The End of the Gulf ICW

The last couple of days we cruised the southernmost part of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, first a somewhat short day from Longboat Key to Venice and then a longer one from Venice to Cape Coral where we officially entered the Okeechobee Waterway.

I'm not sure what you'd expect the Gulf ICW to look like but it was almost exactly what I anticipated. We passed extensive development ranging from homes worth tens of millions to tacky condo and apartment buildings. The Admiral opined at one point that there's not a square foot of coastal Florida that hasn't been developed. It can seem that way but we did pass a number of natural areas including Shamrock Park south of Venice that parallels the Waterway on both sides for several miles with bike paths, park benches and the like. And, we saw countless dolphins--some acting like teenagers surfing in the wakes of boats--flocks of white pelicans, brown pelicans, Great Blue Heron, Anhinga, terns, sea gulls, and so forth. Dolphins play; the birds seem to focus on food and, in the case of anhingas, drying out. Our path included extensive no wake zones but a surprising number of miles where speed was only limited to 25 mph if at all. We encountered both narrow channels and large, wide open bays where you could barely make out land in the distance.

The Admiral is becoming more and more proficient handling the boat. Not only did she take Katahdin off the dock for the first time in St. Pete, she is now getting comfortable navigating under bridges. In nearly three months and almost 2500 statute miles of cruising, this bridge on Wednesday was her first. Yay Admiral!

Speaking of bridges, the top of Katahdin's mast is 14 feet above the water and we like to have at least 15 feet of clearance under bridges. On Wednesday, we encountered the second and third bridges that had to open for us of the entire trip. (The first was the Amtrack bridge on the lower Chicago River.) Yesterday, we waited for the Blackburn Bridge's scheduled opening at noon time (it apparently opens every 20 minutes if needed). You can see this swing bridge below and, if you look carefully, you will find that two bridge tenders operate it from the middle of the bridge--not exactly sure why.

The second bridge that opened for us was the Albee Road Bridge with its double bascule construction. This bridge opened on request on VHF channel 9.

The picture below is one of many boats that we saw--high but not so dry. This past season's hurricanes did a lot of damage on this coast. They knocked over numerous docks, shredded roofs, and partially sunk an uncountable number of boats--sad and a problem that's likely to get worse. Tarpon Point Marina where we are tied up tonight has several barges, pile drivers, and other heavy equipment working to restore what they lost. It takes courage and a pocket book to live on this coast.

You will be hearing from the Bosun in the coming days I'm sure. We'll be keeping that gate to the swim platform closed (he loves to walk out there and peer under the dinghy) as we traverse the Okeechobee Waterway to prevent an alligator from snacking on him. "What, snack on me? I'm the one who's supposed to eat snacks."

It's hard to believe that ten days ago, we were worried about water lines freezing and beating an inch and a half of ice off the boat. We spent this afternoon swimming in and sunning by the marina pool and I'm writing this blog outside in the cockpit enjoying a slight breeze and shade which are tempering the 80 degree afternoon. It's a hard life but someone has to do it!