ssloop: St Pete-Longboat Key

Time to head south again! We plotted our course for Ft Myers Beach. A nice 100 mile cruise. We departed St Pete Municipal Marina early Sunday morning, traveled southwest across Tampa Bay, and under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge where we had to give way to an inbound cargo ship. We caught the intra-coastal waterway near the north end of Anna Maria Island. We traveled the ICW vs going outside to the Gulf of Mexico due to rough conditions on the GOM. After 60 miles, we dropped the hook near Englewood Beach for the night.

Monday was dolphin day! The dolphins made numerous appearances on our 40 mile cruise to Ft Myers Beach. By mid afternoon, we pulled into a slip at Salty Sam's Marina where we took a one week stay. We had a fun filled week which included: a beach day, several dinghy rides, eating lots of peel and eat shrimp, seeing our friends Lori from Keenan Marina, Dave & Michelle from Just Us (Loopers), and Todd & Star from Byron Center.

Saturday was a beautiful day so we jumped in the dinghy, headed south on the ICW to Lover's Key at Big Carlos Pass Inlet, then continued out on the Gulf for the remainder of our 8 mile cruise to New Pass. New Pass is a small inlet with clear blue water and sandy beaches. The dolphins greeted us as we entered the inlet. Paradise!

Sunday morning we took the dinghy across the ICW, tied up at Todd & Star's seawall and walked to church at Chapel By The Sea Presbyterian. After church we scooted back quite quickly to the mother ship to beat the incoming rain. The rains persisted all afternoon, but ended by early evening so we could walk to Dixie Fish Company our favorite shrimp joint.

Monday morning Captain Tide Guru had us wait until 10am to get enough water under the boat to make a safe escape from our spot in the marina. North again. The PV2 is beginning to feel like a yoyo on this trip! The First Mate declared this our best dolphin day ever! (so far) It was a dolphinfest chasing us across Gasparilla Sound! We took a slip that evening at Aqua Marina Palm Harbour where our friend from home, Kim Wagner, his wife and other family members joined us for dinner at the marina.

Tuesday we again stopped 5 miles short of Longboat Key to anchor out for the evening. We dropped the hook behind Otter Key. Although we were confident the anchor was well set, the Captain did a recon with the dinghy to see if we could tuck in closer to shore. We could! We then lifted the anchor to move, only to find a cement block lodged on the tip of the anchor. The First Mate took over the wheel while the Captain went forward to dislodge the block. Good thing we decided to move since the anchor would never have penetrated the bottom as designed. Once securely settled, out came the grill for our last night on anchor this trip.

Wednesday morning we moved up to the Moorings at Longboat Key Club, our final destination of this trip. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday we spent time provisioning, cleaning, washing and yes, exploring when our chores were finished.

Friday our friend Karen Dupy drove over to spend a couple nights on the boat with us. Even though the weather was cool and windy, we enjoyed shopping and dinner at St Armands Circle on Friday and managed to sneak in a dinghy ride on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday morning, we closed up the boat and jumped in Karen's car to drop the Captain off at Tampa Airport to fly home. Sheli & Karen continued on the The Villages, a couple hour northeast of Tampa where Karen lives. Sheli enjoyed a couple days with Karen before flying home on Wednesday.