Cruising to our Winter Siesta

St. Petersburg to Fort Myers *

A great Christmas stay at St. Petersburg ended with a day full of fun. Breakfast at 2^nd and Second, on the corner of Second Street N. and Second Ave N. not to be confused with the corner of Second St. S. and Second Ave. S. I’m surprised we found it! Then a long bike ride out past the Tropicana Stadium where the Rays play, along the Pinellas Bike Trail. Had we not gone to the grocery first, we may have ridden farther out but we had a few cold things in our backpack and a half hour out was about as far as we thought we could go with groceries in tow.

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We returned to the marina and headed to the end of the pier to Pier Tiki (the top deck) for happy hour. This perch in the sky offers a fantastic view of the bay, the pier, and downtown St. Pete. We enjoyed the view, but the crowds were a bit much for us.

We grabbed Remy, and finished our last night with a sunset drink in the park at the pier under the waving art installment. You just about could fall asleep with the muted lights and the movement of the nets and lights. A beautiful end to a fun filled week St. Pete.

Our next cruise, the 59^th “trip” of our loop, we headed toward Sarasota, 38 miles through Tampa Bay and under the Sunshine Skybridge. The bridge sure looks a lot different from the water than by car.

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We would be cruising within a mile of our friend’s home at Perico Island near Anna Maria. We made some quick calls and found a marina with a restaurant that would allow us to tie up for lunch, then called our friends with no warning to meet us. Luckily, they could, and we had a wonderful visit and lunch at the Seafood Shack at Cortez.

It’s always good to see friends from home. We were able to see them when we were home a few weeks ago, but it sure was good to catch up with them in Florida! Remy enjoyed the attention from their granddaughter.

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After our too short of visit, we were on our way to Sarasota. We docked at Marina Jacks, like the Wharf in Orange Beach, this is where the big boys hang!

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It was nice to be back on floating docks if only for a night. We scoped out a tiki hut bar / restaurant in the park next door that we could take Remy with us, but after walking over and having to wander through the beggars laying along the sidewalk, and the long lines at the all self-service tiki bar, we turned around and went back to the boat. We had a drink on the dock, cheese plate for our first course, and left-over prime rib bites for our main. Much better than what we would have had and on the comfort of our own boat. We could hear the entertainment at the marina outside bar and were glad we were 40 yards away. They really were that bad when Tasha walked Remy up for her evening break.

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We were not able to spend more time here, as starting the next day, those docking here are locked in for the new year holiday weekend (4 night minimum!). We want to be in Fort Myers on New Year’s Day and docks for this week have been hard to find. Remy modeled under the art piece Unconditional Surrender, the sailor kissing a nurse that resembles a 1945 photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V–J day in Times Square. It really is tall. There are some great things to see in Sarasota, we’ll have to return on another trip around!

We are heading into warmer weather; we used our air for the first time in a long time. We much rather have the windows open (our boat has very few that open), so this night was the first for air, we’re thinking Fort Myers is going to be all air too– we really like the 70’s vs. the 80’s anymore as we are always outside.

We left Sarasota with a short cruise of 17 miles to Venice and the Crow’s Nest Marina for two nights. The Crow’s Nest is a very small, quaint marina, known for its restaurant. What a beautiful area and a short walk to the jetty and the beach. Again, the disappointment by all but especially Remy when she was not allowed to walk on the beach or get close to the jetty. She kept tugging and looking towards the water. We just have a hard time wrapping our head around places outdoors that don’t include pups. Most restaurants have gone to in Florida are dog friendly, but very few beaches. There was one beach, several miles away that was dog friendly, but Remy can’t walk the several miles one way let alone both ways anymore. Huge disappointment.

The Crow’s Nest is at the Venice Inlet connecting the Gulf to the ICW. It was a busy inlet and we were in the thick of it. Some boats passed within a mere 10 feet along side of us, a bit closer than they needed to be. This inlet has a small island about 100 yards from the docks that acts as the traffic circle middle. Three fourths of the circle is navigable for big boats and one fourth has heavy shoaling and sand bars. It was quite a circus during the day and fun to watch. The island is also the local anchoring and swimming hole, adding another dimension to the chaotic roundabout with boats from kayaks to large yachts (75-120 feet) coming through.

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We took off on our bikes for breakfast to downtown Venice. The breakfast joint was about 1.5 miles from the marina. After eating, we headed east to the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). The ICW in Venice cuts way into town and far from the Gulf, it appears to be a man-made section, looks like a ditch and not so many sights, but had a good bike path alongside. We rode south by Venice High School and the trail them dumped us out by the mall and Tamiami Road, we got off Tamiami as soon as we could (very busy) and meandered through residential neighborhoods heading West towards the coast. We eventually ended up at Venice Beach, not to be confused with Venice Beach California. This one was calm, quiet, and quaint. From the beach we returned to the marina, most likely our longest ride to date (it is taking a while for us old, out of shape, couple to get back into bike riding!) We enjoyed our time at the Crew’s Nest and were able to catch up with two looper boats we had been with earlier along our route. It’s nice to see a familiar face and share tales of the journey.

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After two nights in Venice, we motored to Boca Grande (26 miles) for New Year’s Eve. The boat traffic on the ICW was full of run abouts and center consoles flying by us very close. We aren’t used to the closeness in traffic and the disregard of boat rules and just courtesy. We thought the fog that morning had dissipated, but we encountered its return with vengeance along the way. The small boats continued to race by us even though you couldn’t see ahead, we couldn’t see those approaching from behind, we could only hear them and hoped they would see us.

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We were startled when we saw kayakers in the middle of the channel in the fog, we were right on top of them, what were they thinking? Maybe the fog snuck up on them too, but they should have aborted their trip or hugged the bank rather than be in the middle of the ICW channel. Scary times.

The last leg of our journey to Boca Grande was met with very skinny shoaling water and we were very worried about getting in and followed the obstacle course of markers back the 1.5-mile channel to Uncle Henry’s Marina. We both had read about the skinny water, David studied the charts and Tasha inquired with the marina and asked if a boat with a draft of 4.5 feet could make it back, she was met with a “I hope so” from the staff. We saw other looper boats make the trek and had reached out to a couple through our tracking app, they all indicated, just follow the channel very carefully. It was nerve racking, at the halfway point we encountered a huge sand bar with dozens of boats and people standing on the sand bar with most of their bodies out of the water, we needed to squeeze through one side to continue back to the marina, we did and we were relieved upon arrival. The marina had good fuel prices, but most wouldn’t motor the zig zag shallow trail back just to get fuel.

We were met with our most expensive dockage to date – $3.50 per foot. When Tasha mentioned we weren’t in Indiana any longer, both dock hands cited, this is an expensive island. We would have much preferred to have been further south at Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, or Captiva, but New Year’s Eve is a big deal boating (who knew) and nothing was available for our last night of the year and the night before we had reservations in downtown Fort Myers. For the price, the marina didn’t have any amenities to speak of. They were concrete fixed docks with water and power. That was it. Not bad but nothing too exciting. We were tucked away at one end of the island with nothing but an old, used up hotel and a golf cart rental / convenience store. We went on-line to look at prices for rooms, they were 33% less expensive than our slip and we brought our own room and maid service! It was a very quiet place and our crew hit the sack prior to 10 PM – we pretended we celebrated New Year’s with Fortaleza, Brazil!

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We rose early to ready for our journey to downtown Fort Myers. We had a 51 miles cruise, and it was a holiday and a Saturday, we were not looking forward to the traffic (that was an understatement!). We also needed to retrace our tracks from the day prior getting back to the ICW from this marina in the shallows. And it was low tide. We couldn’t wait, slack tide wasn’t until afternoon (that’s what we came in on) and we had a long day ahead of us. After talking to a few of the locals, David had the confidence to take us out at low tide. We went slow, we bumped once, and Tasha could see the sandy bottom for about a fourth of the trip out. Worst case, sit in place until the tide rises, but we made it. We are learning so much about tides, moon phases, salt water, and the likes. River boating seems so much easier!

The first part of the trip was smooth sailing, but when we got to the barrier island of Captiva, the traffic and wind began to pick up. By the time we were approaching Sanibel it was full on chaos. Our friend Jacquie indicated it’s called the miserable mile. It was miles and miles of miserable. All the way to north of the Cape Coral Bridge in the Caloosahatchee, hundreds of boats, going too fast, too close together, and making the roughest water there is. We secured Remy in the co-captain seat for the rocky ride in. Once closer to downtown Fort Myers, the water was good, windy, but good.

We got our slip assignment and were going to aft end as usual, starboard tie, at the second dock from the wall. We turned and the first thing we both noticed was there were three boats all along the end wall, and one parallel to the seawall across from where we were going. The second thing we noticed is there was no room to swing the bow to aft in and the angle we needed was nearly impossible. The captain kept his calm and swung the boat not once, but twice within several inches and we mean inches of another’s bow pulpit with the stern right on a piling. He started to back in and as we were near, the dock master yelled, this is going to be too narrow, go to the next dock, (the third one from the wall), what? Did he just tell us to abort and move one over at the last minute?

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Our stern was already between the pilings. Why, yes he did. The captain asked the first mate to repeat it, he was dumfounded. Fenders and lines were on the starboard side and with the wind blowing the captain had mere seconds to alter the course before hitting the pilings, the bow pulpits, the other boats, or the dock. While the first mate scrambled to move fenders and lines to the port side, the captain slid us in. He has skill but this included a lot of luck too. The first mate was lassoing the pier out front (these were those stupid 1/3 finger docks again) and the dock master is hollering he needs this line here and this line there. It took all the restraint Tasha had not to holler back. Once we were tied up, without a scratch on our boat or anyone else’s, we were sure someone was going to come out and tell us they filmed it. It was quite the shit show!

A celebratory beer was in order! We still can’t believe we made that. We were happy to be in port with the winds ticking up this week and a place we can call home for the next two months. Fort Myers is a popular winter destination for loopers, so we have looper friends in the area, family, and a bunch from our home cruising grounds winter here. We would love to meet up with anyone in the Fort Myers area this winter.  It will be nice to met with friends and have activity that doesn’t include docking!

Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year! 

Cheers! D, T & R

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