West Coast of Florida

Since our last blog, we have gone back to Marco Island and had the damage repaired from the accident at Ft. Meyer's Beach mooring field.  It was just cosmetic and the owner of Dragon's Lair gave us a check for the repairs.  Very admirable.

While we were in Marco Island, we stayed at the Esplanade Marina.  Yammy's sister, Laurie, came and stayed with Yammy while I traveled to TX, MS and Alabama.  Yammy's father and step-mom also came down and bought a condo on the island.  Beautiful high rise on the best corner of the island.  Our love for this island is contagious.

From there we traveled to Cayo Cost and the state park. Nice anchorage and walks on a natural beach.  Then to another state park in Tampa Bay, Desoto Point.  We stayed here to finish up our taxes then sailed to the St. Petersburg mooring field.  We came here to visit with my father and Nancy.  They just bought a house in Ruskin and were just 30 minutes from where we moored.  They have a gorgeous, spacious home in a gated community.

Seems like, after the winter the whole country had, everyone is looking at Florida again.  

On our fist night in St. Petersburg, Yammy and I realized we had been here once before.  Four years ago, after our cross country driving tour, we were looking for a place to spend the rest of winter.  We called a few places and nothing was available.  That is when we wound up in Myrtle Beach.  We recognized the area due to the gelato shop.  The little things you remember.

One word of advice, the Vinoy mooring field is exposed to any wind that has an E in it.  When that occurs, the waves come in and bounce off the cement walls in the harbor.  You end up in a giant bathtub getting rocked from all directions.

Also, after only a week in Tampa Bay, we have a slime on our hull that did not wash off while sailing.  First time since we painted in November.  If it doesn't come off, we may need to scrub it off.

We enjoyed our time on the west coast, but do not think we will venture north of Marco Island again.  The winds switchs from a land breeze to a shore breeze, nearly everyday.  The problem is the 2-4 hours will little or no wind during that change.  We also experienced the swarms of love bugs.  They hit as we arrived at Cayo Costa and stayed until we returned south of that location.  During one of the wind changes, our cockpit became engulfed with thousands of them.  We had to use a hose to wash them all away.  Last, but not least, is the shallows.  We have run aground 4 times in the past 2 weeks.  Once in the middle of an inlet trying to get to Sarasota.  We wound up having to skip that city all together.  We only draft 4' of water.  This brings to mind a statement, made by a friend of Sid and Bonni's, who said he gave up sailing and switched to power boating on this coast.  He said it is just too shallow.

There are areas of great sailing.  Tampa Bay being one of them.  But, the accessible anchorages are greatly limited.  For our good friend Kent, this distinction is when sailing offshore, not on the GIWW.  The only positive thing I can say about going aground, is we cleaned the barnacles off the bottom of our keels.:)

  Funky ring around the sun the day after lunar eclipse

 Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.  On this day, we found the wind to be NE on the East side and NW on the West side (after a mile of no wind).  Reminds me a lot of sailing on lake Ontario.  

 An osprey catching dinner at an anchorage at Anna Maria Island

Sailing wing and wing with the code 0 and headsail.  No poles!!!  Sometimes you have to love a wide stable platform.

 Dolphins swimming in our bow wave to welcome us back to Marco Island.

Back to our favorite sunset.  End of another day in paradise!