2009.2 - Tarpon Springs

LOG OF THE TOP CAT

November 26-29

CALADESI ISLAND AND TARPON SPRINGS

It is becoming a Thanksgiving tradition for Jayne and me to embark on a mini-cruise over the long holiday weekend. Turkey with all the trimmings al fresco in the cockpit is a joy, and so is sitting at anchor in some postcard perfect little cove or walking some deserted island beach while the rest of the world fights traffic at the mall on Black Friday. This year we traveled to the west coast of Florida and explored the area between Clearwater and the Anclote River, with overnight stops at Caladesi Island State Park and Tarpon Springs.

November 26

It is about a four hour trip on the trailer from our home port in Vero Beach to our launching point at Anclote River Park near Tarpon Springs. This is a nice little park run by Pasco County at the mouth of the Anclote River with a good boat ramp and secure parking. We got ourselves launched around 1400 and headed out the river to the Gulf of Mexico. Anclote Key is right out in front of us, the northernmost barrier island on the Florida west coast. This also marks the northern end of the Intracoastal Waterway until you reach Apalachicola in the panhandle. We turn south at Anclote Key and run an easy 6 miles to the bridge connecting Dunedin and Honeymoon Island. From there, we follow another channel over to Caladesi Island, our destination for the next two nights.

Caladesi Island State Park (727-469-5918) has a very nice, well protected 108 slip marina with first come-first served docking for $1.00 per foot. Ferry boats bring over visitors from the mainland, but when the last ferry leaves at sunset, the overnight boaters have the whole park all to themselves. The beach here has consistently been voted in the top five beaches in the country, and the island is unspoiled, with hiking trials through an outstanding maritime hammock forest and a kayak trail winding through a dense tunnel of mangroves. It is pretty cold and very windy today, and after a couple of false starts we settle on a slip where we will stay fairly warm and out of the wind. We took a walk along the beach to the north end of the island and back, and then had our Thanksgiving feast. There are about 30 boats here tonight, and about half of them brought their dogs. This is a dog-friendly place, which is good because we once again have Cha-cha the wonder poodle cruising with us. Tired from the long day and the Thanksgiving feast, we slept long and sound.

Caladesi Island Marina Settled in our slip, Caladesi Island Marina

Cha-Cha Staying warm in the cabin Sunset at Caladesi Island Marina

November 27

This morning the little electric heater warmed up the cabin and bridge deck (that’s what I grandly call the tiny enclosed area around the helm seat) while we made coffee and oatmeal. No plans to go anywhere today, just relaxing and enjoying the surroundings. We took a three mile morning walk on the nature trail with Cha-cha, which wore her out for the rest of the day, and then we loafed around ourselves. By early afternoon it had warmed up enough to go for a paddle on the kayak trail. We didn’t do the whole thing, because it was very windy out in the exposed parts, but the first mile was through a totally enclosed tunnel of mangroves – fifty yards past the marina, and you might as well be in the middle of the Everglades. Later we did some more beachcombing, and got some good shells and some not-too-stinky horseshoe crab carapaces that will make a nice outdoor decoration. One drawback of this place is that it does not have a bathhouse. There are bathrooms and changing rooms, but only open air, cold water, rinse off after swimming type showers at the beach access boardwalks. At the tail end of November with a cold front north wind blowing it was not too inviting, but we did the polar bear club shower – BRRRRR! Dinner tonight was some mangrove snapper we brought from home, prepared as snapper almandine, with rice and asparagus.

Morning nature hike on the beach, Caldesi Island Mangrove kayak trail, Caldesi Island

November 28

This morning we said goodbye to Caladesi Island. About 1030 we set out back north towards the Anclote River. We made a quick stop at a marina in Dunedin for a holding tank pump-out and to get some local knowledge about Three Rooker Bar, a big sand bar and bird nesting area nearby we wanted to check out. These offshore bars are subject to constant change - moving, eroding, and accreting with storms and currents. The depths around the bar on our charts were hopelessly out of date, but going on the advice we got this morning, we were able to find a spot to anchor right off the beach and step ashore. The shelling was not as great as I had hoped it would be on such an isolated and remote beach, but we did see terns, oystercatchers, ospreys, egrets, ibises and other shorebirds. A circumnavigation of the entire bar took all of half an hour, and then it was off to civilization.

Wilderness beach at Three Rooker Bar

Historic Tarpon Springs (the “Sponge Capital of the World”) is about 4 miles up the Anclote River from the Gulf. Settled mainly by Greek sponge fishermen around the turn of the 20th century, many wonderful old houses and brick streets remain. We stayed at the Tarpon Springs City Marina (727-937-9165) which isn’t much to look at, but it is in the heart of the sponge district, right on Dodecanese Boulevard. This area is tourist central, and when we got there it was packed. It was like Duval Street in Key West, but with a somewhat fatter, pastier, more bovine class of tourists. Sort of like they bussed them in from Wal-Mart. We walked the street and found it pretty tacky. But when we went back after dark, the crowds were gone, the street vendors were gone, and it seemed half the people on the street were speaking Greek. Men were smoking cigars and playing cards in little clubs just off the main drag, and the whole ambiance was changed. We had some Greek pastries and cappuccino at a little sidewalk café, and decided we really liked Tarpon Springs.

Approaching Tarpon Springs on Anclote River Dodecanese Boulevard waterfront, Tarpon Springs

Even the toys speak Greek!

November 29

This morning we walked a mile or so down US 19 to downtown Tarpon Springs in search of breakfast. We found a nice little diner, full of people in their best going-to-church clothes. Walking back, we passed some big and splendid churches (Greek Orthodox, of course) that were welcoming the congregations. We would have loved to poke our noses inside, but we were not what you would call dressed for the occasion. We cut through some nice old neighborhoods back to Dodecanese Boulevard, where things were still quiet. We stopped at a bakery for some hot from the oven bread and a tray of baklava so fresh, so dense with nuts, so oozing with honey it was all we could do not to devour it on the spot. Then we cast off our lines and motored slowly downriver to our launch point. We were back on the trailer and ready for the highway by 1100 and back at home in Vero Beach by 1430.

Tarpon Diner, a nice breakfast spot