A few more photos

My friend Dave Deem sent me a few more photos of our Useppa trip.

Egret waiting for dinner

You can feel the power when you can stop traffic to make them open the bridge for you.

No we are not mad at each other

White Pelicans

Now she is happy

I keep telling Dave that the fish bite better when the shinny thing is in the water

Dave still not listening to me

Charlotte Ann - Dennis O'Connor's boat

Touching base

It has been a while since I last posted, but unless something of interest happens there is no sense in boring you.
Today we took a day cruise with two other couples to Useppa Island. This is a private island and the only way you can visit here is to be a club member or the member of a club having reciprocal privileges. The marina we are staying at is a member so we have the opportunity to visit. The island's history goes back tomindian inhabitants, the civil war and also government occupation during some wars. In later years it used to be a fish camp for tarpon. Tarpon are the most spectacular fish to catch. They can run as big as over 200 lbs and have been known to accidentally jump into a boat. They are strictly catch and release. They migrate up to this area in May and Boca Grande has a huge tournament at that time.
Useppa eventually was bought by several people and has since become what it is today. There are very few homes and each has a wonderful view of the water. The island was hit pretty hard in 2004 by hurricane Charlie and many of the homes were destroyed as well as the collier Inn, but the owners rebuilt and it remains a great destination while cruising.

Trying on some threads on a visit to Boca Grande



This is Ginny Jess's sister wife while cruising



Illusions at the dock at Useppa

Dave Deem and I literally sitting on the dock by the bay



This is Denny O'Connor an interesting guy and his wife Charlotte. They have been married 50 years. You can tell by the way they posed for the picture. Dennis started as an electrician, then a plant manager for GM and then a medical doctor. A good friend to have. In one visit he can fix your switch, organize you and take your blood pressure.



Anchored out at Cayo Costa

Cayo Costa is one of the nicest Florida State parks that we have visited. This is a well protected anchorage. You can dingy to their dock and walk the trails and make your way to the Gulf of Mexico. This beach is known for collecting many shells as well as shark teeth.

Anchored and Rafted

Sunset

We made it to shore and did a bit of exploring. We are all still friends!

Staying in Cape Haze for a while

We have reached our destination of Palm Island Marina in Cape Haze where we will be for 5 weeks. We chose this spot as a "home base" because it is central to several cruising destinations such as Ussepa Island, Boca Grande, Sanibele Island and cabbage key. We also put together a Rendezvous with 15 other Ranger tugs that will take place from February 1st through the 4th. Below are a few pictures of Palm Island Marina

View of our pool

They have their own beach on the gulf and this is the ferry to bring you there

another pool view

This is the entrance from the ICW to Palm Harbor

Sitting at the dock

Sarasota

We spent 3 nights in Sarasota. This is a hustle and bustle town. We had the opportunity to go to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and the Ringling Museum. The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens abut the Sarasota Bay there is an extensive collection of orchids, bromeliads and epiphytes. The Ringling Museum is a two day event. The interesting part is that the Ringling’s left no circus memorabilia. They left all art and their homestead. However there is an extensive exhibit on the circus. All of the artifacts were donated by other sources. Howard Tibble built and entire miniture replica of the circus and that is also displayed at the museum. When he originally made it the Ringligs did not give him permission to use their name so he called it the Howard Brothers Circus.
The history of the circus is interesting. In general back in the late 50’s and early 60’s the circus was a victim of modern medium of that time, TV, the big screen and also a change in lifestyle. The circus would travel from town to town throughout the country by train and set up tents for the day. Their arriving in town was an event in itself. Over 1,500 workers would set up 12 tents in 1.5 hours! The big top was 120 feet wide and 600 feet long. The cooking tent fed all of the works 3 meals per day. The entire operation was a scheduling feat. There are tons of facts and exhibits to see so I will stop here and you can come down yourself and explore.

Yesterday we traveled from Sarasota to Venice and below are some pictures of our trip and also of our visit to Ringling.

On the steps by the Ringling home veranda

One of the many huge homes while traveling Sarasota Bay

One view of Howard Tibble's miniature circus

Jess trying out for the circus

I never promised you a rose garden, I said bromeliad

Look close, even miniture circuses have rest areas

A view looking up at the frame of an open air gazebo



One of the many orchids at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens



In Sarasota

The trip from Bimini Bay was uneventful. We saw a few dolphins off our bow and some white pelicans. These birds are much nicer looking than your typical brown pelican. Their eating habits are a bit different than the brown pelican. They do not dive for their food, they swim along and eat what they can catch. They also congregate in large groups. There is one spot on Sarasota bay that the channel is very narrow and can get very shallow if you go out of it. It reminded me of a stretch very famous for being narrow near Fort Myers called the Miserable Mile. In my opinion this stretch was worse.
Today we will be visiting the botanical gardens in Sarasota with our friends Becky and Dun Smith. They are returning from a two week cruise throughout the caribbean. They have a 12 hour layover before going back to CT so we figured a little excursion with us was in order.
Tomorrow we will go to the Ringling Museum and will report back on what we saw. I bet you can't wait!
Below are two pictures one is a visitor we had as we woke up anchored out in Bimini Bay. The other is a large statue near the marina called "Unconditional Surrender" this statue has caused a bit of controversy among the people of Sarasota, some love it others hate it. You can look it up on line and get the full details. You can see in the picture that Jess did a bit of investigative work. I won't tell what she found out, but to all you guys out there it was amazing.

On the move

Our next destination is Sarasota. We left St. Pete. around 1:00pm and had to cross Tampa Bay. We stayed an extra day in St. Pete because of weather and in retrospect we would have been better off leaving yesterday. Weather reports seem to never be as accurate as one hopes for. The winds were blowing worse today than predicted for yesterday. We survived though. This boat handles the seas well. We have been in some pretty rough seas before. Last year while leaving Key West we hit some 7 foot seas for a while and everything was flying all over. I had all to do to stay in my helm seat. Today we had following seas that went as high as 3 feet. Sometimes following seas can be more dangerous than head seas, but experience helps to deal with all types of conditions. We have stopped and anchored in a protected cove for the night before getting to Sarasota. Anchoring out is one of the most peaceful and pretty at times. Tonight we are sitting among many homes so the scenery is not very natural, but at least we are protected.
Below is a picture of us approaching the Sunshine Highway Bridge. If I am not mistaken this is a fairly new new bridge that was built after the original bridge was hit by a large ship.