Cape Haze Marina

Well, we did it!!! We crossed our wake (completed the Loop) at Sarasota, Florida on Wednesday, 9 April at 3:35pm.

 The Loop was 6,000 plus miles from Sarasota to Sarasota.  To celebrate, we were going to have a nice meal together last night in Englewood after we had moored for the night at Robert's Bay. However, it was not to be because we fouled our anchor guide in the port prop. The anchor guide is something Gary thought of after we lost our anchor in Canada. It was a length of rope attached to the anchor with a Styrofoam buoy at the end. The buoy would show us where the anchor lay. Well, that day it lay wrapped around our prop and we were not going anywhere in a hurry. It took Gary over 4 hours in 4 foot deep water to get the rope or should I say ropes (we had two ropes fouling the prop), untangled from the propeller. He had to borrow my snorkel because we could not find his. So, now we have a 300lb man in the water wearing a pink snorkel plus he attempted to get into my shorts thinking they were his swimming trunks. Thank-goodness they were too small for him otherwise I would have started to starve myself to death. Gary surfaced from the water with the prop free and a nice sunburn despite having sun cream on. To top that off we were now stuck on a sandbar as the tide had gone out and we needed the help of another boat to pull us off. Despite getting stuck themselves, they pulled us off and we were now free to move on. Because it had taken all day to free the prop we could not make it to the nice fish restaurant we had eaten at before, so we spent another night on Robert's Creek. So much for celebrating!!
From Sarasota to where we are now (Cape Haze Marina) Englewood was an uneventful journey despite the many boats sailing the inland waterway. Some of them were downright inconsiderate due to passing us at high speed and causing equipment of ours to fall on the floor due to their wake. Others were kind and slowed down when they overtook us or passed us. What we found interesting was the large catamaran we passed. Its name was "The Rover". We saluted as we went by.

We passed a very interesting looking bridge at Sarasota and because bridges interest me, I took a photo.

We saw several unusual sites on our journey - a yard with a life size hippo in it-

We also saw wind surfers having fun in the cool water on a very windy day.

 I would like to try that but I do not think I have the strength in my arms and shoulders. I am hoping to go para-sailing sometime on the trip. Maybe when David joins us in North Carolina.
We passed a boat in dry dock with a real nice paint job. I wonder what that would look like on The Kingston Rover.

We saw a 4 wheel bicycle (I guess it is a quadracycle not a bicycle). It even had a canopy that could be pulled over the cyclists to protect them from the sun or the rain.

I liked the look of the cycle and could imagine Gary pedalling and me relaxing!!!

                     These pelicans were anxiously awaiting a free meal.
This house was very strange. It was very slim on the right hand side an empty space in the middle underneath the slanting roof.

I took more photos of birds, sorry Dad!

This osprey looks as though he is saying "what the heck are you looking at?"

Mom (maybe Dad) and baby osprey. He/she would not turn around to look at the camera. Perhaps he/she was camera shy.

I am not sure what this bird is - some type of grebe maybe. Perhaps my human encyclopedias, Jim and Jerrold can tell me.

This is a cattle egret although there were no cows to be seen for miles around. Maybe he was waiting for us to mooove!!!

I would really like to spend winter in Florida as it is much warmer here than in Maryland. However, the bugs (mosquitoes) must be really bad because the majority of the homes we saw had huge screens around them to allow you to sit outside without getting bitten. Even apartment buildings had screens.
An Englishman's home is his castle. Perhaps this house is owned by an Englishman.

Well, to finish today's blog - we arrived in Englewood for our meal at the nice fish restaurant we had visited before to find it had closed. C'est la vie!! Instead, we had a nice meal at the Placida Grill. I had lamb (sorry Linda) and Gary had tuna.



Kingston Rover Loop Map