On the flip-flop

We are under way southbound across Tampa Bay, bound for an anchorage near where we stopped on the northbound leg, after wrapping up our month-long stay in the St Petersburg-Clearwater area. It's been a great stay and a great visit, but we once again have a schedule, wherein we need to be in Long Island Sound by May 1st to have the boat painted.

Gratuitous selfie in front of Cinderella's Castle, decked out for the 50th anniversary of Disney World.

Last year we lingered here a bit too long, mostly on account of medical appointments, and we ended up having a mad scramble to make LIS in a month and a half, and this year we wanted the journey to be a bit more relaxed. We're early enough now that we can go around the Keys rather than through the lake if we so choose; that decision will depend on what the Gulf of Mexico forecast is like next week.

Vector at the yacht club docks, as seen from a condo across Beach Drive. Photo: Diane Fowler.

Shortly after my last post we tendered ashore to head up to Clearwater for one final dinner with Karen and Ben, and to make arrangements to return their car after they left for their cruise. The original plan had been for them to meet us in St. Pete, but their time got short, and instead we took an Uber up to where we had left the Mini and drove over to their house for take-out.

Extra towels on the bed.

After our tearful goodbyes we drove back down to St. Pete where we promptly discovered that the overnight parking option I had carefully researched ahead of time was a no-go. Despite the description on the official city parking web site saying the lot was "open 24 hours," signs in the lot itself forbid overnight parking and claim any vehicle in the lot at 4am will be towed. We had to regroup and ended up parking at the Sundial Garage, only slightly more expensive and two blocks further away.

We took the launch from our hotel to Disney Springs for dinner.

Monday morning we weighed anchor and headed to the yacht club docks (map). After getting the boat secured and everything squared away, we headed back to the garage, rolling suitcase in tow, and headed off to Disney. Other than checking in with the gatehouse at the entrance to the resort, we went all the way to our room without interacting with any staff, our room number and access code having been sent to us en route.

This letter from Tiana on the table in our room is actually just part of the tabletop graphic. I kept wanting to move it while I was using the table.

The room was over-the-top Princess Tiana, and the resort itself, the Port Orleans Riverside, was just OK. In hindsight we should have either saved half again the rate and stayed in the lowest-end property, which ironically now has better access to the parks, or else bit the bullet and spent over twice as much to be at the highest-end property. Live and learn; heretofore we have only ever stayed at the campground.

This montage of princesses adorned one of our walls. No surprise that we had to call maintenance because our shower drain was clogged with princess hair.

I won't bore you with the full Disney report, but rather just hit the new and different aspects, starting with the Star Wars attractions at Hollywood Studios. While they did the usual good job on set decorating, overall it did not live up to the extensive hype. The Millennium Falcon ride attraction, a motion simulator, suffered from trying too hard to look and feel interactive; the button-pushing tasks detracted from the ability to actually enjoy the sim, and I would simply ignore the flashing buttons altogether if I did it again.

A relentless sun beats down upon the outpost of Batuu and the Millennium Falcon. 

The Rise of the Resistance attraction required an extra fee, or else a two-hour line that Louise simply can not do, so we skipped it. The only character appearances on our visit were a wookie and someone I assume was supposed to be Rey. We burned up our early Lightning Lane selection on Star Wars, which aced us out of the Tower of Terror ride altogether -- a bad trade. Star Tours, with a new program, remains the best Star Wars ride in the park, ironically not located in the Star Wars area.

Entering the Millennium Falcon I am struck by the code-compliant illuminated Exit signs that I do not recall from the original trilogy. Also, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the supposedly otherworldly utility cables are secured to the wall with conduit clamps from Lowes.

Lightning Lanes are what used to be the Fast Pass lanes. But while Fast Pass was no extra charge, access to Lightning Lanes requires an upcharge that varies by day. We paid an extra $18 apiece each day for the access. It was more effective for us in the Magic Kingdom than it was at Hollywood Studios.

Nautical flags strung over a fake ship in a fake lagoon. It says "d7o8c2k5s6i2d8e9d6i3n5e4r," which is "Dockside Diner" if you ignore the numbers.

We sampled all the transportation options from buses to monorails to boats, including the latest, a high-speed gondola system called the Skyliner. That was underused and thus uncrowded; we always got a ten-seat cabin to ourselves, and it will whisk you to a couple of the resorts including the lowest-end options. We did not break any new ground in the dining department, and were thankful we could just swipe our wristbands at all the snack venues and not be exposed to just how much a pretzel or ice cream bar costs in the parks.

We scored a nice bench in the shade to take in the parade at Magic Kingdom, and so this is the best shot you get of the first float - I was not moving.

It was a whirlwind trip, and on this sort of fast pace we were exhausted at the end of two days in the parks. We left Thursday morning for the drive back to St. Pete, bearing in mind that we had crammed this in ahead of a scheduled dentist appointment at 8:30 Friday morning. It was also a surgical strike, bookended by firm commitments that precluded a leisurely pace or any side trips, such as a two-hour round trip up to Sanford, where several friends are hanging out for the season. Fortunately we'll come closer to them as we transit up the east coast.

Just as we finished anchoring off Spa Beach, Kristina was walking by on the pier and snapped this photo (yes, we are that close to the pier). Louise is in the process of putting the sun cover up on the forward windows. Photo: Kristina Thyrre

We arrived back in St. Pete in time to vacate the docks by checkout time, as planned, and we also just caught Joshua from Poseidon Diving wrapping up cleaning our hull and inspecting the running gear. After careful consideration, however, we opted to extend a day, mostly so that I could just walk to the car at zero-dark-thirty for the drive out to the dentist in Pinellas Park, rather than first having to tender ashore. That also made for a very easy walk to our scheduled dinner right there at the club with local friends Kristina and Atle. 

One morning while I was still asleep Louise turned a space heater on with the generator running, and all the outlets in the boat went out. Apparently some idiot managed to get this spade terminal installed with the spade inserted between the plastic and the terminal, instead of seated in the terminal. It worked this way for 7 years. I like how the plastic melted through in the exact shape of the lug. I bypassed this system until I had a cup of coffee.

Friday after I returned from my dental appointment we moved the boat back to the anchorage off Spa Beach (map). In the evening we tendered ashore to meet Martin and Steph for a nice dinner at Bella Brava. Afterward we joined them for an evening concert at the Mahaffey Theater, where they had some extra tickets.  After the show they took our car home and stashed it in their driveway to save us on downtown parking.

Vector off Spa Beach, breakwater astern, as seen from across Beach Drive. Photo: Diane Fowler

Wind and rain trapped us on the boat for the next two days, postponing dinner plans with local friends Diane and JP. The downtime gave me the chance to get a few projects done, including wiring up a loud bell to our AIS to serve as a Man Overboard alarm that will wake the off-watch, and replacing the main engine thermostats. We were quite comfortable in our anchorage, it was just too rough and wet to want to tender ashore.

The same winds that pinned us on the boat exacted a toll in town as well.

Sunday evening things had calmed enough for us to get ashore and use up the rest of our gift certificate at Birch & Vine, and Monday we finally connected with JP and Diane at Sea Salt. Yesterday we retrieved the car, did some last-minute provisioning, and then drove up to Dunedin to connect with good friends Erin and Chris, who have been working their way around the Great Loop and have been inching ever closer to us. Despite the chaos that is dining out on Valentine's Day, we had a very nice meal together at Casa Tina and spent a couple of hours catching up.

I replaced the main engine thermostats, and Louise tested the take-outs. Alas, the old ones tested fine, and the new ones did not solve our domestic hot water problem.

The trip to Dunedin presented the perfect timing to drop the car back off at Karen and Ben's place in Clearwater, where we also watered the plants before catching an Uber back home. We are very grateful to have had use of the car for the entire month. With that taken care of, we could easily have left this morning, but we wanted to have one last Wednesday Lunch with the gang and we lingered until then.

As we were decking the tender in preparation for departure this afternoon, our friend Alex snapped this photo as he was walking by on the pier. Photo: Alex Ertz

Update: We are anchored just north of the Cortez Bridge, east of the channel (map), not far from where we anchored on the northbound leg. Lunch at the club was our big meal for the day and we had our usual lunch items at dinner time, right after we dropped the hook around 6pm. In the morning we will weigh anchor and continue south.