Venice

Bruno

We weighed the anchor at 0730 yesterday bound for Venice, Florida.  The winds were very light and from the wrong direction as usual, so our actual sailing time was only an hour or so.  Underway, we dodged crab pots by the hundreds even 4 miles offshore.  The waters around this part of the west coast of Florida, even miles from shore are less than fifty feet deep.  The color is amazing and the clarity continues to improve with each mile we put under the keel going south.  Around 1130 we were about five miles off shore when a large brown, hawk looking bird circled the boat once then landed on some dock lines in the liferaft cradle.  He stayed there looking forward for the whole trip to Venice.   He would not look back at us and was completely unafraid of me when I stuck my head around the dodger to get a picture of him.  I hope he was just resting and not on his final approach to the hereafter.  What a pretty bird.  We have never seen one like him before.  We named him Bruno since he looked like he might be a bit of a bully to other birds even twice his size.  Bruno is the third bird to sign on.  Each has given us a bit of joy and certainly something to discuss other than crab pots.  As we were getting ready for docking I needed the dock line Bruno owned.  I literally had to push him off the dock line and wondered if he was about to attack me as he reluctantly moved then flew.  Good luck Bruno.  By the way, your pay is docked. 

We arrived at what turned out to be a very nice location, the Crow's Nest Marina in Venice just inside the jetties.  We can see the intersection of the GIWW (the one that started in Tarpon Springs heading south) and the channel from sea.  What a great place for people watching.  We plan to stay here for two more nights and just watch the boats and the folks.