Southbound Part One : Spanish Mackerel and Star Gazing

The day before heading southbound to the keys, we said goodbye to Blenker’s Marina. But before we did, we double checked our to-do lists and crossed off the completed tasks, finished stowing all our gear and provisions, and Mack learned how to throw a cast net from our neighbor Ben. 

And not an hour after he picked the thing up for the first time, he caught us a mullet for dinner. Yes, the successful fishing had begun! 

Adam cleaned it and we put it on ice while Mack tried to catch another. He successfully caught a few jellyfish and a little trumpet fish, but no more good eatin’ fish. The sun was high in the sky, the afternoon creeping up on us quickly, so we decided it was time we say goodbye to our neighbors Ben and Milly and a few other friendly folks we’d gotten to know during our stay there. 

Then we boarded Lil’ G, threw the dock lines on for the last time and waved farewell. Adam and I sailed up the Manatee River while Mack kindly drove our truck up to Palmetto so we could park it at Bart, Tyree and Teal’s house while we ventured south. 

We set our anchor in the Manatee River, near Bart’s boat Revival, which is moored just off shore, about five blocks from his house in Palmetto. Then we lowered the dinghy, mounted the motor and Adam set off to find Mack. 

About an hour later, I saw them headed back to the boat and went up on deck to greet them. They motored in close to Lil' G and then Adam swung the motor to the side, throwing them into a series of dinghy donuts. Mack sat on the bow holding his cowboy hat, both their heads thrown back in a fit of laughter. There's no doubt they're still kids at heart and I love witnessing those raw moments. After a few minutes of play, they pulled up along side the boat and I held the bow line while Mack climbed out. At that same moment both Adam and I noticed that the back of the dighy was deflating quickly and the motor was sinking into the water. Adam unscrewed it from the mount and passed it up to me. Then he climbed out and we began hauling the damaged dinghy out of the water to see what the problem was. As we pulled the bow off the water, Adam told Mack “this better not be your fault.” I thought he was joking, but then he went on to say, “I warned you about that rock with the oyster shells on it.” After further conversation, it turns out that Adam wasn’t as clear as maybe he should have been. “Sharp” is one way to describe them but as Mack agrees, “like razorblades” would have made the point more clearly. It was in fact a small slit in the bow of the boat, where Mack had let it lightly drag over a rock with oyster shells on it. That’s why we have a patch kit though, so I dug it out of the dinghy repair box and Adam set to work, while Mack worked on catching us some more dinner fish with the cast net. Then before we lost daylight, Adam put on his climbing harness for a trip up the mast to replace the anchor light and steaming lights. Mack helped haul him up while I took a lookout behind the lens.  

After the days tasks were complete, we sat out on the deck and enjoyed some cold beer, the setting sun and some banter about the trip to come. 

Photo by Mack Talley

Then we slipped into the cabin, and the boys chef’d up some fantastic fresh mullet tacos with peppers, cabbage, cilantro, avocado and lime juice. If this was how we were going to start off the trip, my husband and good friend catching fresh fish and cooking them up for me, I was more excited than before!  

Monday morning, Adam and I left the boat early to run a few last minute errands in town and when we returned to Lil’ G, we found Mack hard at work with the cast net, trying to catch us dinner for the second night in a row. We climbed aboard and all quickly set to work prepping the boat for our departure. We raised the dinghy, dried it, deflated it, folded it and strapped it to the deck in front of the mast. Then we prepped the jib (the front sail) and sheets (the lines used to control the jib), as well as the main sail. After we double checked that everything in the cabin was stowed and secure, we raised the anchor and set off. We planned to sail down the Manatee River into Tampa Bay, and then follow the Intracoastral Waterway between Anna Maria Key and the Florida mainland down into Sarasota Bay. (Actually, the exact same route that we took when we first brought Lil’ G up to Blenker’s Marina from Sarasota, just in the opposite direction.)

The wind was blowing from the northwest which pushed us nicely through Tampa Bay and then beckoned us to tack a few times in order to avoid the shallow shoals and enter the ICW at the markers. Once we were inside the channel markers, we were able to run wing on wing downwind until we reached Ana Maria Bridge, the first of two bridges on the stretch to Sarasota Bay.

When we neared the bridge, we fired up the motor and dropped both the sails. We waited a couple of minutes for the bridge to open and then motored through, waiving to the traffic stopped above us. We cruised onto the second, Cortez Bridge, and were happy to discover that we arrived a few minutes early, rather than a few late. After we passed under the bridge, we raised the sails again, let out our trolling line, and sat back. We flowed down the ICW under sail, slowly but calmly, and enjoyed the view along the way. I was at the tiller when Sarasota Bay opened up in front of us and I heard a strange rattle behind me. I turned around and noticed the trolling line was unraveling and quickly grabbed it. Adam and Mack joined me in the cockpit and quickly confirmed that something was fighting on the line. Together they reeled in and netted a good sized fish with sharp teeth. 

Adam held the net down in the water while Mack retrieved our Gulf waters fishing guide. After a few guesses and a few pages flipped, they discovered it was a Spanish Mackerel, “Excellent” for eating. Fresh fish two nights in a row, it almost seemed to good to be true.

We approached our chosen anchorage on the northern end of the bay, a quiet area with nice protection from the north winds predicted for that night. We set our anchor about a thousand feet from shore, pulled out the Sailor Jerry bottle and said a cheers to a great first day and fresh mackerel for dinner. 

Day 1 Route : Manatee River to Sarasota Bay

The following morning, we woke up just after the sun and set sail for Venice, about 25 miles away. The wind was extremely light, so we motored down Sarasota Bay toward the Ringling Causeway, and then through Big Sarasota Pass, out into the Gulf. 

Out in the Gulf, we raised the sails and all sat out on the deck, enjoying the sunshine, smooth seas and good wind. Around two o’clock, we were only about two miles away from Venice, our destination for the night. Adam figured (without saying anything out loud) that it was a perfect afternoon to practice some emergency drills. He moved to the back of the boat and pulled out a fender. I turned around to see what he was doing, and with genuine curiosity started to ask, “What are you doing with...”, when he chucked it overboard. Immediately it made sense, and I yelled, “Man overboard!” Then I stood there frozen, Mack staring at me with a look of shock. I started whipping my head back and forth from the fender floating away, to the wind indicator, to the sails. Adam stood behind me, saying nothing as if he had actually fallen overboard, while I scrambled to guide the boat back to the fender with Mack’s help. After an unsuccessful tack that brought us somewhat close but not within recovering distance, I calmed myself down a bit, focused on all the tactics I’ve learned and waited for the fender to float away again. Then I positioned it a little past 90 degrees from the boat’s heading and when it seemed the proper distance away, around one hundred feet maybe, Mack and I tacked again and sailed toward our overboard “Adam”. Once we got close, I was able to turn up into the wind a little bit, in an attempt to slow us down, and Mack was able to retrieve “Adam” from our port side. Although it wasn’t a smooth process and Adam did have to give me a few hints after I missed the first time, I was happy it took us around ten minutes (not any longer) to retrieve our fender from the water. 

After our somewhat successful man overboard drill, we headed toward Venice to take a look at a possible anchorage for that night. As we motored into the busy inlet, we could see the small cove we’d been eyeing for an anchorage was not going to work. It was blocked off by small orange buoys and appeared to be under construction along the coastline. Just across the way though, we saw a restaurant and marina called The Crow’s Nest, so we decided to scoot on over for a beer and some appetizers. We tied up in a temporary slip and went into the tavern, where we enjoyed some Olympics highlights, a cold beer and some snacks. Then we headed back to the boat just before sunset, and motored out into the Gulf to find a new anchorage just off the coastline.

                                                                                            Day 2 Route : Sarasota Bay to Venice

We set our anchor with plans to stay the night, but after listening to the weather broadcast and looking at the wind forecast, we decided we had better keep moving in order to reach Charlotte Harbor, a well protected bay, before the bad weather moved in Wednesday afternoon. It was around eight o’clock, not an hour after we had set it, when we pulled up the anchor and raised the sails in light winds. The night was chilly but clear, and the speckled night sky had us all in awe. We spent the first hour picking out constellations, trying to point them out to one another and repeatedly commenting on the beauty of the stars. 

After a couple of peaceful hours out on the water, I figured we had better start some rotating shifts so we wouldn’t all have to stay awake until we neared Boca Grande Pass, which we figured would take at least eight hours. I volunteered to go get some sleep first, which if you know me, is no surprise at all. 

Around three in the morning I woke up to an alarm I’d set and crawled out of the Vberth. I bundled myself up and climbed out into the cockpit. The guys were still in high spirits, chatting and laughing, while I sat there like a zombie. Since there was almost no wind, we decided we’d motor with the main up the last five or six miles to get close to shore and the Boca Grande Pass. Then we'd set an anchor and sleep for three or four hours. About ten minutes later, the motor sputtered and then stopped. We hadn’t kept a close eye on the fuel tank and it had run dry. No problem though. Adam grabbed the second fuel tank from it’s storage spot up on the bow and hooked it up to the motor. Then he pumped the fuel bubble and pulled the cord, but nothing happened. He tried over and over, but without any luck. So, we raised the genoa to join the main and tried to hold a course, close hauled, in two to four knots of wind. After about an hour, we tacked in an attempt to reach the closest shoreline with good depth to anchor. The guys were exhausted and the deck stayed quiet as the time passed and we slowly inched toward land. Finally, around six in the morning we were close enough to shore to set an anchor and climb into our berths for some sleep. Before falling asleep we made a plan to wake up at eight and set out for Boca Grande Pass so we could make it into Charlotte Harbor before the bad weather was predicted to move in that afternoon.   

                                                        Night 2 Route : Venice to Sandfly Key (5 Miles North of Boca Grande Pass)