AFSPD

As we kind of figured, we had to wait for fog to lift this morning.  I raised my head at first light and knew we weren't going anywhere too soon.  When I did get up I made breakfast as it was still foggy. Sometimes it would look like it was clearing up, then it would sock back in.  At nine o'clock we lifted the anchor and headed north.
It was a rather uneventful day for us on the water.  There was a fishing boat out on the Gulf that had some excitement though.  They reported a person in the water.  Other vessels headed that way to assist.  The man was recovered.  I don't know all the details as I was down below making lunch during the rescue conversation on the VHF.  Ray is still under the weather, so really wasn't paying much attention to all of that.  He pretty much laid behind the helm chair all day again.  So I took lots of pictures:

Look at this beautifully bloomed huge tree!

These are the car ferrys from Cape Hays to Knight Island, just north of where we anchored.
We see them every time we travel this area as they go back and forth like this in sync about every five minutes.

I think this was near Venice.  It just caught my attention.
You think you have a nice blue home on the water, then some rich guy builds next door.

Snake Island. Venice Inlet.

Pagoda

Our original plan was to grab a mooring ball in Sarasota this evening.  After listening to the fog report in which the travel restrictions at Tampa Bay were not lifted until 1:20 p.m. we thought maybe we should continue farther.  One reason being that Ray wasn't feeling well enough to put the dinghy in the water anyway, so why waste money on a mooring ball when the winds are so light.  The other in fear that Tampa Bay might be fogged in again tomorrow.  Since we didn't get an early start today, we might not tomorrow either and we're trying to make it into Indian Rocks Beach at slack tide.  For a while we thought about trying to cross Tampa Bay to make sure.  We even sped up.  By the time we got through Sarasota Bay we figured it would be close to sunset if we did.  I was tired already from what turned out to be over an eight hour travel day doing most of the driving.  We throttled it back down and anchored just east of Anna Maria Island near Bradenton Beach.  The dolphins greeted us right away.  We had dinner watching sunset and ended up with an alcohol free St. Patrick's Day.

Panoramic sunset over Anna Maria Island

Sunset setting on camera

U. S. Coast Guard helicopter flew over us at anchor.

We read the forecast for Tampa Bay tomorrow.  It says conditions are less likely to be foggy again. We're hoping they are right for once.

Once we get to Indian Rocks Beach it will be busy for us.  "The Bar-B" is there and we'll have to do lots of catching up.  Ray wants Mike's Pizza as soon as we get there.  We need to do laundry and clean up this boat on Saturday since that hasn't been done since Ft. Lauderdale, along with pick up a rental car so we can go get Abbie first thing Sunday morning in Orlando for a few days during her Spring Break.  So I'll catch up on the blog as soon as I can.  Just forewarning you, it probably won't be any time soon after this.