Two of the dolphins that joined us off Manasota Key

First off: if you are reading this, you are in deep trouble. Sarah tells me that today was the start of the end of times and those of us still here tomorrow are in for considerable misery over the next few years. Personally, we haven't noticed any changes as yet. Perhaps the west coast of Florida is already close enough to heaven that we'll get an exemption.

But back to the sailing report. We left Pelican Bay at about 8am and went out Boca Grande Pass into the ocean. It seems we always encounter a Tarpon tournament in this Pass and today was no exception. There must have been 100 fishing boats milling about in the Pass all concentrating on the water and not watching out for catamarans passing them by. We managed to avoid them all, however, and set off north for the Venice Inlet twenty three nautical miles away.

The wind was very light, less than 7 kt all morning, and directly off our stern. These were very challenging conditions even for a light weight boat like the Gemini but after having to motor the previous day, we were determined to sail to Venice. We set the sails in a configuration oft used by trade wind sailors, but new to us. This is a double headsail configuration with the jib on one side and the cruising spinnaker on the other. This worked reasonably well allowing us to average about 3 kts for the morning. In the afternoon, the wind clocked around to the west and increased to about 10 kts. Switching to the main and cruising spinnaker, the average speed jumped up to the mid 5's.

We had a notable dolphin encounter in the afternoon. As we passed by Manasota Key, perhaps a dozen dolphins appeared off our port side. Several of the dolphins found us interesting enough to swim over for a closer look. Sarah and Brittany ran to the bow and got to see several swim through our bow wave. Brittany says she could have touched them if she dared.

We passed through the Venice Inlet at 3:30 after enjoying a truly great day's sail. From there we motored up the ICW for another two hours to reach our anchorage in Little Sarasota Bay.