Crow's Nest - Venice FL

Miles today 30

Friday 06/26/20 & Saturday 06/27/20

We left Boca Grande around 9:30 on Friday morning.  We had about 30 miles to go to get to Venice, so we decided to take it slow and just cruise up the Intracostal Waterway again.  There was an option to run out in the Gulf, but there is not much to see doing that.  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to Venice due to the no wake zones and the a bridge that we had to wait for.  It was a nice cruise but hot.

We got to the Crow's Nest marina, which is really just a restaurant with some docks, but they had power and water so not a bad stop.  It is located on the pass leading to the Gulf, so a lot of traffic going by.  It is supposed to be a no wake zone, but everyone who had been on the river knows how that goes.  After lunch we put the dinghy in and played around.  We went 1st to an island beach just in front of the boat.  After a quick dip, we took a cruise up past Pop's bar and grill.  We then went to a sandbar and took another dip for a while.  We decide to take the dinghy out into the Gulf.  We did, and dropped the anchor and got in.  Waves were a little much for the dinghy, so we went back inside to the GICW and cruised past the Yacht Club and to the Waterfront grill.  There was no where for us to tie up so it was back to the boat.  Was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

 Island beach view from our boat

We were going to take a walk down to the beach for the sunset, but the rain moved in and changed our plans.  When it did stop, we noticed the 80' sport fish boat that came in behind us.

On Saturday, we took an Uber to downtown and walked around the shops for awhile.  It was hot so we went into a lot of stores to cool off.  Although some interesting stuff, we managed not to purchase anything.  We did some chores around the boat in the afternoon.  On a bad note, the new ice maker that we just purchased in February was not working.  After some trouble shooting, the ice maker is working but the outlet that it plugs into is not.  It is either the outlet or the breaker.  I will try to switch out the breaker when we get to Bradenton.  Doing it without electrocuting myself will be the trick.

We will head to Sarasota in the morning.