Day 39 - Clearwater Beach to Longboat Key - An Impromtu Swim

We woke up to another beautiful day.  The charter boats Super Queen and Gypsy Queen loaded up and made their way out of the harbor for a half day of fishing.  We were on our way to the fuel dock by 8:35 am and to our next port near Sarasota by 9:15 am.  Travelling south on the ICW, downtown Clearwater was to the east and Sand Key to the west.  There are mostly hotels lining the Gulf on the keys and homes south of downtown, with an occasional restaurant or pub in between.  As usual, we were watching our depth and made sure to stay in the marked channel, which was as low as 7 feet in spots.  Soon we were treated to the high jump of a dolphin right in front of the boat, and later to three dolphin (one baby) swimming with the boat at the stern.  I could have reached out and touched the closest!

 

 

 

We went through Boca Ciega Bay, passing a boat with two people in Santa suits and a few others with holiday decorations.  At St. John’s Pass we went under the Treasure island Causeway Bridge, with St. Petersburg to the east.  To the west are small keys, a few of which make up the Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge.  The remains of an old shipwreck are visible near there.  Soon we saw the giant Sunshine Bridge at the entrance to Tampa Bay.  We stayed in the ICW, skirting the Bay to Anna Maria Sound.   The Cortez Bridge stands at MM 87.5 and there we saw a number of mullet fishermen, who were fishing with nets.

 

 

 

 

Sarasota was off to the southeast as we reached the Longboat Key Club at 2:30 pm.  The large marina is part of a golf/tennis/yachting resort.  We called on the radio to get our slip location and there was some confusion over just where it was – we were told it is near the flagpole, but there happens to be 2 flagpoles.  After some better directions, we were able to find our slip.  But there was even more confusion as we pulled into the slip, which was a typical Florida slip in the sense that there is a very short finger pier with large posts on each side.  I need to lasso at least one post before I can step on the dock to tie in the stern.   A well-meaning staff member was directing us in, shouting orders to both Randy, who was driving and me, who was preparing to handle the lines as we usually do when “sterning in”.  The directions were coming fast and furious and were very different from our way of attaching lines and I was running up and down the bow changing lines and creating loops in the lines prior to lassoing the posts.  I was now rushed and stressed and that’s when I can get into trouble.  Sure enough, I started to lose my balance midship, where the bow rail stopped while we were still backing in.  At that point, I knew I was either going to fall into the concrete post, on the dock, or otherwise hurt myself by trying to hang on.  I could see that there was room for me in the water between the boat and dock and by jumping straight in, I would avoid hitting anything.  So in I jumped!  I came up and immediately swam away from the boat to the empty slip next to us.  The dock staff helped me out of the water and I was fine but the adrenaline was pumping hard and I had lost my sunglasses. 

 
Later, Randy and I thoroughly reviewed our docking procedures with this type of slip so we do not have a repeat of this experience!  Another example of how different boating is in different parts of the country with very different water and docking conditions.  While I showered, Randy checked in and came back with 4 internet passwords – one for each device, and signing on was a process.  I decided to forego internet entirely here as we were only staying one night.  On the way to check-in, Randy ran into someone we knew from Diversey Yacht Club, Pauly.  He helped deliver a boat from Miami to Longboat Key and was headed back to Miami.  We ate at the marina restaurant that night, Portofino, and had very good shrimp marsala and seafood risotto.  We turned our Christmas lights on as we do every night.