Thursday 1/29/09 It had been quite breezy all night long at our anchorage which caused the anchor to do its' job and dig into the bottom even more than normal. When it came time to pull it up the windlass just groaned when we got the slack out of the chain. At this point I had Pam put the boat in forward and drive over the anchor to pop it out of the bottom. Mission accomplished! I continued to retrieve the anchor and when it came out of the water I could see that we now had a hooker! Apparently the bottom didn't give it up without leaving its' mark on our anchor which now has a bent shank.
We pulled out of the Manatee River and found the ICW once more and started South. We now have bridges with low clearances to contend with as well as many No Wake areas. Going is slower than slow. Just north of Sarasota we pulled off the main channel to take a look at the Ringling Mansion which sits on the waters edge. Enough of the circus, on we go!
Friday 1/30/09 We arrived at Venice this morning without running over one gondola! We checked into the Crows Nest Marina which has a great restaurant but is right on the inlet to the Gulf which when the wind came up later made it a bumpy night.
Our main reason for stopping in Venice was because my uncle Leo lives there and my parents were coming up for lunch and to stay overnight with us on the boat. All arrived about 11am and off we went. Throughout the day either my dad drove or my uncle. Either way it was like riding with Waldorf & Astor from the Muppet Show with the one who was the passenger telling the other where to go, what lane to be in, etc. and the driver saying that he already knew that! Quite humorous and and enjoyable day for all.
Saturday1/31/09 My parents took off for Bonita Springs and we pulled out of the Crows Nest. We did a whopping 23 miles and anchored in a well protected residential cove near Cape Haze. Beautiful homes, deep water, dolphins playing and calm water. A welcome change from the previous night.
Sunday 2/1/09 Today we uncovered the dinghy for the first time since October. A little grungy from diesel soot but not bad. Kinda gives it character. We did a quick clean up and dropped it in the water. Three pulls later the Yamaha fired and off we went for a cruise through the residential canal just off our anchorage. We checked out the homes for sale (which were few) explored a few more areas and returned to the boat where we pulled the deck chairs out onto the swim platform and watched the world go by. My day was complete! Or so I thought. Little did I know that Pam had a strong desire of which I was a big part. Yep! You guessed it. Domino's! We made it special by having chips and dip while playing. Incidentally, I won!!!
Tomorrow we move on.
Was that CS Dominos?
ReplyDelete