Bradenton to marathon 200 +NM!

Well that was fun, we left Twin Dolphins Friday Jan 10th at 8 am, sailed off shore to Venice, spent a couple of days at Crows nest marina, left there Sunday morning at about 9 am, motorsailed south in some lumpy stuff, 15 knots of NE wind and some big leftover swell from the cold front that passed the day before. Wind settled and the seas improved and by nightfall the wind filled in from the east as expected and we spent the entire night sailing only on just the headsail at 6.5 knots. Wanted to sail because of all the crab pots we would encounter off of the coast and Florida bay. When morning broke on Monday we were just a couple of hrs from the real skinny part leading to seven mile bridge. We brought the headsail in at 9 am and motored to and thru the channel. Caught a nice Bonita on the way! Managed to get a mooring ball at boot key and we will rest up prior to heading north to dinner key! Some pics below




Gulf was calm as we left Tampa bay!






Discovery on the face dock at crows nest marina in Venice.




Dolphin statue in wood at the beach park just steps away from crows nest.





Water color of the marina in Venice.





Day trip downtown Venice beach!






One that did not get away!





Lunch at keys fishery in marathon






View from discovery looking out on a packed boot key Harbour !

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Finally on the move!

Discovery had finally broken the roots it grew in Bradenton and headed south! We said our goodbyes to all the friends we made at twin dolphins marina these past 6 months, and slipped away under calm cloudy skies. We motored down the manatee river then out the south west channel and into the gulf again! 6 hrs of motoring in flat calm water brought us to the framiliar confines of Crows Nest marina in Venice. We will wait here for the south winds to switch to north and provide us with a good run down to key west! The hopefully up to dinner key to wait for a chance to cross to the exumas!

Some pics from today's trip






Flat like a bath tub today in the gulf!





Discovery on the face dock at Crows Nest Marina in Venice!





Beach park is just a block walk from our boat, love this wood sculpture of a Dolphin at the beach entrance!



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Bahamas here we come

It's early January and Discovery
is now ready to head south and east to stage for our crossing to the Bahamas!

We have finished all the prep to the boat, we have made runs to Costco (see below) and Walmart to put on enough food,supplies and beer for the expected 4 months down island! Now all we need is a decent weather window to make it around the keys and back up to dinner key where we will set off to the Exumas!





Discovery will sit a few inches lower in the water after we find room for all of this!




Can't have too much toilet paper in the Bahamas!


We hope to finally say goodbye to

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