5/11/09 to 5/14/09
Steinhatchee, Sea Hag Marina
Author: Doug
Monday, 5/11 we popped outside at Boca Grande Pass in the morning, passing through the swash channel right along the beach. There were about 30 tarpon boats in the pass, not as many as I expected, honestly for such a pretty day in May. The gulf was calm and nice until the early afternoon when the wind picked up from the NW. It was rough enough to be a little uncomfortable, so we went back inside at Venice Inlet and continued up the ICW to the Bradenton Beach where we anchored just south of the Cortez bridge. I have to say that I like the location of this anchorage, with its nice dinghy dock and tons of place to eat along bridge street but the permanent live aboard boats here are really seedy. Some of them give boaters a bad name as they are basically squatting here. Some of the boats even have gaping holes in the decks. Even though we had no problems, I'm not sure I'll stay here again. This would be a good place for a city run mooring field and no anchoring. We took the dinghy in to eat at a cool little place called the banana cabana that we saw on the way up. Unfortunately it was closed, so we went back to the boat and grilled out.
Tuesday, 5/11, we went out into the open gulf past Eggmont and had a really nice easy run all the way outside to Tarpon Springs. There was bait showering everywhere and Kyle caught a nice king. We got a bunch of Spanish as well, enough that we finally decided that we needed to get in the lines so that we could make better time. Tied up at Anclote Harbor Marina, nice enough people but just an OK stopover. It is a really long walk to town. We had dinner at a tiki bar (forgot the name) that was filled with smokers, gator fans and other undesirables. A couple of guys borrowed our fillet knife and gave us two AJ fillets and two Red Snapper Fillets as a thank you.
Wednesday, 5/12, today was a long day, 13 hours, to Steinhatchee. It was a little rolly in the morning but calmed down as the day went on. We cleared the Stienhatchee sea bouy a little before sunset and tied up at the Sea Hag. They have a great floating dock here (easy to hit, I like that) but the 50 amp power plug is a jury rig, and pretty corroded. I figured Kyle has more kids than me, so I took the risk and plugged us in. It was that or no air conditioning, not really an option as it is hot this far up the river. Kyle made an awesome glaze from blackstrap rum, Matouks hot sauce and sugar which we painted on the grilled fish. Best dinner of the trip.
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