March 10, 2009: Tarpon Springs to Clearwater, FL

The Gulf waters off the coast of Tampa are one of the few places suitable for the harvesting of natural commercial grade sponges and the sponge industry began in the 1890’s with sponges harvested using a tri-pronged harpoon. However the Tarpons Springs area is unique on the west coast of Florida for its community of Greek influence. In the local gift shops you are as likely to find a Greek style urn as a sponge, the famous commodity of the area. The water front community is filled with establishments with their names spelled out with the Greek alphabet and the St Nicholas Greek Orthodox church has 2000 parishioners.

The Greek Islanders arrived in 1905 and brought the old world boat craftsmanship, diving skills and equipment. The community were employed primarily as sponge divers in the early 1900s, and there was a 42 foot sponge sailboat, built of cypress and pine in 1935, on display across the street from the Marina. It had a Greek flair to the gunnels and a high bow and was trimmed in red, blue, and yellow. There is also a bronze statue of a diver with the large round diving helmet honoring the profession.

Tom reminisced about being here with his family when he was in the 8th grade, and to follow in his father’s footsteps, he bought a large round natural sponge about the size of a soccer ball as his souvenir. We had lunch of traditional hot shaved lamb gyros with delicious cucumber sauce from Papa’s restaurant.

In the afternoon, we cast off for the Clearwater across the open clear emerald water coming into the harbor under a magnificent white contoured bridge. At the Municipal Marina we docked between two other loopers, The Sandy Dog and the Legacy. The folks on the Sandy Dog shared our historic stop at Heritage Harbor when we were stranded in Ottawa, Ill. We cooked hamburgers on the grill and called it a good day.