WE MADE IT!!
It seems a bit surreal, but we pulled into our dock today at 5:45PM..ran aground twice in the shallow channel into our dock, but we were able to back out and recover quickly. We came in at low/mid tide, but are sitting comfortably at the dock this evening and feeling great!
Once again, the day started around 6:30 AM. We were out of the dock and sitting on the fuel dock by 7:15AM, and finally underway with full tanks and the bill paid by 7:45AM.
This is a shot looking back at the bridge (that we never had to deal with) that is located just south of the fuel docks. The sun had just come up about 15 minutes earlier.
As we pulled out from the fuel docks and looked back at our slip, this Casino boat had pulled in right outside next to our slip late last evening. I heard some commotion on the docks as we were trying to get settled last night. It was about 200 folks getting off of this boat.
While idling out of the Pass, we passed this commercial "shrimper" in bound. We were just starting our day and he was just done. Apparently these boats head down to the Dry Tortugas, west of Key West as their shrimping grounds....a long run for him!
The run today ended up being 80nm (92 statute miles). As we motored out of Matanzas Pass and back into the Gulf of Mexico past Sanibel Island, the Gulf was nearly flat. There was negligible wind. Although we set the mainsail, it really had no effect on anything other than my spirits! There was no tidal current and no wind driven currents. We spent the entire day motoring along at about 8.6 knots.
Here are a couple shots of the landscape moving north toward LBK.
This first pic is of the southern shore of Sanibel island and some of its condos.
This was just a neat house sitting out by itself on the water on the west side of Sanibel.
For those of you who are fisherman, this is Boca Grande Inlet into Charlotte Harbor. Serious fishing boats head out here for some great tarpon fishing.
This chartplotter photo shows us just north of Boca Grande with the cross hair on the Longboat Pass Bridge where we would come back inside from the Gulf
Everyone had the same idea today. We passed this nice looking Catalina heading southbound, also with his mainsail set but not doing anything but looking like a sailboat!
There were birds everywhere today. This shot is of two birds that had just dived in on a frenzy of fish that had the water churning.
This very boring shot is of the Venice Airport. It sits right on the water. I have leased a hangar here for my Cirrus SR22 airplane, which I plane to bring south sometime in December.
This shot is of the drawbridge at the south end of Longboat Key. LBK is FINALLY on our starboard side as we are motoring north. It is about 12 miles long, and we are at the north end.
More of the sights on shore at LBK...
And more LBK condos...
This section of beach is directly across from our community, and is where we will be enjoying the Gulf of Mexico on a regular basis!
After more than 1600 miles, this is THE LAST BRIDGE that we will have to deal with on this trip. It is at the north end of Longboat Key and is the Longboat Pass Bridge.
After coming inside after this bridge, we picked up the Gulf Intracoastal Water Way (GIWW) at marker 46 and headed south toward day marker 32 where we would exit to starboard and into our little community of Emerald Harbor.
This anchorage and restaurant is about a mile north of us. It is Mar Vista and is one of the best little seafood joints on LBK
And here is our new home off in the distance as we turn into the narrow channel into our docks. Our home is just to the left of the big banyan tree in the photo. On this very last stretch in, we ran aground twice, once at a shoal marker that appeared to be mis-marked until a neighbor told us that it was marked for outgoing traffic, and once when we got just a skoosh too close to the seawall as we crossed behind the last marker. Neither was a problem as we just backed off and headed to our docks.
My friend and former business partner, Ed Webber, met me at the dock and helped us to tie up the boat. He also took these next two shots.
Do you think that we look happy to be at the end of this journey??...youbetcha!
This pic is looking out from our patio back toward the north end of Sarasota Bay.
This is mangrove that sits just across the water from the bow of the boat. Ed took this and we also got a great mirror image of the clouds on the water.
Once we got off of the boat and had a chance to step inside of our new home, we were met with tarps and plastic from the painters who had started to paint the inside today. It will be a few days before we can get serious about moving in, so we are just going to spend a couple of nights on the boat with it tied up to our dock..no waves, no rocking...no 6:30 starts for the next day or two..
We had a nice dinner about a mile south at "Ciao" Restaurant, and headed back to the house and the boat.
So now the day and our adventure are both finally behind us. I am feeling euphoric! We have traveled over 1608 miles. We have spent 23 days on the water, put 200.2 hours on our engines, sailed about 50 hours, spent some difficult time in rough seas out in the Atlantic and on Albemarle Sound, scraped at least 50 fixed bridges, traversed more draw, lift, swing, bascule, and pontoon bridges than I even thought existed, passed through our first lock, dodged at least 10,000 crab and lobster pots, and run aground more than 15 times.
Tomorrow I hope to do one last entry in the blog of this journey...just a few highlights and lowlights, some general thoughts on the ICW, and advice for others who decide to make the trip.
Finally this evening, I would like to thank my brother, Steve, and my wife, Vicki, for putting up with my impatience, intolerance, and just poor attitude when things were not going well...and especially to Vic who has managed to spend two weeks with me in a space much too small for most married couples to spend 24/7 together...She is a saint..and I am truly blessed!
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