August 5, 2009

Although we anchored at a bird sanctuary, it actually wasn’t horrible for me. I slept in the aft cabin with the hum of the fans and earplugs to drown out the continuous squawking. But this was Harry’s first night without air conditioning and he didn’t adapt well to the lack of air in the aft cabin. So he slept in the cockpit…or should I say he laid in the cockpit and listened to the birds all night long. But that didn’t put a damper on the excitement we were experiencing. We are really doing this! We are living the dream! Sleep or no sleep, birds or no birds, we were happy to be there.

We left Egmont Key just after sunrise. Our original plan was to go to Charlotte Harbor, all the way up to Punta Gorda and hang out there through the weekend so we could see Jack Mosley and the Jack Mosley Band play. However, we spoke with Jack and he picked up a Friday night gig at the White Elephant Tiki Bar on Manasota Key near Englewood, FL. This is works out even better for us, no need to travel up Charlotte Harbor and back down again. Jack told us how to get into the anchorage right at the White Elephant – so this became our next destination.

Once again the winds were non-existent. As we left Egmont Key, we could see storms to the north. We listened to the weather and learned they were moving north east, so we were in good shape. While motoring (due to no wind) I noticed that the winds were starting to pick up, so I suggested we start sailing. With the mainsail already hoisted, we pulled out the headsail and I steered the boat to catch the wind. We were sailing along nicely and loving every minute of it, until suddenly a gust of wind caught us and there were whitecaps in the Gulf. Apparently, the storm that was supposed to be moving north either turned south or grew immensely and was suddenly right on top of us. Amazingly, we held it together and did the right thing. I turned the boat into the wind and we rolled in the headsail. We then double reefed the main and turned the boat back to the south. We were concerned about entering the Venice Inlet to the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) with these winds. The Inlet can be a challenge in calm seas. As we reached the inlet, we brought down the mainsail and surveyed the entrance. The storm and calmed some, and we decided to enter. The jetties were lined with onlookers watching our yacht rock back and forth through the entrance and then into the calm of the ICW. Once on the ICW, the clouds disappeared and it was warm, sunny and calm. It was a beautiful cruise, and we once again had dolphin swimming along side – they seem to like the Gypsy Wind.

As we reached our first bridge, I could not steady the binoculars enough to see the name of it. So I hailed the bridge by marker, and she replied, “Gypsy Wind this is Hatchet Creek Bridge and our next opening is in 15 minutes”. As we stood bye for the opening, I asked the bridge tender the name of the next bridge. She advised me it would be the Venice Avenue Bridge. I thanked her for the information, gave her a wave and a smile as we passed under the bridge, and got ready to hail the next one. Apparently, the bridge tenders were communicating with each other, because as we passed under the Venice Avenue Bridge, the bridge tender advised us the name of the next bridge. This went on through every bridge on the ICW. It was cool. Once we passed under the Tom Allen Bridge in Lemon Bay, we turned starboard toward the anchorage and maneuvered our way through several boats moored there, to where we could see the Tiki Bar where Jack would play. We dropped the hook and smiled…this is just how it was supposed to be.