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The Passage

We left Sarasota Bay first thing the morning of the fourth. We were advised not to use the pass at Sarasota and head down the Intracoastal waterway(ICW) for Venice Inlet. The passes in Sarasota are local knowledge only and too dangerous.

The ICW from Sarasota to Venice is deep enough although we did have one spot shortly after leaving Sarasota where our depth gauge was reading 4.1 feet and we draw 6.5. The sides of the ICW are lined with luxury homes and mangroves. It was peaceful and beautiful on this stretch. Be sure to get the names of all of the bascule bridges before you go. Some of the bridgeman can get surly.

Excitement on the sleepy ICW

At one point we went through a narrow swing bridge with the tide rushing through it. It was a little exciting and reminded me of my days shooting the rapids on the Guadalupe river. Sure it was not as fast as the Guadalupe but I did not have 56 foot long 16 foot wide or 64 foot tall boat on the Guadalupe either. As you go through you can feel the water rushing faster than the boat is moving and you lose steerage with only feet to spare.

The pass at Venice is completely fool proof. It has never been so easy to get to the gulf.

Sailing is heaven sometimes.

We got out on the Gulf with every sailor's dream. A blue sky. Following winds. And a following sea. We got to play with some of rigging we had not used before. I got out the whisker pole and pinned the Genoa all the way out as we proceeded wing on wing south making 7 knots on a 10 knot wind.

The only annoyance was the multitude of crab pots. I altered our course out to 6 miles off coast and we were still in crab pots with darkness closing in. Oh well, we were not motoring so the lines could not get caught in our prop. Sorry if I drug some of your pots to Sanibel but there was no way to avoid it.

The wind died off at dusk and we were doing a little over 4 knots until the wind freshened from the east. We were on a broad reach in a 17 knot wind making way briskly and comfortably.

In the darkness things took a turn for the worse as the waves oriented themselves from the east and the winds increased to 22 knots. We were rocking in the troughs and with passengers complaining I reefed(reduced the size) of my sails until we were only making 7 to 8 knots trying to provide comfort instead of speed.

I changed our course to track closer to the land and found some shorter waves but the worst was yet to come.

As we made our turn to the east around the south side of Sanibel we were suddenly another 5 miles off shore and the waves had built up to 4 to 5 feet. It was 60(cold) and the wind was knocking the tops off the waves into my face. We still had 2 hours to go and Dad was particularly unhappy that we had come all of this way south to be this cold.

We cranked up the iron jib and could only make about 4.5 knots against the wind and wave but made a safe anchor in the dark. Click the map to see where the best anchorage for a boat of our size in this area.

Morning breaks

I dropped the dinghy to take the dogs ashore and stopped on the way to meet another couple on their beautiful steel ketch that had chosen the same anchorage. I enjoyed speaking with the husband about their plans to circumnavigate. On their boat the wife who is a physicist does most of the technical work including welding. We exchanged emails and hope to run into each other on our travels.

We dinke ashore and did the Sanibel stoop before the tours got their, but not before the locals got the best shells. We will beat them tomorrow!