Boating with Sunset Delight: Venice, FL

Saturday 12/2/2017

Depart: Cayo Costa Anchorage at 9:40

Arrive: Venice Crow's Nest Marina at 1:20

Distance: 27 nm

A week ago or so I contacted my college roommate, Ginny, and arranged to visit her in Venice, Florida where she has a winter home. For a change of pace, Clark opted to take a break from watching depths and pilot the boat on the Gulf of Mexico instead of using an inside channel.

Gasparilla Island State Park, Florida
last view before heading out into the Gulf for trip to Venice

We headed out into the Gulf after leaving Cayo Costa and found that instead of watching our deaths, we were watching for crab pots. Once again we were back to, "Is that a crab trap?" "No, it's a seagull." "Oh, okay then." Fortunately, the Gulf Waters were calm and the weather beautiful. We had no real difficulty spotting the crab traps and enjoyed our trip to Venice, Florida.

View of Venice, FL from the Gulf of Mexico

Since it was such a nice day, the Venice Inlet had a lot of activity. We could see people on the beach, boats entering and leaving the inlet, and fishermen on the wharf.

Entering Venice Inlet from Gulf of Mexico

Parasailing Boat on the Gulf of Mexico

Fun at the Beach
(The red umbrella in the picture looked like a red marker from a distance.
Navigating to the left of this one would have been a disaster.)

Fishing on the Wharf

When we visited Venice two years ago, we stayed at the Fisherman's Wharf Marina. This time we opted to stay at The Crow's Nest Marina.

Crow's Nest Marina in Venice, Florida

When we arrived at the marina, we found it to be crazy busy with boats and people everywhere. The dock hands had nowhere to put us. Finally, someone told us to tie up temporarily by the fuel dock as our place for the night was currently occupied by a boater who had come in for lunch. When we asked how long they thought we would sit there waiting, they replied, "Oh not too long, I expect, they've been here forever already!"

As we waited, we found out talking to a dock hand that the reason the marina was so busy was because the Christmas Boat Parade, "The Parade of lights", would pass right by the marina tonight. People have had reservations at the restaurant for weeks. As other dock hands noticed where we had docked, they grumbled loudly that we could not stay there as we blocked the view of the parade!

After waiting a while, we were fortunate to learn that a 100-foot yacht had cancelled their reservation, and we could take the place that was supposed to be occupied by them. While waiting, Clark had been directed to put our boat on the inside of the fuel dock, which was a very tight fit for leaving. I watch the bow while a dock hand watched the stern to make sure that we had room to clear as Clark pulled out.

About two hours after we docked, the folks on the "lunch boat" finally returned to their boat and pulled away. Thank goodness we did not end up having to wait for them to return before we could get settled in. We had big plans for the rest of the day!

We decided that instead of going out to dinner with Ginny and her husband, Matt, we should have dinner on the boat and have a front row seat for the parade. That meant I had some cooking to do, and we both wanted to get a shower before our dinner guests arrived. We decided to take turns on the showers up at the marina, so we wouldn't have to close up the boat to get hot. Clark went first, and I thought he would never come back. Then when he did finally come back, he grabbed the camera and left again to go try to get the marina's parrot to say hello.

Blue-Front Amazon Parrot named Pepe
at Crow's Nest Marina

Clark made several video recordings of the parrot, but of course Pepe only said, "Hello!" whenever Clark was not recording.

As the sun set and the moon rose, we prepared for our dinner guests by moving our table to the back deck for some outdoor dining.

Table is set on our back deck
ready for our friends and an alfresco dinner

Along the parade route, a number of small boats, some of them highly decorated, anchored in preparation of the show to come.

Boats anchored under full moon at twilight
in preparation of the Parade of Lights

Timing worked out well because just as we finished our moonlit spaghetti dinner, the Parade of Lights began. Loud police boat sirens gave us our first hint that the parade had started. Although difficult to get clear pictures on a rocking boat at night, Clark attempted to capture some of the show. Here are only a few of the many, many boats that we saw go right by our boat.

Many had people on board waving and yelling,
"Merry Christmas!!"

Some small ones ...

and not-so-small ones!

Hey, where's the boat behind those ornaments??

Of course, since this is a Boy Scouts' float,
it was my favorite!
(We have 3 Eagle Scouts in the family - Clark, Jeff, and Chris)

Last to appear ... the decorated sailboats
Mickey and Minnie adorned this one
entered by SailVenice.com

Here's the same sailboat taken earlier in the day

Our plans for the night included a visit to Ginny and Matt's house to watch the Ohio State game and have some dessert that she had prepared. After the parade concluded, we walked a fair distance to their car and then drove to their house. Timing was good as we arrived just before the game started.

Ginny and Matt are serious Ohio State fans, and this critical game could not be missed. Happily the game ended with an Ohio State win. Watching the game to conclusion, however, made for a long day as we did not get back to the boat until after midnight. Thankfully, the game did not go into overtime, as it could have done , had Wisconsin made a last-minute touchdown.

Ginny, Evelyn, and Clark

As late as it was, Matt accommodated Clark on the drive home by pulling over to one side and stopping, so Clark could get out and take a picture of the lights on the city street. Venice decorated for Christmas is very pretty indeed.