Day 16 : Dodging Crab Pots

Friday, October 13

                            Crystal River, Florida  –  Clear Water, Florida (83 mi)

A bit of chop on the seas, but the autopilot is working fabulously.  We are going to cruise the whole way.  Jacob and I are chit-chatting when I look forward and see a crab pot marker DEAD AHEAD.  If we hit it, it’s gonna be a bad day; it’ll wrap around the props and possibly damage them completely.  We do have dive gear on board so we can go under the boat and cut it away, but it won’t be as easy as the fishing line was.  Jacob is able to steer us away from it when we realize we are in crab pot central!! They are everywhere!  We are already over 3 miles off shore; the water is still only 10-11 feet deep.  We don’t want to go out any farther so we keep our eyes fixed on front of us, watching for crab pots.  The white buoys are easier to see than the black ones, but with the choppy water even those are hard to see at times.  Much of our trip today is crab pot dodging.

Clear skies all day until we start getting closer to Clearwater; the clouds are blocking the sun and the beautiful crystal blue clear water.  Clearwater is known to have Caribbean blue waters and sugar beaches.

Pulling into Clearwater Beach Marina

  We quickly dock up and head to the nearest beach.  Today will be Jeeno’s first beach encounter.  We leave his fluorescent yellow life vest on because it makes him look like a service dog and the beach we are going to isn’t dog friendly.  Yes, we may be rebels at times but only when it’s necessary.  I suppose we could have left him on the boat, but where is the fun in that.  We figure if we are told to Jeeno can’t be there; we will leave.  Heading straight to the water Jeeno doesn’t miss a beat.  He got right in, swimming around with us and loving it!  He’s a true waterdog.  This lifestyle change is so healthy for him.  After our swim we laid out our towels and the kids buried Jeeno in the sand.  He didn’t seem to mind. 

It was as if Jeeno sensed the impending downpour.  Just as he stood up to shake off the sand it started to rain.  He sought cover beneath our shady half-brella.  Is it possible the rain scared the piss out of him?  Because he started peeing!  As we were laughing and hollering he moved around spraying all of our towels finally stopping as he finished on Joie’s leg. Ahahhahah, it was hilarious!!  Our towels ended up covered in sugar sand and soaked by rain and Jeeno’s urine.  By that time we were ready to move along so we rinsed off at the outdoor beach shower.  Aside from peeing all over our stuff Jeeno was well behaved and played the part of a service dog.  He’s gonna be such a great St.Thomas beach dog!         

  Good Night Clearwater