Tarpon Springs to Caladesi State Park

We pulled out of Turtle Cove Marina at 8:30 Tuesday morning (1/10/17) and headed over to Caladesi State Park's marina, a 2 ½ hour trip in good weather and a rising tide. Turtle Cove is located just off the Anclote River which lead us to the ICW, we were the only boat in sight for most of the trip with choppy waves and narrow channels at times. We had 10 to 12 feet of water under us in the ICW, the depths dropped to about six feet when we turned into the channel leading to the marina; Overtime's draft is just over 3 feet. This smaller channel was eventually enclosed by mangroves on both sides with a few turns and twists that had us isolated from the world for a few minutes, soon however a big opening appeared revealing a totally empty marina, there were a lot of slips but no other boats to be seen. Most of their slips are only 12 feet wide but they had a very few which would handle Overtime's 13 foot beam. Since she's under 40 feet we were allowed to use one at $1.00/ft/night. Boats over 40 feet must use the T-docks at $2.00/ft/night; a T-dock is equivalent to an end-cap in a grocery store isle. We arrived at 11:00 am, paid our fees, and headed over to the beach for a long walk.

Even though the marina was empty there were people present due to a ferry shuttling them back and forth from the mainland. However, at 5:30 the last shuttle left, the rangers left, the maintenance workers left and the place was empty. Kim and I looked at each other, smiled and realized we had our very own state park for the next 15 hours or so.... woohoo. I'm not going into any detail about what we did, but we discovered that we still have quite a few teenage brain cells rattling around in our heads, who knew. We had a beach, nature trails and plenty of alcohol to go around. As Forrest Gump says “That's all I'm going to say about that!”

We slept-in a little later than usual the next day (surprise, surprise) then started the day off with a 7 mile hike down to Clearwater Beach and back followed by a 3 mile kayak trip after lunch. The nature trail runs through forests of oak, pine and palm trees, we managed to reach the furthest point heading south then found our way over to the beach and continued down to Clearwater Beach before turning around. The kayak trail is extremely cool, it's a 15 foot wide 3 mile long tunnel cut through a forest of mangroves. As we returned from the kayak adventure we noticed another boat had pulled in for the night, darn. They were nice folks though and invited us over for docktails then we all mosied over to the beach and watched the sunset. This morning Kim and I went for another nature walk then loaded up the kayaks and cranked up the beast, time to get moving again. Our friends on Kharma had stayed at Tarpon Springs an extra day for some work on their generator but are now anchored at the backside of Clearwater Beach where we will join them.

Kim’s Korner:

Before we left Tarpon Springs, I had to visit the manatees one last time. We’d been to the park several times and I quickly noticed some huge rocks had been added near the edge just under the water. Wondering why they had been put there and how, I did a double take when a snout came up for air and suddenly realized they weren’t rocks but manatees! There were about 4 and a baby under some shade trees right near the edge – so neat! Several had scars on their backs where I assume they had tangled with some boat prop during their life.

So we left for Caladesi Island State Park which was about a 2.5 hour trip and can only be reached by water. We were the only boat in the marina – unbelievable! We quickly went exploring – a beautiful beach and a 3 mile nature walk in the park – just beware of rattlesnakes – yikes! The Good Year blimp was also making its rounds – I assume from Tampa Bay where Alabama and Clemson had fought out the National Championship the night before. When the ferry that shuttles visitors over from the mainland stopped about 5:30 and the park rangers went home, we had the entire state park to ourselves – seriously - unbelievable again! We grilled hamburgers and went back to the beach for the sunset – oh my gosh – it was beautiful! And to make it even better, a full moon guided us back to our boat. Life just doesn’t get any better than this!

Pictures!