Dec 27 Punta Gorda to Ft. Myers

Dec 27


Our extended stay in Punta Gorda was a nice break and an enjoyable place to spend the Christmas holiday.  Along with just enjoying the town as a reason for staying extra days, the tides and their timing were another factor. We’ve had very shallow water in the marina due to super low tides with the new moon.  On top of that the low tides were occurring during the day.  By waiting a few extra days it gave us deep enough water during the morning to get out of the marina.   The outgoing tide also provided a positive current as we headed down Charlotte Harbor on the way to our next destination – Ft. Myers.

Punta Gorda has free bikes to use and a great network of  trails

Very early start at first light to catch the tide and give us the full 8 hours cruising time we need.  A bit overcast and occasional light showers as we started but it gave way to a partly sunny, warm and humid day. By the time we rounded the bottom of Charlotte Harbor and passed by Cayo Costa we started seeing the early weekend flotilla.   Much more traffic than we’re used to having.   The smaller boats – pontoons, center consoles and runabouts aren’t an issue other than keeping up with them.   They just buzz around us.  The boating manners of the bigger boats is troubling.   Apparently, they feel no need to conduct a slow pass.  Their big wakes can make for uncomfortable rocking in narrow busy channels with limited room for maneuvering to take the wakes at better angels.  

Local armada heading our way!

Tour boat out on a  dolphin watch  

We continued our way down past Captiva and Sanibel islands checking out locations to anchor out later in the week for New Years.  Then turned to port and headed up the Caloosahatchee River passing Cape Coral and ultimately finding Legacy Harbor Marina in downtown Ft. Myers.  

Approaching Ft. Myers

 Coming up the Caloosahatchee was interesting.  Seemed like everyone who owned a boat had loaded it up with family and friends and was out traveling down the main channel.  Some interesting people watching from our high perch on the flybridge.  Several slow speed manatee zones that apparently are patrolled and enforced regularly as everyone was very respectful of the zones.  Still didn’t see any manatees but did run into pods of dolphins several times during the trip.  Always fun to see them surfacing.

Downtown Ft Myers  "City of Palms"

We’re currently  at Legacy Harbor for the weekend and trying to work on getting a slip for the month here.  We've got one lined up at the municipal marina but this one is a bit nicer and has several loopers already in residence.

Journey for Dec 27

Dec 25 Christmas in Punta Gorda

Dec 25


Merry Christmas from  Punta Gorda!!  At one point we only had reservations to stay here 3 days and were going to go anchor out for Christmas.  Then thought better of it.  The marina could accommodate us and we’re enjoying the town.  Plus, weather continues to be a bit unsettled with winds.

Unsettled weather continues

The area was initially founded by Juan Ponce De Leon during one of his subsequent explorations of Florida. After making landfall in St. Augustine he traveled most of the way around  Florida it in search of gold ultimately making landfall here.  He got into a skirmish with the local Indians and was shot with a poison tipped arrow which ultimately lead to his death.

Ponce De Leon statue at one of the waterfront park

The town never really was much of anything but a fishing village until the railroad extended their line down here in the late 1800’s.    Then it was a seasonal winter haven going through many of the  land boom and bust times before  it was developed in the 1950’s by digging out a series of  canals  in neighborhoods focused on drawing retirees.   So there’s a nice mix of a “historic” neighborhood closer to town and newer neighborhoods a bit further out.  The downtown area  was pretty heavily  damaged by Hurricane Charley back in 2003 so much of it is newer shops and buildings.

Pickelball courts in waterfront park - a serious sport down here

Brick paved street in historic district 

We had a rental car for 2 days and went driving around here and Port Charlotte across the bay.   We like Punta Gorda better.    Lots of open parkland on the waterfront with a good harborwalk stretching  for several miles north and south of town.   We’re staying at the municipal marina downtown  but there’s another marina  called Fisherman’s Village  about a mile south of us.   Part of a development with shops, restaurants and condo’s.   They decorate the heck out of it for Christmas. Supposedly well over a million lights. 

They also created a number of displays for picture taking.  We were walking around there Christmas eve with a big crowd  who were all taking pictures of each other. Here’s two of ours.

Christmas in the big town

The Nutcrackers keeping  watch over us

Funny story.  We decided to go to “midnight mass” at the local church.  It started at 9:15 with a very nice choral presentation of Christmas songs.  Mass started at 10 over by 11.   Priest explained midnight was just  too late for all the old folks  (and loopers too)!!

Dec 21 Cayo Costa to Punta Gorda

Dec 21


Winter Solstice!!  Finally we’ll start getting days with more sunlight. I’m OK with the sun coming up late as it means a little extra sleep but that sun setting at 5:30 and being pitch dark by 7 PM makes for  early bed times on the boat where there’s just not much to do in the dark.

Goodbye Mr. Sunshine

It’s really been a fairly uneventful couple of days.  We stayed anchored at Cayo Costa for several days waiting out some windy weather.  We nestled as close as we dared to shore when dropping the anchor in anticipation of strong northerly winds going to northeast winds.    We got some protection from the mangrove barrier but with 30+mph winds for a day and a half we still swung around a bit, bounced around a bit, and stretched the anchor line so tight it would sing like a guitar string.  But that sweet Rocna anchor held like a champ through it all.   Unfortunately, because it was blowing so hard we never were able to drop the dingy or kayaks and go exploring around this state park island.  We may head back there for a few days when a better weather window settles in as it’s a really beautiful natural setting.

Wind and waves entering Punta Gorda harbor

Weather here is a bit more unsettled than I expected.  Wind seems to change direction every day, it blows stronger than I expected, and now we’re dealing with a low pressure system over the gulf that’s creating a rain situation.   So, we pulled up anchor and after 3 days headed up Charlotte Harbor to Punta Gorda.  It’s not a usual looper stop since it’s about 15 miles out of the way but we figured it was another town worth exploring while we were down here.   Port Charlotte is across the river and we picked up a rental car to explore the area and do some reprovisioning.

Journey for Dec 21

Dec 17 Venice to Cayo Costa Anchorage

Dec 17


We had a good stay in Venice.   Nice town. Lots of shops. Good restaurants. Pretty beach with lots of public access.  Diverse farmers market on Sat. morning.  Everything from produce, to baked goods, to meats and seafoods, to the usual assortment of vendors with soaps, textiles, jewelry, etc.   We picked up a couple of perfectly ripe and very delicious mangos.


Enterprise has a rental site in town so easy pickup and drop off of a car.   We drove up to Sarasota for 2 days.   Day one was a trip to The Ringling Museum.  The property encompasses 3 museums.   The Ringling Circus Museum, the Ringling Art Museum and the historic Ringling House.  

Front of Ringling House

Rear of house - faces directly onto Sarasota Bay

Ringling Art Museum - 2 long wings

 We only had time to explore the circus and art museums and take a walk around the outside of the house. John Ringling bought property in Sarasota for a winter home and had the house built in 1929. He and his wife Mable made many trips to Europe visiting historic chalets and art museums and searching out new acts for the circus.  During these trips he gained an appreciation and started collecting artworks from the masters.  Much of his art was from the Renaissance period.  He needed a place to display it so built a museum on his property. 

Collection of small paintings

Interesting artwork in the new Asian wing

Artist  made pictures of the Chinese zodiac animals

From LEGO's

After just 3 years of using the house Mable passed away and it wasn’t used again.  After John’s death in 1936 his will specified the house and museum were to be given to the state.  Both museums were fascinating but so different it was mindboggling and by the time we were done the only logical solution was a trip to one of Sarasota’s craft breweries – Jdubs - for a flight of varied and quite tasty beers.  Monday (our 8 month looperversary)  we took it a bit easier with a morning trip to the Classic Car Museum.  Quite a few exotics,  a number of Porsche’s including several 356’s ,  and a few historic cars like the Rolls Royce John Ringling used  for his circus car – meaning it was loaded on and off  the circus train at each town visited for his personal use.  Lunch at Rosemary’s – a nice upscale restaurant in Sarasota followed by a provisioning trip to Publix once we got back to the boat.

A pair of Pre A 356's

John Ringling's "Circus" Rolls Royce

1975 RHD Mazda Cosmo  with Wankel rotary engine

Tuesday had us dropping the lines and moving south to an anchorage for a few days.  It just seemed like a brutal day  of boating/ The sun is hanging low in the sky and we were headed into it all day, The glare off the water all day was  causing eye fatigue.

Glare off the water hindered us all day

So much easier on the eyes looking behind us

All our cruising guides reported Cayo Costa Island just past Boca Grande Inlet and the entrance to Charlotte Harbor as having several good anchorages. The island is a state park with a dingy dock and trails across the island to the gulf beaches.  There is one small well protected hurricane hole anchorage at the southern end of the island we tried entering  at low tide but the water got too shallow and we had to turn around.  Barely enough room in the small channel  to spin the boat. Definitely touched bottom but thankfully  just soft sand so we were able to continue working our way around and head for one of the anchorages on the north end. 

The chartplotter  captures our unsuccessful attempt (the yellow line) to get into the hurricane hole.

Red area 5-6', orange 6-7', green 7-8', all the blue areas are under 5'

 Not quite as protected and we had some weather overnight with rain and wind.  A strong cold front is passing through over the next few days with cooler weather, overcast conditions and  a forecast for sustained 30mph winds starting tonight so we’ll put out a little extra anchor line and hunker down and just relax.  

Sunset at anchor

Journey for Dec 17

Dec 13 Longboat Key to Venice

Dec 13


Longboat Key Club was an enjoyable stop for us.  Mostly because we got to reconnect with our buddy boat friends Russ and Jax from Cat and Dogs. They started their great loop adventure from here last Feb.  and celebrated the achievement of “crossing their wake” and changing from the “in process” white AGLCA burgee to raising the “completed” gold AGLCA burgee. Raising the gold is a special occasion for loopers and we were honored to be there.

Russ and Jax and "The Dogs" raise the Gold flag!!

We first crossed paths with them on our first looper day out of Charleston.  We were sitting on a sandbar waiting for the tide to turn (read about it on the April 16 blog) and they were kind enough to at least radio us and make sure we were OK.   We ran into them at marinas and anchorages throughout the Carolinas and became quick friends and wound up traveling together for most of the next 6-7 months.  So many good memories together.  They have enjoyed the cruising lifestyle so much they are going to continue in the spring.  In the meantime, they purchased a newer Endeaver power catamaran with a different layout and a pilothouse.  Very sweet!!  We helped them get a start at moving some of their belongings onto the new boat. Our plans are to get together again for Christmas in Naples.  Hopefully it will be the maiden voyage with their new boat.

Some very nice big boats in the marina at Longboat key.

Today it was time for us to continue  on our loop.  So with Russ and Jax there to release our lines  we headed out for our next destination – Venice,FL.    Our travel days have been short since departing Tarpon Springs.   Typically only a few hours and around 25 miles.  We’re in no hurry  which was good since we had to pass through a fair number of "Slow Speed" and "Minimal Wake"  manatee zones.  Also had to get 2 of the 4 bridges we passed to open up for  us but at least they were "Open on Demand" and required no long waiting.

Going through the  last swing bridge left  in Sarasota county

This bascule bridge was just a few feet too low for us to get under.

Most of the day was cruising behind the barrier islands so plenty of mangrove islands and big expensive houses. We're trying to  explore the Gulf coast towns since we don't know much about this area. We can leave at 9AM and be docking around noon.   That gives us time to go exploring for a few hours before it gets dark.  

The house on the point of land on the right caught our attention.

It's surrounded by water on 3 sides.  Martha was checking prices on  Realtor.com  and thought she saw it was  for sale at just $2.6 million.   That wound up being the price for the LOT next to it. 

 After settling in at Fisherman’s Wharf Marina and a quick lunch at the on site Dockside Grill we walked over the bridge to downtown.   Very cute town.  Somewhat upscale, somewhat touristy.  Some good restaurants we’ll need to try.  Surprisingly, no local brewery nearby.  Interesting town history. Back in 1925 during the  Florida land boom the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) bought 30,000 acres of land and actively  laid out a new town as a retirement community for it’s members.   Between the land boom going bust and the great depression the town fell on hard times.   It got a boost in 1932 when the Kentucky Military Institute began using the town as a winter school for it’s cadets.  Then during WWII an air base was built outside town training combat  fighter pilots. In 1960 the Ringling Bros. Circus  chose Venice as their winter headquarters.  Each of these seemed to come at just the right time to keep the town alive and moving forward.  Today it’s a snowbird favorite location with a completely revitalized mainstreet in a semi Italian Renassance style and it’s listed as a Top 10 Happiest Seaside Towns by Coastal Magazine.

Palm lined median decorated for Christmas in Venice.

They also have direct access to the gulf coast  with a well protected inlet and without any barrier islands.  It's known as the “Shark Tooth Capital of the World” for the fossilized sharks teeth you can find on the beaches..

The tooth on the far left fills up the palm of your hand!!

We’re hanging around here a few days.  We’ll explore the town a bit more and  use it as a base  for traveling up to Sarasota to check out that area.  

Journey for Dec 13

Dec 10 Bradenton to Longboat Key Club

Dec 10


Our plan all along was to just spend one day in Bradenton.  So we were disappointed (but not surprised) that yesterday being a Monday the local natural history museum in town was closed.   We needed to get to Longboat Key  today for a dinner engagement but it was only a 3 hour cruise so we talked to the marina staff who agreed we could do a late departure giving us time to visit the museum for a few hours in the morning.  It’s a nice newer building down by the waterfront that goes through the natural and cultural history of the south Florida area. It also includes a planetarium but the primary draw for us was the Manatee rehabilitation display.  They had 2 manatees in the display tank who are getting close to being released back in the wild but were receiving 2 new ones later that day.  Slow moving vegetarian critters that unfortunately get struck fairly regularly by boaters.

We shared the museum with 3 bus loads of elementary students

Feeding time - lots of lettuce!

   

After touring what we could in the museum we headed back to the boat for a noon departure.  Pretty good mostly sunny day with warm temperatures but heavy humidity.  Check our map below and you’ll see weird tracks as we stay in the deep water channels.  Winds picked up pushing 15mph creating a small chop on the open and shallow Sarasota Bay portions of the trip.  Another set of bascule bridges to pass through but again we fit under them all with a few feet to spare so no need to wait for a lift.  With the wind still blowing strong I was getting a little concerned about docking once we arrived at Longboat Key Club Mooring. We were given our slip assignment and told to stern in for a starboard tie.  This can be tricky if strong wind is blowing perpendicular to our boat where it can push us off course faster than the bow thruster can push us where we want to go.  We got lucky.  Our assigned slip was in a protected section of the marina where the lighter winds were blowing on our stern.  So, easy in.   We were greeted at the dock by our friends Russ and Jax from Cat and Dogs and made arrangements for a celebratory dinner in honor of their completing the great loop and crossing their wake. Delicious dinner in Sarasota  at Columbia’s – a Cuban restaurant started in Ybor City  back in 1905.   Nice upscale resort marina.  We’ll stay here a few days to check out Sarasota before moving down to Venice.

Journey for Dec 10.

Dec 9 Gulfport to Bradenton

Dec 9


We enjoyed our stay in Gulfport. The marina was safe and secure.  The town was quaint and walkable.   Cute shops in their “downtown” which is just one street that’s 4 blocks long.  We walked around during the day marveling at the eclectic collection of "Old Florida" small single story homes and returned to town in the evening for a nice Italian dinner at Pia’s.   Awesome Osso Buco.  

Really liked this little waterfront home but would  hate to see the price tag

 Sunday we took a Lyft the 5 miles over to St. Petersburg to tour “The Dali”.  It’s a museum dedicated to the works of Salvador Dali and houses over 2100 items – the largest collection of Dali works outside of Europe.   The museum building itself was finished in 2011 and is listed as “one of the 100 architectural works to see before you die”. 

The "enigma" is a glass structure wrapping around  the building

Free standing 50 foot spiral staircase leading to exhibit on 3rd floor

Both the building and his artwork are impressive.   I honestly knew nothing about Dali but this museum is listed as a must see while in St. Pete so we went.   His art and styles spanned a wide range of styles. A nice thing they do is provide an audio guide for some of the major paintings.  You definitely appreciate his art and his life much more after listening to the explanations.

A selfie with an interactive electronic Dali as we were leaving

After all that edumacation my head hurt and my stomach was growling so the next logical stop was Oak and Stone for a wood fired pizza and a cool one.  Unique concept.  You get a digitized wristband.  Tap the symbol on the beer plaque you want to try with the wristband and it activates the tap. Pour however much you want and it gets electronically registered.  I was like a kid with a quarter in a penny candy store!!

Try one or try them all!!

May need this after all those brew samples

Today we took a short 3 hour cruise across Tampa Bay and up the Manatee River to Bradenton.  It’s a few miles out of the way off the GICW but we wanted to check out the town.  Several big marinas with some nice boats.  Downtown area abuts the water with a nice Riverwalk promenade.  Downtown has a few cafes, bars and restaurants.  No real shops per se. It’s the county seat so lots of admin buildings and  law offices along with some apartments , hotels, and condos.  

Mix of old and new - these classic old  Florida apartments date from 1927

Across street from this new but appealing  commercial building

 Motorworks Brewing (love their name and logo) is several blocks off the water in an old Hudson car dealership building. Nice diverse mix of beers. We enjoyed a flight in their outdoor courtyard sitting beneath a 150 year old live oak tree draped in Spanish moss.  Very enjoyable sitting outside in shorts and a t-shirt drinking beer in 78 degree sunny weather on Dec. 9^th.  Wish you were here.

Another perfect sunset to end the day

Journey for Dec 9