There is an old saying “Your not really a sailor until you leave the dock”!  Well, it’s time to leave the dock.

We wanted to stay semi local in the event something goes wrong with the newly installed solar or  wind turbine and the fact that we have to still replace the Dripless Stuffing Seal. Our new friend Captain Rick let us in on some Tribal knowledge and suggested going to DeSoto Point for a couple of nights. He said there is good anchorage there and Fort DeSoto National Park is a short dinghy ride away.

We left out of Clearwater with 23 knots of wind right off the nose (no fun). Normally we would have waited for more favorable conditions, but our month was up at the marina and did not want to stay any longer. We raised the sails and began beating into the wind. After about 1/3 of the trip our course had us turn slightly more east which made the sailing worse. Since we wanted to get to our destination in the daylight, we decided to pull in the canvas and use the trusty diesel to take us the remainder of the way. Turned out to be a good choice because conditions stayed the same for the remainder of the trip.

DeSoto Point is located off of Tampa Bay just up the Manatee River a little way. We found it just as Rick described, good anchorage with plenty of water depth. The next day we took the Jetta ashore and spent sever hours visiting Fort DeSoto and enjoying the beach that is there.

After two days here, we took off for Gulfport where we will stay a couple of days. Gulfport is a small seaside town with a lively waterfront with restaurants and live music.