Thanksgiving Trip 2020 Day 3 - Clearwater to Indian Rocks Beach

 


    The first order of business, after breakfast, making engine checks, storing & straightening was to move the boat out of the slip and over to the pump out on the outer dock.  A Pretty straight forward operation. The tide and light breeze made for an easy starboard side tie up.

  We got the tank pumped out, flushed & re-pumped. Hopefully we are good (fingers crossed).

    We shoved off & headed South to Indian Rocks Beach/Harbourside Marina. We have stayed here before and there is a ton of stuff to see & do. We called ahead & were informed they weren’t taking any transients & the restaurant was closed due to COVID. Crap. We continued to head South anyway. I decided anchoring up near Belleair and having lunch would give us a chance to call around & find somewhere else. During lunch my Communications Officer realised she had called the wrong marina. She called Harbourside (this time the correct number) and left a message.  We didn’t hear back from them so took a chance and continued there. When we arrived we still couldn’t raise anyone on the phone or VHF so “nosed in” to an empty slip & went to the office. They said, yup, we have a slip available. The price was $2.67/foot + $3.00 for electric. Wow! The Harbor Master graciously said, “I’m not charging you for electric”.  Thanks Dude...

    There is a lot to do there, nice restrooms, showers, free ice, TV, free WiFi, a couple tiki bars, store, restaurant, mini-golf, pool and (drum roll please) a water slide & lazy river. Not just any water slide, something right out of a theme park! Located right on the Intercoastal means easy access but heavy boat traffic (minimum wake zone) mostly during the day provides a little up & down when tied up in the slip, but not bad.

    After getting settled we walked to Indian Rocks Beach & quenched our thirst at Crabby Bills.

  30 min later we walked over to the beach, it was a little crowded but nice. For us fragile Floridians, the water was too cold to swim, but plenty of other folks seemed to feel it was fine.

    Back across Gulf Boulevard to PJ’s restaurant for dinner, then it was back to the boat. No sunset tonight, the hotel blocks the westerly view to the beach.

    This is a fun place and if we weren’t heading to Dunedin tomorrow we would stay another night. But the kids are meeting us there tomorrow.




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