Day 94 - January 3, 2013: Cruising to St. Petersburg

We arose in nearly a whiteout fog, lowered the radio mast and radar antenna, pulled the anchor, and because of low tide, just managed to get under the small causeway bridge near Pier 60. This saved us abut 40 minutes of backtracking to get to the ICW.

Clearwater Beach Causeway ICW Bridge

A VHF radio call came in from Bill and Joyce on "Carried Away" whom we met at the AGLCA Rendezvous. They were just ahead of us in the ICW, and we cruised with them to St. Petersburg.

This section of the ICW has a string of small communities, one after another, with homes on both sides, most having docks and boats. We started to encounter many "no wake" zones, which slowed down our typical average speed.

Typical homes along this section of the ICW

Luckily, Elizabeth got to see many dolphins both jumping ahead of us and playing in our bow wake. They are such fascinating animals to watch.

A dolphin riding the bow wake underwater

St. Petersburg is a major city stretching from the Gulf ICW to Tampa Bay. This was the skyline as we approached the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina on Tampa Bay.

After docking, we discovered St. Pete is the home of the Salvadore Dali Museum, and it was open, so we went to see it. Now, I am not an art aficionado but do appreciate fine art. I wouldn't put Dali high on my list as he always seemed to me to portray wild, meaningless images as if he were crazy, tormented, or on drugs, so I went with some trepidation.

It turns out that this very modern museum houses an extensive collection of Dali's works done over his lifetime. The works were purchased over a period of 25 years by Reynolds and Eleanor Morse, starting in 1943, and included notes they had taken in conversations with Dali about the meanings of the paintings they were purchasing.

Because of these notes, the docent on our tour was able to explain what Dali was saying with each work and how themes of his life played into his works. His paintings are frequently layered and contain hidden images in fascinating ways, and without the explanations these would be lost on most viewers. What I saw and learned was amazing and helped me to appreciate his works much more.

Dali's "The Discovery" appears to be just Columbus at Plymouth Rock, but it is quite complex, and Dali claims it predicted the "one step" landing on the moon (see the moon surface and rocks at the bottom).

Dali's "The Discovery"