Steinhatchee to Crystal River--another 70 mile trip over open water, rough seas, rolled and bucked all the way--so glad to come into the river at Crystal Springs. All the books we read told us that the waters were so clear, and we would be able to see the manatees. They evidently have never seen the clear water we have in Canada. We did see some manatees but only a swirl in the water, and an occasional nose. Enjoyed walking around the town of Crystal River--ate conch fritters, grilled scallops and shrimp. Weather was a bit overcast and cool.
This is typical of what you see along this upper west coast of Florida--the area is mostly low swamp, with rivers coming down into the gulf. The green sign in the middle is our buoy marker--keeping us in the channel--if you go outside of the channel you will probably run aground.
Vultures waiting for the shrimp boats to come back in. The shrimpers go out during the nite--arriving back in the morning, with their catch. One of the shrimpers gave us a flounder--I wish I had taken a picture of it. When I told him I had no idea how to clean it, he took pity on me and brought us back two nice fillets--which were delicious!!
Just like an octapus--right!! Wouldn't be surprised if he turned his back and it crabbed him!! So we left Crystal River this morning and out into the gulf again--for the last 70 miles of open water---arriving in Tarpon Springs at 1 pm, after a relatively calm cruise. Waves were about 1 ft--coming from behind. The only problem was all the crab pots!!!
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these are what they look like in the water--sometimes they are white, others are yellow, or red, and even some are black. They are only about 6" round, and when you are travelling at 21 mph, they are a little hard to see, especially if the sun is in your eyes and there are little white caps on top of the waves!! These things are tied to a rope that runs down to the crab trap on the bottom. It didn't seem to make any difference whether you were in 10ft or 34ft of water all of a sudden you would be in a field of them. If you hit one the rope could wind right around the prop--and that might not be so good!! Talk about mine fields--we did lots of zigging and zagging.. After tying up at the marina in Tarpon, we biked around the sponge docks
Here they are unloading the sponges--the fellow said he had been out about 20 days. We are hoping to see a film and get some history on the sponge harvest tomorrow. Pictures got mixed up again--sorry--the one above shows a stall along the street selling sponges--had to buy one!!! Hoping to spend another couple of days here--great place to bike around, with lots to see. Hope to have 'flaming cheese' or stuffed grape leaves at one of the many Greek restaurants.
Lastly--they really are pretty neat birds--we love to see them dive head first into the water to catch their dinner. The loopy loopers
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