Day 22 - Friday, 2-1-08 - Venice to North Captiva Island - Inside

We decided to spend the day inside since the wind was dead on the pointy end and Sara was still a little "stove up" from her fall. In our haste to get underway at 0800 the Captain-of-the-Day (COD) did not check the chart, assumed he had the channel memorized, and promptly ran aground. No real problem as his fearless and highly knowledgeable crew immediately manned the port rail and, with the help of the little engine that could, plowed the bulb keel through the sandbar back whence we came into good water. The rest of the trip to Captiva Island was uneventful. Florida Bridge Tenders along this section of the ICW were most helpful giving us the name of the next bridge and being generally accommodating. Bridge names are very helpful because they are not on the charts and often are not "intuitive". The Crow's Nest Marina in Venice had given us the bridge names as well in their "welcome aboard" package, so we were fully armed with bridge information.

One item of note was when a Florida Wildlife and Fisheries patrol vessel came alongside and wanted to know why we were not displaying a Florida registration decal. When we explained we were a Coast Guard Documented vessel from Alabama, he then wanted to know how long we would be in Florida waters. We responded we were headed to the Bahamas and were leaving Florida waters as soon as possible. That seemed to satisfy him and he wished us a "nice day" and departed. I guess Florida vessels are required to display the decal whether documented or not.

On arrival at the 'Tween Waters Inn and Marina on North Captiva Island at around 1615 hours, the crew departed for the beach and the COD remained aboard to lick his wounds and raid the liquor locker to "splice the mainbrace", which badly needed it! (GLR)