Yesterday was a short ride out the Manatee River and down the ICW to Longboat Key. The weather was hot and sticky, but we were able to get settled in the anchorage. It’s really noisy here. There are a couple of derelict sailboats with halyards slapping. The wind was up around 20 knots last night, so we had a lot of banging and slapping noises from the boats around us. Thankfully, our boat is quiet!
Today is Nick’s birthday. I fixed the solenoid valve on his toilet this morning (don’t I give great birthday presents??!) and he played with our new navigation equipment. Then we took the dingy to Anna Maria Island. Sadly, they are not very friendly for dinghies. The Anna Maria Oyster Bar has a dock that is currently closed with “No Dingy” signs all over it. There are a lot of derelict boats in the anchorage just south of the Cortez bridge that are an eyesore to say the least. They are also taking up space that folks like us to use for traveling, who would actually contribute to the community. Never mind that they spoil it for the rest of us because the community gets irritated with them. We did find a dock at the Bridge Tender Inn, which had a nice new dock, great cocktails and a nice lunch.
After returning to the boat, we decided to have a shower and get cleaned up before dinner. Nick wanted to spend his birthday dinner at Mar Vista, where we had been before and had an amazing dinner with my son. I had just got out of the shower when I heard him talking to someone. Would you believe the Coast Guard decided to pay us a birthday visit…just when he is in his boxers getting into the shower and I’m butt naked except for the towel on my head!! It is our first experience with an inspection and the timing couldn’t be better…..
They were kind enough to give us a moment to dress before boarding. They asked for all our boat documents and our ID’s. We had to show them our PDF’s, trash placard, oil placard, anchor light and fire extinguishers. The only issue we had was our through hulls for our holding tanks were not zip tied closed. Nick put the zip tie on for him and all was well. (Not sure how I’m going to get it off if we are out in rough seas, but we will figure that out when the time comes…) The Coast Guard guys were really nice and friendly. It was actually a very pleasant experience. I appreciate that they are trying to get rid of the derelicts out there.
We finally made it to Mar Vista and had a lovely dinner. They have great food and great service, as well as a dock at the restaurant. A pleasant ending to a very busy day…time to rest up before heading south tomorrow.
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Kudos!
Sure. What are you looking for?
The coast guard guys were really nice. They literally went down their list and checked it off. They made sure our anchor light worked, checked all the fire extinguishers (we need 2 for a 50 foot boat, but it depends on your size), the engine room fire suppression system (required for an inboard engine room), the placards (you need one for the trash and one for the oil), PFD’s (one for each person), and our through hulls for the septic tanks (which have to be zip tied closed or the handles removed when inside the 3 mile line.) They asked for the boat registration and our driver’s licenses. They asked us about our flares too, but actually not required since we were at anchor. They also asked about boating/sailing education, but also not a requirement.
They gave us a copy when they were done, which may or may not get us out of another inspection for the next year. It really wasn’t bad except for their timing!!
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