Clubbing

We are under way northbound in Sarasota Bay, bound for Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida. The past week has been a sort of yacht club tour of the west coast, with docks outnumbering anchorages by an uncharacteristically high margin. And therein lies a short tale, which I will get to momentarily.

Picking up where I left off, the remainder of our overnight passage was calm and uneventful; seas were like glass when I turned in. That turned out to be a very good thing, because we were now close enough to shore to be in pot float territory, whether crab or lobster. The moon had already set, and the only way we could "see" the floats was on radar, practical only in very calm seas.

Fuzzy night shot of what pot floats look like on radar. This string is just astern.

Louise spent her entire watch driving around lines of pot floats and was pretty beat by the 9am change of watch. By contrast, I had only spent perhaps the last 45 minutes of my watch doing the same thing. Louise turned back in shortly after I relieved her. I navigated into the San Carlos Bay entrance and up to the causeway C-Span bridge solo, but bringing the engine back to idle so I could verify the span height brought her back upstairs.

We had planned to just clear through the bridge and drop the hook, but we had perfect conditions and I was up for continuing my morning watch, so we decided to just press on another three hours to a familiar anchorage off Cabbage Key (map), where we had the hook down by 1:30. After afternoon naps for both of us, we tendered ashore to the Inn for dinner.

The Cabbage Key Inn is a raucous place, or so we have heard, at lunch time, having been the inspiration for Cheeseburger in Paradise. Dinner is fine dining and a more staid affair, mostly cottage guests, and we had a well-spaced table on the screened porch at an early hour. In the morning we weighed anchor and made our way north, stopping in a familiar anchorage off Manasota Key for the night (map). We did end up hovering south of the Boca Grande Bridge for 40 minutes, despite timing our arrival exactly for an opening, due to an emergency vehicle that never arrived.

The old air base gate, now in Heritage Park, the median of Venice Avenue.

We can get ashore on Manasota Key in the beach community of Englewood, where there are a couple of dining options, but Louise was feeling crummy, and it was pretty chilly for outside dining. Instead we had the leftovers we had originally planned for the previous night, and in the morning we weighed anchor just in time for the bridge opening and continued north.

While we were still offshore I spent some time looking at our route from San Carlos Bay to St. Pete. On our last pass, we had run offshore from Boca Grande all the way to Tampa Bay, but this time, with a couple of weeks to kill, we would slow-roll up the inside. That's when I discovered that we would basically run the gauntlet of west coast yacht clubs that participate in the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs (FCYC).

Regular readers may recall that we joined the St. Pete Yacht Club last year, in part because we have many friends there and the club and its marina are a convenient "home base" when we visit, and in part because it gives us access to clubs all over the country. As I have mentioned here before, reciprocity with FCYC clubs in particular includes a free night of dockage at each club, once per month. Using our free night at each club we would pass was a no-brainer.

Pavilion at the lesser-known Venice Beach.

We can't get the boat into the club at Captiva Island, so first up was Venice, and that was our next stop after Englewood. It was a short cruise, and we were tied alongside at the Venice Yacht Club (map) just a little after lunchtime. It looked to be a nice club, but aside from the docks and the pool, the club is closed Mondays.

Downtown Venice is vibrant and had many outside dining options, which I discovered on an e-bike ride into town. But at a mile and a half, it's not walking distance from the club, and with the weather still chilly anyway, we did not feel like landing a scooter to ride into town. Instead we walked to the only other option, the nearby Crow's Nest restaurant and marina. It was nicer than we expected for a waterfront joint, and we enjoyed a nice meal on the screened patio under a propane heater.

We had originally booked only the single, free night at the club. But when morning rolled around and it was forecast to be cold and rainy all day, we decided to (gasp) pay for a second night, run the heaters, and enjoy the club for dinner. We're glad we did; the club facilities were very nice and the food was decent. The outside tiki restaurant was closed for the rain, so we ate at a well-distanced table in the bar. Tuesday is bingo night (really) with a limited a la carte menu, but an excellent buffet, and we did one of each.

Dining on St. Armands Circle.

Wednesday we dropped lines for the short cruise to Sarasota and the Sarasota Yacht Club, where we were once again secured (map) just a little after lunch time. This is one of the largest and nicest clubs we've seen to date. We had dinner outside at their casual poolside bar, a fun space with friendly members, but we made a note to return and try their highly rated dining room (the outside tables there were too windy on this evening).

Here again we had made a reservation for just a single night. But after a walk, stag, over to St. Armands Key nearby, I found it to be just within Louise's walking range and with numerous outdoor venues. We opted once again to extend a day, and Thursday evening we returned together and had a nice meal at the casual Cha Cha Coconuts. Shopping and dining on the key is arranged around the large central traffic circle, and both the dining and shopping run the gamut from inexpensive and casual, to trendy, expensive, and chic.

Vector on the dock at Bird Key Yacht Club, from the clubhouse.

Continuing our yacht club tour, yesterday we dropped lines for yet another of the three reciprocal clubs in Sarasota, the Bird Key Yacht Club. The two docks are just 2,000' apart, and a tender ride would be about that long, but in Vector it was a three mile trip around the south end of Bird Key. We tied to the seawall right in front of the club (map), where we became a large part of the view for patrons on the patio at the very popular lunch hour.

There's nothing to get to from this club (St. Armands is a very long walk), but we very much enjoyed a nice dinner on that same patio, with Vector dominating the view. At least Louise had cleaned some of the rust off the port side back in Venice. This morning we dropped lines in time for a 4pm arrival in St. Pete.

Our dinner-table view: sunset reflected in the buildings of downtown Sarasota.

Our plan is to anchor and/or dock near the municipal marina (and our home club) for about a week, after which we'll hit another club or two on our way to Tampa, where I booked two nights at the Convention Center docks. These are an easy bike (or scooter) ride to the office where I have my first cardiology appointment toward the end of the month. From there we will head back around to Clearwater, which was the closest place I was able to get a month-long slip reservation. The plan moving forward will be entirely driven by what I learn at the cardiologist.

Update: We are anchored in a very familiar spot, behind the breakwall of the municipal yacht basin just north of the airport (map). Regular readers may remember we got booted out of here last year, unlawfully. There is speculation that the city and PD have been corrected and there will be no further issues; we shall see. Two other boats were already here when we arrived.