Yacht Club Cruise North

All along the Florida and EastCoast ICW, ospreys build nests on the channel markers and raise their chicks in the spring.  We observed a few nests while visitng yacht clubs from Venice to Clearwater on a eighteen day cruise traveling with Joe and Diana on s/v True Colors.

Anchored at Cape Haze, stars filled the night sky our first night out.  That afternoon a dinghy ride a short way up  the ICW and  through a Mangrove passage delivered us to Don Pedro State Park for a walk on the beach. 

We worked our way up the ICW stopping at Venice Yacht Club on our way to Sarasota where we stopped at the Field Club for a taste of old world elegance and the Bird KeyYacht Club where Joanne brought Eagle's Wings perfectly to the dock right in front of the lunch crowd (Remember Captain Ron at St Hogg?). We visited with our friends, Chuck and Trudy, on s/v Hideaway while anchored at Longboat Key. Then, we journeyed up the Manatee River to visit at the Bradenton Yacht Club before sailing up Tampa Bay to St Petersburg.

Left True Colors sails under the Sunshine Skyway on the way to St. Petersburg.  Constance, ever so thougthful, surprized us with   a delicous carrot cake that she had the St Petersburg Yacht Club bake for Joanne's birthday. Yum!!

By the way, the club offers an excellent breakfast every morning at an unbeatably low price!


We anchored at Gulfport overnight on our way from St. Petersburg to Clearwater where we tied up to a long floating dock for two nights at the Carlouel Yacht Club - and then, two more nights at the Clearwater Yacht Club. 

With Sailing Buddies, Joe & Diana

At Carlouel, walking the beautiful white sand beach populated only with shore birds all the way to Caladesi State Park, swimming in Carouel's warm swimming pool and just feeling a quiet evening fade to a starry night around a fire on the beach proved to be a wonderful "Spring Break."  The food at Carlouel is very delicious and reasonably priced. (The word from the members is that they recruited their chef from a 5-star resort!) 

Down the beach at Clearwater, Spring Break was in high gear - the beach, shops and restuarants were overflowing as we rode the Jolly Trolley all the way to Dunedin and back .  At Clearwater YC we enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow boaters while a cold front blew through on the first night with the only rain and cloudy skies of our trip .  

True Colors ventured into the Gulf for the first time for a downwind sail from Clearwater through the Mullet Key cut and on to the Mantee River. At Clearwater we learned that a dinghy dock provides access to the Emerson Point Preserve on the Mantee River.  The dock is a few hundred yards up the river from the Snead Island Anchorage location listed by Claiborne Young in his website - Salty Dog Cruiser's Net.   Anchored here along the preserve, we dinghied in to walk pleasant trails and scope out the area.  We found the dinghy dock in great shape, pavilions with grills for picnics, clean restrooms and even a small beach which might serve as a dinghy landing.   Click on the word pictures to see our snapshots.  For more information click Emerson Point Preserve Visitor Information  and  More Information.

From the Manatee River,  we motored down to the sleek Sarasota Yacht Club for one night continuing to the Venice Yacht Club and then down to Pelican Bay for a night.  We sailed almost all the way back to Punta Gorda first at 6 - 7 knots with full main and genoa to Marker Five and then under spinnaker to Ponce and home. 

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