Florida: Anna Maria Island - Cortez Seafood Market

Day 181

Today started out looking like it would be a ho-hum day in spite of the bright sunshine that surprised us with its appearance. The rain we expected to see when we woke this morning had moved on during the night and left us with a beautiful day. Mazel Tug chose today to move on to their next destination. We said our farewells to them mid-morning and waved as they left port only to see them return less than an hour later.

Mazel Tug Leaving Port

After Clark and I helped them retie their lines, we learned that they heard an odd sound coming from the boat and needed to have it checked out before proceeding on their way. An hour later they pulled out for a second time saying they had a diver look at the prop, and the noise had cleared as a result. They were on their way once more.

Around noon Ben from Jammin Jane called and said that he and his friend Kenny were making a food run to the Cortez Seafood market to buy food for a seafood feast to celebrate Kenny's birthday. Ben invited Clark to come along, and Clark said he would like to go but needed me to come along as he would not have any idea what to buy in a fish market. Since Ben called Clark when he was already on his way over to our marina, Ben pulled up to the dock next to our boat shortly after contacting us.

Ben was driving a 20-foot boat. It seemed we were going to the fish market by water! Ben's dog Crocket came along for the ride and enjoyed a front row seat for a majority of the trip.

Crocket in the front of the boat

Crocket catching the breeze and
enjoying new smells on the bow!

I had no idea where we were going but quite honestly I did not care in the least. Ben kicked the boat up on a high-speed plane as soon as he was out of the "slow speed" zones, and we practically flew across the water. We could see Mazel Tug making their way in the distance, and Ben said he would "buzz" him as we went by on the way to the market. We all waved as we went by, and happily Mazel Tug recognized it was us and madly waved back!

Boating to the Seafood Market with
Kenny and Ben
(Clark took the photo)

We saw a few dolphins as we zipped along. Thus far we have been unable to capture any good pictures of them as they dive below surface in the blink of an eye.

After bouncing across the water, we arrived at the Cortez Seafood Market.

From Anna Maria Island to Cortex Bait and Seafood

Fishing Boats at the Fish Market

We have arrived!

The pelicans know where to hang out to get fresh fish!
Seems like most folks prefer the white pelicans to the dark ones. I like the dark ones.

Clark brought me along because he is lost in a seafood market; however, I am almost no better. Ben knew exactly what he wanted and started placing his order the second he walked in. Surely, the poor man behind the counter who got me as a customer regretted that he did not keep busy in the back a while longer. 

The only fish I saw that I knew I like was Snapper, so I decided to buy that. I said I would take two pieces until he pulled out the first and it weighed almost 2 pounds. Clark said my eyes bugged out of my head as I quickly said, "One will do nicely thank you."

Snapper

Ben bought Stone Crab Claws, so I decided to follow suit and buy some of those as well. I bought four to try since I have never eaten them before.

Stone Crab Claws

The shrimp also looked delicious, so since I was splurging on a seafood feast in a seafood market, I bought large, uncooked shrimp as well. Unfortunately for the man behind the counter, I hemmed and hawed over each purchase - what should I buy? how much should I buy? After some deliberation, I bought one pound of shrimp as an appetizer.

We threw the fresh seafood in the cooler on the boat and continued on our way. Once again I had no idea where we were going. I thought we were heading back to the island, but Clark made some comment which tipped me off that we were heading in the wrong direction to be traveling there. It turned out that Ben had decided to go visit the Snead Island Boat Works where both his original Jammin Jane boat and his father's boat are located. He said he still misses his old boat.

Side trip to Snead Island Boat Works

The 20-foot boat ate up the distances from one spot to another in no time. Although the sun was bright, the air was cool at the speed we were traveling. I pulled out my light fleece I had with me to cut the breeze. Kenny saw me do this and made a comment, "Are you cold?? I'd take off more clothes if I could!" At which point Ben pointed out to Kenny that he was getting red skin from sunburn, but Kenny just laughed and said he was happy to get sun on his holiday / birthday.

The Original Jammin Jane
Waiting for a new owner.

 As we moved around from place to place we saw lots of boats - some large, some small. Some nice and some not so nice. Florida is full of abandoned, derelict boats. We saw a few of those today as well.

Dilapidated Boat at Anchor. Abandoned? Maybe

We left with Ben and Kenny just around noon. When Ben dropped us off at our boat after our afternoon adventure, the clock read 3:15. I could hardly believe that we had been out for over three hours as the time had just flown by. Since neither Clark nor I had applied sunscreen before going out, we both showed signs of too much sun and wind.

When we parted ways, we agreed that we would bring our food over to Jammin Jane's place for the planned cookout somewhere between 5:00 and 5:30. I got to business and marinated my snapper, peeled and made kabobs out of the shrimp, and cooked up some of my fresh vegetables to have side dishes to go with all the seafood. I packed it in a small cooler and asked Clark to carry the cooler on his bike down to Ben's place. As soon as we got to there, Ben instructed Clark on the art of cracking Stone Crab Claws and set Clark to work opening all our crab. It was delicious! I am now a stone crab claws fan!

Ben is an excellent cook, so I handed over my prepped kabobs and snapper, and he did the hard part - the grilling! I had enough skewers for each of the four of us to have the kabob appetizers. Ben did a great job of cooking them so that that veggies and shrimp were both perfectly cooked.

All told, we had multiple appetizers. Ben had purchased some already cooked shrimp as well as all the other food, so in addition to the stone crab claws and my shrimp skewers, we had some shrimp dipped in hot butter appetizers too. It tasted more like lobster than any shrimp I have ever eaten before. Great!

After our appetizers, Ben grilled swordfish steaks for Kenny and himself as well as the snapper for Clark and me. Kenny set the table for outdoor dining, and we sat down to a marvelous dinner of fish, broccoli, and sauteed zucchini and yellow squash.

Snapper and Swordfish on the Grill

Kenny, Ben, and Me at Dinner
(Clark took the picture)

As soon as we arrived and before we ate any of our seafood feast, Clark had suggested that we go out for ice cream after dinner to celebrate Kenny's birthday.  Although we were all full of seafood, we decided that we still needed to make an ice cream run. We all got on our bikes and pedaled over to the Two Scoops ice cream shop for cones.

I found a flavor there that intrigued me called "trashcan". It had so much stuff in the ice cream (snickers, reeses pieces, almond joy, heath bar, fudge, ...) I can't even remember all the ingredients. I asked for a taste, and after the taste I ordered up a "single" cone - a single has two scoops! Every so often I eat a food that is just heavenly and gives me a type of a food high. This was one of those times. I cannot describe in words how good that trashcan ice cream tasted! It was truly sinful, but I cannot in truth say I regret even one lick of that cone!

We biked to the general store after our treat so Kenny could buy some cigarettes and beer. Ben strapped the beer on the back of his bike, and then we biked back to his place to pick up our cooler and my backpack before Clark and I headed back to our boat. With such a full day, I could not believe it was only 8:30 when we got back "home" to the boat. Happily I still had plenty of time to work on my blog.