Tuesday, 20 January 31.2 SM
A bit of blue welcomes to Tampa Bay.
Praise the Lord, it is beautiful along here! And this day, as with most this trip, it gets beautiful-er and beautiful-er each mile along the way.
The morning is not without drama, a puffy grey quilt spread above, horizon to horizon while a brisk southerly shoves Steadfast up Sarasota Bay. The genoa’s out for this stretch, giving Little Red a bit of an assist. Plenty of water here, for the first five miles or so, ‘til the Gulf Waterway wiggles west up to Longboat Key, then up into Anna Maria Sound.
The light at the north end of Egmont Island.
Toward the north end of Anna Maria, where the Sound empties into Tampa Bay, the wind lays down and a tiny tear in that skyward quilt opens to show there is azure above.
Steadfast motors on across the mouth of the now benign Bay waters toward the shoal at Mullet Key. Abeam is the plain white light tower at Egmont Key, fortified in 1898 to keep the Spanish fleet from attacking Tampa Bay (the Spanish never did so it must’ve worked).
Once across the nine-foot shoal, it’s just another three miles to North Channel. The wheel turns hard a-starboard toward Pass-a-Grille, then into the Grand Canal that leads up along Cabbage Key to Tierra Verde.
Carolyn and Kate stop to check on Steadfast.
That’s where Carolyn and Les have a vacant 50’ slip just itchin’ for a boat. The slip fits Steadfast like your big brother’s hand-me-down overcoat but that’s okay. Power, water, plenty of room to rise and fall with the tide and all at every sailor’s favorite fee – free!
A couple of days here means time to wash the salt off the deck and canvas, to explore the island, borrow bikes for a ride to historic Fort DeSoto, and, for a fun visit and good conversation with our hosts.
By the time she’s tucked away this evening, the sky is nearly clear. There’s just enough lingering cloud for an especially colorful sunset. There’s hope for another one of those tomorrow, maybe the evening after, too.
This is the day the Lord has given and we rejoice in it!
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
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