Day 7. June 3, 2015

I hated to give up such a beautiful travel day, but we were both tired and needed to do some prep before we headed offshore to Cedar Key, so we pulled anchor this morning and moved a couple miles N to " Marker 1 Marina", in Dunedin, and paid a discounted rate to use their facilities for the day. We cleaned out trash, filled the water tanks, washed clothes, walked to the dollar store, Publix, and Walgreens for supplies, and then ate a nice lunch at Frenchy's Outpost. Just before leaving the marina, we filled the ice chests.

We didn't have to wait on the Dunedin-Honeymoon Island bridge. I called them on the VHF and the bridge worker said he had already seen me coming and would have it open by the time we got there!

A pleasurable 2 hour ride brought us to the end of this section of the ICW. We have three days of travel in the Gulf of Mexico (returning to inland anchorages each night) before we get to Carrabelle, where the ICW starts again.

Our only "exciting" occurrence today was when our anchor chain broke and left our anchor on the bottom of the sea floor. Close inspection revealed several links in the chain that were severely rusted - to the point of breaking when the boat put too much pressure on them. Fortunately, Clyde, the former owner, had included a backup anchor and rode with the boat. 

Lots of dolphin and big fish today!

Glenda says:

Got up this morning and left our anchorage near Dunedin city docks and moved up to Marker one marina.  We decided to spend the day there and get some chores done.  I watched these two birds compete for the same fishing spot most of the day.

We spent a very nice day; doing laundry, filling the water tanks, buying a new pair of sunglasses for me at walgreens ( I think I'll just stick with cheap ones) and getting supplies at the local Publix and dollar general.  Daisy was quite pleased to be able to take 2 walks.  Though actually the second time she was more interested in chasing lizards that taking care of business.  After a nice late lunch at a local restaurant of fried shrimp we finished everything and headed off to the anchorage for the night.  We are just north of Anclote key at scenic gulf harbor sand bar.  On our way we saw lots of dophins and several very large fish.  I have video but I don't know how to down load it just yet.  

This beautiful sailboat was off in the distance.  My imagination could get carried away thinking about the way things looked here 200 years 

We arrived at our anchorage around 5 and started to set the anchor.  Then came our next challenge, the anchor chain broke and the anchor is somewhere down there! ( with my costa del Mars)

At that moment it really put the loss of my sun glasses in perspective.  But as anyone around water knows you have to always be prepared.  My captain simply tied on the spare anchor and here we sit safe and sound on the cockpit watching the sun go down over the Gulf of Mexico.  On again I say "ain't God good?"