At Tarpon Springs, FL

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January 16-19: I spend a few days at Tarpon Springs, having dinner with friends, seeing manatees, and getting a lot of chores done — including an oil change.

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(continued from Crystal River to Tarpon Springs, FL)

My marina of choice in Tarpon Springs was MAR-MARina, a marina so new to transient boaters that it wasn’t even listed in Waterway Guide. (It is now.) On that last day in Steinhatchee, I’d called every single listed marina and had been told that they were either full or they weren’t taking in transients. Then Nagui in Boundless had mentioned MAR-MARina and told me it was the only place he could find for his first night there. I called and got the last slip.

After securing my boat in that fixed (not floating) dock slip and plugging in power, I started settling in. That included getting some laundry started — there were no laundry facilities at Steinhatchee Marina — and coming up with a plan to meet up with Kim and Ted in Pony, who were docked in the City of Tarpon Springs Municipal Marina, right in the Sponge Dock area. MAR-MARina was halfway back up the river toward the Gulf.

MAR-MARina was a working boat yard with boats being moved in and out of the water periodically throughout the day. There was a maintenance shop and I’m pretty sure they had a separate paint shop. There were two decent full restrooms in one building and an honor system washer and dryer on a covered concrete slab near another building. Beyond the dry storage area and fence (with a gate that locked at night) were homes and a few businesses.

I didn’t have any plans beyond that first night but Nagui was set to reposition to the Municipal Marina the next day. I was keeping my options open. I wanted to see the municipal marina before I tried to move there.

Dinner in Town

Nagui arrived about an hour after I did and was parked at the floating fuel dock beyond the bow of my boat. We made plans to meet up with Kim and Ted at their marina; we’d take an Uber to get there. I had just enough time to feed and walk my pups and put my first load of laundry in the dryer before it was time to go. It was a cheap enough Uber ride — $12 plus tip — to get into town. Kim and Ted were waiting for us.

The difference between where they were staying and where we were staying was striking. Their marina was in the heart of the Sponge Dock area, which was full of tourists. The slips were backed up to the dock, making all of the boats parked there tourist attractions. There were nice restrooms accessible only to boaters and that was about it. Beyond that were dozens of shops and restaurants.

It was a great setup for boaters who don’t mind bright lights, noise, and wandering tourists in exchange for convenient shopping and dining. I’m not one of those boaters. Although I wished MAR-MARina was closer to town so I wouldn’t need an Uber to visit in the evening — I could bike over during the day — I don’t like Marinas in brightly lit and/or busy areas. Whether I’m boating, camping, or staying at a resort, I value quiet and privacy. I know that some of my marina choices preclude me from meeting a lot more loopers, but it is what it is.

Greek restaurants abounded. Someone — and I can’t remember who — recommended Hellas Bakery & Restaurant so that’s what I suggested and that’s where we went. (Hey, any restaurant with the word “bakery” in its name has to be good, right?) It was about a half mile walk from the marina. It was around sunset and there were a lot of tourists out and about. Not exactly crowded but definitely more than what wandered the streets of the last few stops I’d made: Steinhatchee, Carrabelle, Apalachicola, etc.

They sat us immediately at a table against a mirrored wall in the main room. The place was bright and Greekly decorated — if you know what I mean. Our waiter was a professional who had obviously been doing the job for many years. He was Greek, spoke English well, and joked around. All the while, his eyes were darting around the place, as if checking on every table and every other waiter and server.

We ordered an excellent appetizer, which we shared. I honestly can’t remember what I had for dinner, but I know it was good. I finished it off with a Greek pastry — something other than the usual baklava. The meal — and company — was excellent and I left feeling happy and absolutely stuffed.

It was dark by the time we left the restaurant and the tourists had thinned out considerably. Most of the shops were closed, but I looked in windows. They all seemed to sell sponges — the kind they bring up from the ocean floor. I don’t know if the sponge industry is really still thriving in the area or it just survives to entertain/educate/sell to tourists. Although I wanted to get back into town during the day to take a closer look, I didn’t get a chance.

We walked back to the marina where Pony was docked and said our goodbyes. I didn’t realize it then, but it would be the last time I saw Kim and Ted for months — possibly for the entire trip. (Two months have passed and I’ve always managed to be at least one stop ahead of them; I’m currently 3 states ahead of them for reasons that will become clear later in this blog.)

Nagui and I called an Uber and went back to MAR-MARina. There was a tense moment when we weren’t sure the gate fob I’d been given would open the gate, but it slid aside and we walked through. I walked my pups one more time before turning in with a book.

Running Errands

On Tuesday morning, I told Shawn, the dockmaster (owner?), that I’d be staying at least one more night. The downtown Marina wasn’t for me so I didn’t even bother to call to see if they had a slip. In the meantime, when Nagui had finished doing his laundry, he cast off and moved into town where he parked Boundless near Pony. Kim and Ted had rented a car to make a little road trip in Florida, leaving Pony at the marina there for a few days.

I had chores to attend to and the first one was getting to West Marine to pick up the outboard motor extension handle I’d bought online. This was the final piece of the puzzle that would make my dinghy truly usable and I was excited to get it, even though it would be some time before I actually used it.

I also figured I’d run some other errands while I was out. I consulted Google Maps. The post office was near West Marine. So was a Walmart and a Publix supermarket. I’d start at the post office and work my way through the shopping centers to do some other shopping and end up at West Marine to pick up the handle.

At the post office, I needed to mail a care package of ingredients to my house sitter to make Swamp Soup. I’d bought extra sausage — which had been in my freezer — and the Margaret Holmes brand name greens and beans they’d need. I boxed it all up in a Priority Mail flat rate box back at the boat and lugged it to the post office to ship it out. I later texted the recipe. It was a big hit with my house sitter and a few neighbors who shared it. Back home, there had been snow on the ground for over a month with no sign of it melting so the soup was perfect for a cold winter evening. That day, however, I was just glad to get the sausage out of my freezer and all those cans off my boat.

Next was Walmart. I had two choices. I could buy department store things in Walmart and lug them through Publix where I could buy food or I could buy it all in Walmart. I hate Walmart with a passion but I cannot deny the convenience of buying everything I need under one roof at what are likely the best prices around. So I did the Walmart thing. I wound up buying some of the things I’d had to leave behind during my Walmart fiasco in Shalimar. And I bought enough fresh food to feed me for about a week.

With all that in bags in a cart, I moved on to West Marine, which, fortunately, was in the same shopping center. I brought the cart in and parked it near the door. (The staff was very friendly and understanding about that.) I picked up the handle, which was on hold for me. My brain is telling me I bought something else, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.

When I was done, I summoned an Uber, stowed all my packages in its trunk, and went back to the marina. The driver dropped me off as close to the docks as he could drive. I offloaded everything into the parking lot so he could leave, fetched a dock cart, loaded everything up again, and went back to the boat to put everything away.

Boat Chores

It seems like I’m always writing about boat chores but that’s because there are always boat chores to do. I did mine on Tuesday, after putting away all the groceries and other purchases — a chore in itself — and Wednesday.

One of the first things I did was to wash the boat. When salt water splashes up on it and dries on it, it leaves a salty residue on everything. I like to clean that off. How hard I work to clean it varies on how serious I am. On Tuesday, I was pretty serious. I’d purchased an RV washing brush at Walmart and I wanted to use it. This is a soft bristled brush on a long handle that you can attach a hose to. When the water is turned on, it runs thorugh the brush. So you can brush and rinse at the same time. Perfect!

Or it would have been perfect if it wasn’t junk. (And yes, this is why I hate Walmart; half the stuff you buy in there is junk.) It leaked where I connected the hose. Adding another rubber washer helped but did not fully resolve the problem. So I got wet. Very wet.

But in the end, my boat was cleaner than it had been in a while.

Whenever I have the hose out, I use it to top off the fresh water tank and that day was no different. I attached the inline RV water filter to the hose and set it up to fill the tank. On a boat like mine, fresh water is used in the sinks (galley and head) and showers (head and swim platform). I don’t drink this water, I just wash with it. (I buy gallon sized bottles of spring water for drinking and cooking.) Toilet flushing water comes from whatever body of water the boat is in, regardless of whether it’s fresh or salt. My boat holds 40 gallons of fresh water and it can usually last me about a week, even without being ultra conservative. But that’s probably because I usually shower in marina facilities.

I installed the new boat extension handle. There wasn’t much to doing that. I just loosened it up as much as I could and shoved it onto the motor’s existing handle. Then I tightened it down. To do all this, I had to remove a rubber sleeve from the new handle so it would fit. I wasn’t 100% pleased with the fit, but I decided to reserve judgement until after I’d used it.

The Oil Change

The biggest project I took on that Tuesday was changing the boat’s engine oil. This would be the first time I’d done it on my own and I admit I was a little nervous about it. Although it wasn’t due for an oil change for another 13 or so hours, I decided to do it at MAR-MARina for three reasons:

• I had everything I needed to get the job done: filters, wrench, oil, bucket, pump, funnel.
• They could dispose of the old oil for me for just $1 per gallon. (That’s $3.)
• They obviously had mechanics around so if I screwed up somehow, I could easily get help.

Because I didn’t know when the oil change stars would align like this again for me, I figured I’d better take advantage of the situation.

My “training” for changing the oil on a 300 horsepower Volvo Penta D4 inboard marine engine? I watched a few YouTube videos and the mechanic who did my first oil change, way back at the Alton Marina.

The process was relatively easy with the right equipment.

1. Run the engine a while to get the oil temperature up. This makes it easier to pump out. (I routinely did the same thing for helicopter oil changes, even though that was a gravity drain. It just speeds the process.)
2. Kill the engine and turn off the ignition. Some folks will also cut power to the battery to prevent the possibility of the engine starting by accident, but I didn’t even think of that. As it was, I’d have to press two buttons to start the engine: Ignition and then Start. The chance of that happening accidentally when I wasn’t going to be anywhere near the helm was very remote.
3. Remove the dipstick and open the fuel filler cap. You’ll use both openings shortly.

4. 
   In this shot, I’ve removed the dipstick and am pumping oil out through the dipstick hole. The pump, which is in the engine well near the red cushion, is nearly full.

   Insert the pump’s suction line into the dipstick hole. Get it all the way down to the bottom. The suction line on my setup is just long enough to reach.

5. Use the pump handle to build up pressure and get the pump going. On my setup, it’s about 20 pumps. Once I do that, there’s enough suction to ensure that the pump keeps working until the oil level reaches an automatic shutoff.
6. Wait while the pump’s reservoir fills. This took a very long time. In hindsight, I realize that I should have run the engine a lot longer, possibly to get the oil temperature up to about 125°F.
7. When the reservoir is full, pull out the suction line and disconnect it from the pump. This is where the mess begins. Having rags available is extremely important.
8. Pour the oil from the reservoir into a bucket or empty oil bottles. I used a bucket, which I’d bought back at the Ace Hardware store in Steinhatchee.
9. Repeat steps 5 through 8 to get the rest of the oil out. My boat holds about 3 1/4 gallons of oil. The pump’s reservoir holds 7 liters. Why didn’t I get a larger pump? If you can find a place to stow one neatly under the deck, I will.

10. 
    In this shot, I’ve removed the old filters and have the new ones, labeled with the date and engine hours, sitting on top of the engine. A gallon of oil is opened and ready to use on the filter seals. A funnel is already inserted in the filler port.

    Use a filter wrench to remove both oil filters. Yes, there are two. And yes, they cost anywhere from $40 to $80 each, depending on where I buy them. This also has the potential to be a messy job since the filters are oriented with their openings down. The good news is, they’re definitely empty when you pull them off.

11. Using a finger and some clean oil, moisten the seals on the new filters and screw them into place. The trick is to screw them down tight enough that they won’t leak or come loose but not too tight that they’re difficult to get off. I think the guidance I read said hand-tighten and then 1/8 turn with a wrench.

12. 
    Here’s the dipstick with that same oil after putting another 120 hours on the engine. I took this photo yesterday just to show the level I like the oil at. I check the oil before each cruise and it never needs oil added.

    Put a funnel into the oil filler hole and add Volvo approved diesel oil*. Three gallons of the stuff. Let it settle in and then use the dipstick to check the oil. It should be in the cross-hatched area of the dipstick. Anywhere in that area is good, but I like it to be at least halfway up. Although the tank holds 3.3 gallons of oil, it’s near impossible to get it all out. But the more you get out, the more likely you are to need another quart or so of oil.

13. Close up the fuel filler cap and make sure the dipstick is in place and secure. The dipstick has to snap down into position to be secure, as one of Captain Paul’s crewmembers (before I boarded) found out the hard way. (I learned from his mistake.)

14. 
    Here’s the engine when the job was done — nice and clean. There were no leaks when I ran it. Mission accomplished.

    Clean up the mess. With luck, it won’t be too bad. I use Simple Green which is supposed to be biodegradable and earth friendly but still manages to degrease.

15. Start the engine and observe it for leaks. Obviously, if anything is leaking, you should shut down the engine immediately, clean up the mess, and tighten whatever needs tightening.

* Volvo wants you to use Volvo branded oil and filters. Although I agree about the filters and struggle to find them in marine shops, it’s absurd to hunt down and pay for Volvo branded oil when there are so many readily available and usually cheaper alternatives that are just as good. For that oil change, I used Chevron Deli 15W40, which cost a whopping $44/gallon at Two Georges Marina. For my next oil change, I’m using Shell Rotella 15W40, which meets Volvo’s standards and cost just $16/gallon at Walmart. In addition, after paying $70-$80 each for the two filters at a marina in Georgia for my next oil change, I’ll buy them online for about $45 each from now on. And yes, I always purchase the filters and oil I need for an oil change long before the change is due. I want to be ready to do the job when it needs to be done.

This particular oil change took a very long time, mostly because the oil took so long to drain out. I think it was about 2 hours. It got dark while I was working on it. Because I was backed into the slip, everyone on the dock could see what I was doing. A few boaters passed and observed and offered assistance if I needed it — although it was pretty clear I had everything under control. One woman passed and told me how thrilled she was to see a woman doing this job. The way I saw it, I could either do it myself or pay someone else $150 to $300 to do it for me. Being a member of the “penny saved is penny earned” club, I earned quite a bit that afternoon/evening.

When I was done and everything had been cleaned up and put away, I put the bucket of oil up on the dock. In the morning, I’d turn it over to Shawn for disposal.

Two Trips to Town

On Wednesday, I took two trips to town.

The first was with another boater there, Trey. His boat was based at the marina and he was doing some work on it that week. He had to make a West Marine run and I asked him if I could tag along. I wanted to get some sort of holder for my fishing rods which I didn’t want to stow under the deck again but were also in my way.

We drove over and he looked for his thing while I looked for mine. The only solutions they had mounted the fishing rods vertically and I didn’t want that. I just wanted them completely out of the way but easy enough to get at if I wanted to fish. So I came away empty handed.

(I wound up bungee-cording them to the rails on the command bridge. Probably not good for the rods and their reels, but otherwise, a good solution.)

We made one more stop on the way back, at Home Depot. I stayed in the car since he said he was going to be quick.

Later, Nagui picked me up in the small pickup truck a friend had loaned him. We went back into town for lunch at a place called Rusty Bellies Waterfront Grill on the far end of Dodecanese Blvd. There was a wait for lunch, but it wasn’t long. I ordered the Ceviche Stack, which was layered guacamole, ceviche, and mango salsa. Excellent!

Afterwards, we took the truck over to Craig Park on Spring Bayou, which was known for its manatee population. Although it’s possible to dinghy to the Bayou and I had actually considered it now that I had my dinghy “dialed in,” driving over was a lot easier. The bayou is surrounded by a sidewalk and had a few small docks poking into it. Some people were fishing and apparently catching fish. The manatees were there, too, although it wasn’t easy to spot them other than their snouts when they came up for a breath or sometimes their backs and tails when they dove. The water was dark and murky — very unlike the clear springs they visit elsewhere in Florida. While we were there, we met up with the couple from Child of the Sun, who we’d met at Steinhatchee. They’d biked over from the marina. We chatted with them for a while while manatees came up for air in the bayou before us.

When we’d had our fill of manatee snout sightings, Nagui drove me back to MAR-MARina. I didn’t get a chance to get back into town and, as it turns out, that was probably the last time I saw Nagui since I left town before he did.

Docktails with the Solo Loopers

By this time, I knew about the two other Solo Loopers at MAR-MARina. I think Nagui told me about them. One was Matt in Seaview, a Sundowner 32, and the other was Rolv in Miss Mellow, a Selene 42. Although they were each solo aboard their own boats, they were traveling together. I invited them over for docktails.

Rolv’s boat, Miss Mellow, was quite large. It occupied the other side of the fuel dock. I started wondering if I could single-hand a boat that big.

When they arrived, it was such a nice afternoon that I suggested we go up to the command bridge, where I had my little oval table set up and the back seat already set up. I tried to flop the front seat around, but it wouldn’t go; I needed to loosen the nuts. So I sat there, facing sideways and they sat on the back seat. We chatted for a while and watched the sun go down. As the air began to chill, we called it a night and they left. It was the first time I’d had guests upstairs and I liked it. The view from up there really is better.

I should mention here that during my stay at Tarpon Springs, I met a few other boaters. Trey, who is a local guy working on his dad’s boat, came by to chat a few times and took me with him to West Marine, as I mentioned earlier in this account. Jack, who is cruising with his wife Meredith in Her Idea, seemed absolutely tickled that I was doing the Loop by myself. I’m pretty sure Child of the Sun was at MAR-MARina, too, but I don’t recall chatting with them there. The marinas at Tarpon Springs were pretty much packed with Loopers. I hadn’t just caught up with the pack — I was in the middle of it.

Prepping to Move On

By Wednesday afternoon, I felt done with Tarpon Springs. Kim and Ted were on a road trip and wouldn’t be back for a few days. Nagui wanted to spend more time in town. That meant that if I left, I’d be leaving on my own. That was okay. Other than two days traveling with Pony and two days (kinda) traveling with Boundless, I’d been on my own entirely. It looked like I’d be on my own again.

So I spent the evening neatening up the boat and prepping it for travel. My next stop was Clearwater Beach and I’d already made reservations for the municipal marina there.

I’d leave in the morning before the wind picked up. At least that was the plan.

(continued in Tarpon Springs to Clearwater Beach, FL)