Cortez, Fl. to Sarasota, Fl.

Date: Dec 18, 2019                                          

Arrival Time:  ET                               

Location:   Sarasota, Fl.

Weather:  Cold & windy early, cool & beautiful later     

Sea State:  choppy across Sarasota bay

Destination Tomorrow:  none

Engine Hours:  1364                                                                        

Crew:  Bryce      

Comments: 

Old Man Winter blew in last night with a vengeance.  I suppose he and Mother Nature were arguing.  Around 2030 the boat shifted from pointing dead south to east then dead north, within a few short moments.  As mentioned or implied I was very uncomfortable with our anchorage for several reasons.  First we were down wind of several permanently anchored boats that looked like they could break loose at any moment, in steady 20 knots of wind.  I also knew that during the night the winds would shift from the north and increase back to 20 knots.  I was wrong about the latter.  Around 2030 we swung as predicted but the wind blew up to 35 knots for about 30 minutes accompanied by hard blinding rain.  I guess the good news is we were now upwind of the other boats.  Holy Toledo Hawkeye, what a ride. 

There wasn’t much sleep last night and the rain continued into the morning.  After it slowed we

2 more today

pulled up anchor at 1050 and headed south toward Sarasota.  This would include an ICW trip then a run through the Sarasota Bay.  With the strong northerly winds came extremely low tides.  In fact, we grounded twice.  One time was in the middle of the ICW between the Green and Red markers in 5 feet of water.  Actually, we just plowed through the bottom.  The excitement of the day was Bryce landing  two more Spanish Mackerels trolling through Sarasota Bay.  We pulled into the Marina Jacks mooring field at 1330 where I plan to stay an undetermined period of time, due to weather and easy access for Bryce’s departure and Ruth, Chuck and Marilee’s arrival. 

PV, Sarasota, the Slayer and the Old Seadog

Bryce and I walked to PF Change in Sarasota and determined this city of about 57,000 is absolutely stunning.  Everything, including Marina Jacks is first class.  Sarasota is extremely clean and all buildings and streets look brand new.  Tomorrow we’ll do more touring in the city.