Cruising Down Florida's Cultural Coast

 On December 10th, we left our off-the-beaten-path slip in St. Pete Beach and headed south to cross the mouth of Tampa Bay. The weather was warm and there was a light wind on our stern. In other words, the conditions for crossing the bay were perfect. 

Whenever we are underway, we monitor channel 16 on our marine VHF radio. According to the USCG (US Coast Guard), this is a hailing and distress channel only. If you chit chat on ch 16, the USCG will come on and fuss at you about leaving the channel open for emergencies and other official communications. 

Well, around lunch time we heard a child talking on ch 16. We could only hear one side of the conversation, but it was clear that the kid was asking his parents if they could stop and get an ice cream sandwich.   The USCG had mercy and didn’t fuss at the kid.  But it was an example of the random chatter you sometimes hear on ch 16. 

Shortly after the ice cream sandwich conversation, we began to hear one side of another conversation the USCG was having with another boat. The USCG kept referring to the other boat as Friendly Fisherman (FF). The conversation went something like this:

USCG USCG to Friendly Fisherman:  What type of boat are you with?

USCG USCG to Friendly Fisherman:  How many people are on the boat?

USCG USCG to Friendly Fisherman:  What is the position of the boat?

This went on for 15 minutes and it seemed the USCG was trying to fill out some sort of paperwork with 101 questions. Again, we could only hear the USCG side of the conversation so the FF must have been out of range for us to hear their side. Evidently, the FF had a VHF radio and the third boat did not. The USCG wanted the other boat to give them a cell phone number, but they did not want to give it out over the VHF airway for some reason. After several minutes, we heard FF finally give the USCG the other boats’ cell number and then the last question we heard the USCG ask was:

USCG USCG to Friendly Fisherman:  Can you ask the other boater to say why he thinks there are body parts inside the bag?

What? We found out later that there was a body found in Tampa Bay the day before with missing limbs. What a weird day on the VHF airways. You just don’t hear words like ‘ice cream sandwich’ and ‘body parts’ on the VHF radio – ever.

Around 4 pm that day we pulled into Marina Jacks in Sarasota. There, we were met by Richard and Kathy of the looper boat SeeLife. Kathy is the one who saved the day for us two months before at Cuba Landing on the TN River. That evening the marina was hosting the annual Sarasota Christmas Boat Parade. In the park across from the marina there were 1000 people jockeying for position to see the boats all decorated for the parade.  However, we had front row seats on the end of the dock and enjoyed a cocktail while the boats passed directly in front of us (twice!).   Each one had a different theme and lots of partiers on board.  The boat next to our slip was entered in the parade and they had decorated their boat in a Grinch theme with everyone on board dressed like a Who from Whoville.  The shark boat was the winner of the parade.  They suspected that the aerialist hanging from their dinghy boom gave them an edge in the competition. 

While we were in Sarasota, we enjoyed having dinner with SeeLife and Jean-Marc and Tanya onboard Unplugged I.

On December 13th, we left Sarasota for the cruise down to Venice. This part of the GICW was uneventful until we got to Longboat Pass. BTW, a “pass” is an opening in the barrier islands where boats can reach the ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico in this case. Because tides flow in and out of a pass, they are subject to shoaling. Shoaling is the phenomenon of sand being deposited by water flow – rivers, tides and/or hurricanes. At the intersection of Longboat Pass and the GICW, the channel markers got confusing. This is because the USCG keeps moving the markers as the sands shift. Keeping the channel open and well marked is a great service that the USCG provides, however, it can lead to channel markers in seemingly odd places.  This was why I got confused in this area and almost ran aground. With the depth finder showing 1.5 feet of water below us, I was relieved when we passed over the sandbar and back into the channel. Whew! That was close…

After the close call at Longboat Pass, we arrived at Crow’s Nest Marina in Venice in time to beat an approaching storm. In fact, we ended up staying there longer than planned due to the bad weather. It’s a nice town and is famous for the shark teeth you can find on the beach. While we were there, we walked the beach a few times and Karen found a few of the elusive teeth. The marina is very close to the jetties that make Venice Pass. People are able to walk out on them because the city paved a walkway all the way to the end. There is always a crowd on the jetties at sunset.  However, on the second day the jetty was closed due to huge waves breaking over the rocks. Karen was able to take a few good pictures of the waves breaking there. Once the storm had passed, it left a large swell the next morning and surfers came out of the woodwork. You can’t blame them because the gulf coast of Florida is not known for big waves, so when they come, surfers must enjoy them quickly.

We enjoyed  dinner at the on-site Crow’s Nest restaurant.  We watched several boats come in for one night just to have dinner there.  Like we saw in Steinhatchee, crab boats used the Venice marina to unload their catch. We learned that stone crab fishermen actually cook/boil their catch on the boat while heading back to shore. After cooking them, the bags of claws are then doused in ice cold water. This is done so the meat inside the shell doesn’t stick and can be easily extracted once the claw is cracked. Fishermen then sell the cold claws to restaurants, stores, and individuals.  They are kept cold until they are served. The shelf life for stone crab claws is 10 days maximum.

We left Venice on December 16th and headed to Punta Gorda. This is the first time we saw significant damage from hurricane Ian, which roared ashore back in early fall. At the Fisherman's Village Marina in Punta Gorda, we ran into our old friends aboard Baker Street Blue. We had met Julia and Dave several months earlier when we were on the rivers. Julia is from England and therefore a big soccer fan, so we watched the World Cup Final with them at an outdoor bar at the marina. It was a good time and an exciting game, even if we didn’t understand the rules!

While in Punta Gorda we met some new friends, Chris and Donna, aboard Runaway.  They have a Meridian 459 just like Arabella. Capel and Chris met on the Meridian Yacht Owners Forum discussing how to repair and maintain their boats. The Meridian Yacht Owners forum is a valuable resource to anyone who owns a Meridian boat.

Karen found the color of the water in Punta Gorda particularly interesting. It was the first clear water marina we have visited.  The water was a very dark blue which is caused by tannins coming from the Peace and Myakka Rivers that flow into Charlotte Harbor.

That Saturday we went to the farmer’s market in the town square.  The area was decked out in Christmas decorations which were knitted Christmas sweaters around palm trees.  Each one had a different theme.  It’s been fun to see how the towns in Florida decorate for and celebrate Christmas.  In the middle of the farmers market a parade of 20 dog owners came marching through their pets on leash. I asked the last person in the parade what was going on and she said it was a dog training class and they were teaching the pets and owners how to behave in public places.  There was also someone walking their pet chicken on a leash.  This sight was a first for us.

On December 20th, we left Punta Gorda and headed south. Our original plan was to anchor out in Pelican Bay, which is next to Cayo Costa and the State Park. Weather changed those plans as it was supposed to be very windy and raining like crazy. So, we opted to tie up at Tween Waters Resort and Marina on Captiva Island. We were familiar with this marina because we had stayed there for a night when we did our Taste of the Loop cruise the year before.  Luckily they had just reopened about a week before our arrival.  Captiva Island was undergoing a massive clean-up and rebuilding effort as it had experienced the worst of Hurricane Ian. We were impressed with how much had been accomplished in such a short time. We saw several barges loaded with lumber and delivering building supplies as we were approaching the island. These weren’t the large barges we saw in the rivers.  They were much smaller due to the shallow water in the area.  On shore, trucks and workers were busy getting things back up and running. There were still lots of sunken docks and boats, blue tarps, and boarded up windows, but the island was slowly starting to open up to tourists.  We spent only one night on Captiva, so we didn’t see much because of the heavy rain. We did enjoy shelling for a couple of hours on the beach before the rain and enjoyed drinking rum runners at the pool bar during the rain.

Our next stop is Naples, where our daughter Emmaline will join us for Christmas and New Years.

Arabella at sunset at Marina Jacks in beautiful Sarasota

The Grinch boat

The Shark boat with aerialist hanging off the dinghy crane

Staging for the Sarasota Boat Parade.  Drone photo courtesy of Unplugged I.

Sarasota boat parade with the city in the background.  Drone photo courtesy of Unplugged I.

Big wide Tampa Bay

One of the many draw bridges we will pass

One of the many swing bridges we will pass

Car ferry across the GICW

Venice Beach

The island across from our slip and in the middle of the GICW at Venice Beach

Stone crab fisherman and his bag of steaming hot stone crabs waiting to be chilled in the blue tub.  We think each of these bags is worth about $1000.

Sunset at Venice Beach

Capel enjoying sunset on the Venice Beach jetty

You never know what you'll see while you're docked at a marina.  This is a USCG boat.

Sharks teeth

Banyan trees in a Venice park

The jetty is closed due to rough weather and waves

Rough waves in Venice Beach

Rough waves in Venice Beach

Surfers in Venice Beach

Surfers in Venice Beach

Deep blue waters of Charlotte Harbor

Hurricane Ian clean up crew in Punta Gorda

Punta Gorda Christmas sweaters

The Cabbage Key Restaurant, which supposedly inspired the song Cheeseburger in Paradise, is still standing after Hurricane Ian though the giant osprey nest on top of the water tower is missing.

Arabella at Tween Waters Marina on Captiva Island

Beautiful waters, shells, and approaching storm at Captiva Island