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