Our First Few Weeks in Dunedin

This was what welcomed us the first night at Dunedin
Signs of things to come?

The finger piers underwater 
The dock was soon to follow

High tide and storm surge

Across the fairway from us

Our first day off the boat after the storm!
Huge fish out of water!

Sunset a couple days after the storm
Still lots of seaweed washed up

Florida State Park
A great place!

Looking over the grounds at Caladesi

Not the most comforting sign!

Caladesi Island

Beautiful beach - looking out to Gulf

Calm peaceful night at the marina

Our own private beach!

Looking out to the Gulf

Coming in for a landing
Picnic time!

Sand between my toes - love it!

Elks Lodge

NautiNell weathered better than some

 We’ve been here at Dunedin about three weeks now.  AND it’s been an interesting time, I must say!

As I last posted we arrived to Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin on August 27 and then the next day we rode the Jolly Trolley down to Indian Rocks and picked up our car.  The next week was spent anticipating the storm that seemed to be heading our way. For those of you that are like us and are not too familiar with tropical disturbances, here is a short synopsis of what happened:   First it was only an Invest 99 L, which was just hanging out there making rain off the coast.  The models showed it going everywhere and nothing was really expecting it to become anything significant except some rain.   Then it became a Tropical Depression 9 causing us a little more concern but still they were only saying it was going to be mostly rain.  Once it became a Tropical Storm it had a name – Hermine.  The problem was that it was moving up into the Gulf of Mexico but at only 2 mph!  The weather experts were having a hard time determining just where it was going to go – even though it had been out there for over two weeks.  So now being from Missouri, what do we know about hurricanes!  Little did we know we were about to have a crash course.  We watched the weather information very closely.  We put on extra lines to tie NautiNell down more securely.  For a long time it still looked like the worst was just going to be a lot of rain and some wind.  Then things changed.  She became much more organized and turned toward the west coast (that was us).  It was determined that it would become a Category 1 by the time it hit landfall.  The first Hurricane to hit landfall in Florida since 2005!  And wouldn’t you know it, the storm was on a path just going north of us by a couple of hundred miles – maybe.  This meant that the storm was producing 70+ mph winds.  We put out all the fenders and lines we had.  Oh, and of course, we made a run to the grocery store, Walgreens and the liquor store.  They told us to stock up on necessities!  We decided that since the storm was really going mostly north of us we would ride it out on the boat.  The problem with that (we didn’t really know at the time) was that we were on what they call the “dirty side” of the storm.  We could get lots of residual rain and wind and storm surge.  Storm surge - that water in the Gulf has to go somewhere when the winds are blowing it out!  So it comes inland.  That and the fact there was a new moon already causing a higher tide than usual - there was going to be major flooding.  Our main concern was the wind and the storm surge.  We didn’t want to float up above the pilings we were tied to.  Luckily the storm surge was not as bad here at the marina.  It was up only about an extra foot or two. They did have to turn off the power here at the marina because the water was up over the dock and fingers.  However, little farther north it wreaked havoc at over five feet!  The worst came about 3:00 – 5:00 in the morning when Hermine was making landfall.  We rode out 70+ mph winds.  The sound was horrible!  I was beginning to doubt our decision to remain on the boat.  But it was too late to do anything then!  Of course, it was dark and everything sounds worse at night.  I kept telling myself that as long as the dock was secure, so were we.  Finally morning came – no sleep – we stuck our heads out to see how things looked.  There were several boats that had their canvas shredded.  The water was still up over the dock by about 6 inches.  The last dock out which is open to the Gulf waters had some damage where the wind had pulled it up.  As far as NautiNell, we lost a fender and our boarding steps (they must have floated off the finger) and we have a “bruise” on the port side.  The bruise is where the boat rubbed up against the piling all night after it tore off the fender.  It is worn down through the gel coat.  Luckily it can be fixed without too much of a problem, we’re told.  We consider ourselves very lucky after seeing what happened to others on farther up north.  We can check this off our bucket list!  Wouldn’t you know every summer we have done our best to be in a so called “hurricane hole” during the season.  The one summer we don’t do that – and a hurricane makes landfall very close to where we are!  I do want to thank all our boating friends nearby that offered help and refuge if we needed it.  It’s nice to know they’re out there. 

Okay, so things are somewhat back to normal now. We’ve found a couple of places to hangout!  We’ve made it to a great little British Pub (Cricketeers) for lunch and Happy Hour.  And we’ve been to Casa Tina’s where we had some great Mexican!  Of course, we’ve found the American Legion and the Elks Lodge and a place just a block away called Frenchy’s!  

One day John and Susan (boaters on Alchemy that we met in Marathon) came up from St Pete to visit with us.  We really enjoyed it!  We spent most of the time at the Legion having $1.00 drafts.  Oh, and playing bingo where meat is the prize. John won a steak!

Then after the sun came out one day, we realized that it was Labor Day weekend! We had been so preoccupied with the weather, it slipped up on us!   So we decided to take a dinghy ride over to Caladesi Island which is a State Park.  It’s only a few miles away.  You can only get there by boat.  There is a ferry that runs back and forth from Honeymoon Island.  You get to Honeymoon Island by crossing the Dunedin Causeway.  But we can do it all by dinghy!  The next day we took another dinghy trip to Three Rookers Sandbar.  There are lots of beautiful beaches here.  Although there is a bunch of sea grass due to the storm.  It will eventually clear up, I’m sure.  We had a picnic on the beach.  And finally sand between my toes!

The next week found us driving to Venice.  We headed down that way to visit with Jeff (Jeremiah).  I had a dentist appointment there so we had the perfect excuse for a road trip.  We stopped in Bradenton and had lunch with William and Judy (Optimystique).  It was really good to see them!  It was only a 1 1/2 hour drive to Venice so we were there in no time.  We hung out with Jeff for a couple of days.  It was a really nice visit.  We met Paul and Leslie who are good friends of Jeff.  It turns out that Paul was a co-owner of a boat that we chartered in the Bahamas over 15 years ago!  Paper Moon!  What a small world. 

We made it back to NautiNell on Saturday just in time to be able to recuperate.  William and Judy showed up in their boat Monday morning.  They’re staying a couple of days.   We managed to have Happy Hour at Rosie’s Tavern and then dinner at Cricketeers.  What a fun time!

Yesterday (Sept 13)  We all went to Tarpon Springs for Happy Hour and to just check out the area.  Not much of a crowd there this time.  It’s really the slow season for them.  It was nice – no crowd means no waiting.  We went to Yianni’s Greek Restaurant for some cold beer and some Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie – a pastry filled with spinach, feta cheese and some wonderful seasonings).  Wow was that good!  We walked around a bit then headed back to Dunedin to the Hog Island Fish Camp for dinner.  Terese had told us about it and that her friend tended bar there.  Of course, Terese didn’t steer us wrong.  It was a great place!  There website calls it “Salty” Southern Cuisine.  Mike and I had Hogfish.  That is something you usually don’t see on the menu outside of the Keys.  It is so good!  Then it was back to the boat for a nightcap.

They headed out this morning going back to Bradenton.  We really enjoyed hanging with them.  Hopefully we’ll see them again soon.  For now, we plan to hang out here in Dunedin through October, then we’ll start working our way south back to the Keys.  That is if we still own NautiNell.  Who knows!

Stay tuned!

Till next time!

Admiral “C”