Day 105 - January 14, 2013: Cape Haze anchorage near Rotonda, FL

This was another beautiful, sunny day, and we decided to spend the morning in The Crow's Nest Marina and bike ride out to see the Venice beach near the cut to the ICW. The red tide was in, and you could see the murky color in the water and there was a strange smell. We immediately started coughing and found out this is a common phenomena. The red tide, which is filled with algae that depletes the oxygen level in the water, explained why we saw so many dead fish floating on the surface earlier that day in the ICW.

We liked Venice. It is not as metropolitan as Sarasota or St. Petersburg, has no super high rise condos or fancy tourist hotels, but has a very nice downtown area with parks, many shops and restaurants, little traffic, and is surrounded by nice well-kept homes. Many seemingly local people were out riding bikes or walking to the main street to run errands. It felt more restful to me as it seemed to be less of a tourist destination.

Venice Inlet to/from the ICW

We followed the ICW through a man-made ditch around the Venice Municipal Airport and back along the coast, which reminded us of the man-made ditches in the Tenn Tom. It seems that in this area of Florida, if you want to develop some land, instead of building streets, you dig a short canal to allow all of the lots to have water access. Here, we are passing such a canal showing an abundance of mobile homes and associated boats.

Our chosen anchorage, Cape Haze near Rotonda, was in a small circular cove, well protected from winds and waves, and surrounded by a dozen or so homes set behind seawalls. This anchorage was one we located using Active Captain, an interactive website aimed at cruisers world wide. After relaxing in the sun and having one of Anne's very healthy meals, we did some reading past sunset and into the darkness.

This evening, Anne noted that someone in one of the houses pointed a bright spotlight at our boat. Were they concerned or just curious about our presence? I am aware that many Florida residents want to see restrictions on where boaters can anchor, despite laws that clearly give the public full water access. Some cities here are experimenting with limitations on water rights already, and as a boater, and I am somewhat concerned about the possible outcomes.