Picture of Chattanooga

Picture of Chattanooga

Thursday, January 19, 2017

North Redington Beach to Sarasota

Kim’s Korner: (North Redington Beach)
So there was this pelican who came in and was just begging for a photo op.  And of course I obliged, she circled our entire boat and would just tilt her head and look at me like she was saying – do I look better from this angle or this one?  
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Kim’s Korner: (Sarasota)
The ride to Sarasota was interesting – one I don’t really wish to repeat anytime soon.  It was a Saturday and the crazy boaters were out in full force!  We got waked several times by big boats extremely hard – one time, I was in the cabin and thought the whole boat was going to come crashing in. Each time, I would check to see what else had been broken or fallen – actually, not much really which surprised me. The smaller fishing boats just whiz by you every which way.  No one slows down for SLOW SPEED or MINIMUM WAKE signs.  Needless to say, I was glad when we arrived.
Then we had to tie up to a mooring ball.  This was our first time and was a real challenge.  The wind had picked up and I got the ball hooked with my pole but the wind grabbed the boat.  I couldn’t hang on and couldn’t unhook it because of the wind so I ended up dropping the pole which upset me because it was gone.  So now what?  I had no pole to hook it with.  David – being very calm about the whole thing -  ended up backing to it which worked much better – I was able to lasso it and actually reach it to attach the rope – then handed David the rope up top and he walked it to the front.  Of course, he did something (don’t know what) and skinned his arm up pretty good so he’s bleeding.  I have two fingers which are now killing me – I don’t know what I did either but it happened when I was trying to hang onto the pole for dear life.  But… we are attached to the mooring ball – yay!  Our friends got in their dinghy and actually retrieved our pole – it floated but was quite a ways from us by then.  But we had it – yay!
Then came the fun of bandaging David up while my two fingers continued to swell and turn black and blue.  Luckily I was able to bend them so they weren’t broken.  Ok – so we learned some lessons - the hard way.  The other lesson we learned after our third night of swaying and rocking was not to stay on a mooring ball that is near the channel to the marina – did I mention earlier that boats do not slow down here? 
Sunday, we went to the Ringling Brothers Museum Complex in Sarasota.  The complex not only contains the history and artifacts of the circus, but also Ca' d'Zan which was the home of John and Mabel Ringling, a huge art museum containing the art collection of John Ringling, and beautiful gardens all over the grounds.  Our favorite was a huge miniature replica of the circus that Howard Tibbals has spent many years creating.  It was very interesting and well worth the visit.  I would highly recommend visiting if you are in Sarasota.  It seemed ironic that the day we went was the day they announced that the circus was shutting down. 
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