St Petersburg Florida to Sarasota Florida - Nov 26, 2016

Nov 24^th – Happy Thanksgiving to our US friends!  It was a hot and sunny day today.  We haven’t spent much time with other Loopers since most of them rushed south to a marina where they could leave their boat to travel home for Thanksgiving and some have an extended leave until after Christmas.  We’ve been moving at a slower pace than most since we aren’t heading home until Christmas and we have until Dec 15^th to get to Palm Island Marina which is only about 80 miles south of where we are.  Thus we’ve been socializing with people we meet in the marinas we stay at and expect to see the Loopers sometime in January, however we hear that this part of the trip will be quite different since the Loopers tend to scatter during the winter months and then they are driven back together again as they head north along the Atlantic ICW in April.  The bikes are taking a beating from the salt thus I cleaned them and oiled the major components so we could go for a bike ride today.  We rode 27km today from St Petersburg Municipal Marina to Pasadena and back. And we weren’t done yet … we walked into town for an ice cream cone or happy hour however the stores were closed … Oh well.  Back to the boat, chairs on the front, sunning ourselves with cocktails and a non-traditional BBQed Thanksgiving dinner.   

Nov 25^th – It was a hot and sunny day.  This will be our last night at the St Petersburg Municipal Marina.  We walked all around the town today and it’s amazing how many businesses are putting up Christmas decorations.  We went out to dinner on a patio close to the St Petersburg Christmas Tree lighting ceremony.  After dinner we walked over to the huge gathering of people where a large brass band was playing Christmas carols.  Then a count-down began: 10-9-8-…-3-2-1 and then the whole area was lit up by thousands of lights on a massive Christmas tree as well as trees throughout the area.  All this while we were wearing shorts and flip flops …. A very strange outfit for a Christmas gathering!   
     
Nov 26^th – It was a hot day with a mix of sun and clouds.  We walked into St Petersburg to check out their farmers market and we were impressed by the size of the market, diversity and quality of the items available.  Afterwards we pulled out of the marina and travelled 39 miles across Tampa Bay and on the GICW to Marina Jack in Sarasota Florida.  On the way our port engine had the same undercharging issue and I quickly went below with a volt meter to check the output of the rebuilt alternator and it was only 12.3 volts.  It started working again after 10 minutes or so.  Thus our intermittent charging issue is still not fixed.  I’ll have to call the alternator repair shop on Monday.  We decided to stay on a mooring ball at Marina Jack and Maria did a great job catching the mooring ball with the pipe pole especially since we are mooring ball virgins!  Not anymore ;)  Once we were settled we used the dingy to get to Marina Jack’s dingy dock and walked into town.  It looks like a nice town, however we think St Petersburg gave us a better first impression.  We may stay here a few days, however the mooring field isn’t well protected from the wind as what we thought it would be thus we may move if it gets a little lumpy here.

US Thanksgiving day - getting some sun on the boat

Tree lighting ceremony in St Petes

Wow ... there are lots of people here for the tree lighting!

St Pete's farmers market

A very long bridge over Tampa Bay

Someone must have forgot to put their plug in their sailboat

Arriving in Sarasota FL

I'd like to meet the person that rides this bike!

Our first mooring ball