All aboard Spray!: On Vacation

We've been making the most of our lack of a travel schedule as we meander along Florida's Gulf Coast, looking for Paradise. It does feel like we are on vacation.

The last blog entry had us with a couple more days to stay at Marina Jacks in downtown Sarasota, and we made the most of those days. Last Wednesday Sheila and Jeryl attended an Einstein Circle discussion, then a quick trip to the Ringling Circus Museum, while Alex and I took his 1972 MGB out to his garage/shop space to see his Florida car collection and take a spin in his cool 1941 Plymouth Coupe. Great fun.

Alex and Jeryl loaned us a car for the night so we could hit the Publix to stock Spray's pantry. On Thursday morning we returned the car to them (many thanks!) and filled and drained appropriate tanks before departing at 11 am. We headed North about 7 miles to the home of Priscilla and Dudley, where we squeezed into their dock on Sarasota Bay :

They summer on Islesboro island across from Castine and winter in their beautiful house here. Right after we arrived Dudley showed up with Chinese take-out for lunch and that night Priscilla cooked us a fantastic supper. We are definitely getting spoiled by all this hospitality. We walked the dogs around the neighborhood which has a neat variety of homes.

On Friday the fun continued. First Doug Endicott showed up and took Dudley and us to the Ringling Art Museum (see top picture) and Mansion for tours. We bought our first Castine house through Doug's realty brokerage and now he is the best booster for the Sarasota area and a great tour guide.

After lunch Dudley and I hopped into his 16 ft. outboard boat and buzzed 20 miles north to check out the amazing fleet of paddle/peddle/wind powered watercraft assembled for the 2014 Everglades Challenge, a 300 mile 'race' from near Tampa down to Key Largo, via the Everglades. Quite an interesting collection of adventurous people and their boats.

We had to zip back in time for Alex and Jeryl to pick us up for drinks at their condo, then supper and music at this hopping joint. Whew, what a day!

No rest on Saturday as Dudley, Sheila and I took Dudley's boat up to Longboat Pass Inlet and then out to the Gulf to watch the Everglades Challengers on the 1st leg of their adventure as they headed south. The wind was calm so at this stage the paddlers had the advantage. Here you can see several Challenge boats on a calm Gulf of Mexico :

On the way back in we stopped at Jewfish Island to see some neat homes of Dudley's friends (Dudley is the friendliest guy in the world and thus knows everyone).

When we returned to Spray, Dudley and I jockeyed a Bimini top onto his larger Albin boat. Then it was high tide, necessary to float Spray off the dock, so we started her up and bade farewell.

We crossed Sarasota Bay for a short cruise to Buttonwood Harbor on Longboat Key, where we anchored overnight and then got an early start on Sunday, heading back southwards past Sarasota, on the inside to Venice, then on the outside down to Boca Grande Pass and back inside to Pelican Bay, at Cayo Costa State Park. It was a long 55 mile day.

[Important Milestone : when we started south from Sarasota Bay, we actually began our return trip back to Maine. Even though we are moving southwards, we are now on our way home.]

So it was Sunday evening and we were anchored among maybe 20 other boats, in 6 feet of water, near the docks of this interesting state park. It is on one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands in Florida, and accessible only by boat. For our evening dog walk we crossed the island to the Gulf side, where there are campgrounds for tenting, and also some rustic cabins. This looked like a place where we can stay a while. So we did stay for three days.

On Monday we took the dogs for a romp on a nearby beach, then walked them to the campground where Sheila could take a refreshing (ie.: cold) outdoor shower, then back to Spray where we left the dogs so we could take a 2 mile dinghy ride to Cabbage Key. We had a nice lunch at the popular restaurant there to celebrate our 35th (!!) wedding anniversary. Here's the view :

On the dinghy ride back we detoured to the "tunnel of love", which is an inlet near the south end of Cayo Costa Island that narrows to a sinuous creek through the mangroves. Our dinghy just barely fit through and we were lucky that it was high tide. Eventually we popped out into a small lagoon and landed at a sandy spot. A few steps brought us to a very remote section of the Gulf-side beach, where there was a guy named 'Ray' to welcome us :

When Sheila waded in Ray bolted off like lightning.

The next day (Tuesday) we again started with dog play on the beach, then back to Spray for some fun maintenance work, then to the park for a walk down the Cemetery Trail up to the north end of the island. We kept the dogs well leashed to keep them from chasing critters such as armadillo, and to keep them out of the abundant poison ivy. Poison ivy is native here so park officials do not remove it (nor even warn you about it!).

Wednesday we walked the dogs on the Gulfside Trail and then took the most amazing dinghy ride into a small bay a few hundred yards south of the park docks. In that bay were maybe 20 manatees and a guy there says that its mating time for them. Sheila rowed as manatees swam all around us. We also glimpsed our first alligator of the trip in there. Here's Sheila's photo of some manatee nostrils :

At 2 pm we hoisted anchor to head for our next port of call which was North Captiva Island, an 8 mile cruise south, past Cabbage Key. We were headed to Safety Harbor which has a shallow, tricky entrance. Fortunately we had 2 advantages :

- It was high tide.

- We were invited there by Castine summer residents Sandra and Deane Richardson, and Deane had taken his boat out to the ICW to meet us and guide us into Safety Harbor. Local knowledge is a good thing.

Sandra and Deane own a lovely home in the Safety Harbor Club development, and the club has a nice dock setup where Spray is now tied up. This place is very cool : an island community accessed only by boat. No golf course, no cars, essentially no stores, and super casual. The roads are 6 ft. wide sandy paths and travel is by electric golf cart, bicycle, or foot. South of the developed area are many miles of nature preserve and 3 miles of empty beach on the Gulf shore. There are a few restaurants including Barnacle Phil's where we 4 had supper last night.

Sandra and Deane are super friendly people and know almost everyone on the island (same as they do in Castine) and they've been great hosts to us, arranging for dockage, opening their home (including shower!) to us, and guiding us around the island. They really enjoy having Katie and Riggs visit.

One aspect of our visit here is that we are riding out 2 days of weather, with thunderstorms/rain Thursday and strong wind Friday, and Safety Harbor is living up to its name. Thursday we were treated to breakfast by Sandra, stayed and chatted while it stormed outside (seemed like a tropical rain forest surrounded by their lush yard), and then Deane made us all lunch. Katie and even Riggs were good house guests.

After the storm we retreated back to Spray at the dock. For our evening dog walk we ended up on the Gulf side beach which was of a completely different temperament from yesterday, not smooth and welcoming but rough and noisy. After clouds all day the sun broke through just before sunset. It was spectacular!

Today (Friday) we helped Deane and Sandra with some community planting they are doing then went to a nice lunch at the Over The Waterfront restaurant, which is a stones throw from Spray's dock. Deane played a large roll in the rebuilding of that restaurant and it sure is over the waterfront.

We will spend another day or so here, then we will head down to Ft. Myers and turn up the Caloosahatchee River towards Lake Okeechobee. Are we leaving Paradise?

Oh, 2 more things :

- at night we've been visited by these odd critters. Can you identify them (another photo from Sheila) ?