Sarasota

Well, after the grounding episode we were tired and ready to stay put for a while. The person who owned the mooring we were on was having some work done on his boat, so we were able to stay much longer than the two or three days we originally planned. This marina and mooring field is right in downtown Sarasota so many things were within walking distance.

The first night we had dinner at a place called Fish Camp, which was kind of a cross between the Blue Bayou in Disneyland and a Cracker Barrel that served alcohol. Lots of locals and very interesting people watching.

They had a Farmers Market on Saturday which was mobbed. People haggling over vegetables on the sidewalk of an indoor dealership that sold Bentleys was interesting. They also had an Art Fest with lots of cool things we couldn't afford and didn't have room for on the boat. Anyone need a 10 foot giraffe welded from 1/4 steel plate?

We rented a car for 24 hours, twice, to get to the grocery store and West Marine and such. We stayed so long we started having Amazon and such stuff delivered to marina. We ended up staying for my birthday (5th of February), and a week later, Heather's (12th). The humidity was so high we had fog more than once. Not what we were expecting in Florida, although it always burned off in a few hours.

Interestingly, one morning while I sat in the cockpit drinking coffee and surveying the downtown and the mooring field, I saw on the next row of mooring balls 60 feet away a mast sticking out of the water. This boat sank at its mooring, was raised, then sank again. It was raised a second time and stayed up, at least until we left. Someone else's adventure. We planned on pushing off on Valentine's day (my oldest sister Mariel's birthday).

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