Day 47: St Petersburg to Longboat Key, FL

Arrived in St Petersburg at Murray Yacht Sales at 11 am and found the Greatest Loop Beneteau 34 in good shape and ready to go. Michael James lent us his car for a quick run to the store and lunch and we were off the dock around 1.20 pm. Today's run consisted of about 20 miles of open water out of the bay and then a left turn into the waterway at St Annabel Island where we had a first lifting bridge, with a vertical clearance of only 22 ft. We had a short wait with a huge storm brewing behind us - luckily the bridge opened and the speed of the Swift Trawler allowed us to scoot out ahead of the storm which passed just behind. One more bridge and a short ride down Longboat Key brought us to a great anchorage in 13 ft just off Moores Stone Crab Restaurant, our destination picked out for us by Stanton Murray. 

This gave Sue and me a chance to launch the Zodiac 260 Cadet RIB, kindly donated to the trip by Zodiac America and Annapolis Inflatables, which is powered by a Torqeedo 1003 electric outboard. This combination is great, not only does the 8' 6" RIB fit easily on the aft deck of the flybridge it can be launched by one person using the mast and lifting boom. The Torqeedo means there is no gas to be stored and the eternal problems of Ethanol clogging up carburators is a thing of the past.

We had a great dinner at Moores and then retired to our floating home. We decided even though it was hot, we would try out one of the cool features of the Swift 34. The main salon has a queen size fold out bed and with all the widows open we retired with a cool breeze blowing through the boat and a great view across the inlet through the wide open sliding aft door.

Best, 

Garth