.

January 3, 2013 Day 237

St. Petersburg Municipal Marina, St. Petersburg, FL
Total miles to date: 4378.9

As planned, we pulled anchor from Clearwater Beach this morning and departed for St. Petersburg.  We left later than planned as we waited for the fog to lift. But, we had the current with us and made the trip in less than five hours, arriving at 2:45.  Our arrival was actually timed well – it started to rain shortly after we arrived!  Anne and Larry on Great Laker followed us all the way and are docked in front of us.  We also met Gold Loopers, Ray and Linda on The Second Noelle after we got tied up.
 
We followed the ICW which is fairly narrow much of the way, taking us past condos, hotels, and large and small homes, many with their own private docks. We also passed under several bridges but only needed to have one open for us.  We saw many dolphins today as they dived around the boat and jumped off our stern.

Since it was raining this afternoon, we did not get off the boat to go exploring. Hopefully we can run errands tomorrow morning. We will leave the dock around 3pm and go to a mooring ball for two days. Then we will return to our spot here at the marina and remain for a week.