December 18-20

Breakfast on the veranda!

View from the deck overlooking the ICW

The Silver Foxes Home until January 4th-Placida Fl @approximately mm36 on the ICW

December 18-- Bradenton to Placida Fl Today we are headed for our friends home Mitch and Barb West, who live south of Englewood Fl. They own the True Value Store in Englewood and have a newly built home on the ICW and a nice boat dock in front of their home for the Silver Foxes. The day started out a little chilly but quickly bloomed into a warm cloudless day. The trip down the Manatee River was smooth but our short distance we need to proceed across Tampa Bay, before once again entering the protected water of the ICW, was a bit bouncy. The waterway winds its way across Sarasota Bay, and through many narrow and relatively shallow passages. The waterway is well buoyed but at times with the sun shining on the water you must be careful to pick out the proper markers ahead of you. The waterway continues on through Venice Fl and into Lemon Bay at Englewood At 3pm as we were passing under the Tom Adams Bridge in downtown Englewood. I called Mitch at the store and told him we would be at his house in about an hour. Be there to meet and greet you he said! He was a little concerned about the water depth at the dock since we were the first boat to use the dock since he redid the dock and installed electric at the dock. It turns out the water depth in the ICW in front of his house was about 14 ft and as we approached the dock we still had about 6' of water coming in on a rising tide and the tidal swing here is only about 1.5'. A great dock and what a fantastic view from his newly built home. Barb outdid herself with a great meal this evening and we used their guest quarters and slept like a rock.

December 19th. My definition of a perfect day. Arose about 7:30am. Took our time getting ready. Mitch and Barb took the day off. Drank coffee on the deck overlooking the ICW. We had breakfast (brunch) about 9:30 or 10. Mitch loaned me his jigsaw and I was able to install a deck plate so I could remove and clean the holding tank sending unit--That went without a hitch. Barb wanted to take a ride in our boat and I was more than happy to oblige. We cruised on down the waterway, through the Boca Grande Bridge and into Port Charlotte Harbor. An absolutely perfect temperature day-75 degrees with little wind. Back to the house by around 4pm. Washed the salt off of the boat and then we had a fantastic meal-some steaks from our boat but better yet stone crabs that Mitch purchases from fisherman that bring them directly to his store. Tomorrow we fly home for Christmas so we finished packing what little we are taking home. Statute miles traveled 3290

December 20-Back home again in Indiana. Up at 4:30 am so we could leave by 5:30 am for the Tampa Airport. Mitch took us to the airport. Our flight home was direct and no problem. Only problem I had was wearing long pants and putting on a jacket. Our daughter Janna picked us up in Indianapolis and we were home by 2:30. We return to the boat on January 3rd. I will let you know when the blog is back on the air again