ssloop: April 2021

It was time to begin our journey north. While we are excited to get PV2 back to Michigan, we are also thankful for the grand adventures we have had the last three winters exploring the beautiful waters of Florida and the Bahamas. This trip, we had a great 3 weeks traveling from Punta Gorda, Florida to Mobile, Alabama.

On March 10, we flew into Punta Gorda, loaded up with supplies and found PV2 in good shape after docking for a month at Fisherman's Village Marina. By the next day, we were ready to head out. Upon beginning our cruise across Charlotte Harbor we quickly realized we were not getting a good fuel burn and needed to have our bottom cleaned. After a few phone calls, we hooked up with a diver 20 miles north at Cape Haze Marina where they went to work scraping our bottom. A couple hours later, we were back on our way. We spent the night on anchor near Englewood. On Friday, we traveled the ICW 15 miles to Venice and then out on the Gulf 27 miles to Longboat Pass. We dropped the hook at one of our favorite anchorages near Jewfish Key just off the north tip of Longboat Key where we stayed 2 nights.

On Sunday we discovered a new gem of an anchorage near Desoto State Park at Bunces Pass. (just north of Tampa Bay Inlet) The weather was hot and sunny, the beach was huge and the waters were calm and clear. We tapped the breaks and stayed here 3 glorious nights.

We saw the weather was about to change so on Tuesday, we headed 15 miles north to Madeira Beach Marina where we stayed 2 nights. By that afternoon the winds picked up and the temps had dropped so we were happy we were tied to a dock vs being on anchor. On Wednesday, we walked to John's Pass for some shopping and lunch. Shortly after we arrived back at the boat, heavy rains came in. Free boat wash!

On Friday we cruised 18 miles up to Clearwater Beach where we anchored out in a bay just off the tourist area. A short walk in town made us uncomfortable with so many tourists (college spring break) and no social distancing that we headed back to the boat lickety-split.

Saturday, we traveled a short 4 miles and anchored out just off the town of Dunedin. This a great little town with fun shops and good restaurants. The weather was cool and windy again, but we were still able to take the dinghy a short distance to enjoy the town.

With the winds and colder weather forecasted for the next couple of days we took a slip at Marker 1 Marina just 3 miles north of our anchorage. We took the local free trolley to Tarpon Springs for the day. After seeing all the sponges we could handle to took the trolley to Palm Harbor where we stopped and had a yummy pizza dinner at a warm cozy little restaurant.

We have been watching the weather forecast for good conditions to cross the Gulf of Mexico and we decided that Tuesday, March 23 would be "go day". On Monday we left Marker 1 and cruised 6 miles to anchor out off of Three Rooker Bar to stage for an early morning departure across the Gulf 170 miles to Apalachicola. At sunrise, we pulled up the anchor and headed out to the Gulf. We set course to Dog Island and cruised comfortably for 9 hours. We were happy when we could see land again. We entered at East Pass into St George Sound. After another 25 miles we dropped the hook just off the town of Apalachicola. Whew, big day...we were exhausted but happy.

On Wednesday, we traveled 55 miles to a pretty anchorage in Smack Bayou just off the ICW. The scenery of the Panhandle of Florida is much different than southern Florida. The palm trees are few and far between while pine trees are in abundance.

Next stop was Destin. We anchored out in Destin Harbor where we were just a short dinghy ride to the many shops and restaurants. The weather continues to be cool and windy, but we felt fortunate that we didn't have rain as the forecast had called for rain all week. We could hear the waves from the Gulf crashing on the beach. We were thankful that we were able to travel in the protected waters of the ICW and had an anchorage protected from the strong winds.

The next morning we woke up to dense fog. Finally around 11am we decided it was time to move on. We spun up the radar which helped guide us in the fog. After an hour of traveling the fog lifted for clear cruising. 40 miles later we dropped the anchor off Pensacola Beach.

By Saturday, we were ready for a couple days at a marina. We needed water, the boat needed a bath and so did our clothes. We spent 2 nights at The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach. This was one of our favorite stops when we did the Loop so it was fun to be back again.

On Monday, it was time for our last leg of this journey. 7 miles after leaving The Wharf we entered Mobile Bay. We cruised 28 miles across to the west side of the bay to Turner Marina where PV2 will remain until our next and final leg.