December in Florida

We noodled up the coast of Florida for the month of December. Our northern most destination was Sarasota.  First stop was Cayo Costa State Park. This park is a boat access only park. We loved the anchorage in Pelican Bay. It's a tricky entrance with shallow water where we definitely had to wiggle back into deeper water after touching bottom! Once in the anchorage we fell in love. Weather has been chilly requiring us to run the heat in our cabin overnight. Waking up to 40’s in the salon is brisk! Eddie worked on boat projects, readying the boat for fuel polishing by cutting holes in the floor to access the tops of the fuel tanks while I took advantage of the cold weather to cook. 

Cayo Costa, originally La Costa was, in the late 1800s, a quarantine station where ships from foreign ports needed to quarantine offshore for 15 days after which the doctor would board looking for symptoms of Malaria, TB, and Yellow Fever. Walking the park there is a Quarantine trail and, for those not so fortunate, a Cemetery trail. We did have warmer weather and were able to take our bikes to shore and bike to the beach. Eddie had replaced the chain on his bike and on its maiden voyage the rear derailleur fell off shortly into the ride, he says oops should have tightened something better. Fortunately a ranger in a 4 wheeler had some pliers and a screwdriver so we were back in gear in a couple minutes. Ahh the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. 

We got up early to catch what was left of the high tide to help our exit from Pelican Bay. Departed on a chilly, breezy morning wearing multiple layers! At 0700 we were pulling anchor and headed out and grateful for no depth drama, had 6-7’ depth until making our final turn by the speed sign where we saw 5.5’ for a few seconds. Gail isn’t happy when we see under 10’ but there is a lot of “skinny” water around here. A few hours later we were dealing with skinny water coming into our slip in Laishley Park Municipal Marina, Punta Gorda, a city marina next to a nice park on the wrong side of the bridge cause nobody understands why they put a marina where boats need to fit under a 45’ fixed bridge and often barely 5’ depth. We were on the bottom as we entered the slip and they said oh the north winds blow the water out and we should start motors and wiggle around in slip if it feels like we’re stuck. 

We pulled into the marina and a juried art show was in progress in the park. It turned out to be kind of boring but it felt good to be out and about walking. Everyone had masks on which was great to see. On a tip from the harbor master we went for a late lunch at a local Tex Mex restaurant and walked a few blocks in Punta Gorda. PG is a quaint town and everyone was super friendly. It was in full swing for Christmas. 

Of course Christmas may have been in full swing in PG but Chanukah was in full swing aboard Seaquel!

Our slip was adjacent to a covered pavilion from the park. We saw personal training, dog training, Zumba, a DJ party, boxing and other frequent activities in the pavilion. There is a Harbor Walk that follows the water along a series of parks, very nice and lots of folks walking and biking everyday. I loved people watching! The city loans bikes for free which we took full advantage of. We biked around and out of the downtown district to the local Publix, tied the grocery bags to the handle bars and some in our baskets and pedaled back to the boat. 

The reason we were in a marina was to have the fuel polished. Finally! After picking up bad fuel in Great Harbor in the Berry Islands last winter we have been struggling ever since. While Eddie worked with the fuel polisher I walked the Harbor trail and other wise kept myself busy! After two days, fuel was all cleaned. We visited a lovely PG Farmers market and departed by 11 that day. 

My guy hard at work!

Our trip north included a stop at the Gasparilla marina for fuel after which we continued north to Lemon Bay for an overnight anchorage. 

We had a 4 hour cruise to Sarasota with intent of anchoring in a basin across from Sarasota Yacht Club on Bird Key.  Looked like we were in good position to enter the basin and avoid the shallow hump, depth sounder showed 7.4’ when we hit bottom and stuck hard enough that we couldn’t wiggle back out. Dropped dinghy but pulling and pushing did nothing and Eddie dropping a 25lb anchor off dinghy then pulling from on boat also got nowhere. Instead of waiting til tide came up a foot and maybe floating off I convinced Eddie to call Towboat US to unground Seaquel. The towboat capt arrived 45 min later and showed we had 10’ depth on starboard side and 3’ on port side. Our keel was sitting on the ledge and our depth sounder on starboard side was reading the deeper water. He was sure it was gonna be easy but couldn’t budge us when attached to bow. Eddie convinced him to pull us from stern even though he was sure it wouldn’t work and kept saying something always breaks when we pull from the stern. Fortunately it did the trick and he guided us into the deep, 12’ of water in the basin that was surrounded by a dozen very nice homes. Sometimes you watch the show. Sometimes you are the show. We were the show that day!

The next day we moved to the Sarasota mooring field at Marina Jacks. We were all setup to catch the mooring ball but still took 4 attempts and some frustrating moments between the crew.  After we were settled and dropped Zoom another trawler came in at the next mooring ball and since he was single handing and was struggling to catch the ball Eddie jumped into Zoom and went to help him. Turned out to be a guy from the trawler forum whom Eddie had communicated with in the past.  We were planning on staying in the mooring field for a couple weeks to make it easier to spend time with our friends Wayne and Amy. I had made a 2 week reservation by phone but upon arrival nobody knew about anything other than one week and we were told that’s all that was available. Oh well, we’d have to move to an anchorage or move on. 

Meanwhile, it turned out to be a great location for spending time with Wayne & Amy. We could dinghy in to Marina Jacks, there was a safe place to leave Zoom, it was about 10-15 minutes from Wayne & Amy and walkable to restaurants, a bakery for my Cookie Monster, coffee shops and Whole Foods.  There were several marina showers with endless long hot showers! 

Wayne & Amy were so gracious about picking us up and including us in daily plans. They are definitely one of our closest couple friends, no subject off limits and so easy to be with. We enjoyed coffee spots, lunch at St. Armand’s Circle, an amazing, outdoor Peruvian restaurant dinner, hunting for sharks teeth at Venice beach, the Farmers Market, the Christmas light tour with Dad Wayne, an afternoon on Siesta Key and hanging out on their beach. I was very sad to say goodbye and we hope that they will come visit us south for a couple of nights. Sadly, I didn’t take a single picture of us - too busy enjoying each other!

Our shark’s teeth and of course a couple of lonely pieces of sea glass. 

From our Christmas lights tour! And my fav Christmas carol. 

Sometime in there Eddie’s friend Eric O. came to stay with us for two nights. We laughed a lot and were grateful for Eric’s willingness to tour Longboat anchorages by land. We could find decent anchorages but no decent shore access or if there was any access it didn’t seem safe for Zoom.  BTW, this coffee from a local roaster was delicious!

Eddie’s back started acting up and fortunately before leaving the mooring field we checked in with Marina Jacks who said we could stay 5 more days. Sweet! No need for an anchorage, no more worries about where we would access shore or Zoom being safe  and Eddie could rest his back. CBD lotion, vitamin I and Tylenol seemed to help some. Most important seemed to be rest. 

From around Sarasota.

Sunrise in the mooring field

This Christmas tree is lights hung from a HUGE davit on the back of a large yacht at the marina. The boat, Melia is 110 feet, built in 1991. I researched it online and the crane has a 5 ton capacity and was originally installed to launch a maul seaplane! After the plane crashed twice, the captain got rid of it and the davit is now used to launch a 33’ center console. She also carries an oversized rib with twin engines.

Meanwhile, back on Zoom at the dinghy dock, we have a new friend!

The afternoon light in Sarasota. 

Sarasota is an art town, home to the Ringling College of Art & Design and there was art everywhere!

A special machine made the design. Pretty coffee, not the best tasting though!

Unconditional Surrender by Seward Johnson, a recreation of this photo from Times Square, V-J Day, 1945. Located in downtown Sarasota. 

Chabad of Sarasota! So many years I lit that Menorah on the campus of the JCC! 

Back south we cruised, back thru the 8 bridges to an overnight on Lemon Bay before returning to Cayo Costa. After almost 2 weeks in downtown Sarasota we decided we wanted to spend New Years in nature. Ahhhhh. I felt like we both immediately decompressed! We departed Lemon Bay in time to hit 1’ up high tide entering Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa.  Two bridges today and didn’t need a lift for either, still a bit nerve wracking when there’s less than a few feet above. 

Woohooo, didn’t touch bottom entering Pelican Bay. We had no sooner anchored when a couple in a dinghy came by to ask if we bought our boat from Lynn and Larry. Really? They recognized the boat name and have a summer place in Canada and know Lynn and Larry from their Canadian marina. 

From this:

To this:

Under the heading of you can’t make this shit up. Here comes a large Cheoy Lee trawler into the anchorage. They anchor in front of us and I holler to Eddie - that’s the boat from Amy & Wayne’s neighbor’s dock on the Magothy! Discipleship! Eddie texts Wayne and confirms it. The next day we waved them over when they were returning to their boat by dinghy and introduced ourselves and confirmed they were the friends of “the plant lady” next door to our friends. We now have another boat friend couple, Tom and Pat, a lovely, deeply religious couple in their early 70s. Their boat must be 60’ but downside is a 6’ draft. Eddie is jealous of their 200 gallon holding tank. Our holding tank is 36 gallons! We traded boat stories, having an autistic grandchild stories, and photos. Here is one they took of us. 

And here is one I took of them

And so the weird year of 2020 ended with a quiet night aboard Seaquel. We grilled steaks for dinner, laughed as the cruisers got rowdy at 9pm - cruisers midnight and made it until about 11pm. We have tons to be grateful for. First and foremost a marriage beyond both of our dreams, that we are bff’s, that our family is healthy and that we get to live aboard Seaquel, following our dreams.  

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2021. May you all follow your dreams.