We are still in Sarasota as our hot water heater delivery was held up by the holiday. It is supposed to be in Bradenton on Monday 1/4. We have arrangements to get it installed on Tuesday.
The Sarasota New Year's fireworks display was right in front of our boat.
Waiting for fireworks:
They're right here!!
Fortunately all the ash was blowing away from the boats so no mess to clean up in the morning! They were lit off literally 50 yards in front of our boat....
Moonrise over Sarasota...
Waiting for the midnight pineapple drop downtown: Lots of people, carnival rides, etc.
We do like Sarasota but also realize we have to move on.... We will leave on Wed (weather permitting) and continue our migration toward the Keys. We plan stops at Pelican Bay to anchor out a couple nights, then will visit the Fort Myers, Naples and Marco Island areas (and likely anchor out some more here too). And we have more good news. Jordan is coming to visit us in Fort Myers as well! So we will again have family aboard! We also have many landlubber friends in this area to visit. So it will be great to be on the move again.
We took a number of walks exploring the city, its condo communities, parks, etc. Here is a view from our bridge walks out to Bird Key, a four mile round trip.
It is really a nice city. As our dock neighbor said, "you can't eat your way through Sarasota.". There are many, many fine restaurants to choose from! And a Whole Foods only blocks away as well for gourmet cooking aboard. What a great stop this has been.
Sunset from the boat:
On New Years Day we launched the dinghy and went over to Lido Key for a nice walk. It was another hot morning with a slight cloud cover making it very comfortable. When we got back to the dinghy, we found the anchor had dragged a bit and it had partially filled with water from the large boat wakes. Tom unfortunately waded out to it with Julie's phone in the swimsuit pocket. So it was time to leave and go to the Verizon store for a new one....Julie had wanted the new Samsung Note 5 to replace her 3+ year old cracked screen S3 anyway. It was also fortunate that photos were stored on the micro SD card and we could recover them. And Google had stored all her contacts, apps, etc. So I guess it all worked out.
It is hard to believe we have been at this adventure for over 4 months now. We are having a great time meeting new people and seeing new places. It is truly a unique way to see the wonderful country we live in.
December statistics:
Miles travelled: 372 /Trip to Date: 2509
Travel days: 7 /45
Engine hours: 33 / 288
Locks: 0/35
Bridges opened: 3 /11
Days on hook or free wall: 0 /11
Gallons of diesel: 306 / 1801
Sarasota as home for 17 days: Really cool...maybe we should have stayed a month!
Thanks for following us! We'll see you in Fort Myers Jordan! And we'll see some of you on land and others in the Keys soon!
2 comments:
Happy New Year dear!! I wish you had a great New Year Eve. Fireworks picture which you have shared here is really amazing. You know I did party at LA venue with my friends, and that was an amazing night. Everything went perfect on that day.
Great post regarding Happy New Year. It is really special day because all relationships are important tin our life and on new year, we get a chance to live some memorable moments. So, I want to wish you a very happy New Year. Cheers.
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