Sarasota to Punta Blanca Island

Reunited and it feels so good, lol

Ruth has finally arrived.  Yay!  We can’t thank Chuck and Marilee enough for delivering Ruth to Pura Vida (and me).  We were hoping they would stay a night or two on Pura Vida with us, but they could see our eagerness to head south after mooring in Sarasota for 10 days.  Knowing the cruising life as they do, they headed on to their next destination for us to get an early start.  We really wanted to spend more time with them.  Before bed, Ruth and I did get a chance to replace the old anchor swivel with the new Mantus swivel.  I feel better about that. 

One of 10 bridges today

We released the mooring ball (S. Mile 75) at exactly 700.  Our plans were to travel 35 to 40 miles and anchor.  Knowing there were 10 bridges which required an opening we didn’t expect to go far.  The first two bascule bridges open at the top of the hour and the 30 minute mark.  The first bridge, Siesta Key, was only about 2 NM from the mooring so we were able to time it easily.  The second bridge, Stickney Point, is about 6 miles past the first.  As we normally travel about 6 knots/hr., it would take one hour.  However, we found ourselves against a strong current allowing us to only average about 5.5 knots at top cruising RPM’s.  Fortunately, the bridge tender was extremely generous and stretched the opening about 7 minutes.  The third, Blackburn Swing Bridge, opened on demand requiring no slow down.  And so this went on most of the day, 7 more bridges of all kinds.  As I’ve mentioned before the bridge tenders of Florida are the best.  They treated us like the professionals they are. 

Tonight's anchor location was chosen from above

We dropped anchor at approximately 1530 much further south than we anticipated near Punta Blanca Island (S. Mile 25).  Our current plan is to continue south and possibly anchor near Cape Sable in three nights (Tuesday) and then travel across Florida Bay to the Florida Keys on Wednesday.  Weather permitting, we may cut the 4 day trip to 3.