In our research, we had thought an anchorage just inside the Manatee River would be a good place to stay the night. When we woke up and saw the winds not decreasing at all, we were a little leary of whether we should leave or not. The Manatee River was only about twenty five miles away, so we felt we could make it. We should have remembered the day before…
We left the marina early and followed our path that we brought in, out. The tide was rising, so we had a little more water leaving than we did coming in. The winds however had not settled down one bit. We made our way to the main channel through Tampa Bay and followed it southwest. The waves were choppy, but we were heading right into them. This decreased our speed, and made for a bumpy ride. As we were approaching the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (I-275) which is the big bridge that crosses from St. Petersburg to Bradenton, I noticed a large fishing boat approaching us from behind. It had been following us for a while, and now that we were about to go under the bridge it was going to be going through the small opening with us. WTF!? On top of this, the waves were increasing and now we had breaking waves coming at us. This is a first for us: trying to get through an inlet with breaking waves. I increased the throttle and was swearing at the fishing boat trying to pass us in these conditions. As the waves would break, I would lose control for a few seconds while the boat recovers from the current and action caused by the waves, then try to keep clear of the passing boat while trying to anticipate the next breaking wave and repeat over again. We finally made it through and got to where we needed to turn off out of the channel toward Bradenton/ Manatee River.
We made the turn and headed toward the first marker for the channel into Manatee River. Florida has been so crazy with the shallow waters- A huge bay that looks like you could go right across has only three foot depths or less across most of it, so you definitely have to have either local knowledge or just follow the channel markers and hope for the best, which is not always guaranteed. Listening to the radio, there is a constant call for TowBoat US or SeaTow, which are the two boat towing companies to call if you run aground. We now membership to both companies, as one isn’t always available and it is worth the membership fee for piece of mind. Working our way in the river, we made it to the deep waters where we could breathe a little easier.
Our first destination in mind was an anchorage not too far up the river. The river is about a half mile wide and fairly deep across, but doesn’t offer much protection, especially with the direction the wind was coming from. The waters were still choppy and it didn’t look like we would be too happy dropping anchor in this, and the wind was supposed to stay high and rain was expected to follow shortly. We scoped out the anchorage and decided that it was not a good spot. We started looking at marinas in the area and started calling them to see if there was availability for us and rates. Florida has also been expensive for docks as it is now ‘in season’ and many of the marinas are full. We spoke to a couple of places and decided to go to Safe Harbor Regatta Pointe Marina, which is in Palmetto, Florida, just across the bridge from Bradenton. The rates were ‘reasonable’ and they had room for us. Upon contact they directed us to come to the fuel dock for paperwork and they would then direct us to our slip. I tried to not stop at the fuel dock and asked if we could just go to the slip, but they insisted. OK- I just didn’t want to have to try to dock twice…
Once the paperwork was taken care of, I had to depart and turn the boat around to leave the main entrance to get to another side of the marina where our slip was. Of course the wind made me work to get us turned around and I needed the assistance of a dock hand to get us pointed in the right direction. Once out of the fuel dock, we made our way to our slip and was thankful there was someone there to assist with docking. This time we made it in with no problems and was happy to be tied up and secured. Now that we were at a marina, Lauren needed to get some (all) of the laundry taken care of. We hadn’t had laundry facilities available to us in some time, so we were low on clean clothes, but not quite out of them yet- this would take some time. In the mean time I had contacted my Uncle Jeff, who lives in Sarasota, and let him know we were close to him. He was excited to hear this and told us he would come over to visit later in the evening. Lauren continued with the laundry and Jeff showed up with food. We all hung out, ate and caught up, with Jeff and I staying up until 3am bullshitting on the back deck of the boat. Lauren had called it a night earlier, so we just kept talking and talking…
Day 2- We got going and departed on the bikes. We headed for the Village of the Arts but came upon a (gasp!) brewery on the way- they seem to find us now. We stopped at Motorworks Brewing, and it was just in time as it started to rain a little as we were going inside. We had a pint and since the rain stopped, we continued to the Village of the Arts: “The Village of the Arts is an eclectic live-work community made up of colorful historic cottages that house everything from award-winning restaurants to specialty shops, studios, healing arts, bakeries and Bradenton’s best art galleries. A stroll through our color-filled streets offers a little something for everyone, whether you’re a foodie, a vinyl enthusiast or a quilt lover, with services that range from knife sharpening to yoga.” Yeah- it was a pretty cool area to explore and have lunch. After lunch we decided we should get back because the rain was expected to continue, and we high tailed it back but still got pretty soaked as it had started coming down again. The rest of the night was spent hanging out on the boat and having dinner while the weather rolled past us.
Day 3- The weather continued to be ugly and was forecast for nastiness all day. At least we had the Browns to watch. Why do we do this? Continue to have false hope week after week? F the Browns. After the debacle, I took a nap and Frank got some walks in. We plan on leaving tomorrow for Sarasota so we also did some route planning and preparations for departure, such as filling water tanks and making sure we would be ready to go first thing in the morning.