27-Apr-2015 - We left Dunedin @ 0930. Winds were NW 20 kts & seas were a bit choppy. We headed south on the GIWW toward Tampa Bay. Once we passed the Clearwater Bridge, the winds died. We motored through 9 bridges to Tampa Bay. We sailed across Tampa Bay to Anna Maria Island and got a slip at Bradenton Beach marina. We were not impressed with this marina at all - $3/ft (yikes!) and facilities were just ok. The Waterway Guide said they had floating docks but it turns out there was just one & it was for jet-skis. The forecast was for thunderstorms overnight which is why we went there in the first place - no thunderstorms, though, & we could've anchored out.
28-Apr-2015 - We left Bradenton Beach @ 0830, hoping to stay ahead of a major storm that was north of us. It rained almost all day as we motored south but we managed to avoid any thunderstorms. Poor Sophie was wet and miserable all day. She laid in the cockpit floor the whole trip and she kept giving us this look, like "Really? This is fun?" At one point, the rainwater was pooling on the floor where she was lying and she buried her nose in the water, I think she was trying to drown herself! We arrived at the last bridge, Albee Bridge, less than one mile before our destination - Crow's Nest Marina in Venice, FL - the bridge was broken, but a repair crew was working on it. We were forced to motor in circles for 45 minutes with 2 other sailboats until the bridge finally opened. There is no alternative to waiting for the bridge, other than sailing back up to the Tampa Channel and going out in to the Gulf to get to Venice Inlet. Doing circles waiting for the bridge seemed to be the right course of action. We arrived at Crow's Nest @1350 & tied up at their transient pier in front of a 100' mega-yacht, Bluewater Cat. Weather at arrival was sunny, hot, light wind - beautiful since the storm had pushed off to the SE.
29-Apr-2015 - We stayed at the Crow's Nest for 2 nights (BoatUS discount $2.25/ft). The first night, V took Sophie for a late night walk & when they returned, Sophie missed the jump onto the boat & ended up in the water. Thankfully, V still had the leash in hand & was able to lift her back on the dock. When they got on the boat, V noticed that At Last was not "peeing", meaning something was wrong with the A/C. After checking A/C filter & hoses, she made a fateful decision to wake up Bear to see what he could do, V turned off the A/C to deal with it in the morning. Bear was a little ticked off at being woken up for a "non-emergency" but when he went on deck to cool his temper, he saw a huge storm approaching us - lightning everywhere! Now there was an emergency, so at 0200, we were tying extra lines & re-securing the boat. Funny enough, V ended up going to bed and sleeping through the storm (how does she do that?!). Since Bear could no longer sleep, he completely rebuilt the A/C pump & cleaned it, but to no avail, the A/C was still not peeing. This is the point at 4:30 AM where I am surprised Bear did not wake Vee up and throw me in the water. Since Vee had checked the filter Bear had assumed she had checked the water flow through the Thru-hull, which she had not! The sole problem of the A/C not peeing was the Thru-hull was clogged with seaweed/grass and mud! We used the "grab-it" tool & pushed the clog out. Big gush of water from seacock - yay! A/C was fixed! (next time we'll check the seacock first!) Except now the bilge had lots of water in it & the bilge pump wasn't working. Oy! Float switch was clogged with gunk so we cleaned that out and trouble-shot the bilge pump, determined one of the electrical lines was shorting, so some quick rewiring and "poof" bilge pump was fixed and so ends the saga of Dunedin to Venice Inlet! [Note on Crow's Nest - we really liked this marina! Great facilities, free use of bikes. The only note of interest, was when we arrived the only transient slip was just a long dock that was open to the channel & Venice Inlet traffic. Not very comfortable especially when it got really windy!]

30-Apr-2015 - We left Venice @ 1020, heading south. We ended up staying in the GIWW because winds were again NW 20 kts. We got fuel at Palm Island Marina along the way which, oh by the way, happens to be at one of the narrowest spots on the GIWW. So narrow, in fact, that 2 boats passing may want to put out fenders. Now if that's not crazy enough, this is also where we encountered the shortest ferry ride in the world - as ferries cross the GIWW here about every 5 minutes, going ~150 ft from east to west. We arrived at Boca Grande Marina @1445. We decided to slip here ($3/ft) rather than press further south because there are no good anchorages between here & Sanibel and we would not have made it to Sanibel before dark. Great marina - super clean, quiet, nice neighborhood for walking Sophie. We ate at the restaurant there - great food! Although we really wanted to go to Sanibel, the weather was indicating, we should head offshore for Key West tomorrow (or risk being stuck here for a week).