a notion. We staged at Lake Worth near West Palm Beach Florida waiting for the right weather window.  This time of year they are few and far between.  We waited and waited.  The difference between a good day and bad day looks like this: Bad                                               Good The blue i
Read more