Day 14 Philly to New Orleans.




Today’s Blog Report is again brought to you by Captain Shirl (SEGII)

“Life is beautiful”, but this day was a bummer in terms for our making way to Madisonville, LA. We left St. Petersburg, FL this morning at 6:30am, and with the exception of a little misty rain, the day began fine. I fixed pancakes for the crew, and after throwing away three batches of experimentation, we finally had some decent pancakes which we enjoyed while underway (at least Will and I did, John decided to opt out). We saw more beautiful homes, boats, and many facets of nature. We saw signs of manatee (circles of bubbles where they very slightly surfaced to breath), blue herons, dolphins, pelicans, egrets, eagles, hawks, osprey, and many birds which we can’t name.

Where we cook and clean

Where we eat, work, and Captain John sleeps










We continued to run in protected waters from St. Pete to Tarpon Springs, FL, about ninety five miles across a fairly bumpy body of water in the Gulf ICW, gassed up and prepared to cross the Gulf of Mexico. Then we listened to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. (NOAA), and found out that the path across the Gulf of Mexico which we were taking had winds of 25 to 30 knots and waves (seas) of eight (8) to ten (10) feet for the day - that’s as high as the Eagle is measured from the water to the satellite dome. We would have disappeared between waves had we gone out, and been out of the water half the time as we slammed from wave to wave.

                                       Where Captain Will sleeps




The Three Captains had no disagreement, we collectively decided to find a marina, and stay the day, as the forecast for tomorrow is fair winds of ten (10) to fifteen (15) knots, and relatively calm seas of two (2) to three (3) feet, much more manageable, and conditions which we have navigated several times during the trip.

Where Captain Shirl sleeps









We ended up five miles up-river in the downtown Municipal Marina of Tarpon Springs, FL, which is the natural sponge capital of the world. “Sponges everywhere”.

 We docked and tied up the Eagle, and began to walk around the tourist city of Tarpon Springs for the remainder of the day, ducking in and out of stores, museums, the Sponge Factory (where we saw a very interesting documentary about sponging, and how sponge divers go down sometimes twenty of thirty feet to harvest sponges. We ate lunch, bought maple nut and caramel fudge, and I caught a local bus and made the trip to West Marine and CVS to replenish a few provisions for the Eagle.

Captains Shirl & John getting instructions from

the Tarpon Springs Harbormaster

The early evening found Will and John working to have a redundant set of route plans on John’s laptop computer and the Eagle’s Chartplotter/GPS in preparation for tomorrow’s run.

Later this evening we gathered in the salon of the Eagle, prepared a light dinner of brat and lunchmeat sandwiches, fudge, cookies, grapes, and sodas. We then popped in a DVD, “Righteous Kill” with DeNiro and Pacino, and we enjoyed the Golden Eagle Theater prime time showing.

At about 9:00pm we left the theater, made a few calls, and prepared the Blog Report, selected pictures to be inserted with the Blog, posted the Blog to the web, and prepared to turn in for the night. Life Is Good !!!!