Exploring Tarpon Springs, Florida

 We arrived at Anclote Key on Sunday, November 28th. We spent the day resting up from our 50 hour sail from Pensacola. We had light winds and the water was very calm. The forecast was for the wind to pick up to around 12 knots overnight out of the North. The bad news is that we did not have any protection from that direction. I made a phone call to the Tarpon Springs City Marina and was pleasantly surprised to be told we could reserve one of the 6 transient slips for 2 nights. 

We had a beautiful sunrise before we left Anclote Key. You can see the power plant that is at the head of the Anclote river, which is where we were going.  

We were up early when the boat started to rock a bit from the increasing wind. It was not bad at all, but we were eager to get to a dock and get off of the boat. We pulled the anchor and we were on our way. We only motored about 7 miles to the head of the channel that is the Anclote river that leads the 5 miles inland to the docks of Tarpon Springs.  

We had stopped at a small anchorage at the head of the Anclote river in 2019. It was the place we had met up with our buddy boat, with Byron and Mary on it, to cross the gulf going north.

This time we continued up the river. The channel is well marked and has plenty of depth until you get to town. As we approached the marina, a dock hand yelled to us to watch the shallow water in the middle of the basin. That caused me to change my approach in mid turn and I did a poor job of getting in the slip. We scuffed a bit on a piling, but all was good and we got tied up to the very strange floating dock. I guess we have gotten used to the wonderful floating docks at Kingfisher Bay Marina in Demopolis, and everything we have seen since then, have been a disappointment. Dillon, that met us to help tie up, gave us lots of local information. There is also a tourist information office in the same building as the city marina office.

This is the Tarpon Springs City Marina office and Visitor Center. They also have bathrooms and a nice shower. There is only one shower, but with only 6 slips, we never had to wait.

 We met some dock neighbors that had been in town for a week and they gave us the best places to visit and eat. Tarpon Springs was founded by Greek immigrants. They were both fishermen and sponge divers. This is one of the best places to find natural sponges on the seabed. 

We decided to take a walk and see what the waterfront looked like.

Kim standing in front of a statue dedicated to the sponge divers and the Christmas tree.

A sponge boat drying its catch. The docks were decorated for the season.

After exploring the docks we stopped at one of the traditional Greek bakery to get some sweets. Then it was off to the restaurant that was recommended by our dock neighbors. Sadly, Katarina's was closed on Monday's. We walked on to the center of town.

St. Nicolas Greek Orthodox Cathedral is in the center of town.

On our walk back, we stopped at a Greek Deli for a Gyro. What a great find. We had an excellent meal at an excellent price. 

On our walk back to the boat we saw this hawk sitting on the hood of this truck. I thought it may be injured when it did not fly as I approached, but when I got too close it flew away. What a beautiful bird. 

The following day we met up with the former owners of SHIFT, Don and Kim. They were kind enough to make a drive up from Palmetto. We did have an excellent meal at Katarina's on that day. If you guys are reading this, Thanks for coming!

The Tarpon Springs vibe was very different from the places we have been in the recent past. There were open air bars and restaurants with live music. We could sit in the cockpit of the boat and enjoy the cool evenings and listen to music. It was cooler than normal and the locals let us know that. They were all dressed in hats and coats, while we walked around in shorts and T-shirts. 

We decided to extend our stay by one night, making our stay in Tarpon Springs three nights. On our last day we took a walk to get a prescription refill. On the way, we had heard about a spring where there we manatees swimming. 

Historic car and building 

There are some beautiful homes in the city center.

This is the park that we saw many manatees swimming around the spring. We took some video that I will post at some point on my YouTube channel. 

We really enjoyed our walk around town and then we hit a grocery store and the Walgreens. We got a taste of the cruising life when I put a gallon of milk and some fresh fruit and vegetables in my backpack and carried them the 2 miles back to the boat. Luckily Florida is flat. 

That was about it for Tarpon Springs. We were now out of time and were ready to get on the move again the next day. Where would we go next? In my next entry, I will write about our 4 straight travel days to arrive in paradise. The only problem is that I made a big mistake along the way.

SHIFT in slip #2 at Tarpon Springs City Marina. Ready for her next adventure.