We had a nice time at the Club at Treasure Island but today was the day to move. Weather reports called for fog this morning but there really was none, just gray skies. Temps were in the high 60’s and got to the low 70’s during the day.
There was an area of the sky in the south that looked clear and I thought we might catch the sun before the day was over in Sarasota but that never happened.
We had a pretty low tide this morning and the mooring lines on the boat were somewhat tight. They had loosened up some by the time we were ready to leave because of the rising tide. The difference between last night’s high tide and this mornings low tide was over 3′ which is quite large for the Gulf side of Florida.
The wind was just a hint of a breeze and that was great because we had the open waters of Tampa Bay to cross. One of the areas we crossed near the Sunshine Parkway Bridge was about 6 miles of open water.
Many commercial fishermen were out today and it looked like they were tending to the crab traps along the sides of the ICW. We must have seen a dozen fishermen boats along the way and we did not have a long distance to go today. There was a lot of boat traffic with cruisers of all sizes moving in both directions on the ICW. Some of them were large enough that they needed to wait with the sailboats for the bascule bridges to open. We were short enough that we were able to fit under all the bridges today.
We arrived in Sarasota and are staying at Marina Jack in Downtown Sarasota. Nice marina with floating concrete docks and all the amenities. Just as we were getting tied up I noticed that we were about 4 slips away from the trawler Carol Anne. They had travelled with Humbug but we had never met them. Well they were just coming back to the boat and they came over and we chatted for a time about the crossing and the trip since then. They were leaving Carrabelle for the overnight crossing just as we were coming in to C Quarters Marina.
Off Leash, the catamaran we traveled with in the Trent Severn and Lake Michigan had been here last night but left this morning. We have been chasing them since we got back to the boat in September. I sent Off Leash an email to see what their schedule will be. Maybe we can meet up along the way.
We will be here for 2 nights before moving further south.