Returning to a Favorite Florida Town and a Best Friend

 St Pete Beach

On December 28th we slipped the lines from the dock at Seafood Shack Marina and back tracked about 22 miles across Tampa Bay to a favorite spot of ours St Pete Beach. We spent 5 weeks there three years ago during the winter and had a blast. We anchored right off Gulfport which is where we bought Next Chapter at. St Petes is a beehive of activity along with a lot of fun entertainment spots.

One of our favorites is a dive bar at sunset called Willys. It is simply a great hang. Right across the street is the Toasted Monkey which always has great live music. We also made the trek to Ted Peters Smoked Fish. They have been in business since the early 50s and have not changed a single thing. Their fish dip and smoked fish dinners are renowned. We also rode bikes down to the south end to Pass a Grille beach.

It has a small little area of shops and restaurants along with a casual breakfast walk up place right on the Gulf of Mexico. It was so much fun to get back to the area. The morning of the 30th we headed back south with a brief stop to wrap up our affairs and say good bye to the staff at Seafood Shack marina. We then headed on to Sarasota Bay for the night to have a last dinner with Steve and Diane. On the way we stopped briefly to say hi to John and Mary Olliges who live on the water on Long boat key. Note to self, “never take navigational advice from another boater that has a much smaller boat.” We were able to get to their house but could not dock due to low tide and the lack of water. We were at lease able to say hi and have a brief conversation.

After continuing down the extremely busy intercoastal waterway we finally dropped the hook in Sarasota Bay about 3:30 pm and settled in. We met Steve and Diane ashore and had a great time walking the town and enjoying dinner together. Gosh I miss my buddy! We had a beautiful calm night at anchor overlooking the lit skyline of downtown Sarasota. There is a lot of wealth in that area and it shows.