Wednesday December 4: Ready to Leave for Ohio

After one of the calmest nights ever at Blackburn Bay, we were up early and ready for the final 35 miles to Bradenton.

There was little wind predicted so the last large body of water we needed to cross (Sarasota Bay) was very pleasant.

We arrived at the marina in the early afternoon.

Time to relax a bit, clean up the boat and prepare for a visit from Terri and Scott on Tuesday. They live a short 15 minutes away - how convenient that we seem to have family and/or friends that live in strategic spots along the coasts!

It was such a nice day that we took a ride up to the Manatee River - not to see manatee but rather to look for the pod of dolphins that we were told kind of hang out at the river's entrance.

Sure enough, there were about a dozen dolphin swimming around the area. Several played in the front bow wave - jumping up out of the water a bit and diving back in. It must just be fun for them! We circled around and watched them for about 30 minutes and then headed back to the marina.

After all it was time for lunch! Off to Anna Marie Island we went with a destination of our favorite lunch spot on the pier. Sadly, as we arrived, the place was closed and appeared to be under renovation. No, no. don't fix it up. It's supposed to stay the old fashioned place - you know, the REAL Florida.

But we found a restaurant that was almost as good on the City Pier! Nice lunch .....

Back to the boat for some sitting around on the flybridge. The plan was to just enjoy the evening and the sunset.

Which we did :-)

Wednesday morning came early and there was, as always it seems, work to be done. The plan was to take the generator starter and the engine starter and alternator back with us to Cleveland. Just some preventative maintenance. We hadn't done this for several years and thought it was time.

It's kind of like replacing the impeller that cools the engine. Way better for US to chose the time and place to change it than wait until it fails and IT chooses the time and place to change it!

It'll be nice knowing everything is working well.

We packed up, readied the boat for sitting for a few weeks and headed off with Terri and Scott. They took us to the airport to pick up a rental car.

Off we headed north - what looks like will be the land of rain, freezing rain and snow .....

And us in our t-shirts and shorts ....