Venice with Mike and Gaile

So here we are in Venice at the Crow's Nest Marina.  It was an awesome trip traveling in narrow channels with many homes along the ICW.  I think the 1% live in Florida.  I have to admit I missed the last green marker and almost, I said almost, ran aground.  Luckily the people at Crow's Nest called me on the radio and warned me before it was too late.  The good thing about Venice is our friends Mike, Gaile, and of coarse BB the poodle that is going to hang with the doodle, have a house on a lake.  They picked us up and we headed to the street with all the shops and restaurants.  We had lunch and preceded to their house.  What a treat to take a long shower, relax on the patio overlooking the lake, sipping on an adult beverage.  The doodle and poodle got along great except they both like to bark for no reason at all.  Gaile arranged to have Chloe get a bath and grooming at Petco the next day.  They also had us over for dinner every night and afterwards Mike would drive us back to the boat.  That Miss Gaile can sure cook, or as she says "yea baby".  I can't even put into words how welcome and comfortable we all felt.  Anyway, the next day while Chloe was getting shaved and the girls went were ever girls go, Mike and I played golf.  What a nice coarse and only $34.00 with a cart for 18 holes.  I guess I did okay considering I don't have any golf shoes and I used Miss Gaile's clubs.  Now, there is nothing wrong with her clubs but it's just not the same without your own, all that mattered is we had fun, RIGHT?  One of the things here in Venice is the manufacturer of these great cups made by Tervis.  So we had to go see what it was all about and after spending more than I expected we walked out of there with more cups of different sizes than I expected.  For some of you back home expect a cup from our trip, and if you heard of Tervis let me know.  We couldn't leave without inviting Mike and Gaile to come with us on our next destination to Gasperilla Island.  It didn't take much arm twisting and they were ready.  The night before Mike and I drove the two cars the have to the island and dropped one off so when we got there they could get back with no problem.  It was about an hour drive.  Even though by boat it was 30 miles it took that long to drive because it's all side streets and a $6.00 toll bridge.  Thanks again Mike for paying my way over the bridge because of the one dollar in my wallet.  Next morning they showed up at 9:00am and about 9:45am we were off.  It was another great day with beautiful water and dolphins along the way.  It was great that they came with us and we could share what we will be doing for the next year.  I think Debbie D. has come over to the dark side with us and would like to do the whole  loop.  When we tied up at Boca Grande Marina Mike and I enjoyed a cigar on the flybridge while the girls went, you guessed it, shopping.  Thanks again for the cigar Mike.  Boca Grande Marina at Gasperilla Island is a new marina and very expensive.  We paid $3.00 per foot for the night, which is the most we ever paid anywhere.  You only do this once, RIGHT?  What a great tiime we've had and more important continuing that friendship that was postponed because of distant and time.  Thanks Miss Gaile, Mike (Bubba) and BB for making our adventure even more fun and not feeling so far away from our home.  Hopefully when we get to South Carolina we can talk you into coming on the boat again and maybe going a couple of days with us.  After goodbyes it was Tri Tip for dinner and off to our next adventure to Fort Myers where Debbie's cousin Marsha and Bruce live.

Panacea at Crows Nest in Venice

More homes along the ICW

Mike (Bubba) and Miss Gaile

Happy dolphin or Gaile

Their backyard with local wild life

Wood Stork

 Gaile and BB

Dinner..........Yummmmmmmm

We got four free tumblers

See that sneaky crab pot?

Flippers

Everything OK with Captain Larry

Swing Bridge

Moving along the ICW

Osprey Nest

Bridge clearance marker before you go under all bridges

Hey BB, this is smooth today

Boca Grande Marina in Gasperilla

Sarasota Florida

Where do I begin?  I'm sorry I've been delinquent in updating our blog.  We have just been so busy I haven't had the time so I'll start from the time we arrived in Sarasota.  As you know from my last posting Debbie D. has been with us and we are all having a great  time.  The weather has been fantastic and the waters of the West gulf coast of Florida are just unbelievable.  It was foggy when we left and I had Jan and Debbie on the bow looking for crab pots.  It cleared up before we went under the Sunshine Causeway Bridge.  We stayed at a marina called Marina Jack's when we arrived at Sarasota. Super nice and convenient to most everything, plus they have a shuttle van that will take you pretty much anywhere.  We were going to stay for two days but decided to spend one more to see what we missed.  On our first day we met our long lost friends Mike and Gaile, from our Sea Ray Boat Club days, whom are from North Carolina, and are renting a house in Venice Florida.  We have been in touch since we left, so we could make sure to get together.   They drove over to see us in Sarasota and picked us up and drove us around to replenish our supplies and later that night we went to dinner at Barnacle Bills.  We had a great time and tried to get caught up on the past thirteen years.  Day after that Debbie and Jan went shopping and I went to the John and Mable Ringling estate and museum.   Now I can't speak for the shopping part except they had a good time, but the Ringling Museum was awesome.   If you ever been to a circus this is the place to go to learn the history and especially the Ringling Bros. history of the circus during the teens to the forty's.   The logistics of setting up, traveling by train, the animals care, the 1500 people that traveled with it was crazy. Next day we were headed to Venice to see Mike (Bubba) and Miss Gaile.  Can't wait to see what it's like being in a house again.

Sunshine Causeway bridge

Arriving in Sarasota

The girls and me in Sarasota

Ringling Bros. Muesum

John and Mable's estate

Chandler from the original Waldorf Astoria

Back of the house

Looking out the back

More Banyon Trees than you can imagine

The house of John

Memories

 

Colors of the water

St. Petersburg, FL

We were having a wonderful trip to St. Petersburg until we went into Tampa Bay and made a left to get to  our destination at the Renaissance Vinoy Marina.  It was an East wind and raining which made the bay rough enough to get salt water spray all over the boat.  Luckily we only had to go about 5 miles.  Once we pulled in we found out that the reviews we heard about this place were true.  If there is an East wind over 10 mph, which it was, you rock and roll, which we did.  Debbie arrived at 11:30pm and it was great to see our friend from home.  We stayed up till 1:00am before we all went to bed.  Panacea continued to rock and roll all thru the night and into the next day with rain the whole time.  Friday we did our laundry, had lunch at the Vinoy, and checked out the resort.  We found out that for fifty cents you could get on a trolley bus that took you around the city of St. Petersburg with the bus driver pointing out special pionts of interest.   Since it was raining we decided to take the trolley and do the whole loop and see where we want to go the next day when the rain stopped.  Saturday turned out to be wonderful.  The boat stopped rocking and the sun came out and so did the people.  We walked over to an annual art exhibit in the park with each artist showing their craft in individual booths.  There was some really cool stuff.  We then walked across the street, had breakfast, were Jan and Debbie went shopping and I headed on the trolley to the Dali Museum.  For all you people from Rio Linda, Salvadore Dali was a world renown Surrealist artist from Spain.  His art work was from 1914 to about 1986.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but some of his art pieces were fourteen feet high.  I also think he was either a genius or on the brink of mental illness.  It's amazing what he envisioned when painting.  After we all returned to the boat we enjoyed a nice steak dinner and settled in for the night.

Panacea at the Renaissance Vinoy Marina Resort

I guess we're not the only loopers

Art festival

Banyan tree

Made from Agave plant, unbelievable 

The pelican whisperer

To all our family and friends from Spain

Inside the museum, spiral staircase to heaven

Vinoy harbor

Jan and Debbie 

Walking back after taking Chloe to see the squirrels

This is a pic Jan took at the park, not sure what it is

Clearwater Beach Marina

After the tide came up we left Tarpon Springs at noon and headed to Clearwater.  Going into Clearwater we started to see many high rise condos and houses along the way.  It was raining with about 8 mph wind and we needed to work our way to St. Petersburg because our friend Debbie was flying in to Tampa to spend some time with us.  When we arrived at the marina, one of the looper boats that crossed over the same day as us, were there to greet us.  Mike and Lois have a trawler named "Inch N Along" and a new kitty named Adi.  They invited us over for a pasta dinner and we brought the wine.  We all talked about our crossing and how glad we were to have it over.  The weather stayed the same through out the day and next day and at 9:30am Thursday we left for St. Petersburg.

This was one of the nine bridges we went under to Clearwater

We didn't need to have any open 

Typical house along the way

Lot of rich people in Florida

Buch of birds in bushes

Mike, Lois. and Adi