2018: Sarasota to Cape Haze Anchorage FL

12/2/2018
No travel.

During the night, when the wind blew particularly hard, the boat rocked enough to disturb my sleep but not enough to cause me any concerns. In fact I rather enjoyed the sensation of being rocked like a baby in a cradle. It quickly lulled me back to sleep.

This morning when I asked Clark where he planned for tonight’s stay. He offered up the anchorage at Cayo Costa as a choice, but then added, “… or we can just stay here where we have WiFi.” By unspoken agreement, we both rolled over and went back to sleep.

Friday night, Steven Colbert had Michelle Obama on The Late Show to promote her book Becoming. I decided to order it for my Kindle. Staying here for the day gave me a chance to dive into her book. I am loving it and finding it hard to put down. I took time away from the book long enough to do my Blog update and then went right back to it.  

I did manage to put it down to make dinner and then watch the Garth Brooks special on television instead of our regular CBS, Sunday-night lineup.

12/3/2018
Depart: Sarasota Anchorage 12:00
Arrive: Cape Haze Anchorage 4:00
Distance: 29 NM

When I got up this morning, the sky was slightly overcast with temperatures in the 70s. I put on my shorts and t-shirt and slathered my arms and legs with sunscreen. As I sat eating breakfast fully immersed in my Michelle Obama book, Clark pointed out the window to the fog literally rolling in towards us. We could see it getting closer and closer until we were fully engulfed in a cloud. 

Since it did not look like we would be going anywhere soon, and based on the forecast of fog followed by thunder storms, perhaps not anywhere at all today, I decided to take a shower. Of course, that washed off all the sunscreen I had applied a short while earlier.

Here is a comparison of pictures taken yesterday with relatively clear skies compared to the “after fog” variety taken this morning.

Before heavy fog rolled in

Same picture after fog rolled in

Before the fog rolled in

Same picture after fog came upon us

Happy with the decision to stay here one more night, I prepared to kick back and relax. However, around 11:00, the fog started to lift. Still, with a forecast of afternoon thunderstorms, I thought we had decided to stay put for one more night - I like it here. Well, maybe, maybe not. Clark appeared to be in a dilemma - go - stay - go - think again. Meanwhile, I was trying to decide if I should reapply my sunscreen, which I would need if we traveled and would not need if we stayed put.

One thing I decided was that I should upload my pictures here while I had the chance. Moving to a different anchorage would make it much less likely to have WiFi available. While Clark made travel arrangements, i.e. a reservation at our next marina stop for later in the week, I uploaded all the available pictures for the Blog.

We finally pulled up our anchor and left just before lunch with anchoring at Cayo Costa as our destination.

Clear skies at our anchorage
by the time we finally pulled up our anchor
(love the arrangement of palm trees here)

With multiple bridges and slow-speed, minimum wake zones along the way, we recalculated our arrival time at Cayo Costa multiple times along the way. As the afternoon wore on, it started to look questionable as to whether or not we could reach the anchorage before dark set in.

Swing Bridge with only an 8' clearance
(note the tender standing on the bridge)

Looking back at the swing bridge

Bascule Bridge with only a 9' clearance

Besides bridges, we did see some other views along the way.

Near Venice, Florida

Pops Sunset Grill
Nokomis, Florida

One item in particular caught our eyes - a boat precariously perched on its boat lift. Sea tow sat in attendance with its lights flashing indicating this was most likely a recent incident.

Boat on boat lift that has collapsed on one side

Further on we passed what Clark referred to as "Florida Channel Markers".

"Florida Channel Markers"
leading to side channel 

Around 3:15, we did another "how much further" calculation and decided that, at our current 8-knot speed, we would not arrive at Cayo Costa before sunset. We started to consider four other anchorages all in close proximity to each other. The first one we passed had a boat anchored there named "Dolphin". We wondered it this was the same "Dolphin" that we had seen at the docks at The Crow's Nest marina in Venice.

I thought Clark would want to stop to check out the spot and "Dolphin", but instead we continued on. We passed two more options that, although in a no-wake zone, appeared too out in the open for a comfortable night's stay. When we came to the last of the four choices, just off the channel in Pelican Bay, we decided to go in and take a look around.

Due to the size of the bay, we momentarily pondered going back to join "Dolphin" in the earlier anchorage, but ultimately, Clark decided that with little-to-no wind we should drop anchor here.

View of tonight's anchorage in Pelican Bay
surrounded by numerous houses with docks

On-going construction of a covered boat slip disturbed the serenity of this lovely anchorage until 4:45 when the work crew went home. Afterwards, not a sound could be heard.

Dock work underway in anchorage

I took my book and went to sit out in the cockpit to enjoy the setting. Eventually it got too chilly to sit outdoors, and shortly afterwards, the sun started to set.

Sunset at Cape Haze Anchorage in
"Pelican Bay"

Although unexpected, we found free WiFi even stronger in signal than our previous anchorage. How lucky could we get!