Travel Day

6.20

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the most wonderful dad in the world!! :)
The day started a little before 6am when Moo, who was not supposed to be outside, shook water onto us from the window above our bed. We thought it was raining and jumped up to close the windows, only to find that the sun was coming up and the sky was clear. It took a minute to realize that the water was from the cat. He had apparently escaped in the middle of the night and fallen into the water. We have no idea as to the actual events, but we assume he miscalculated the distance between the boat and the pier and took a swim in the drink. Several of his claws were also broken so, again we can only assume, that he then shimmied up the nearest piling and hightailed it back on the boat. We never claimed he was the brightest bulb in the bunch.
Our second wakeup came at about 9am, to the tune of an air horn; thanks to the local boating law enforcement. Looks like the sign did indeed refer to us and it seemed as if we were about to get a ticket from the local po-po. The guy, however, was very nice and said that the rule was new, as of this March. Brad handled the situation very well, sugar-coating the details as needed, and we sweet-talked our way out of a ticket and into a warning citation. The guy was actually very impressed with our journey and was excited when we told him where we had been and where we were going; he even wished us safe travels!
We headed out soon after that, not looking forward to a day of motoring. We headed up the ICW, through narrow channels that were lined with boats out enjoying the wonderful weather. They all stopped to stare as we went by, whether it was due to them seeing a huge sailboat going through the ICW or that Koa, our ferocious guard dog, was barking furiously at every powerboat that dared to cross his path, we are still not sure.
Coincidentally enough, I happened to check the address of one of our family friends, the Smithmans (Dad's old college roomate) as we were motoring towards Sarasota, only to discover we were less than a mile from his backyard, which was right on the ICW! We quickly gave him a call and he invited us to come ashore and visit for a bit. It turns out they were having a family gathering for father's day and we showed up right before the burgers went on the grill - good timing on our part I would say!! They were very generous and hospitable and after allowing us to crash their party for a few hours, let us cool off in their pool and then stocked us full of drinks before allowing us to pull away.
We headed back out to the ICW and motored the remained hour to Sarasota. About 15minutes out, we ran into black clouds and thunder. About 10minutes out, we were caught in a downpour and lightening that scared the bejeazus out of me. I tried to touch the metal wheel only in small intervals in case we were struck by lightening. And I made Brad wait to anchor until the lightening had moved on and we were on the back-side of the storm.
Although we have been told that it is infrequent for lightening to strike a sailboat, I cannot help but wonder at the veracity of that statement. After all, we are a huge metal stick sitting out in the middle of the water with lightening striking all around us. I don't know about you, but I was told that lightening strikes high points out on water - I think we would qualify for that. Needless to say, we are very cautious when sailing in storms.
Once anchored, it was too late to explore the town, so we settled in for a relaxing evening aboard the mothership.