We awoke to a beautiful sunny day with light breezes and cast off midmorning from Gulfport. Heading out into the Boca Ciega Bay we took a left only to discover that the Route 682 Bridge was not going to give us a shortcut to the channel across the Tampa Bay - so we had to backtrack the way we came a couple of days ago back to the ICW to go under the Pinellas Bayway North Bridge, then the Pinellas Bayway South Bridge - both of which had plenty of clearance for Salty. We then headed towards the Dick Misener Bridge but turned right to cross the Tampa Bay in the channel parallel to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. What a glorious day! The first real hint of the real Florida weather, warmth and blue sky boating!

After crossing the Bay, we then headed down the ICW channel to the west of Bradenton under the Anna Maria Island, past Bradenton Beach on the west to the Cortez Bridge, entering the wide Sarasota Bay. Seeing the bay from an airplane is quite different from being a speck floating on it - it's bigger and wider than it appears from above. We headed towards the Ringling Bridge, that connects the mainland with St. Amands, passed under it and turned immediately to the left to enter Marina Jack in downtown Sarasota. Such a lovely city from the water and a wonderful clean marina in the middle of a park.

Bird Key, just opposite downtown Sarasota.

Marina Jack in downtown Sarasota

Approach to downtown Sarasota from the Bay

View of Sarasota from the Bay

We tried to arrange some service for Salty while in Marina Jack, as we had discovered another hydraulic fluid leak around the starboard pod drive. We walked around Sarasota, but the town despite its wealthy feel was bereft of any street life. Main Street had a fair number of bars and restaurants, but few people were around - apparently it is still off-season (?). Next day we noticed a bit of diesel fuel leakage on the port Cummins engine - small amount, but still, a leak... We took the time to head over to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens - a lovely spot with a great collection of orchids and other rare tropical plants.

As it turned out, we couldn't get anyone to help out with looking at the drives and the engine, but because the weather threatened to turn lousy, windy and miserable soon after, we decided to cut short the Sarasota visit to two nights and depart for Cape Haze before things got nasty. There was a spectacular sunset that evening that we say from the wharf below the Ringling Bridge.

Sarasota sunset