Sheree saves sea shells at the sea shore

The peaceful beauty of old world Florida is something to relish. It is disappearing so quickly under pavement and towering buildings one has to wonder how much longer till…

The mornings present themselves with a beauty all their own. The birds are chasing breakfast and the Admiral is catching catfish. Well, more appropriately, snagging catfish. She has a unique ability to hook them in the eyeball, over and over again. If you happen to catch any one eyed catfish in the area, she hooked it first!

Back along the mangroves lining the east side of Cayo Costa we find a cut in the mangroves. This leads to, well… watch the video.

It was a neat little trail.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XOmXpQaiD8

And speaking of trails, the seagulls seem to follow us everywhere. We always have an escort in our wake. I suppose they are waiting to see what we stir up with the little outboard motor. We have certainly put a lot of time on the dinghy poking around the islands.

On the west side of Cayo Costa we found this rather nice boat washed up on shore. I don’t know what the story is, but I can see how it happened. Pulled on the beach, or washed ashore, the waves came up against the stern and filled the boat with water. The sand was soon to follow. The beach was swallowing this boat pretty quickly. It had not been here but a few days. The engine and prop were in great shape, and someone had already removed the electronics. No telling what was in the lockers buried under the sand.

Free boat to good home

I’m sure it is an interesting story, one I’ll never discover though.

Chasing crab, enjoying a cocktail, watching the sun go up and back down… yep, this is what it is all about.

Under duress, we have to leave to get some supplies and conduct repairs. I’m not sure where we are going next, but I would really like a working depth sounder. The cruising guides say that I can dock and make repairs at the Burnt Store Marina. Being only ten miles across the bay, I believe that is where we are heading.

Stop in and say hello if you are in the area.

Ahoy~

Woops~

The rest of the boat is under here somewhere

This guy owns the island, a Gopher Tortise

Seagull Patrol

Sunrise, my daily view

I climb into the dinghy and row away from my boat. I’ll not be using the outboard this morning so as not to disturb the absolute tranquility of the anchorage. The only sounds now are of the awakening wildlife beginning to hunt breakfast.

Last night was spectacular. We are far enough away from the bright lights of civilization that we can see the Milky Way at night. We watch the skyies for an hour after sunset and see the illuminated satellites speeding across the heavens.

When you don’t bother to turn on a television for a couple of weeks life gets simpler. This morning we listened to the marine radio weather broadcast for about ten minutes and hear of a hurricane forming near Cozumel. We will get a bit of wind this coming weekend, which will be in~ what is today?

Dinner, Fresh Flounder, Blue Crab and Cajun rice

Listening to the marine forecast, the computer voice simply states ‘Today will be…’ and gives the conditions. Shortly after today’s weather report it jumps to ‘Thursday will be…’ Now I have to do some serious math. Knowing Thursday is in two days, that means, if I subtract two days, then today must be Tuesday. Whew, worn out. Must take nap…

Sunsets are just as wonderful. A nice cocktail while sitting in the comfort of the center cockpit and watching the sky change colors. What could compare to that?

It’s very late. The sun has been down a while now and probably time for bed. We go below and see it’s just after 9:00 o’clock. What the hell, go to bed anyhow. It is easy to be awake for the sunrise when you get a full night, and very restful, sleep.

One of the places we visited in the dinghy was Cabbage Key. The most recent bit of history here is the song ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ by an all time great singer.

Pulling into Cabbage Key, ahhhhhhhhh

We park the dinghy at the dock and walk up the hill to the restaurant. We choose to sit outside and take in the stunning view of the waterway while eating, you guessed it, burgers.

We tour the inside of the restaurant where the bar is covered in $1 bills. Every square inch of the walls is plastered with money. This is something you need to see for yourself one day.

We climbed the historic water tower, and walked the trail around the island. Back to the dinghy and the task of fishing…

What a sweet life.

This is truly paradise. I find myself reflecting with a bit of sadness over some of my friends, who can’t ever make it here. For one reason or another, the airplane/helicopter crashes, getting killed in the line of duty, the daily stress of life…

I’ll toast tonight’s sunset cocktail to you my friends.

Ahoy~

Lunch time viewing, what a sight...

Money money everywhere... The bar

The Cabbage Key water tower. Great view from up there as well

Ahoy my friends, more to follow!

Well then. We hid out in Venice for a couple of days looking for the weather in the Gulf to clear up or abate a little. The west winds have the Gulf of Mexico chopped, cloudy and basically unhappy. Yesterday, the 18^th, we decided to head out of Venice and turn left (south). The plan was to head to Charlotte Harbor, Cabbage Key. There is an acclaimed restaurant there where Jimmy Buffet is reported to have written his ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ song. It was our intention to devour one of those burgers, and add our dollar bill to the wall of fame.

http://www.cabbagekey.com/

Standing by in Venice

We were unable to dive for sharks teeth in the Gulf as visibility was a foot or less. I suppose my biggest clue to the Gulf conditions should not have been the official inaccurate reports on the radio, but the fact that most of the other boaters that went out of the entrance returned a short time later with everyone having that ‘deer in the headlights look’. Well, that was not stopping me! I’ve got a 40 foot boat and a capable admiral aboard!

Prior to our departure, and during the preplanning phase, I had located a little hideaway behind another key in the area where we were headed. Lots of neat places ahead to explore. Well, all best laid plans are subject to change. The aft head (toilet) had a heart attack. I preformed emergency surgery and discovered that the outflow plumbing hose looked like the arteries of an 800 pound lazy fat guy whose sole sustenance was butter and bacon grease. The 1 ½ inch hose has less than a half inch opening. There was a large build up of plaque reducing the internal opening of the hoses. I’ll have to wait till we get back to the dock and conduct major reconstructive surgery and replace the clogged arteries

So anyhow, we head out the Venice opening to the Gulf with reported 2 foot seas, but still that nagging westerly wind. After clearing the breakwater and turning left we started rolling from side to side, gunwale to gunwale. In reality, the 2 foot seas were 6 footers. Sheree was busy down below putting things back as fast as the seas were shaking them loose. Between her frustrated utterances and Abby’s helpful instructions I could hear that we were losing the battle.

Captain Courageous decided to get back inside the breakwater. I didn’t think that any of us were willing to endure heavy rolling seas for the next 7 hours.

Dinghy ride to the beach

We looked at the weather, timing, navigation issues, and decided to head north. South would happen another day when better weather presented itself. The forecast predicted this crappy wind from the west for the rest of the week.

We made our way to Sarasota Bay and are anchored in the little harbor in front of City Park. It’s really pretty, and they have some beautiful buildings downtown. No rain expected for the next week or so, at least according to the weather guessers.

3am found us jumping out of bed closing hatches in-between lightning strikes all around. We want to take the dinghy to shore for lunch and explore the park, have lunch and just walk around. I looked at the weather radar and well, the no rain for a week prediction shows a long line thunderstorms stretching out into the Gulf going… well, you get the idea.

We thought about heading back to St. Pete Beach, but I’m not wanting to sit in the cockpit driving us through driving rain and lightning bolts. So, sit here at the anchorage, bounce around a bit, and practice our knot tying and dominoes playing.

Maybe we will get to dink into the park this evening when the ‘no rain for weeks’ goes away.

From the decks of the s/v AbbyGale

Being followed home by a dolphin