Leaving Vinoy in Clearwater

We left the Vinoy basin mooring field on the 31st of January, heading south. We went back down Tampa Bay and under the Sunshine Bridge. The ship under the bridge in the picture below is a huge, sorry yuuuge tanker.

We decided to work on our anchoring skills since the weather looked pretty mild. We hung a left after the bridge for the mouth of the Manatee River, across for Desoto Point. This is supposed to be the place where Desoto first set foot on Florida in 1539.

It was a quiet night and we didn't drag at all. In the morning we headed out into the gulf and turned south toward Sarasota. It's quiet... too quiet...

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Back to the Vinoy Basin

Since I'm so far behind on this, I'll start including actual dates instead of the post date.

On the 27th of January we arrived back in the Vinoy basin. I say again, because this is the location where we first chartered a sailboat outside of the sailing school where Heather and I took classes together. The basin has a limited number of moorings (permanent anchors) and we were able to pick one up for a few days. The Vinoy is a very nice resort hotel across the street, and there is a string of nice restaurants down the street, and now a small mall with movie theaters.

Much to our surprise when we were approaching the basin was the absence of the unique pier that was there the last time we were. I guess they tore it down. We spent a nice few days visiting familiar places, and rented a car so we could get supplies.

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