Day 107 - January 16, 2013: Punta Gorda

Here are some additional pictures taken as we left the Boca Grande Marina and headed out into Charlotte Harbor for Punta Gorda. The marina was small with limited slips, but it looked relatively new, had a good ships store, and the restaurant was quite busy at night. You could also rent bikes and golf carts. The entrance was very shallow (you can see the light brown water which was only a couple of feet deep), so we had to skirt that area and come around to the right.

Boca Grande Marina where we docked

Boca Grande entrance

This is the back side of the beautiful Gasparilla Inn as seen in the distance across the harborside golf course.

Gasparilla Inn across the golf course

We moved up the harbor with the wind and tide to our stern, and this gained us two mph over normal ground speed, thus saving fuel. Punta Gorda means "fat or wide point," and if you look on a map you will see that it is a broad area sticking out into the harbor. Arriving mid-afternoon at the Laishley Park Municipal Marina, we chose to stay out on a mooring ball for our third time, and this turned out to be rather challenging. Every situation is unique.

The wind was strong enough that after Anne captured the mooring buoy line from the swim platform, the boat swung around so quickly that I couldn't get the line to the bow to fasten to the bridal. So, until I could figure out something better, I quickly tied it off on the stern cleat. Here we hung, stern instead of bow to the mooring ball and wind, as a couple on a nearby Grand Banks watched us struggle. Embarrassing!

I made several attempts to turn the boat around without losing the line to the buoy with no luck. Finally, I was able to back up along the ball and then power the nose around fast enough that I could run the line to the bow. Anne helped me secure the bridal, and we celebrated our triumph with a cheer. Fun, when you are successful in getting it done. I hope they were still watching, ha ha.

This is the marina and skyline of Punta Gorda from Great Laker on the buoy. We took the dinghy to shore, checked in, and walked a few blocks through the waterfront streets. This area was devastated during Hurricane Charlie in 2004 but since has been completely rebuilt. It now has modern storefronts, restaurants and a conference center.

Punta Gorda skyline