|
Ahoy, friends. We departed from Clearwater at 10am and set course for our next destination. It was chilly and as we entered the Gulf we knew we were in for a rough ride. We didn’t anticipate it to be quite as rough as it turned out to be. We encountered 25 mile per hours winds. By the time we reached the inlet to St. Petersburg, we were both feeling a bit queezy from the swells. (see photo ) However , it gave us the opportunity to achieve one of Richard’s childhood dreams. Richard spent his formative years in St. Petersburg and dreamed of someday owning a boat large enough to safely cruise under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. So the Suki Sweet II made it’s way to “Richard Dasch history.”
Once in the Intracoastal Waterways, we both enjoyed the calm. Richard took the poetic license to say, “This sure beats the hell, out of being beaten the hell out of…” We laughed and amused ourselves at Richard’s quick wit. We approached a low bridge that required calling on Channel 9 to the bridge operator for passage. We tried and tried, “This is the Suki Sweet II requesting passage,” only to have the bridge operator scold us for not calling. Turns out our emergency VHF radio was not working. So after waving and using sign language, the bridge gal let us through. It was an old fashioned bridge that actually turned, instead of lifting. (see photo ) We since discovered that our emergency VHF radio has a little button on it that says “high and low.” High lets you call out. We were on low. ;-) We enjoyed the drive through Sarasota and I’ve become quite the little navigator. It’s been great having the Garmin with the touch screen, but you still have to read the charts. And Richard is becoming a good listener to my directions. The sun was beginning to dip when we realized we still had quite a way to go toward reaching our night-time destination – Useppa Island . Since our tummies had long settled, we realized that the only way to make it to Useppa before nightfall was to go for it and that meant back out into the Gulf. So we headed out and were delighted to find calmer seas. Our goal was to enter via Boca Grande into Port Charlotte. Boca Grande is the Tarpon Fishing Capitol of the World. It has been alleged that Jacques Cousteau said Boca Grande is one of the few places on the planet that is unsafe to dive, because of the mammoth hammerhead sharks. Richard told me this as we approached the Boca Grande pass. The channel in B.G. is much like that of the Withlacoochee so we had to head miles out into the Gulf, to avoid the shoals that line the north side. The sun began to set, but not before we saw the sign for Useppa Island Club (see photo ). This turned out to be an amazing place. It’s a private island and for those of you who love Yankeetown, they have an Izaak Walton Restaurant in their clubhouse where we enjoyed delicious tuna and grouper, but not quite as good as Richards. We wish you were all here with us, and if any of you get a big enough boat to all come, we would be happy to be your Navigator! More about our discoveries at Useppa to come… Satellite Map of Useppa Island Love to all, Leslie & Richard |
