Days 250 -252

Sarasota FL - The Crow's Nest Venice

• Start 7:45 AM
• End 10:10 AM
• Underway 2:20 Hours
• Distance 15 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 4331
• Av Speed 6.2 knots
• Weather Cloudy , 53 Degrees, Wind 5 Knots ENE

The trip from Sarasota to Venice was very short, but it was a beautiful ride. The morning started off chilly but warmed up as we traveled. Once again we were accompanied by several dolphins, no matter how many times we see them it never gets old. This houses on this section of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway were much smaller, but right on the water. It was nice to see so many people sitting outside enjoying the morning and waving to the boats as we passed. We also had to bridges that we needed opened for us. Fortunately they open on demand and both opened as soon as we radioed them. Many of the bridges in Florida open on a set schedule, normally about every 30 minutes.

The Crow's Nest Marina is a very small marina, with about 300 feet of transient dockage. Their primary business is the restaurant that is on site. As small as the marina is, the dockmaster was one of the best we have encountered. Not only did they help us on the dock, they handled all of our lines, and hooked up our power.

Dan and Cheri (Cheri Baby II) met us in Venice and we will be traveling together until we get to Marathon. Mike & Karey from BYC, also live in Venice and we have been able to spend a lot of time with them. They were also nice enough to lend us one of their cars for our entire stay. I am not sure if it was a good thing or not, but we used the car to stock up at Walmart. It was good that we were able to get some of the heavier things that are hard to get by bike, the bad thing is, it was an expensive shopping trip.

Venice is an very popular "snowbird" town. As Mike said when we were going out to dinner, "At this time of year, every night is Friday night". Every restaurant has a wait for a table and trying to find a parking spot can be a challenge.

On our last day in Venice we spent the day at the community pool at Mike and Karey's house. The pool is more like a resort than a community pool.

From Venice we are heading to Caya Costa State Park, to anchor out with Dan and Cheri.