FL West Coast - Closing the Loop

We got back to our house in Venice and Valerie went to see the doctor a few days before our departure to Nova Scotia. It turns out she had salmonella poisoning, presumably from the oyster hoagie, and it had basically spread through her body. Time for some heavy duty antibiotics!

The weather up there was great, got all of our chores done, and I got to play with some of my "toys"!

Valerie had to make a second trip to the doctor for another, even stronger, dose of antibiotics to finally clear herself of the salmonella poisoning. Nasty stuff.

Back to Florida and then a 5.5 hour drive to St. Marks to continue the 'loop'.  St. Marks is a very small town but has some interesting history: one of the earliest Spanish explorers, Navarez, built the first 'ships' of the new world from horsehide and local trees to escape the hostile Apalachee Indians in 1528. Then in 1538, De Soto's men found the remains of the forge where Navarez melted armor for tools. Several centuries later, the town was basically flattened by Hurricane Kate in 1985. All this within a five block range!

The boat was in great shape after being there for 50 days and we have an excellent weather forecast for the next few days.Up before dawn on November 29th and headed out the river in slight fog. Another looper boat, "Lydia", a 25 Ranger Tug, following us. Couldn't ask for better conditions!

Just perfect! Easy run to Steinhatchee to the "Sea Hag Marina" for a slip for the night - no good anchorages in town.

The marina was pretty basic but 'in season' the place must be jumping. They have 28 cottages which they rent out and an equal number of small fishing boats. There is no restaurant but the bar has enough stools to sit at least 100 patrons. Guess we'll have to come back because the place was almost deserted at this time of year.

Left the next morning for Cedar Keys. a "quaint" artsy-folksy village accessible by a long, long road from the mainland. We had another perfect day of motoring in essentially flat seas. We can just barely see land, probably 8-10 miles off shore, and yet the water depths are only in the teens or less.

We had a welcoming committee of at least 20 dolphins escorting us in the long channel into town. Anchored off the town, no marinas for larger boats, and took the dinghy in for a walk around town. Neat old buildings.

And the requisite skeleton "waiting for the wife" at one of the local shops.

We had a good night there, joined by "Lydia" who had tried to stay at the boat ramp launch dock but gave it up in the middle of the night. No real protection from winds or waves but the weather cooperated, although somewhat restless as the current fought the breeze but no problems.

Left the next morning for our final leg around the Gulf to get back into the sheltered waters of the ICW at Tarpon Springs. A long, long day (over 80 miles) but great sea conditions. Made it about 10 miles past Tarpon Springs to anchor across from the Dunedin Town Marina. We heard some traffic on the VHF and it turned out our friends on "It's About Time" were making the 180 mile crossing from Apalachicola that night/day with several other boats. One of them, "Fire Bird" lost it's water pump on the way and had to be towed for hours.

Perfect anchorage that night and off at dawn for a trip down the ICW through Clearwater, John's Pass and St. Petersburg Beach - our old stomping grounds from years ago. Crossed Tampa Bay around noon; the Sunshine Skyway Bridge beckoning us southward.

Anchored at the top of Longboat Key, just off Moore's Restaurant, and a short dinghy ride to see our son, Josh; wife, Darcy; and three-year-old grandson Ian!

A nice easy ride the next day down the ICW past Sarasota headed for Venice. There were several bridges that we needed to have open for us and on the radio we heard our old traveling companions. Ron and Bev on "Sea Venture" just behind us; we haven't seen them since Green Turtle Marina in TN.

Drum roll please!!

On December 3rd, 2015 at 11:30 AM we officially "crossed our wake" and completed the Great Loop adventure. This is the marina where we started on the morning of April 24, 2015

We have traveled 5,209 miles over the course of 7+ months, spent $5,405 on fuel, and who knows how much on food, booze and marinas! We have made some great friends, saw a lot of the country, survived 109 locks, crossed under countless bridges, learned a lot of history and had no major problems or incidents.

We are now official "Gold Loopers" and can fly the gold America's Great Loop Cruisers Association flag instead of the white one. It's on order now.

Thanks for following along with us on our adventure. We hope you enjoyed it.

Tim & Valerie aboard Chester B