My Adventure Story
APRIL 2: TO SARASOTA BAY!
Jon made a great breakfast this morning, coffee, bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, fruit and mimosas!
A beautiful day, sun shining, another day in paradise!
We are only going 12 miles today. The city of Sarasota is beautiful from the water, buildings have such varied architecture. Gold and blue turrets, on many buildings, are mixed with modern designs. One building is covered in blue glass which reflects on the water.
We find the bay next to Marina Jack, tie up to mooring balls and dingy to O’Leary’s Bar where we tie up for $2.00.
Sometime later a man in a small motor boat tells us that the mooring balls are not reliable, so we decide to raft up again.
About 6:00 we are back at the boat with steaks which we BBQ with “Pirate Johnny ’s” , a spice mixture Jon makes and sells! Nothing like sitting on the deck of “Cherub” with our friends eating a great meal and watching the sun go down!
We were just starting to watch “Captain Ron” when we noticed our boats were spinning more then we should be. Cam and Jon spent much time discussing the why and wherefore!! In the end they reset their anchors and by that time it was 11:00 and Terri and I were too tired to see the rest of the movie!
APRIL 3: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
Beautiful morning again! We had the muffins I had brought from Dunedin and coffee on “Cherub”. I got presents!! A kindle from Cam and Bath pillow from Terry and Jon. A great card from Tom and Ruth! Thank you Ruthie!! I loved it!!!
Today we are going our separate ways. We motor to Marine Jack’s for fuel, a pump out and to say goodbye to Terri and Jon! We look forward to making more memories with them in the fall !
Today is Sunday and every body is out with their boats, and going at warp speed! We have never figured out what the pleasure is in that!
We were nearly taken out by a green hulled fast boat loaded with women and children! He slid on the wave of three other boats going by us and lost it. It scared us both! He looked back after passing us and slowed down! No doubt having been screamed at by one of the women! “Just saying”!
We arrived at our destination in Venice about 1:30. Made reservations at the “Crows nest Restaurant” where I had a great birthday dinner.
From our boat we can watch people wading around their motor boats. They are packed into a small bay, it looks like fun!
We walked to the end of the pier after dinner to watch the sun set and chatted with a “looper”. Wife was cutting husband’s hair on the deck, a not uncommon site! This is their tenth year doing the loop. They will complete it for the first time in Fort Meyers.
APRIL 4: BOCA GRANDE, ANOTHER STORM!
We started at 8:00, sunny day with haze on the horizon. The weekend crowd is working and the water is quiet! Venice is full of bridges and we have to ask eight of them to open for us. The bridges are stretched along a canal with bike/walking path on the dikes. Reminds me of Holland.
Gasparilla sound is rough with the wind and waves against us. Wind is coming from the south! We had planned to spend the night at Cabbage Key, but decided to go into Boca Grande instead. We have been here once before. Unfortunately there was no room at the marina, and their staff could not suggest another marina, but directed us to anchor in the bayou.
The ski is threatening, the wind is strong and gusting, and we can hear the thunder in the distance!
After getting our anchor secure, Cam rowed our dingy to the marina and we walked to town. There is a lot of money here! Beautiful homes, I could not stop taking pictures! Nice main street with a “Seven Eleven” kind of grocery store.
We had dinner at the marina. Free dingy docking if you stay and eat! Once back at the boat the owner of a sailboat anchored near us, suggested that we anchor in a small bayou he pointed out, so that we both would have ample swinging room during the night. We did just that and were pleasantly surprised when the owner of the closest house turned on the lights in his boat house for us. We were protected all night from the wind gusts and had the boat house lights to use for a visual check.
