Beer Can Island Anchorage

Foxtrot and Eula ventured out together for another overnight anchorage. We left Friday morning and beat against the wind across Tampa Bay to Beer Can Island. It is hard to know what to expect with a name like that but one does not set extremely high expectations. We anchored near the shore and could see only a few other motor boats pulled up. Riff raff, no doubt. We motored over and landed the dinghy on a shore almost covered with shells. Lily went crazy trying to pick out the treasures from the ordinary shells. The earlier arrivals were quietly beachcombing too. We walked around the small island until Lily had enough treasures to turn her attention to swimming. That night, we motored over to Apollo Beach to a more protected anchorage for the night. Jay came aboard for dinner and left us with some fresh squid for bait. We got a couple of poles baited and cast as the sun went down in a brilliant pink. Jay called out from his boat “Sea Bass.” He’d beaten us sailing today and now he was winning the fishing contest too.  As we waited for the sun to disappear, the line sang out. Something took the bait and was aiming for St. Petersburg with it. I was closest to the pole and reeled in this baby black-tipped sharp.  We apologized the whole time we were trying to dig the hook out of his mouth so we could release him back in. He had an unforgiving look in his eye and we still feel badly. Somehow, pulling in a baby shark makes you want to quit fishing for the night.

We sailed home this morning in a third of the time it took us to get there. We got Foxtrot up to 8 knots and whooped and hollered her on. We spend lunchtime at the St. Petersburg downtown open market, spreading a blanket under the trees to feast on Ethiopian veggies – lentils, cabbage, spinach and mushroom – plus stuffed grape leaves and salad with gyro meat from the Greek food vendor.  Tomorrow is someone’s birthday so the weekend fun has just begun!