Sailing Tampa Bay!

On Sunday, we went sailing with Mike, Amanda, and their dog Iko out on Tampa Bay to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  Mike was disappointed that there wasn't much wind, but it was my first time on a sailboat and I enjoyed every moment of it!

Here's the marina.  Believe it or not, I saw a manatee swimming right there to the left of the dock that morning before going to Mike and Amanda's for breakfast.  Brent didn't believe me until Mike told us that other people had reported seeing them in the marina too.  

Their boat is named SV Flyer.  Before coming to St. Petersburg, Mike and Amanda sailed it all over the caribbean after Mike retired last year.  We've enjoyed meeting other people at the marina, too.  Some of them are weekend sailors, but many of them actually live on their boats.

Mike and Brent did most of the grunt work getting ready to sail.  Brent better learn well, because we're already picking our favorite styles of sailboats in the marina and dreaming of having our own one day!  

I took this picture of the St. Pete skyline standing on the bow of the sailboat.  There wasn't much wind, so we had to motor a good ways out before letting out the sails.  We saw several animals while we were out, including blue crabs and a sea turtle.

Here's Mike, Amanda, and their dog Iko.  Iko is a rescue springer spaniel and is probably the sweetest dog I've ever met.  She loves the water and loves to sail.  She goes to and from the dock easily, as well as up and down the stairwell that goes into the cabin.  They couldn't have found a better dog for them, that's for sure.

That sailboat we're dreaming about having one day for our family?  Well, here's the picture for our future kiddos (which we hope will be sea scouts!) to show that mom and dad used to be young and cool, too.

Seriously, I could do this every weekend.

Here's the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, stretching from St. Petersburg over Tampa Bay to Sarasota.  Brent said that one night back in the 1980, a barge called the Summit Venture crashed into one of the columns of the bridge and the bridge collapsed.  Drivers were unable to react quickly enough and due to the fog were unable to see the end of the road, driving into the water and drowning.  Thirty five people died and only one man survived.  

Here's the mast as we crossed under the bridge.

Heading back to St. Pete, we finally were able to catch some wind in the sails and sailed all the way back to the marina.  We're hoping to go sailing again this weekend before Brent and I head back to Texas.  Brent and I wish that Mike and Amanda were closer to us, so that we could go out sailing with them all the time, but at least we have a great reason to take road trips to Florida now.