I prematurely posted the update about our time in St. Pete before George had an opportunity to upload the videos he made of our time there. Enjoy a short video that George made covering our visit to St. Pete and the wonderful museums there, and his video of the fabulous New Years fireworks at the St. Pete Pier.

On New Years Day, we departed Harborage Marina and returned to St. Pete YC to take on fuel, then motored 24 miles to the Tampa Convention Center Marina which is in the heart of downtown Tampa along its beautiful riverwalk. As soon as we were secured in our slip, we unloaded the bikes and biked the Tampa Riverwalk along the Hillsborough River. At the end of the riverwalk, we made a brief stop to lounge in the sunshine in some Adirondack chairs and watch all the families and locals playing on the waterfront lawn while we sipped a local brew. What a perfectly wonderful way to start the new year. We biked across the river to the University of Tampa campus with the intention of visiting the Henry B. Plant Museum, but found it closed. After returning the bikes to the boat, we wandered around town until we found a place to buy a healthy dinner (Naked Farmer, a franchise with delicious fresh food – someone in Panama City should bring this wonderful franchise to our area!).

The next day we biked to the maritime museum housed in the WWII ship, American Victory, which was similar in design to the Liberty ships built during the same era in Panama City, only slightly larger (merchant marine ship instead of a military vessel). We spent the morning exploring the nooks and crannies of the ship and reading about its service from WWII to Vietnam. We have a new appreciation for the dangers and sacrifices of the merchant mariners that kept our troops and our country supplied during times of conflict.

We spent the afternoon at the Henry B. Plant Museum, which is housed in the former Tampa Bay Hotel, an opulent resort built by Henry Plant in 1891. It operated as a luxury resort until 1932. The museum is full of the fine European furnishings that were part of the resort when it first opened. As explained on the museum’s website, “The Museum accurately reflects the extravagance of the Gilded Age’s industrial elite and the vision of shipping and railroad Henry B. Plant.” Henry Plant brought the Southern Florida Railroad to Tampa in 1884, transforming this sleepy little village into a major hub for transportation and shipping.  Upon the arrival of the railroad, the population of Tampa grew from a mere 700 to over 15,000 in just a few years.

The exotic Moorish and Turkish architectural features of the historic hotel are stunning – iconic minarets, domes, cupolas, horseshoe arches and deep verandas. Every room in the museum was still extravagantly decorated for Christmas. It was magical. The historic hotel building (which spans 6 acres) is now part of the University of Tampa, and so when we finished at the museum, we biked around the lovely campus. Of course, George, being George, wants no inch of any new place to go unexplored and so he eventually led us to the university’s athletic fields, where our arrival coincided with the awakening of the automatic sprinklers. George, who was in the lead, scooted by unscathed, but Chris was assaulted with blasts of water in the face. That marked the end of our touring for the day, and we returned to the boat to watch the sunset (and for Chris to dry off).

The great thing about the Tampa Convention Center Marina is that you are docked in the absolute middle of everything. The bad thing about the Tampa Convention Center Marina is that you are dock in the absolute middle of everything. And like New York, this mecca of tourism in Tampa never sleeps. The restaurants were buzzing, tour boats were crisscrossing, and multiple live bands competed to be heard over one another. The party went on until 2:45 in the morning.

Our plan for the next day was to head south on Tampa Bay to a quiet anchorage. George had picked out a secluded little spot behind one of the spoil islands. When we dropped the anchor, we knew right away that it didn’t feel right, and sure enough, before long we confirmed that our anchor was likely dragging. When we pulled up to reset, globs and globs of gooey mud came up with our anchor and chain. Over the course of the next couple of hours, we anchored and dragged, reset and then dragged again. Defeated, and uneasy about the increasing wind and the likelihood of a storm moving in that evening, we called Tampa Bay Yacht Club (another FCYC club) and reserved a slip for the night. We retraced most of our route from earlier in the day and ended up quite near where we had started that morning (just across the bay). We got in just as the rain arrived and so spent a quiet night without ever leaving the boat.

During the night, dense fog rolls in, and George lies awake listening to the periodic fog horns of at least one cruise ship and two freighters making their way into Tampa Bay. The next morning, the fog is thick. George convinces himself that the sun is starting to poke through, but since Chris disagrees, we decide that she will not be required to handle any of the driving. As soon as we are outside the private channel markers at the entrance to the yacht club’s marina, the fog is once again as thick as pea soup. George drives at idle speed from the flybridge, sounding our foghorn to alert others of our location. Chris initially sits next to George to help pick out channel markers that our instruments tell us are coming up, then she later sits at the inside helm station studying the radar to look for other vessels that might be out and about. The fog slowly starts to thin and once visibility is 200 yards, we increase speed and parallel the Tampa ship channel but stay out of it. Finally, visibility increases to about a mile, and so we cross the shipping channel to shave off some of the thirty-five miles to our next destination, Bradenton Yacht Club, located on Snead Island.

As soon as we are tied up at the Bradenton Yacht Club, we launched our bikes and headed to Emerson Point Preserve, which is full of both paved and unpaved bike trails, a nice beach, several lakes, an observation tower, and abundant wildlife. We saw an alligator that we later learned is named “Lucy,” and two of the largest turtles we’ve ever seen outside of a zoo or aquarium.

We headed back and crossed the bridge from Snead Island to Palmetto. We biked through the Palmetto Historic District and ended up at the Riverhouse Waterfront Restaurant for refreshments. In all, we logged over thirteen miles, which was a snap for Chris on the electric bike, and a vigorous workout for George since his “electric bike” is still awaiting the replacement module. We treated ourselves to dinner on the patio of the Bradenton Yacht Club. George created a video of highlights of our time in Tampa through our departure from Bradenton.