Sunday, November 11

Sun setting over the GIWW - St Petersburg

The GIWW (Gulf Intracoastal Water Way) starts back up again in Tarpon Springs and we headed down the channel for the Clearwater/St. Petersburg area.  By late morning we pulled into the marina at Caladesi Island and headed for the beach which is considered one of the best in the United States.  Because the island is accessible only by boat, even on this holiday weekend (Veteran's Day), the beach was relatively quiet.  We had a relaxing 1 1/2 hour walk on the beach finding several sand dollars & three Conch shells.
Passing down the GIWW through Clearwater & St. Petersburg it becomes clear that this is a boat-minded community.  The channel was bustling with boat traffic & why not ........ it was a beautiful Florida afternoon.  The temperatures were at least 10 degrees warmer than those in the Panhandle - gone was the fleece - we are back to "swimsuit territory".

Caladesi Island beach

The only glitch in our day was trying to find a marina in the Pass-a-Grill area of the Waterway.  Several of them would either not hail our call or did not have transient slips.  The Loggerhead Club & Marina agreed to take us, but we got hopelessly lost trying to find it (there are many canals and channels veering off of the GIWW & very little signage).  The sun was setting when we finally stumbled upon the very narrow Frenchman Creek channel leading to the marina.  We have traveled over 6,000 miles so far on the Loop & have not been this lost ........... kinda embarrassing!