Day 8 - By Vicki

Our destination in the distance

So, we didn’t die.  The boat didn’t blow up and we didn’t sink.  Today we left from Clearwater Beach towards downtown St Pete.  We gassed up, $320.00 this time.   I don’t know how this thing eats so much gas.   It’s nice and cool this morning.  We are keeping the boat at 15 knots since anything over that seems to cause the boat to break down.   We won’t be stopping until we get to St Pete because it seems that once you stop this boat, it doesn’t want to start again. 

With any luck, the rest of this blog will not be about mechanical issues and we can post about all the fun we are having. 

I’m learning a lot about boating during this trip.  I’ve been reading the rules of boating in this little book I picked up in Tarpon Srpings.  I’m also studying the GPS booklet.  I meant to do that before we left, but it didn’t seem like a priority at the time.  (I'm not the captain) I thought Aaron knew everything and that I was just along for the ride.  That’s not always the case, so I’m learning as much as I can.  Aaron keeps asking me what to do, and I’m like “I don’t know!”  He took the boating safety class, but there were some things along the way that we hadn't encountered before.

You can clear this bridge if your boat is 20 feet
or less from the waterline.  Our boat is about 16
feet high, so we are all good to go under it. 

 I learned about bridge clearance.  I also learned today that when the marker numbers go up, you are going in and the red should be on your right- red right returning.  When the numbers are going down, it means you are going out, and the green should be on your right.  It’s interesting to me how much the United States Coast Guard communicates with boaters.  For example, they informed us of a partly sunken ship, gave the coordinates, and advised us to use extreme caution in that area. 

I spent a lot of today sitting on the fly bridge enjoying the view.  Although people see me sitting up here In the passenger’s seat playing with my phone or just looking around and get a little tripped out.  They don’t always realize that Aaron is down there driving the boat.  I get some really concerned looks.  One lady yelled to me from her dock, “Be safe!!!” 

Our destination, The Vinoy® Renaissance St. Petersburg Marina
As seen from the water.

When we approached St Pete, we were the only boat in the bay.  We should have invested in some good binoculars because it’s hard to see the markers.   Coming in was confusing because it was not like anything we were used to.  There were very few channel markers and they didn’t go in.  There were several on the outskirts of the bay.   My guess is that means the water is deep enough that you can come in anywhere you want to, but I’m really not sure.  I need to look into that. 

Six hours later, we made it to our destination.  It was supposed to take two days to get here, but it took seven.  I was so happy when I saw that inverted pyramid, The Pier, because I knew we were right where we are supposed to be.   



The St. Petersburg Pier, known locally as The Pier,
  is a landmark and tourist destination.  May 31, 2013
was the last official day for the public to visit the pier.
 The city of St. Petersburg, Florida  has plans to           
demolish and replace it.                                                 

 On a sidenote, they are planning on tearing that structure down any day now and rebuilding it with a completely different design. 

Since we were exhausted, we grabbed a quick dinner at the hotel. Before we got back to the boat, it started pouring down rain.  This boat was rocking back and forth and every which way.  Honestly, I didn’t even care.  I slept like a baby. 

I was thrilled to see that there is beach right next to our destination marina.