Guys trip to Sarasota

Linda and I have been very busy making repairs to our new home in High Ridge Missouri.
Mardi Gras misses me if I stay away too long so I called a few friends and off we went to Florida!
Norm Jones rode down with me as we shared driving duties and made the trip in one long day. Bloody Bruce aka Bruce Smith, Lou the liberal,(Lou Swiney) and Lee met us in Gulf Port on Tuesday August 2. Rain and wind were the order of the day so we stayed in the dock. We waited out some early Wednesday morning storms before we headed out. Our plan was to move slowly down the coast with a plan to eventually get to Sarasota. I had heard that Egmont Key was a must see stop so we included that destination in our agenda.
However, as we motored across Boca Ciega bay. I found that the prop was fouled so badly that I couldn't turn through the wind. I knew that I needed to clean the prop but I was hoping to do that at our first anchorage where I had hoped for clearer water than is in the marina but the wind was too strong so it was back to the dock. About an hour later, after diving and scraping barnacles, we were back in the bay again and the prop was pulling well.

We motor sailed through the first draw bridge called structure C and moved on down to Pass-A-Grill. i had hoped to anchor next to Shell Key but I didn't feel it was safe to look for an anchorage with the tide flow and strong winds. we moved on to Terra Verdi where we could see anchored boats but we couldn't find the channel to get over to them so we decided to go to the marina instead.