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| The sign is back! |
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| Indian Rocks Beach - beautiful! |
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| Some of the Banyon trees in Venice |
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| View of the Venice Inlet |
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| Venice beach |
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| Going through Sarasota |
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| View at Marina Jacks - Sarasota |
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| Checking out the Indian Rocks beach |
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| We made it! |
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| Pirates! |
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| Skyway bridge over Tampa Bay |
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| Saying goodbye to Nokomis beach |
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| Happy Father's Day! |
We really enjoyed our time hanging with Jeff (Jeremiah) -
meeting his friends and neighbors in Nokomis.
But it came time we needed to move on.
Well at least we had planned to leave on Friday (June 17) but the
weather changed on us and became rather stormy.
SO we decided to stay another weekend. Why not! The surf was pretty wild during this
time. There were 4-6 footers out
there. We would go to the beach and just
watch the waves.
Jeff left to go to on his road trip to Pennsylvania to his
class reunion so we were on our own again. We spent a little time sightseeing –
Historic Downtown Venice and Venice Beach.
We took a nice dinghy ride one afternoon. Oh, and we found a great
Mexican Restaurant – Mi Pueblo. On
Father’s Day we had breakfast at the Jetty.
It’s just a small little place but the view is fantastic! Poor Mike didn’t get to do much to celebrate
his day. We spent it mostly getting the
boat ready to leave – loading the scooters, etc. We did manage to take one last dinghy ride to
Snake Island though.
Monday (June 20) Finally after loading the dinghy, etc. we
left around 10:30. We had a vibration
and a few other issues that needed to be checked out so we met Diver Danny at
Marina Jacks around noon. He had cleaned
our boat just a few days ago. Danny went
over it again and took care of the problem.
Ezy Peezy. So we got to enjoy
lunch at the marina while we were there – a nice break. We headed back out again around 2:30. No more vibration. At 5:30 we made it to our anchorage at Snead
Island (Bradenton) in front of the Yacht Club.
What a nice anchorage – we were
the only boat there! We watched the full
moon come up and cooked burgers on the grill.
A special full moon tonight – (the Strawberry Moon) - the first time
since 1967 that the full moon and the summer solstice coincided. And it won’t happen again until 2062. That’s pretty cool! It turned out to be an uneventful night – the
way we like it. We hardly moved at all.
Tuesday (June 21) We left our anchorage about 8:30 a.m. Once we left that anchorage we were in an
area that we had only been in once. Five
years ago while on the Loop heading south – we spent a very short time in the
St Pete Beach, Madeira Beach area. We
never expected that five years later we’d still be doing what we’re doing! So after a couple of wrong turns “Which way
Nell” was back on track (long story). We
finally made it to our destination only to have our perfect day of travel do a
180 degree turn. There was no harm done
but the stress level was high! To start
with – 1. We had no help getting into
the slip – Dock master’s day off and no one to cover for him. 2. It
was very windy. 3. The slip was very small and not a good fit
for our size boat. 4. Fingers are very short. 5.
Because of the wind, we had to bow in – so since the fingers were short
we couldn’t get off the boat – we couldn’t even get our lines to the dock. 6. We
had to take the dinghy down and use it to get to the dock where we could tie
our lines and plug in the electric.
7. After wind died down and a
couple hours of fretting, we decided that we’d turn the boat around. At least then we could back up close enough
that we could get off the back. (Without
the dinghy on the back - now what do we do with the dinghy?) 8. Charles, our neighbor, was there at least then
to help us out. We thought it was a done
deal and we were secure. Nope! 9. The
low tide (remember that full moon?) put
us on the bottom in the mud! This is not
going to work! Fretted some more but
there was nothing we could do till morning.
We decided that we’d check out Clearwater Beach Marina in the morning
and see what they had to offer. Not a
very good night for sleep.
The next morning we took the Silver Bullet to Clearwater,
only about six miles! They had a slip
for us and we headed back planning to move up there. When we got back to the marina, Mike called
the Dock master (who still was on his days off) to explain everything. We found that there was another slip that was
a bit bigger and had more water. SO we
ended up moving to that slip. This time
we had a lot of help from neighboring boaters.
The rest of the day went better.
We even saw a mama manatee and her baby swimming around our boat. We met several of the boaters here. All is good.
Except the dinghy has to stay in the water. Still dealing with short fingers so we’re
stuck getting off the back.
Oops! Not yet! 10. Low tide came in about 10:30 that night
and we were on the bottom again! What a
mess! So the next morning, Mike decided
to blow out the silt by using our props – putting it in gear while tied to the
dock. No that wasn’t fun! After about an hour, he declared it done and
that it had worked and we’d have enough water now. I wasn’t convinced but he’s the Captain! The only casualty was our coax cable for our
cable tv. He accidentally pulled the
fitting off the end – but it was fixable!
We could only hope that it was all good.
We now had 6 feet of water at the dock.
That should take care of things.
SO we finally were able to leave the boat and check out the
area. We walked the beautiful beach and
stopped in Crabby Bill’s for Happy Hour.
We order the Loaded Pork Nachos for a snack. They were huge! They ended up being our dinner! Crabby Bill’s is a fun place! I know we’ll be back there a few times before
we leave. We were back to the boat in
plenty of time to check out low tide. In
fact, between the both of us, I think we checked it out over a dozen
times. At low tide (10:30 p.m.) we were
still floating! Yea! It looks like we’ll get to enjoy our stay
here after all!
Friday (June 24) We decided to get off this boat! We took a drive to Madeira Beach and John’s
Pass. We had lunch at Scully’s where we
spent some time five years ago. Now
we’re ready to check out what else is here!
So……
Sunday we went to J D’s Restaurant and found it’s a great
little place. There was a band, great
lunch specials and Happy Hour all day till 6:00! Later we took a dinghy ride to finally check
out the area.
We’re still having a time getting off the boat. Mike wants
to put the dinghy on the back out of the water and that will make it even
harder. He’s trying to figure out
something he can do. I’m sure he’ll
figure out something. He always does!
Stay tuned!
Admiral "C"
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