Boating with Sunset Delight: Sarasota Anchorage near Ringling Causeway Bridge

Sunday 12/3/2017

Depart: Venice Florida Crow's Nest Marina at 11:55

Arrive: Sarasota Florida Anchorage by Ringling Causeway Bridge 2:30

Distance : 16 NM

Today being the one-year anniversary of our third grandchild's birthday, we had one of very important activity to take care of before we left the marina. We had prearranged to FaceTime with our grandchild, Violet, and her parents and sister. Because she is only 1 year old, Violet is not much of a conversationalist, but her sister, Sierra, is.

Violet - the birthday girl
with her "Finding Dory" birthday cake

Violet and "big sis" Sierra sharing a joke

Sierra is 3 years old. Whenever we FaceTime with her, she likes to show us her toys. This can be a very long process. At today's call she pulled out her Woody doll from the movie The Toy Story. Our Wi-Fi connection was far from wonderful and for a while, with Woody "talking", it was hard to have any conversation.

We heard him say things like, "Reach for the sky!" ,"Somebody's poisoned the Waterhole!", and "There's a snake in my boot!" We asked Sierra where does the sound come from. Her father, Jeff, said, "Does the sound come out of his mouth?" Sierra replied after looking at Woody closely, "I don't see a speaker in there." At which point I said, "She's a born engineer!"

As much as we enjoyed family time, we had to check out from the marina at noon, so we concluded our call in preparation of heading out to our next destination. We had a brief amount of time before we had to leave, so Clark suggested we walk out to the beach to have a quick look around.

Humphris Park in Venice, Florida

Dolphin Statue at Park

Venice Inlet -- Looking out towards Gulf

Bird Haven

The beach

Fishing Pier

Loan "Fisherman"

Fishermen aplenty

Although the Gulf of Mexico offered calm waters, we still needed to travel the inland route as the designated inlet for Sarasota is the Venice inlet.

Some sightings we saw along the way ...

We had several bridges on today’s route - some we could fit under, others we could not, and some we were uncertain about. When we arrived at the Stickney Point Bridge, we had a dilemma -- would we fit under or not! The math clearly said no with the height board showing 18’ at “low metal” and an additional 3’ of clearance in the middle of the bridge. 18+3=21’ We need closer to 23’.

Given the numbers, we sat back to wait for the next opening. While we waited, Clark saw a boat requiring 20’ of clearance go under the bridge and, as he watched him go under the bridge, he estimated he had at least a two-foot clearance over him. Hmmm! Would we have enough if we tried? With a 10-minute wait, Clark thought we should have edged up to the bridge to check it out. I said, “Forget it!” We waited. I believe he still regrets not giving it a shot!

We arrived at our anchorage spot mid-afternoon. Clark said the rocking from the boat wakes reminded him of our home anchoring spot at Sandy Hook. Actually, I thought the rocking was perfect for putting me to sleep, so I grabbed a pillow, laid down on the couch, and passed out for the rest of the afternoon.

Sarasota - Ringling Causeway Bridge
(our anchorage spot)

Sarasota - as seen from our anchorage for the night

Due to it being Sunday, this anchorage spot suffered more than a few wakes during the daylight hours but turned out to be a lovely spot to spend the night. No mangroves to be seen, so I had no allergy issues!

Sometimes Clark gives me so many sunset pictures to choose from, it is nearly impossible to decide which to include in this blog. Here are three from tonight!