Sarasota

We are now in Sarasota. We've been sailing since Sunday, with anchorages along the way. We decided to take a short break and tie up at Marina Jack's in Sarasota. We plan on anchoring out tonight and setting out early tomorrow morning for Venice. The trip here from New Port Richie was great except for one small incident. As we were leaving New Port Richie we had to navigate down a very narrow channel with homes and private docks along both sides. A sudden gust of wind pushed us sideways and we hit one of the docks, causing some slight damage. We had to wait for an hour for the owner to come and inspect the damage. He was very gracious and seemed more impressed with the boat than with the damage to his dock. Our friends Julie and Tim drove over from their house and agreed to pick up the materials to repair the dock and the owner said that was all we needed to do. So we set out on our quest.
We anchored in the Gulf for two nights. The wind was out of the east, so it was relatively calm along the shore. The third night we tucked into a little cove in the Manatee River near Bradenton. It was great to have three straight days of actual sailing. We even got to use the new spinnaker for a while on one of the days.
We took a lot of pictures and it's hard to pick a few to post. We had spectacular sunsets and sunrises and saw lots of dolphins (some of which swam so close to us we could hear their breath.)
The dog was a stray who adopted her owner by crawling into his dingy to give birth to her pups.
Right next to the marina there is a park with a bar right on the beach. People anchor their boats in the cove and dingy ashore for a drink. We stopped in for a beer and listened to some great steel drum music.
Ah...it's a tough job, but someone has to do it.