Never mind St. Petersburg was named by a land developer influenced by Russia’s St. Petersburg, some would say early developer interests in “I’ve got some land to sell you in Florida” would stick.  But it is more the Spanish influence that grabs you than the land grabbers here.  From numerous Spanish restaurants and tapas bars to Spanish architecture to the Dali Museum, this would have more appropriately been called “Little Catalonia.” And, speaking of Dali, the museum is worth the time, well presented, strong collection with solid descriptions telling Dali’s rather unique life story. The city boasts of 360 days of sunshine a year, which leaves little time for gloom.  It is a strategic tourism locale, sitting between Tampa Bay and the Gulf and our boat “mechanical” this weekend gave us exploring time. The municipal marina opens into the bay and the scene has changed from sports fishing rigs in South Florida port to sailing masts clanging in the breeze.  The old town shows signs of rebirth from removal of historic “green” benches to move past a retiring image to one of high rise condos at water’s edge.  We did stumble upon one of the more beautiful water sculptures I’ve ever seen; water calculated to run down and across pebbles creating a magical cascading effect.

05.10.09
We’ll take the Intracoastal Waterway inside route North tomorrow to Tarpon Springs, known as America’s sponge capitol with a decidedly Greek influence from those settlers who mine the sponges as they have for ages in Greece.  So it will be Spanakopita and Dolmades or studded grape leaves for our arrival dinner. Happy Sails!

Usually that would read “Mates,” but not when one has what is called in boating, a “mechanical.”  I earlier showed pictures of a mechanic working on the auto-pilot and now again you see them busy on the boat.  The snafu seems to be a faulty instillation of a technology that is far too complicated for my reach.  An autopilot is one of those pretty essential gizmos that you utilize at sea, or at Gulf in this instance.  What all this means is a delayed departure and adjustments for the schedule ahead, by at least a day or so.  It looks like St. Pete will be home port for a few more days and maybe during this coming work week the need to have a friendly skipper get the boat over to Panama City, where the final leg of the Storm Rider Tour is to lead us into Louisiana for the last week of May.  Stay tuned and, of course, Happy Sails!

No joke - Buccaneer lore is all over the place here and it’s not all about  football, because it is May. Like other communities we have visited, the Tampa Bay area has festivals to welcome in Spring and Summer. Here’s the story.  The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is a three day event in Ybor City, a part of Tampa Florida, where “pirates” invade the area by sailing into Hillsborough Bay.  The Gasparilla Pirate Festival began in 1904 as an event to celebrate one of Florida’s most famous folklore characters, Jose Gaspar. His nickname was Gasparilla and he was said to have been one of the last Buccaneer pirates to raid the West coast of Florida with his band of pirates and massive Floridablanca Spanish Army sailboat. If Jose Gaspar did exist then his treasure stash at Gasparilla Island might still there waiting to be discovered. The modern Gasparilla Pirate Festival includes the Parade of Pirates Tampa Bay invasion, the Distance Classic charity run, Fiesta Day, a Festival of the Arts, the Classic Gymnastics Invitational, and the Illuminated Sant’Yago Night Parade.  

Tampa Bay is strategic and full of diverse settings, from the old and historic in St. Petersburg (our home port for week) to fishing offshore from Clearwater to the new urban bustle of Tampa. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge’s soaring architecture is an awe inspiring statement. Vaulting 145 feet above us as we passed, skylines on the horizon give it a gateway quality.  The relative size of Coast Guard vessels in the Bay also are telling. This is the big town on Florida’s West Coast.  It is also the center of some big issues.  If you visit the History Museum, a film about Hurricane Elena in 1985 shows how vulnerable this region can be to weather events. This is also a land with an ecosystem central to native American populations who paid a dear price for being the holder’s of great natural resources. Wetlands and Everglades sustainability have won writers some big awards for covering the complex topics. This is also the gateway to Florida’s “Big Bend” or, what they are now calling, the “Nature’s Coast,” where natural wonders and nature’s favorites, like the pre-historic looking manatees rule.

Worries over the term “no net loss” collide with real estate development and mining in this region.  Issues all along this tour seem to revolve around what the Dutch call, a new need for building with nature, that is, mixing progress with protecting the environment. No net loss refers to a federal policy that aligns building anything new with mitigating wetland loss.  Trouble is, some engineering fixes to mitigation have proven ineffective and as we lose wetlands in a sensitive place, it is not always possible to restore the values and ecological benefits of the lands. In coastal Louisiana, where we are losing wetlands faster than anywhere, the challenges are different but somewhat the same. My editorial comment is that it is hard to engineer replacement of critical landscapes without a heavy dose of science in the mix. And, we are at a critical juncture in the world where we need to put a price on what we lose for short term gain. Here in Tampa Bay these issues abound.

Our port for the week’s close is the St. Pete Municipal Marina, in the center of what appears to be a redevelopment district.  ”The Pier” hosts the self-proclaimed oldest restaurant in Florida, the Columbia Grill, where Spanish food is the hallmark of a community with Spanish roots.  Sit in the restaurant and watch what some might question as a mirage, nothing less than a floating wedding chapel moving out in the Bay for daily wedding rites. More to explore in the coming weekend but the area has a Christopher Columbus statue across from the History Museum, so need I say more.  There’s also a Dali Museum here, trumpeting that old St. Pete may have interesting characters lurking in the shadows. This skipper is off to NYC for work this week and will deal with some boat electronics issues upon return.  Happy Sails!

Sarasota is a very beautiful city and you can tell by the public art displays throughout the town, that the influence of art is very significant. This may be due to the fact that John Ringling, of circus fame, began the trek of snowbirds here to his magnificent villa influenced by Venetian architecture. Today, it is a museum and art gallery surrounded by the campus of Florida State University and the New School of the Arts. Our port for this stay, Marina Jacks, was in the heart of downtown, which was a convenient walk from our Saturday appointments. We visited the local Farmer’s Market on the way to the Chalk Art event and a rendezvous with a local radio celebrity who was broadcasting from the art fair. While one might dismiss a chalk art festival where the art is presented on the street pavement, this was no ordinary group of artists. View the images below and be astonished as were we when we saw art that would be washed away in a day after judging. The radio slot was a good one, with dual reporters anxious to hear about wetland loss in Louisiana and the importance of us working to keep coastal communities sustained. A trip out to Siesta Key took us past St. Armand’s Circle, where we would run into a Corvette festival, the pride of the road in the 60’s all displayed for the onlookers. There are wonderful parks in and around Sarasota, many on walks to the white sand beaches with a consistency of powder. The wildlife seems very accustomed to the shell seeking beach walkers, as evidenced by a blue heron waiting for his daily feast in arms distance of the camera and beach joggers. Tomorrow will be on to St. Pete with fond memories of one of the favorite stops on the tour.

NEWS STORY – FT. MYERS
The song is “We Ain’t Gonna Lose No More (Without a Fight),” and the message is that Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are eroding at a rate of 25 to 35 square miles a year.
Val Marmillion, director of the advocacy group America’s Wetland Foundation, has a message, too: Louisiana’s wetlands and Florida’s Everglades have a lot in common, and something needs to be done to save both.
To spread the word, Marmillion and his engineer Juan Cruz Pisani are making a two-month voyage from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans aboard the 50-foot Grand Banks motor vessel Ruff Riders, stopping at more than a dozen ports of call in what they call the Storm Rider tour. Ruff Riders was docked at Salty Sam’s Marina on San Carlos Island until Friday.
“There is an interconnectedness between us,” Marmillion said.
“We have more in common than not. But as a nation, we have no sense of priority as far as stewardship of our natural resources, whether it’s the Everglades or the wetlands of Louisiana.”
America’s Wetland Foundation is financed solely by donations; Marmillion himself is covering the voyage, which he estimates will cost $12,000 to $15,000.
Wetlands, of course, are important as wildlife habitat, nurseries for many commercially and recreationally important fish and aquatic invertebrates, storm protection, water recharge areas and recreational areas.
One of the big problems about saving wetlands and other water resources, Marmillion said, is that government appropriations are based on politics rather than conservation.
“We pit one against the other,” he said. “It’s either the Everglades or Louisiana’s wetlands, which is stupid because we have to have both.
“People who snorkel or go birding or make a living off these lands should be outraged. People in politics don’t like the outrage. They like calm, and there’s a calmness that has allowed the disappearance of these places.”
Although Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and the Everglades are both being degraded, they are being degraded in different ways.
The Everglades suffers from pollution, changes in hydrology and loss of habitat, though a multi-billion dollar restoration plan is attempting to repair parts of the ecosystem.
For Louisiana, it’s massive coastal erosion - since the 1930s, the state has lost 1,900 square miles of land.
“The amount of land that has eroded is tragic,” Marmillion said. “I grew up in Louisiana, and where my father and I used to fish, that land is gone. Every year people would say, ‘Isn’t that interesting? The tide is getting higher.’”
Fort Myers Beach was the fourth stop; other ports of call include Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Pensacola.
Karen Gautreaux, spokeswoman for the Louisiana chapter of the Nature Conservancy said Ruff Riders’ voyage can raise awareness of the issues.
“There are many similarities between these ecosystems, and this kind of trip calls attention to those commonalities,” she said. “There are investments that states and the nation need to make to restore these ecosystems.
“Val is highlighting these cultures. They all depend on a healthy ecosystem for the economy, physical presence or habitat.”
Getting the word out is one thing; but then what?
“Each individual has to understand the story better,” Marmillion said. “A couple of guys in a boat going around talking about it is a drop in the bucket. But if we get more people going around talking about it, things can start happening.
“Getting people involved will have benefits downstream. Attitudes have got to change, or we’ll suffer the consequences. People need to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

Two South Florida men voyaging from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans to highlight coastal vulnerabilities are in Sarasota today and head to St. Petersburg Municipal Marina May 3.

Val Marmillion and Juan Pisani, members of America’s Wetland Foundation, are traveling on the powerboat Storm Rider to various ports in the Southeast to increase awareness of the critical wetlands losses and economic and environmental impacts, a release said.

At each stop on the tour, they distribute information about the likelihood of when the next hurricane will strike within 60 miles of that community.

The tour called “Storm Warning 4: Last Stand for America’s Wetland” culminates May 30 - June 1 in a series of events in South Louisiana in an area where erosion eats a football field of land every 50 minutes, the release said.

No, not a distress call, but the first day of May and our signal to move North.  The day began with crowds right off the bow of our vessel boarding the Ft. Myers -  Key West Express, whose 8:00 am departure packs in tourists heading down on a four hour fast boat catamaran ride to the Conch Republic and Key West.  A photographer dropped by to snap some shots of the Storm Rider for a local news organization and we promptly backed out of our slip and headed for the fuel dock to tank up.  While fueling, we encountered a fellow St. Louian heading on his vessel to the Bahamas and Alan quickly established who each knew in common.  We took on 600 gallons of diesel, and took the heavy lady out into the Pine Island Sound past the string of barrier islands including Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, Cayo Costa, Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island, and too many more on our journey into Sarasota.  This is a boaters paradise, judging by the number of sail and motor vessels plying the inland waterways. As often is the case, playful dolphin are drawn to the steady sound of our old motors, leaping out of the water and trying to fly past our wake.  Dolphins are supposedly a sign of good luck, so it is always a relief having them as companions.  This side of Florida is noticeably different than the East and seems to enjoy the slower pace of trawlers or sail boats as opposed to the speed of cigarette boats.  Occasionally, we’ll spot another Grand Banks trawler, which always brings a wave and a sense of fraternity with someone piloting the same make of vessel.  Along this route we again run into the Auspry who build their condos on the navigation markers and appear as sentries guarding their property and young.  The smell of summer is in the air on this first day of May and from port-to-port you get a sense that the locals are settling in as the snow birds head home to their northern climes.  Tonight, Alan returned to Sarasota for the first time in over a decade, having spent his growing up years with family here and thus his readiness for crewing this leg of the trip.  I have memories of Sarasota as a life changing moment when after trying to negotiate swimming a channel from Long Boat Key I met an undertow that had my number on it.  Thankfully, my years of swimming lesson paid off when I remembered that flipping over on my back and riding the current was a way out. It wasn’t pretty but I made it across the channel landing on a rock embankment of the bridge. No swimming this time but some added drama as we neared our approach to Sarasota at dusk.  The New Pass channel that we were advised to take was being dredged and all marker had been removed making the cut dangerous as it was now night.  So, we were faced with one of those boating questions of what to do.  We had passed another channel and returned to approach only to find the depth not adequate for passage.  Our next move was to call out to other boaters who could suggest a night approach that was well marked.  Simultaneously, there appeared to be some sort of emergency in the area as we became the target of a search and rescue helicopter that began buzzing the boat with powerful search lights as we attempted to move back out to deeper water.  The bad news was that our solution was to spend two more hours boating to reach the next channel with markers for a safe entry into Sarasota Bay.  Luckily, we were able to hail the dock master of Longboat Key Moorings, who met us at midnight to offer safe harbor at the marina.  The encounter made us thankful to have good charts and lighting equipment to have a safe boating experience but also of how quickly things can change in unfamiliar waters.  A late dinner where we recounted the stories brought the 10-hour day to an end. Happy Sails!

In Ft. Myers today after a week of planning meetings in Louisiana to set a strategic five-year direction for the America’s WETLAND Foundation.  Central to discussions are some of the issues we have been addressing from port to port on the Storm Rider Tour.  How do we change the dialogue in the U.S. to one that prioritizes issues pertaining water resources and protection of coastal communities?   How can we help more people understand the incredible value of our estuaries, reefs and wetlands?  What can individuals, companies, NGO’s, levels of government do to ensure a positive legacy for generations to come and move from piecemeal approaches to the big challenges that require systemic, comprehensive solutions?  These are difficult issues to address in a nation that makes decisions in ways that attempt to parse out funding one congressional district at a time.  

Today was a media day, meeting with the Ft. Myers newspaper to discuss these issues and the commonalities of all Gulf Coast communities.  We welcomed two new crew for this leg of the tour which will take us to Sarasota and St. Petersburg.  A banker and a lawyer from St. Louis, Alan Donius and Jay Perez got into the swing of things arriving at the Salty Sams Marina.  Our tour took us out into the Gulf and on the Intracoastal Waterways passing the local shrimp fleet what they call the “Mound House.” We stopped at the Snook Bight Marina where Pete, the Irish owner, welcomed us to an Irish celebration complete with favorite sing-a-long Irish melodies.  We presented an America’s WETLAND Flag to fly over the marina and spread “Pierre the Pelican” action figures with brochures throughout the throng.  One of the best parts of boating is meeting up with the colorful characters who gather at sunset to swap fish stories.  The oddity of an Irishman and his family opening a marina and restaurant in South Florida made for a lot of fun stories and jabbing from his visiting colleagues from Shamrock Land.  Pete has never visited South Louisiana, but suffice it to say, he now knows why he has to be a supporter of saving the wetlands.  His wife was proudly wearing the LAST STAND FOR AMERICA’S WETLAND beads we gave her as we turned on our running lights, waved goodbye and returned to our dock for the evening.  Happy Sails!

It was Grand Isle, Louisiana, today and a meeting with Shell’s sustainability team, from the US and Netherlands, The Nature Conservancy, and Wetlands International. The site was Grand Isle, sort of the end of the road, where LA 1 meets the Gulf of Mexico. I know this is a hard blog to follow because today we are not on the boat but traveling by car down one of the most important highways in the world. This is where the bulk of offshore oil is developed off Louisiana’s coast and where one vulnerable roadway is critical to US energy security. This is also a region of vast wetland erosion and where shrimp boats co-exist with offshore oil crew boats and jack-up rigs. Of particular note is the building of a new US 1, an elevated highway that will be less vulnerable to the rising tides that more and more threaten the service road, so critical to domestic energy supply. After an energizing meeting on Grand Isle, where ideas were shared that could lead to greater world cooperation on an agenda for sustainability of the world’s premiere deltas, it was a dash to the airport in New Orleans to resume the Storm Rider tour. I made the airport in time but AirTran’s decision for an early departure shut me out of getting back to the boat tonight in Ft. Myers. As I watched the captain of the AirTran jet through the airport waiting area window witness a few of us who he left behind waving furiously, I could not help but long for the simpler moments on board the boat, where the efficiencies of life fail to trump the experience. More tomorrow as I try to get back on a schedule for the weekend that leads to Sarasota and St. Pete, Florida. Happy Sails!

At an inaugural meeting of the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio, a university-based professional training studio to restore, protect, and sustain America’s WETLAND. This new project supported by the Foundation, is to develop a new practice design based on real projects for restoration. This project fits into the Climate, Energy and the Coast project of the Foundation and the aim to help develop broader capacity and intellectual capital for meeting the growing challenges facing wetlands

Here in New Orleans tonight out at dinner with international representatives of wetlands sustainability efforts. Today the America’s WETLAND Foundation with World Sponsor Shell hosted a briefing for representatives of Netherland’s-based Wetlands International and the Louisiana and Washington offices The Nature Conservancy. The topic for discussion was planning a world summit for sharing challenges facing the world’s deltaic regions. More to come. Happy Sails!