Underway At Last
14 April 2011 | Clearwater
Warren
Underway at last. I took off work starting April 1st to get the boat ready. However, Karen and I also decided it was time to replace the living room carpet and to tile the bedroom and dining room. We also changed out our TV to a HD flat screen. At the same time Centurylink started providing internet and tv to our neighborhood in competion to Comcast so we did that too with all the related changes. It got to the point I wasn't looking forward to the trip.
The 11th I invited two friends, the Wengers, to go for a sail on Serenity as a shakedown cruise. They had recently sold their 22 ft Starwind and enjoyed getting out sailing. It also fired me up about the trip and on the 12th I departed Punta Gorda.
Sure enough, the wind was from 240 degrees and my first two legs were 220 and 260 degrees at 15 knots so it Serenity was a powerboat most of the day. We plowed through 3 ft short waves for 4 hours before getting to the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway (GIWW) where we turned north and shook out the sails. However, with only the narrow GIWW channel going up shallow bays, it was prudent to keep the engine running all day especially through the bridges.
It was a good day except for trying to find an anchorage along the GIWW starting at 5 pm when we reached Venice. I couldn't find a place off the channel that had more than 6 ft of water. We must have pulled out of the channel 30 times but each time it got shallow within 20 feet of the channel. At 8:30 we got to to Little Sarasota Bay and found a nice bay just east of marker 53 to drop anchor.
The 13th will be family day as we will be meeting Etta Anderson, Karen' step-mom who lives in Sarasota. With all the house work going on, we hadn't gotten to see her for almost a month. Dinner at Marina Jacks, was good but the band was loud. Spent the night at anchor off the park there.
Next stop Clearwater. The 14th we got undwerway at 7:30 and had a beautiful day in the Gulf sailing from Sarasota to Clearwater a 40+ mile trip. Part of the trip was even under full sail. Then the winds let up and it was motor sailing again. Anchored inside Clearwater Pass and tried to figure out the next leg. It is almost 70 miles to Cedar Key or only 15 miles to Tarpon Springs. One too close and one too far. I'll get up about 6 and take off for Cedar Key and see what happens in between.