Author: Steve

Captain’s Log – Wed 3/5/25

Today we enjoyed a lazy day in Pelican Bay off of Cayo Costa. It was cloudy and super breezy ahead of the cold front that came through, then wet although the worst of the storms ended up well North of us. We had made it far enough south yesterday to this protected anchorage to avoid the worst of it. With the mostly cloudy skies, the solar only generated 1.5kw, so we couldn’t fully recharge the battery bank. We’ll see how it does tomorrow.

It is promising to see the progress at Cayo Costa. The island was ground zero for hurricane Ian. I’ve stopped here the last five or six years but haven’t been able to go to the park since Ian destroyed it. They will let you on the beach if you come by boat on the Gulf side, just not from Pelican Bay and there’s still no camping yet. New docks are in progress with what look to be 15’ tall pilings that should survive future hurricanes. Perhaps they will be back open when we return home n the fall. 🤞

We used the day to take care of a number of things on the boat. There’s never a lack of things to do on n a boat. I finished the tie down straps for the spare fuel cans on the deck, made some new jack lines from some climbing webbing that’s rated to 4000lbs, mounted a storage net for our navigation charts. The VHF radio microphone cord cover was flaking off, so it removed wha was left and taped it up with electrical tape. I don’t know why B&G can’t make a cord that lasts… or is at least replaceable. I do not recommend it, will probably swap it out for a Garmin unit in the fall.

We capped off an our lazy day with a flatbread pizza and a Netflix movie.

Captain’s Log – Day 5 – 3/4/25

We departed the dock at Venice Yacht Club at 9:00am. The wind was forecast to be 15-20Kts from the exact direction we wanted to go. We can’t sail directly into the wind so we opted for a calmer passage motoring down the inter-coastal waterway.

After a lazy day of motoring onto the wind listening to “No Shoes Radio”, we anchored in Pelican Bay off of Cayo Costa around 3:00pm. This is the place I think of when I hear the Jimmy Buffet song, “One Particular Harbor”. It’s a beautiful, protected little anchorage where we’ll hunker down for the cold front coming through tomorrow.

Captain’s Log – Day 4 | Mon 3/3/25

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Today was the first Monday of no more Monday’s. First thing in the morning, I replaced the faulty circuit that was waiting for us at the dock. That seems to have taken care of the freezer issue. Whew!

We departed Sarasota Yacht Club right at noon, an hour before high tide, to transit the shallow Big Pass inlet. There were no issues. The shallowest depth we saw was 8’.

We went to Pop’s Tiki Bar on the water. It’s become a traditional stop over the past 6 years or so. We met crew member Dan and his daughter there to watch the sunset and have dinner.

We had planned two days here but we actually need to leave tomorrow as there is a cold front and storms coming Wednesday. We don’t want to get stuck here until Thu.