Cruise Log #3
Aboard "NORDIC"
March 3- April 6, 2001
Panama City Beach to Clearwater Beach, Florida

Hello everyone. We are not lost at sea just having a gra-8 time! Here's a brief update since our last cruise log. We are enjoying Clearwater Beach, Florida, our home port through mid month. The marina is gigantic & is home to a Pirate's ship, tons of large & small fishing charters, parasailing, sailing charters, dinner cruise ships, go fast boats & more! It 's a block from the beach, the Gulf Of Mexico, which stretches the coastline for many beautiful miles. Also there's Pier 60 where sunset is famous. Every night there's local musicians, jugglers, artists, craft vendors, souvenirs, stilt walkers, painters, food & gra-8 people watching all sponsored by the City of Clearwater. It lasts for 2 hours before & after sunset. Each night is a bit different! Gra-8 entertainment & fun as the sun sets!

Clearwater is home to the Philadelphia Phillies Spring Training Camp. The city's largest industry is tourism. Clearwater does a gra-8 job with bike trails, beaches, trees, flowers, fountains, music, Pier 60 entertainment, trollys/buses & pedestrian crosswalks. We are impressed & look forward to visiting the area by both land & sea.

Our first guests aboard were SeaSister Ann & Tom Caywood on their way to Ft. Myers for Trawler Fest. We had lots of fun! It was a real treat! Bo & Joanne are coming to visit this weekend. Can't wait! We love visitors!

Our weather has been less than wonderful with more than our share of wind, clouds & rain. Now we have beautiful sunshine, blue skies, mid 80's & still a bit breezy. Mother nature is very powerful! She controls life aboard. We can't complain! Our captain has kept us very comfortable in many different marinas & traveling only when the weather is good. That's a nice luxury & a fun way to cruise!

It has been a real treat meeting so many different kinds of people from all over! Some deserve special mention. They include:

Nanci & Scott M/V LaIsla are our new cruising friends from Clear Lake who cruise 6 months of the year & spend a lot of time in Marathon/TheKeys area. We traded info, stories & enjoyed our time together in Panama City Beach.

Also met Tom M/V TomCat, an elderly gent who built his 41' Catamaran himself-from start to finish. His helm station seat is a prototype of a jet fighter. Amazing & beautiful!

Leanne M/V The DayLeaG, a mutual Carver owner who's sweet & talented. She's a professional storyteller, writer & plays the harp.

Met many casual boaters in Clearwater Beach some from Tampa & Tarpon Springs. Especially interesting & fun are Terry & Eleanor M/Y Retainage. They are cruising to Cuba with permission from the US Coast Guard. Enjoyed visiting & hearing of their fascinating preparations!

Jack in Clearwater is a serious treasure hunter. He describes his collection & 10+ years of stories & "finds". What an interesting hobby!

We have been eating a lot of fresh, local fish (not caught by us yet) grouper, tuna, oysters, octopus, sheephead & amberjack. Yum! Also enjoyed Greek food & pastries! They were outstanding. Had Cuban food that was excellent! We eat most of our meals onboard & barbecue a lot & have fun finding local grocery stores etc. Nothing is the same. We just got our Florida fishing licenses. Can't wait to hook 'um and eat 'em too! We have been doing a lot of walking, bicycling & exploring by dinghy. That's our transportation!

As we left Panama City Beach, we were off to brand new territory traveling to Apalachicola. It was scenic with blue/green waters, schools of dolphin, landcuts, creeks & birds. It was a sunny, cool & breezy day. Along the way we lost an hour & gained more daylight as we went under a 65' fixed bridge, crossing into the E.S.T. zone. Apalachicola is a common port to wait for a weather window to make the Gulf crossing southeast to the Suncoast of Florida. It's also the southern most tip of the Florida Panhandle. The entire Panhandle area is commonly known as the Redneck Riviera.

Stayed in Apalach (locals call it for short) several nights. We visited the Dr. John Gorrie museum. In 1851, Gorrie was an early pioneer in the invention of artificial manufacturing of ice, refrigeration & air conditioning. The quaint town has lots of old/restored homes & bldgs., cute one of a kind shops & restaurants. Apalachicola has over 6,000 acres of oyster beds & is famous for them. We bought a huge bag of oysters & enjoyed them every day. Our Captain shucked & barbecued them for us daily! Our short weather window came after waiting patiently. Our captain decided to skip Carabelle & head straight to Tarpon Springs. The weather had been unseasonably cool-irratic & very windy, wherever we go, once we get there. Our timing has been ideal!

WE DID IT-THE GULF CROSSING! We left Apalachicola & arrived in Tarpon Springs about 12 hours later, covering about 145 miles. It was a very mixed crossing. From very rough to flat. The weather gods showed lots of diversity. The marine forecast was half correct. The Gulf waters are all open & typically it takes days to settle down. We did not see land all day. At times, we were 60 miles from land & in waters 75' deep. Many boaters approach the crossing with much apprehension, lots of preparation & tons of stories-good, bad, ugly & exergaterated! We are very proud and excited to have it behind us. We now also have this experience. Fellow boaters-if you would like added marine info, email us & we will be glad to share the details.

We arrived on the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs with lots of excitement! Tarpon Springs is a small, charming old Greek community known as the "sponge capital of the world". Along the streets, there are many touristy/cute shops, tons of Greek restaurants & wonderful bakeries, all family owned & operated with Greek music playing-day & night throughout the streets. They have gra-8 bike trails. We visited a Greek Orthodox Cathedral that was breathtaking, the sponge museum and lots more!

These natural sponges are neat! They are considered animals, single cell, asexual (no sex-not male-nor female) & harvested from the sea by Greek sponge divers. The process once cultivated to dry & clean is very time consuming. They are then sold in many styles, sizes, shapes & functions by most merchants in all of the shops. They remind us of shells-each is unique, one of a kind & different. All made by God. Nordic is now outfitted with various, authentic Tarpon Spring sponges.

Our captain's work is never done. It's his labor of true love! We are enjoying life aboard & are grateful for this lifetime opportunity! Some numbers so far for our cruise include: 1,048 miles (statute miles), 106 running hours & 65 days out. Time is flying by!

A few more boat names to add to our collection:

Our next port will be St. Petersburg. Happy Spring! Happy Passover! Happy Easter! Hope the Easter bunny comes your way! For those of you staying in touch, thank you. We miss you & are interested in keeping up with you & what's going on with you. too! We enjoy hearing from each of you!

Captain Marc & First Mate Cindy

M/Y Nordic