Siesta Key to Maderia Beach

Nice cruise day, 70's, East wind 15+, partly cloudy, 2 ft waves in the Tampa Channel. Dolphins paralleled us for quite a while after crossing the channel, arrived at Maderia Beach about 3:00 great conversation with new/old friends Charli and Al. 

The Sunshine Bridge 

Condo City

More Condos

Dolphin in the Bow Wave

Splashing back in for another leap

Two swam with us for quite a while, fun!

Punta Gorda to Siesta Key Anchorage

Good to be back traveling on Reunion, it takes a bit to get my mind set back on the boat after being on land for so long. Traveled down Charlotte Harbor to near Boca Grand and then up the intracoastal waterway no at a very quiet anchorage on the south end of Siesta Key. We passed a trawler south bound named Chester B, we met them in Grand Haven and travel part of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan with them last August. They planned to spend a night in Punta Gorda, so we were able to arrange for them to use our slip at Laishley's while we are gone. We saw 7 8 man sculls today practicing in the intracoastal. At one point, I slowed so as not to wake them and they began rowing and passed us up. We were traveling about 6.5 MPH and they were well over 7 MPH as they pulled away. Great fun to watch them move so gracefully. Huge wind shift tonight as we anchored, 15 from the Northwest, anchored calm to variable, rotated twice then the wind picked up again from the Southeast, 180 degrees from the previous direction. The forecast is for Northeast wind tonight, so we pulled up the anchor and moved to the other side of the canal and behind a spit of land. Very comfortable now wind back to East less than 5 MPH. Pork chops on the grill tonight with a nice salad. 

Our pick for new neighbors

Our new modern friends

A bit more modest

Just down the block and across a small channel