Friends and fellow sailors, Antony and Kathryn setout last week for an 8 day voyage down the West Coast of Florida on their 30′ Catalina, Bliss. From Tampa Bay to Port Charlotte, they experienced strong winds, sunny days, pleasant marinas and quiet anchorages. Here’s their story with pictures as told by Antony:
We just got back from our first real cruise on Bliss and had a great time. 8 nights on the boat, cold and windy to warm and sunny.
We started out last Saturday, April 4 at Egmont Key at a raft up with the Sailmonster.com gang celebrating the 40th birthday of our good friend Rich. Sunday morning we broke out of the raft and headed South to Venice. Unfortunately the wind was blowing directly out of the south, so we bailed out of the Gulf and motored down the ICW. We stopped to see our friends Dede and Rick in Sarasota and got ice. Kathryn cooked up some Jambalaya under way and we pulled in to Venice shortly after 8:00. The weather the next day was forecast to turn nasty as a cold front pushed through so we took our time in Venice Monday morning, then motored down to the Palm Island marina for a relaxing drink in the hot tub then watched UNC win the NCAA national basketball title at the bar. It was a late night. There were shots of Patron involved.
The next morning we regained consciousness and took off south with 30 knots of wind out of the North. We got to sail down the ICW with nothing more than half the jib pulled out. I had a blast! Tuesday afternoon we pulled into the beautiful little marina at Cabbage Key. This place oozes history and whole books have been written about it, so I won’t bore you here. We went for a nice long walk on the island and had a drink at the bar that allegedly has $70,000 in dollar bills on the wall, then went back to the boat to cook up some steaks. After dinner Kathryn realized that the folks on the boat next to us were watching American Idol on their TV and off she went with a bottle of wine.
Wednesday morning we packed up and said goodbye to Cabbage Key, but we’ll be back! We motored up to a beautiful anchorage called Pelican Bay for lunch. This is another place we want to go back to for several days and explore a little. Beautiful water, shining white beaches, and not a building in sight. We had a nice breeze during lunch so I was excited to get out into Charlotte Harbor and do some sailing up to Boca Grande. Of course as soon as we got the sails out the wind died. So we motored up to the marina at Boca Grande and tied up next to a 100+ foot yacht and behind a 70 footer. There went whatever was left of the breeze, but we got to use the new air conditioning! We went for a lovely walk into town, did some window shopping, and bought a nice Snapper fillet to grill on the boat. We met a very nice couple that night who also had a Maltese on board with them, so they invited us over for drinks and sea tales on their 49 foot motor yacht. We now know what boat we want if we win the lottery! Turns out he was also a pilot and had owned a Mooney and an Aerostar, so you can imagine how the evening went.
Thursday morning brought blue skies and 15-20 knots out of the south so we headed out into the Gulf for a broad reach up to Venice. There is a small channel right along the beach outside of Boca Grande pass that cuts almost two hours out of a trip north compared to going all the way out the channel. It was a wild ride and a little scary being in 10 feet of water with four foot waves, but we made it and settled in to a long day of great sailing. I put out a fishing line and several hours later heard a satisfying Ziinnngg! as my line went spooling out. For once it wasn’t a crab trap, I caught a nice little 14 inch Spanish Mackerel; my first fish! Much mayhem ensued as Kathryn got the net and a bucket, then did a masterful job filleting him. After tying up to the familiar pier at Crows Nest (this was now our third stop there) we took showers and went for a walk over to the Venice Yacht Club and had drinks and appetizers at the outside Tiki bar. After going back to the boat to check on Sailor we had a great dinner at Crows Nest. After dinner we went downstairs to the bar to listen to some live music and ran into the two characters that were on the trawler docked in front of us: Stan and Sparky. They invited us, along with a lady friend they had just met at the bar, back to their boat for a night cap. Those two and the rest of the evening are a story in themselves, but we’ll leave that alone…
Friday was another day of sailing up the gulf to Longboat key. We anchored at a small anchorage near two water front restaurants. That night Kathryn cooked up the mackerel. We ran into two cruising boats from Davis Island who told us that a big group was getting together Saturday night at Desoto Point on the Manatee River. We were originally planning on heading home Saturday, but we were having too much fun and figured another night at anchor would be nice. About 20 people rendezvoused on the beach at 6:30 Saturday evening for happy hour. We saw some old friends and met a bunch of new ones!
Easter morning we woke up looking at a huge cross erected on the bank as a memorial to Hernando Desoto and his men. There was supposed to be a service on the beach but it never materialized. we drank our coffee and watched the dolphins and manatee feed. We then packed up and set sail across the mouth of Tampa Bay, passing by Egmont Key where we had started our adventure the week before. We pulled into our slip in Gulfport early afternoon, unpacked and cleaned up the boat, then went home. We had a great time on the boat, but it was sure nice sleeping in our big bed that wasn’t moving Sunday night.
Kathryn, Sailor, and I had a great time. The boat performed flawlessly and drew admiration and compliments everywhere we went. We can’t wait to do it again!
Now that you’ve read through my novelette you can see the interesting part, the pictures from the trip, online at:
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Great story with all our favorite spots! It was nice to get acquainted at Egmot and I’m envious of your extended run down the coast which we’ve done numerous times. What wonderful cruising grounds we have right in our back yard. Sounds like the wind was in your favor for most of the trip too. Kelli and I have also enjoyed the Palm Island Marina hot tub and restaurant(it was a Leverocks when we were there). Nice folks.
I’d also highly recommend the next leg south from Cayo Costa/Cabbage key which would include the Tween Water Inn on N captiva and further S to Matanzas Pass where the mooring field is nicely done and Ft Myers beach is an easy walk with many watering holes. It’s a nice jumping off point to the keys/tortugas from there……but thats another run.
Aloha, Mike & Kelli
Thanks for the info Bonafide. I’m kind of planning something for the fall. I’ve got to remember the Matanzas Pass mooring field.