Mer Sea

We decided that we were definitely ready to take a real trip – where we go somewhere and spend the night and visit the place, rather than just go somewhere and tie up for lunch or just go out and come back. We were also ready to try out spending some significant time in the Gulf, rather than always staying on the “inside,” as the Gulf ICW is called. This would give us some experience with navigating by waypoints, rather than just going from ATON to ATON (Aids TO Navigation), which we really do by sight more than by compass course. It would also give us a chance to experience some more “open” water, and to simply see what that is like.

 

We chose Venice as our destination. It is about 40 miles north of here, and is a good place to go “back inside” from the Gulf. There are surprisingly few places where you can safely do this – I guess because of currents that tend to run swiftly through these inlets, there’s lots of silting and consequently shallow water, and the currents themselves make things hard enough as it is. One chooses one’s course carefully! I’d also read that Venice is supposed to be a quaint “Old Florida” town (village), and it seemed like a good choice for our first real sojourn.

 

In reading the cruising guides about the area, it seemed a no-brainer which marina to choose. Of the couple listed, only one has a fabulous restaurant, “friendly and helpful” staff, and loaner bikes! The guide did mention the fact that because it is right on the Venice Inlet from the Gulf that there is often some pretty strong current, but that’s where the “friendly and helpful” staff at the marina come in! We made our reservations, checked the weather, and off we went at about 9:30 the next morning. (The late start was a function of the navigator’s need to plot and enter the waypoints for the trip so that we could use our autopilot).

 

The Gulf was a bit choppy (I think they call it “moderate chop”), but that level of chop is barely noticeable on Mer Sea. The wind was steady, but not too strong, and we were glad for the autopilot, which did the calculating to keep us on course in spite of the wind. We ran the first part of the trip, once we’d gone into the Gulf, at about a 150° to the shoreline, trying to get closer to the coast, since we were about 3 miles out at the place we’d exited the ICW. After we got to about ½ mile out we turned parallel to the shore and made the rest of the trip that way. It was great fun to see all the beaches and coastline from the water.

 

The autopilot brought us right to the first marker for the Venice Inlet, about 4 hours later. We radioed ahead to the marina to let them know our arrival was imminent, and they gave us instructions to dock in slip #7. We approached the marina at idle speed and spied the aforementioned slip, and there was the “friendly and helpful” dockhand standing at the head of it. As we started to line up to back in, he called to me that there was an especially strong current, and we might have an easier time of it going for slip 8, 9, or 10. As he was speaking, the current literally swung us sideways to the slips. I was in the cockpit trying to figure out on which side we were going to need our lines and fenders, and kept dashing from one side of the stern to the other detaching and reattaching lines as we were washed first towards one slip, then towards the neighboring one. In the meantime, the dockhand kept moving from the head of one slip to another as our position shifted. At this point we were all hoping for SOME slip, any slip, just get us out of the inlet and current!!! Roy finally pulled pretty far out, lined us up, and back we went into one of the slips. I slung a line to the dockhand (still friendly, believe it or not!), and we muscled Mer Sea the rest of the way in. Whew!! In retrospect, I’m thinking we looked pretty comical dashing back and forth and repositioning ourselves, but the bottom line is that we got the job done, so could now relax! We got the boat tied up and power hooked up, and went on top to relax and have a beer while watching the passing parade. It was great! Because it’s a busy inlet, there were lots of boats to watch, and a cop in a boat trying to enforce the “no wake” zone and whatever other laws he was able. It was very entertaining.

 

After a while, we decided to make use of the Marina’s bikes, and made the 11/2 mile ride into town. What a charming little downtown! It was Sunday, so quite a few of the shops weren’t open, but we had fun window shopping, browsing in the shops that were open, eating ice cream cones, and just strolling about. I have to admit that on the bike ride back I became aware of muscles that I’d forgotten I had, and was glad to see the marina and Mer Sea waiting for us as we pulled in! We both went in and took a nap!

 

When we got up, dinner time was fast approaching, so Roy went across the parking lot to the restaurant to see about reservations, or whatever we’d need to get in. He returned with a pager and instructions to expect a page in about 45 minutes, so we just relaxed on the boat until we were summoned. Lots nicer than milling around a restaurant in a crowd waiting for your name to be called!

 

Dinner was excellent, and we were seated by a window from which we had a nice view of Mer Sea, which was sort of fun as well! We ate up and headed back to the boat, and sat on top for a while, just enjoying the night air and still water. We were both pretty exhausted, and so headed to bed not long thereafter.

 

On the trip back we decided to take the ICW. In this case, we’d be navigating from buoy to buoy, so no need for the autopilot. We set out after a nice breakfast, and really enjoyed the scenery. No beaches here, but lots of little and not so little houses all along the way, and plenty of undeveloped stretches, and several little marinas. We didn’t see too many other boats, which was a nice surprise. Not as congested as we know the ICW can get! We didn’t have any problems with depth, either, so it was pretty much a relaxing trip. The one difficult part was waiting for the swing bridge at Boca Grande. We’d read that it opens every 15 minutes, and it was just closing as we arrived, so we figured that we’d have to “tread water,” so to speak, for 15 minutes before we could get through. As it turned out, that information was incorrect, and the bridge opens every ½ hour during the week, and 15 minutes on the weekend, so we had a pretty good wait. The wind made it a bit of a challenge to “stay put,” but Roy was able to handle it – it just wasn’t relaxing!

 

As we came through the bridge and entered Charlotte harbor, we set a course for the marina and engaged the autopilot. The breeze was stiff (20-25 knots) and blowing almost directly abeam (at right angles to our course), so it was rough going, but not uncomfortably so. (I must say that I have yet to be uncomfortable on this boat!) We navigated around a sailboat race, and pulled into the harbor. The wind was still strong and gusty in the harbor, which provided another new challenge for docking, as a gust always will come up just at the critical point of pulling into the slip! However, once again our able captain pulled us in safe and sound, and we tied up and breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a good trip with lots of fun and several lessons. We’re looking forward to a longer trip to Sarasota in the first part of April. Stay tuned…