Bradenton Pier 77 to Venice, Florida Crow’s Nest

Today we cruised from Bradenton to Venice all on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). It was very windy, 10-13 knots, so between that and the strong current running against us, Taurus was bucking a good deal of the way. 

We passed by Sarasota and more waterfront houses. I was shopping for my Florida waterfront house - someday maybe. 

Sarasota



Waterfront property anyone?


Here’s what it looks like from the water underneath that concrete bridge.

In this pic, the crab pot ball float is green - 
to the left and hard to see.

So here in Florida, boats have to dodge crab pots. These are traps for blue crabs similar to the lobster pots in New England. They sit on the bottom of the water and there is a chain or line with a float attached. All boaters can see is the float. But if the line or chain gets tangled in your props, that’s very bad. So we do everything we can not to run over a crab pot. 

In this picture, the crab pot ball float is red, to the right. 

With the antennae down, Taurus needs 20+ ft. of clearance to get under a bridge. There were two bridges today that were less than 20 ft. - one was 9 ft. and the other was 18 ft. (So close!). So we had to have the Bridge Tenders open those bridges for us. They were both “on demand” which was nice. The 9 ft. Bridge Tender held it open for us. She called on the radio and asked if the “large all-white cabin cruiser” (that’s  us!) was going through the bridge. 


Traffic waiting for us behind a bar similar to those at railway crossings.

The other was a bascule bridge. Both sides open. The boat on the other side came through first since he was running with the current. We were running against the current.  Albee Street Bascule Bridge in Venice, Florida
We made it to our marina, Crow’s Nest. After we tied up, we took a little excursion 
and saw this.  I guess Christmas will come, even to Florida. 

We took a walk out to the Gulf as we are very close in this marina. When we got there, the fish were jumping because something larger was chasing them underneath. This attracts the birds - seagulls, pelicans, and a white bird I didn’t recognize. It was quite exciting!  Fish Feeding Frenzy




And, of course, a beautiful sunset:





Comments

  1. BrickDecember 9, 2021 at 8:15 AM

    “And of course, a beautiful sunset…”
    It is after all called the Florida Suncoast.

    BTW - great sailing yesterday! We were out for five hours and ended up where we started.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Taurus Great LoopDecember 9, 2021 at 5:49 PM

      I didn’t know about the sun coast. Does that hold true for the east side of Florida too?
      So glad you finally got to sail! And were able to get back where you needed to be!

      Delete

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