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American Spirit II - Day 478; We Travel from Venice to Marina Jack in Sarasota; Wednesday, April 29, 2015



One year ago today:

"Day 116; Tour of Moorea, Albert and His 3 Wives and our Departure Delayed a Day due to High & Building Winds; Tuesday, April 29, 2014. At 10:15 AM we started a tour of the island with Follie a Deux in an 8 person taxi/mini van driven by Albert, who advised as we started the tour that he had 3 wives and numerous children and grand children. Not sure if polygamy is legal in French Polynesia, but Albert certainly believes its OK. His oldest wife is 67 and the other two are 42 and 39. He's 75 and by his own account is the biggest tour operator on the island."

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Up at 7:00 AM. Joel and Darlene are up at 8:10 AM.

Breakfast at 8:45 AM consists of bacon, 3 eggs, potato, chilled pear halves and cinnamon bread. Darlene had a protein shake.

We departed the Crow's Nest Marina in Venice at 9:30 AM, heading northbound to Sarasota.

At 9:35 AM we went thru the Albee Road demand bridge. Its called a 'demand' bridge because its not timed and opens when a boat calls them, 'on demand.'

At 9:58 AM the wind is 10 knots and we're motoring at 6.8 knots thru the water at 2,000 RPM' and 8.3 knots over the land. Yes, the tidal current is with us.

At 10:07 AM we go thru the Blackburn Point demand swing bridge.

At 10:45 AM we are at the Stickney Point bridge; which we thought is a demand bridge, but it is not anymore. So we have to wait until 11:00 AM for the bridge to open.

As we're going thru this bridge we notice that our GPS chart plotter is no longer giving us detailed information because we have outrun the area covered on the Navionics Compact Flash card. The one we've been using is for South and Central America. I replace it with one for the SE United States and the Bahamas. Voila! We have navigation data again.

At 11:40 AM we go thru the Siesta Key timed bridge, which opens at 20 and 40 minutes after the hour and on the hour. This is our last bridge for today.

At 11:53 AM we pass by one dolphin feeding. Seems to be a shortage of dolphins today compared to yesterday.

At 12:02 PM we're tied up at the Marina Jack Marina in Sarasota at slip D 24. The boat next to us, a ketch, is heading south and the two guys on it talk to us about our circumnavigation. Joel gets a folder/package from the marina that is quite inclusive. Good job Marina Jack!

At 1:00 PM we meet Rick, owner of the Mother Ocean sailboat that Joel has raced on over the years; and Joel's financial adviser, at the Marina Jack restaurant to sign some papers. We have lunch, then its back to the boat at 2:10 PM.

From 2:15 PM to 7:10 PM I work on organizing my logs into a separate word document while Joel continues doing pictures on his computer and Darlene reads and then naps.

We leave the boat at 7:25 PM and head to an open air bar/restaurant on Main street, called Maattison's; where we meet Rick and his friend Lori for drinks and pizza. The 5 person band with a female singer is quit good, and numerous people in the establishment end up dancing. The ladies seem to outnumber the men, probably because the men are all dead. Either that or its a BIG ladies night out.

We're back on the boat around 10:00 PM. Joel goes back to doing pictures; I'm organizing and editing logs; and Darlene is reading.

Joel and Darlene are in bed by 11:30 PM, followed by me at 12:15 AM.

Brian Fox


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