033: Florida Rules and Boat Parades

We left Clearwater on Saturday the 9^th of December hoping to get “about halfway to Punta Gorda.”   No other plan.   As we headed out into the Gulf of Mexico the plan was to “stay outside” to the Long Boat Key or Sarasota area while we figured out a place to stay. 

Two facts quickly became apparent:

1)    The seas were a lot rougher than we anticipated.  Not terrible, but still.

2) Saturday was “Boat Parade Day” all down the coast.  A Boat Parade is when boats get decorated for the Holidays and parade in the evening for all to see. 

 

The ramification of #1, is that we decided to take the ICW “inside” after crossing the mouth of Tampa Bay.  The ramification of #2 was that we couldn’t get a slip anywhere, all the transient slips were booked for the Parades.

When we got onto the ICW a few things also became apparent about Florida boaters.  By observation, I deduced the following “Florida Boating Rules:””

1)    Stay in the middle of the channel, not to the right side like you are supposed to, but in the middle of the channel, because you own it.

2) No matter who big your boat and how big a wake it throws out, go as fast as you can.

3) Never give the courtesy of a “slow pass,” that is “woke-ism” and Florida does not do “woke.”  If you rock the living sh-t out of the boat you pass, that is their problem, not yours.

4) No Wake zones are optional.

What is the ICW like on a beautiful Saturday?    Like this:

 

Our last option for a place to stay that night that didn’t involve anchoring was the mooring ball field in Sarasota.   We put in a request on the “app” but didn’t hear from them.  As we got closer, we decided to pull into the marina and inquire directly with the staff while we also added some fuel to the boats having gone forty-nine miles and burning forty-two gallons of fuel (yes, that is 1.16 n/m per gallon: ouch!   We can do better than that if we slow it down, but we thought we might have to farther south that day for a nice anchorage, so we were going at cruise speed, which is approximately thirteen n/m’s per hours.)

While Matt and I fueled our boats, Nancy and Kathy went into the office to see about a getting a mooring ball.  Technically they had no transient mooring balls available.  The office manager did, however, know of two non-transient mooring balls (i.e., seasonal usage) that were vacant, so she took pity on us and let us tie up to them for the night (for the usual fee of course.)

The weather forecast indicated that big storm was going to blow in starting Sunday night and going through Monday night.   We hoped to get to the Punta Gorda area Sunday night but a lot of those marinas were destroyed by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and not rebuilt.   As a last resort we called the Cabbage Key Inn to see if they could accommodate us.  They have overnight slips but limit usage to one night and “you have to be out by eleven, no exceptions.” The reason being that they have a well-regarded restaurant and need the slips for the lunch crowd.    The woman also told us that we couldn’t stay Monday night as the Inn would be closed for the annual employee Holiday Party.   I told her about the storm coming and asked her if they could accommodate us both Sunday and Monday, and promised that we wouldn’t be any trouble, we just wanted a shelter from the storm.   Well, long story short, the Cabbage Key Inn did make and exception for us, so they are tops on my list.  Next post, we’ll report back on the stay.

Having taken care of that task, we took our respective dinghies into the marina from the mooring and went into Sarasota’s downtown area to see a few sights and have dinner.  Passed this private yacht with a Big F’ng Crane.   Apparently, it was a converted working boat.  Why you need a crane that big is a mystery to me, but to each is own.

 

We dinghy’d back to the boats as the sun set and prepared for the “big show”. 

Our photography skills are obviously not up to the task of night shoots, but we did get a few serviceable pictures of the boat parade:

 

Kim Russo, the Director of the AGLCA, whom I gave a bottle of Kanzler Vineyards Pinto Noir to, sent me this shot of a boat parade in St. Petersburg along with a nice note of thanks.

After the parade it was time for bed.   We had feared that the mooring field would be “rocky” overnight, but we actually had a relatively calm night.  The wind did pickup the next morning, but that is tale for post 034.

  

Dave

 

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