Blue sky comin' at me nothinfg but blue sky's do I see

St. Petersburg to Sarasota

Bill and I  were expecting to leave St Petersburg on Tuesday 1/29/13 but a heavy fog rolled in. The fog burned off by 10 am and the day turned out bright and bright and blue. Bill and I read on the weather sites that the weather was going to be nasty for the next 2 days so we stayed. All things happen for a reason we got some much needed cleaning done.

Wednesday, was very windy 30 knots we spent most of the day adjusting the fenders to protect the posts on the dock and our Proud lady from being damaged as she bounced around tugging at her lines. Thursday, was expected to be rainy and cold but turned out not so bad, Bill had a friend who lived in the area come visit, then finally, that evening ,the a photographer from Missouri finally caught up with us and the photo shoot was done. Amazing! how things work out for good. 

 On Friday, we finally left the marina at St Pete's it was a great place to visit, great marina staff we had loads of fun here.

I did NOT get many pictures from today's cruise and I will tell you why- but, in the near future you will get to see the photos done by Chris the photographer from Missouri here on our blog and I will share Bill's "successl" story.

The Trip to Sarasota

8:00 am the winds on Tampa Bay Friday were 10-15 knots and if you live on land that doesn't sound too bad but,take a look at Proud Lady.

Factor in she stands 15.6 feet from the water line, has a nice plastic fly bridge but it catches the wind. Bill explains it like "driving a barn door in the wind".

These waves felt square.

Factor in that the waves that day 2-4 feet high and felt more like 6 to 8 , they felt square some were from the gulf at our south and the winds were from the north. As we passed red and green buoys, near the sunshine skyway bridge when I heard bells ringing- "ding dong", "ding dong".... I remembered a captain once told me if you hear those you really don't want to be out there on the water...I sang louder and stayed at the helm.

Proud Lady tossed to and fro all the way out Tampa Bay. 

OK here is what happened to leave me at the helm... if you have been reading our blogs since the crossing the gulf you know that the starboard engine has been dying at inconvenient times. She did, she died in Tampa bay. Bill went to get her going again while I stayed at the helm....we continued on.

10 miles to the sunshine sky-way bridge, but I did see 2 large ships, one coming into the bay and one leaving the bay the size and shapes are so interesting and we are sharing the same channel between the red and green markers.The enormous size of the ships are awesome! I sang just to keep my peace all the way to the Inter coastal waterway, Hee hee. Then, winds and waves quieted down and the cruising was very pleasant even on one engine.

 The marina before we left St. Petersburg 2- 1- 13

Bill spent most of the trip in the engine room with no success in keeping the starboard engine going. The port engine took us all the way to Sarasota, our original plan was to anchor out for 2 or more nights and do some shelling and enjoy the natural sights here in Florida, but we had to change the plan we and altered our course called a marina and headed to Sarasota. The marina is contacting a mechanic to help Bill locate the problem with the starboard engine.

12.03 pm Ringling causeway bridge, near Sarasota. Sarasota bay was peaceful there are blue sky and sunshine.

This is the view of Sarasota it looks like circus tents from distance. A colorful purple building to the left and a blue building to the right.

We headed north out of the Gulf ICW and checked into Marina Jack's its beautiful, near to downtown with shops, restaurants, many tourist attractions including a Ringling Bro. museum.

After Bill tried hard to work on the engine again after we docked, with no success cause she doesn't want to run. I cooked dinner we ate and rested from the stressful cruise. Bill consulted other guys who has the same engines for advice. SO, here we are this picture is the sunset behind our boat on a park, dolphin fountain at the right changes color- red, white and blue. There are white sand beaches and park with palms and then the building in the background with its dome, AH! so beautiful. Our stressful day ended with gorgeous views, our great looper friends called or dropped in to encourage us. Pam my sister called and Wendy got her dream job! So all turned out well. 

Thank you Father for keeping us safe once again on this trip.

Will write more later- Love You, Joy