A McDermott Thanksgiving

We crossed the Revenel Bridge connecting Charleston with Mt Pleasant to share Thanksgiving with Joanne's brother, Paul, and his family. We had picked up Joanne's mother, Marie, in New Port Richey, stopped to purchase a bag of "blood" oranges and visited old friends of Marie at Moose Haven along the way.

Joanne & I stayed at the Shem Creek Inn while Marie stayed in the FROG (Front Room Over Garage) at Paul's House. Before the big turkey dinner we walked around the War Memorial Park alongside the Revenel Bridge.

Links
Shem Creek
Revenel Bridge .
Mt Pleasant War Memorial
PatriotsPoint USS Yorktown

Our Thanksgiving Pictures






So what were we doing since we returned from our cruise "north" with the Punta Gorda Sailing Club? We moved out of our storage building and into our rental house! We have worked on many boat projects - The bimini was restiched. The UV cover on the genoa was restiched. We had Eagle's Wings bonded: the mast, forestay, backstays and upper shrouds were connected with electrical wire to the keel to mitigate damage any future lightning strikes. I finished installing a Link Pro battery monitor and a Blue Sky AC meter. I also added insulation to the top of the refrigerator, recaulked the instrument panel at the helm and adjusted the rudder angle indicator among other things. I still need to stand on my head to replace the water pump on the generator! Boat maintenance never ends!
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Zigin, Zagin, Salin & Aground

We awakened to a beautiful clear blue day at Cape Haze Anchorage to wave goodbye to Cavatina and then Sea Lark. We too weighed anchor for a breeze passage down the ICW and turned east into Charlotte Harbor. A 20+ ENE wind forced us to zig and zag our way east around Cape Haze and its eastern shoals before we could set a course for Punta Gorda. Zig-Zagging, of course, seems to take forever, but east of Marker 5, we turned north and sailed with a double reefed main, a spot of genoa unrolled. With apparent winds sometimes reaching 27 kts, we made quick time up the harbor and found our way in.v Just off our dock, we ran aground as we got to close to the far side of the canal to turn around and dock on our port side. We wiggled off eventually and docked with no problem.

Sherwood says he didn't sign up for this kind of sailing! Was he ever happy to be on land! He checked out the house right away and made himself at home. Hereally likes the lanai.


First order of business - wash clothes! We have a long list of boat repairs , none serious, to work on. More later.



















.............................................................................Zig-Zagging Around Cape Haze...............................................
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------Our rental house in Punta Gorda -----

Cape Haze Don Pedro State Park

Today we had a leisurely motorsail down the ICW through many bridges to Cape Haze, a neat little anchorage near Don Pedro State Park. We jumped into our dinghies and went exploring, swimming in the sparkling Gulf and collected some shells.

We then gathered at Sealark, where we discussed the highlights of our 3-week trip. We all agreed that Caladessi State Park was superb. I liked Gulfport a lot, while the others enjoyed St. Petes. Tomorrow, we are headed back to Punta Gorda to Crescent Drive, where we are renting a house while we wait for our house to sell.


Our cruise leaders, Sandi and Chuck, are going on to Matchala for a club event and Donna & Don are going over to anchor at Boca Grande Bayou. All in all, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather, great sailing, but most of all, a great bunch of people in Punta Gorda Sailing Club. Thanks so much to our cruise leaders, Sandi and Chuck, on Sealark and to Don and Donna on Cavatina. Can't wait for the next cruise!!

Higel Marine Park, Venice

Today we had a gorgeous motorsail down the ICW and tied our boats to a dock at Higel Park in the beautiful town of Venice.

We then walked to the downtown area to check out the shops and boutiques.

Check out the picture of Sandi and Chuck, who discovered ice cream happy hour - "2 for 1" - yummy treats.

We finished the day off by having dinner together at the Crow's Nest Restaurant and listening to some live entertainment - nice 2-piece band.

Tomorrow we are off to Cape Haze.

Sarasota and onto Venice

Yesterday we had a picture perfect sail from Long Boat Key into the Sarasota anchorage just off O'Leary's Tiki Hut. We dinghed to shore, walked around the town and hung out at the gorgeous white-columned library, where the crew of s/v Sealark caught up on reading their emails.

We all purchased some paperbacks at the library's store and headed over to the Tiki Hut for some libations.

Check out s/v Cavatina at sunset with the Ringling Bridge in the background. Wish you were here!

We are slowly making our way back to Punta Gorda and today's stop will be Venice.

Exploring Bahia Beach Anchorage

Hi, folks,

The last 2 days we've been exploring new anchorages - On Monday we anchored off the Veterans Hospital near Johns Pass off the ICW. It was fun motor sailing down the ICW - sunny, beautiful day with low humidity. What could be better?

Yesterday, we stopped at Treasure Island briefly to swap out our depth finder at the Nexus (brand of depth finder) dealer's place, then traveled across Tampa Bay to Bahia Beach. Our cruise leaders, Chuck and Sandi, heard that this was a great destination from cruisers in the St. Pete's Yacht Club. We found high tide depths of 11 - 14 ft all the way in to a canal type basin bordered by pretty mangroves and a few large homes. There is a Resort called Little Harbor (Bahia Beach) that has transient dockslips for $1.50 per ft per night (30 ft miniumum) and a reasonable restaurant. It might be a good stopover for the club or any cruiser who wants some luxury for a day or so. As for our group, we followed a meandering Crab Creek to a basin that was very pretty and quiet. Richard and I explored in our dinghy and later that night, played card games with our fellow cruisers aboard s/v Cavatina.

Today we are off to explore Anna Maria Island - looks like it will be a 4-hour motorsail from here. Pictures will be added later to this report when Captain Richard has time! -

Update - We had no depth problems exiting Bahia Beach at low tide, thank goodness - plenty of water all the way out to Tampa Bay. We watched Cavatina get stuck on the edge of the channel, but Sealark pulled them out. Anna Marie Island looked GORGEOUS going in the channel, but Sealark ran aground just inside Bimini Bay. Since Cavatina couldn't pull them off we decided to fore go going into Bimini Bay and went on to Long Boat Key. Eventually Sealark freed themselves using their sail and took advantage of a rising tide! They caught up with us and anchored near Moore's Restaurant at Long Boat Key. Eagle's Wings decided to tie up at the restaurant's dock (free). Will try their stone crab legs tonight. All in all an eventful day!