On Board the Waltzing Matilda

I went to a pirate festival, imagine Silver Dollar City meets a renaissance faire, add some Disney costumed douchbags, mix in plenty of cos-players and add one dirty hillbilly pirate for flavor and you have the John Levique festival. For some reason any man that dresses up like Johnny Douche's pirate character immediately walks, talks and behaves like a flaming queen, there were at least seven of them, and a few tourists that were wearing the head gear recently acquired from Rat World ( Walt Disney Hell). I was quite disappointed that there were no Somali's represented.

I don't know who or what John Levique was but I am guessing that the name "John's Pass" may have something to do with him. I sailed in and noticed a bunch of slack jawed locals pointing and staring at me, apparently they had never seen anyone 'sail' their boat through the shoals, everyone motors through and runs aground frequently. I sailed through Friday night and did reconnaissance to see where I would drop my hook the next day, I made certain to come in at low tide so that the shoals were exposed.

I headed a bit north and anchored near a dock operated by McDonald's, went to shore to get beer and food and since I used the McDonald's dock felt it was only right that I spent money there, my stomach reminded me that night "don't eat McDonald's"

there was some pretty neat things to see at the festival, but it was difficult to get to shore, they weren't prepared for boats to attend, they were more prepared for bus loads and autos. This fellow made himself a set of really cool goggles, it has a movable iris and look pretty darn cool. It's hard not to like bag pipe music and there was a bit of that too.



I did pretty well for myself, my little dog rode around in a cloth shopping bag and made plenty of friends, when people discovered that I wasn't "in costume" but was the real deal they bought me food and drinks in exchange for stories of the high sea. When beer is served on the street and a thirsty pirate walks by, the beer may disappear, I learned at Skatopia how to poach beer.


Here are a couple of clips of idling and steaming aboard the Waltzing Matilda out of John's Pass,FL.



After all the excitement I needed to get out and do some sailing, I slept in Sunday, I have a knack for being invited aboard other vessels and the hospitality of boaters is unmatched, thus my hangover. After I made it through John's Pass at high tide I headed out to the end of the channel and turned due south. I arrived at low tide and threaded my way through the shoals to anchor on the West side of Egmont Key. I got right up on the beach since I knew which way the wind was coming and knew that I was in 4' at low tide.

It was a beautiful evening, there were thunder storms rolling out to sea and watching the lightning was awesome. The 2' waves lulled me to sleep but being able to hear the beach kept me awake, bad dreams of Horn Island when I did sleep.

When the sun rose I took a dive before setting out, thanks to many kind folks I have a great set of snorkel gear, I didn't need my wet suit as the water was 88F and the water was 10' visibility. Mattie got upset because I was off he boat when she wanted her morning walk, but Egmont Key has big signs all over it forbidding pets and the rangers were doing morning patrol in their little electric golf cart.

Crossing Tampa Bay Channel was like playing the old video game "Frogger", I saw no less than six large vessels using the channel, these are big things that make the lil' boats I dealt with on the Mississippi and Louisiana look like toys. The rules are simple, these vessels take 20 miles to stop and are moving way faster than it looks, stay out of their way. Egmont is not far enough out for me, I've had all the karaoke and bright lights I can handle. I'm planning my route for the next time I go out, living at the hook sucks but living in the blow rocks. Next destination? 24°39'37.18"N 81°44'01.42"W