Across the Gulf of Mexico

We spent two days at the town dock in Apalachicola.  It was a nice stop.  Apalachicola has several small shops as well as several restaurants.

We had some great oysters at The Station Raw Bar, an old gas station converted into a restaurant.

We also got to see Santa come to town via shrimp boat.

Here comes the Jolly Elf

Santa came to the dock right in front of Southern Style.

There were a few people waiting to see him.

From Apalachicola, we continued to make our way east along the panhandle.  By Saturday Nov. 24th we found ourselves in  Carrabelle, Florida poised to make a run across the Gulf of Mexico to Tarpon Springs, FL.  

View from our spot at the dock in Carrabelle, FL

This would be my second Gulf crossing and Captain Keith's 14th.  Sunday morning the 25th we were untied by 7:00 AM and heading out the inlet.  Our crossing was very good.  Wind was fairly light and the ride was very comfortable.  There were soft, rolling swells about 2-3 feet and pretty far apart which were not bad at all.  We ran about 23-24 mph across and were at the inlet at Tarpon Springs in 6 hours and 15 minutes.  This put us into the intracoastal waterway by 1:30 PM and tied up in Dunedin, FL by 2:30 PM.

View from our spot at the dock in Dunedin, FL

Sunset Sunday Nov. 25th Dunedin, FL

Monday, Keith and I rented a car for a few days to explore the area.  Our first outing took us into downtown Tarpon Springs (just 8 miles north of Dunedin) to walk around the Sponge Docks, see the Heritage Museum, and have lunch.

The Tarpon Springs Heritage Museum is inexpensive and has a nice section all about the sponge industry and history of Tarpon Springs.  They also have a short movie about the sponge industry that we watched.

  Sponge harvesting in Tarpon Springs began around the mid 1870s when fishermen and seasonal turtlers discovered offshore sponge beds by accident.  Locals soon began harvesting the sponges using a large boat (the mothership) and a team of smaller boats or dinghies carried on or trailed behind the mothership.  The small boats, usually powered by oars, would work their way through the gulf water at about 20-40 feet of depth.  The sponger would peer through the water using a glass-bottomed bucket to site sponges.  Then using lightweight poles with grapples or hooks on the end that could reach the gulf's floor, they would hook the sponges and haul them into the boat.  Upon reaching capacity in the small boats, the two man crew would row to the mothership and transfer their harvest to the larger vessel.  Once onboard the mothership, the sponges were cleaned and dried to prevent rotting.  When the mothership was filled, her harvest was unloaded to shoreline kraals for more cleaning, processing, snipping and pruning before going to market.  John Cheyney is probably the most influential man of the Tarpon Springs sponge industry.  Cheyney established the Anclote and Rock Island Sponge Company in 1891 and constructed the earliest sponge warehouses in Tarpon Springs.  He also employed a Greek sponge buyer, John Cocoris.  Cocoris in tern launched the first mechanized sponge boat from Tarpon Springs and used sponge divers instead of hooking sponges.  Sponge diving was being used in the Mediterranean since the advent of the diving helmet and suit.  This method significantly increased productivity of sponge harvesting on the Gulf Coast.  Cocoris soon brought his wife and brothers from Greece to Tarpon Springs.  This in tern led to large numbers of other Greek sponge divers and their families coming to Tarpon Springs to live and work.  They brought with them their knowledge, culture, traditions, and religion.  By 1905 over 500 Greek sponge divers were working in Tarpon Springs.  

Some historical pictures I photographed of Tarpon Springs sponge industry

Tarpon Springs Sponge Harvest 1980s

As advances were made in dive equipment, sponge harvesting continued to prosper.  For some 30 years, the sponge industry was Florida's biggest industry- larger than citrus or tourism.  Tarpon Springs became known as the Sponge Capital of the World.  In the 1940s, blight severely reduced the sponge population on the Gulf and by 1950 the sponge industry was nearly wiped out.  Luckily in the 1980s, new sponge beds were discovered and they continue to thrive.  Tarpon Springs again has a prosperous sponge market.  The Greek culture is also a great asset to the town with many wonderful Greek restaurants and shops.

Keith and I actually got to see a sponge boat unloading even through the season is not in right now.

Sponge season peak is about May through October

Pretty cool, real sponges

Here are some wall tile pictures I thought were cool.  These were on the side of two buildings along the sponge docks

Statue honoring sponge divers at the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs

We of course had to do Greek for lunch.  We had saganaki ( fried cheese appetizer), Greek salad, and gyros (beef and lamb with tzatziki sauce wrapped in flatbread) at a place just off the sponge docks.  It was very good.

Pengi posing with my gyro

After that lunch we were to full for desert.  There are several Greek bakeries in the area.  We are definitely going to have to sample something from them before we leave the area.  Our plan is to spend the week here so we should have plenty of time for more Greek food and more exploring.  Stay tuned.