First Published November 2013

More Florida Cruising

  Time to catch up with this as some things are moving pretty fast for us at the moment.
We had intended to pick up our crew on Tuesday and then sail across the Gulf to St Petersburg.  The weather was on the verge of marginal that evening but after a good meal we all felt ready, the boat was ready,  so we decided to press on.

   We began about 10 PM with the rain passing and Tampa Bay as smooth as silk.  Things were looking good!  A lot of the marks were unlit which gave me a chance to try out my green light laser. Being careful not to light the rigging on the boat which reflects the light right back at you, the laser was great for picking up the marks a loooong way off.  It also leaves a pointer trail so it is much easier to guide the crews' attention exactly to where you are looking.

  As we neared the Pass-a-Grill outlet the front was pushing the waves into the narrow passage and making things pretty rolly as the tide was going out. I made the mistake of looking down at the small screen on my iPhone, as it had more updated chart info than the chart plotter. Oops now I was feeling the mal-de-mer! More on that later.

We got out to the Gulf got the sails set and pointed to NO.  Everyone else went down below and I stated my watch.   I was having a great time as we crashed into the waves and just felt the boat going along with the almost full moon and stars peeking through the low scudding clouds. And while I felt a bit queasy I was not getting worse.  The bad news was the wind and waves were building, and worse yet,  they were coming around so about every half hour or so I had to fall off to keep things comfortable.

  At 3 AM Paul came up to relieve me. After a quick briefing I headed down to the sea bunk and then things got bad!  As soon as I wasn't top side and concentrating on something my really tasty chicken dinner from the St Petersburg Yacht Club - only the best will do you know - decided to try to come back up. I kept things under control but now spent the next couple of hours keeping things that way.

St Petersburg Yacht Club. Home of the tasty chicken

  In the mean time Paul was trying to get us to New Orleans.  Several hours later I woke up and I thought how nice and smooth everything was. When I looked out the port hole I was surprised to see land, a record breaking trip across the Gulf?  No,  it turns out we had the chart plotter and radar fail at some point during the night and with the winds on the nose had decided to head back to Tampa Bay and here we were. We went back to the marina in Palmetto rested and cleaned up on Wednesday.

  On Thursday we started sailing up and down the west coast of Florida.  We went south to Venice with its' very pretty little harbor.  We tied up to the Yacht Club there and appreciated the dock side help.  We enjoyed a walk on the beach known as the shark tooth capital of Florida.  I found a very nice one and gave it to Captain Paul as a souvenir.  The next day we motor sailed up the GICW looking at the bridges, houses and wildlife.

Sunset in Venice

Opening for us

ICW Homes

Swing Bridge on the ICW north bound

We had our first encounter with dolphins in the bow wake!

Mom and baby in the bow wave

A mom and baby enjoying a swim with us, one of the things on our life list.  Can't wait to see them again.  For lunch we dropped the hook on the west edge of Sarasota Bay.  Nice views of all the water activity and the City.  Pressing northward we had a great sail across Sarasota Bay, just sailing back and forth.  That night we anchored at Bradenton Beach and after a nice dinner on-board we took the dink over to the City dock and went and found some really good handmade ice cream.

Handmade Ice Cream Bradenton Beach

The next day we decided that we would keep going north.  We had anchored just south of the 684 bridge so as we raised the anchor we called the bridge keeper and asked for the next opening.  He was happy to oblige and got the bridge cleared and then... nothing.  After a few minutes we again heard the buzzer and still nothing.  By this time a pretty good line of cars had built so we called the bridge keeper and said we'd go the other way.  He thanked us profusely and we turned south.  Now how to get out to the Gulf?  Captain Paul recalled he had gotten out through Sarasota Bay so we headed for the New Pass inlet.  As we got close we called the bridge keeper and he confirmed that we could get through with our draft and that as soon as he got the bridge open he would talk us through!  How cool is that?   Always be nice to your bridge keeper!  When we got through the bridge he even talked us through the channel to safe water.  How even cooler is that?  At this point we turned north and had a great sail across the mouth of Tampa Bay and as far north as Clearwater.

Clearwater Beach Stroll

We again docked at the local yacht club and with the help of the great harbor master got all tied up in a very tight slip.  I am beginning to really like bow thrusters.   After another long walk on a great Florida beach we enjoyed the sunset and a local troubadour.

Clearwater Beach Sunset

The next day Jim left us to go back to Kansas City and we sailed south and snuck back in to Sarasota Bay through the New Pass.  We again spent time sailing Sarasota Bay and then took a mooring ball in the city owned mooring field.  After a wonderful dinner ashore we sat in the cockpit for a couple of hours just watching the tableau of the city change as we moved around the mooring ball.  It was exciting and peaceful all at once.  This was one of our favorite nights.

Sarasota from the city mooring field

The next morning we sailed off from the mooring ball and headed across Sarasota Bay again.  While shallow this is a great place to sail.  We motor sailed through the GIWC until we came out in the Manatee River.  We tried getting to lunch on Anna Maria Key but found the restaurant had burned down, darn.  We then sailed up the river and anchored off the De Soto National Monument and enjoyed learning the history of De Soto's landing in Florida as he was looking for the Fountain of Youth.  It was here that we found the Gumbo Limbo Tree.  This is a tree that they call the "Tourist Tree."  As it stands out in the sun turns red and then peels.

Tourist Tree. Gumbo Limbo

While we did not make a Gulf crossing it turned out for the best as we spent the days sailing, navigating the coast, navigating the GICW, picking anchorages, picking up a mooring ball, running the systems on the boat and generally living the "cruising" life.   Paul is a great teacher and we learned a lot.  He is an even more gracious host.  Before we left we met a new broker who showed us a whole bunch of Island Packet boats.  She is new to the industry, very nice and motivated so if you need a broker on the west coast of Florida let us know.

We sadly left the boat and our brief time as "cruisers" and headed over to the east coast of Florida to visit family.