Pegasus May Cruise
Richard and Linda Cox’s May Cruise
 We take a two-week cruise every year the last two weeks in May. This year we had no definite destination in mind. We were accompanied by our friends John & Carol on their Watkins 36. We decided to meet at the convention center in Tampa. We stayed at the city docks. I know that a lot of you are familiar with them because of the club cruise from a couple of years ago. I am happy to announce the birdcall machine is no longer functioning so it was a very quiet evening. We took the trolley to Ybor City for dinner. It’s quite a nice ride. Even though there is no power at the docks it was so cool we probably wouldn’t have used the AC anyway. We had a nice sail across the bay and decided not to push it and just anchor in the Vinoy basin, which turned out to be a good decision because bad weather moved in that evening and it rained the whole next day. We just relaxed and enjoyed the rain. Again it was really cool and with the windshield in we were able to leave the hatch open and get the cool air.
 The next morning we headed for the Manatee River, and then on to Sarasota. We anchored on the north side of Marina Jack. It’s much calmer there. We took the dinghys over to a little place just south of Marina Jack called Cocktails in Paradise where you can tie up right on their beach. They charge you $2.00 and give you a claim ticket. You can actually leave them there the whole day if you want. We found a really unique Cuban restaurant and had a great dinner, also spent some time walking around the downtown area.
 We left the next morning up the Intracoastal for Venice. We stayed at the Crows Nest Marina. Carol & I decided that we would get the guys to eat out as much as possible; after all it’s our vacation too. We had another wonderful meal and another cool night.
The next morning we headed out the Venice Inlet and headed for Boca Grand. We went through the swash channel right through the masses of tarpon fisherman. It was a lot more shallow than we had seen in the past but we made it through. We have not been to Boca Grand since the hurricane went through there and it looks very different. We anchored in Pelican Bay across from the docks at Cayo Costa. A lot of the trees along the water are dead and when you go across through the park to the gulf beach all the trees are gone. There is no shade on the beach side only the shelter houses that all had to be rebuilt afterward. It was still a good time we saw lots of manatee and the first night was still cool. By the second night it was really hot and still, the wind had shifted and Pegasus hardly moved at anchor so it was decided by all that instead of going farther south we would head back north.
 The next day we headed out again through the swash channel and out into the gulf - we were going to have to motor no matter which way we went so at least in the gulf you don’t have to wait on the bridges. We made a long day of it and went clear to Longboat Key. Once you clear the bridge at Longboat Pass the channel has changed some and there are some temporary buoys so if you go in that was pay close attention. There were only three other boats anchored so that made us happy it’s usually a ZOO there. We had another wonderful dinner out at Moore’s and again it was really hot sleeping. We are getting to be such wimps that we decided to pack it in and head for home the next morning and enjoy some air conditioning. It was a shortened trip but a good one…we did decide that next year we will leave a week earlier.
Sanity Clause June Cruise
Don & Jennifer Rogers
June 2006 Cruise to Naples
Friday June 02
We departed Gulfport Municipal Marina at 3:20 PM and motorsailed down to Longboat Key. The winds were out of the west at about 12 knots. We entered Longboat Pass at nearly high tide, but took the long route around Jewfish Key to the Moore’s anchorage anyway. There were only a few other boats in the anchorage, and we dropped the hook and had a cool breeze and a calm night.
Saturday June 03
We departed Longboat; again with a full tide. This time we took the shortcut to the bridge. Winds were westerly at about 12-15 kts again, and we motorsailed in rolling seas for most of the afternoon. We did manage to strictly sail for about two hours, but fired up the engine again in the interest of time. We entered Boca Grande via the channel, and then headed over to the entrance of Pelican Bay. Luckily, we arrived once more at high tide. We anchored at 6:30 PM without running aground once (unlike our trip there last November.) We watched the sun set as we grilled pork chops off the stern. It was a cool and calm, although a bit buggy, night.
Sunday June 04
After dinghying over to the ranger station for ice (we are non-refrigeration and non-AC), we set out for Naples, again at high tide. We enjoyed a much smoother sail than Saturday, motorsailing at around 6 to 7.5 knots. Winds were still out of the west for most of the day. We arrived at Gordon Pass by 4:30. We had read about shoaling on the north side of the channel in the pass, so we proceeded with caution. However we had no problems going in, perhaps because we arrived at – you guessed it – nearly high tide. We turned at the #13 marker to get to an anchorage we’d read about. However, we had turned a bit too late, and ran – briefly – aground. However, watching a powerboat come out of the unmarked channel gave us a better idea of where we should be, and we corrected to port and slowly made our way into the anchorage.
The anchorage is among some very nice homes, up the first channel to starboard after you turn off the pass. That channel opens into a wide basin. Although we were the only boat anchored there, we saw two tour boats go by on “Rich and Famous” house tours. We were anchored by 5:00, and Don tried his hand at fishing. But the fish opted to stay right where they were.
Monday June 05
 After breakfast, we called the Naples City Dock to see if our slip was ready. It was, and we headed up there. We got some more ice, and called Don’s sister Linda to meet her for lunch. Our “purpose” for this trip was to check out her new condo so Don can do some maintenance jobs for her. We just figured it would be more fun to get there via the boat. We headed out to her place after lunch, and spent the night there, after going to dinner at Bistro 821. They had excellent food.
Tuesday June 06
We spent most of the day measuring and shopping for the condo. However, when we checked the home phone for messages, we heard that Carol and Larry Lynch from BCYC were docked at the Naples City Dock in slip #59, right next to us. We were too booked up to spend much time with them, but we chatted at bit when we got back to the boat after dinner at Tommy Bahamas (also great food.) Carol said they ran aground pretty hard right off the fuel dock at Naples City Dock. They said they thought there was plenty of water since there was no green marker in the channel, but no such luck. They had to take an anchor out in their dinghy to winch themselves off the shoal. We made a mental note not to go that way when we left!
Wednesday June 07
We headed down the river on a falling tide, but still had no problems getting out Gordon Pass. We headed back towards Pelican Bay. We arrived in Charlotte Harbor at nearly low tide. We had seen some larger boats anchored outside of Pelican Bay on our way down, so we decided to give that a try instead of trying to get in to Pelican Bay at low tide. We turned off the ICW and anchored southwest of the green #75/red#76 markers, about 100 yards from shore. Since the winds switched during the night from northwest to southwest to east, and we went through two more tides, we had a pretty bumpy night, but it could have been worse. But if winds were forecast to remain out of the west all night, it’s an anchorage we could recommend if you’re anxious about the depths in Pelican Pass.
That evening we saw many lines of storms clouds advance towards us as the sun fell, but they all blew out through Boca Grande to the Gulf, and we only had a drop or two of rain. All evening large pods of dolphins swam around our boat. That was great.
Thursday June 08
We departed Boca Grande and enjoyed a calm motorsail up to the Venice Pass. The winds had died around 11:30 AM; then picked up a bit from the west just before we went in. We headed up the ICW to Sarasota, and the winds turned more northerly as we went on. We bumped a tad in the channel south of the Siesta Key Bridge, but that may have been due to us coloring a little outside the lines. We had to wait for the Siesta Key Bridge, and had to circle a bit. We think we may have bumped a bit while waiting; we certainly saw a lot of 1 foot readings on the depth sounder. We went through the 4:20 PM opening and low tide was at 4:55, so that may have had something to do with it!
 We proceeded up to Sarasota and anchored south of Marina Jack’s in the basin. It’s a huge anchorage, with some moored boats but plenty of room for many more to anchor. We dinghied over to O’Leary’s Bar & Grill (a.k.a. Cocktails in Paradise) and had some cocktails. We also dined on some of their bar grub, but mostly we enjoyed the people watching – tourists trying to get picked up by local Lotharios, liveaboards paying social calls, and some dog lovers with some truly bizarre dogs fashions. Don overheard one guy complaining about the DUI he got in his dinghy, when on his way to an arraignment for another memorable Life Moment.
In the morning, herons perched on the mooring balls and dinghies, looking for fish.
Friday June 09
We grudgingly departed Sarasota at 9:00 AM and headed for home. Winds were forecast to be northerly and negligible, so we opted to continue on the ICW to Anna Maria. When we got into Tampa Bay, we (finally!) shut off the engine and simply sailed. We had a great sail across the bay, and came in at the Sunshine Skyway Channel.
Although the winds were supposed to be non-existent, they continued to pick up all day. By the time we approached Structure E, they were blowing about 15 knots out of the northwest. The bridge tender had some problems getting the bridge up for the 2:20 opening. So we had some fun maneuvers at the foot of the bridge while we waited for him. But we made the 2:40 opening of Structure C and were back in our slip by 3.
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