Season 1 - Florida

Florida Adventures begin: Arrived in Tampa in March of 2014, came here to check out a boat for sale, "Sail La Vie".  We saw this boat listing while we were in Panama on Jimmy's Bliss and we thought it looked like it had everything we wanted on a boat. So we after leaving Jimmy's Bliss we first took a some time off to regroup in Cancun and Cozumel and then we decided to come to Florida to check out Sail La Vie.  To say the least we fell in love with her immediately.  After she passed the boat inspection and sea trial we bought her and our adventures began; this was about 1 week after arriving in Florida. Our first adventures began with an overnighter at Egmont Island about 1 hour away from our home port in Gulfport.  Then our next adventure came when my daughters Ashley and Hannah came for a visit. We took the girls to Sarasota, Venice and Egmont.  I think their favorite place was Venice but they seemed to enjoy Egmont as well. Mostly they wanted to suntan and relax; read, do some stand up paddling, etc.

After then girls left we began getting the boat ready for our next adventure down the coast of Florida to Key West. We are currently more then halfway there; but the next few sails will be long ones, maybe even overnight.  When we left Gulfport a few weeks ago, first we wen to a beautiful little island named Anna Maria, very quaint.  Then we went to Longboat Key and had fun doing standup paddling.  We saw our first manatee close up and personal.  Then we went to Gasprilla island (Boca Grande), elegant fishing town known for Tarpon fishing. Love it, great restaurants and shopping.  Next was Caya Costa a nature preserve, we anchored at Pelican bay and mangrove bay.  Then we went to Usepia island and Cabbage Keys, both nice island but Usepia island was a private island that we could not enter so that was not a lot of fun.  Cabbage Keys had a great resort and restaurant.  The Jimmy Buffett song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" was rumored to have been inspired by the island and it's Cheeseburger.  So obviously that is what we had for lunch.  Every day while sailing we saw dolphins; one day we had at least 7 dolphin sightings.  These dolphins are not as playful as the ones in California but still great to see while sailing.  After Cabbage Keys we went to Captiva and Sanibel island.  Captiva had some of the most beautiful homes, manicured lawns, great restaurants.  One could definitely live here if you could afford it.  And then next stop Sanibel; this island is the seashell island.  We rented bikes and went all around the entire island on the great bike path.  Shelling was what we did a lot of while visiting Sanibel and now we have two large containers of shell to display on the boat.  Yesterday we arrived at Fort Meyers Beach and anchored under the San Carlos bridge. Difficult night with the mooring swinging and the generator not working properly but by this afternoon all is well again.  We shorten the bridle line and fixed the mooring.  We got an expert over to fix the generator and now back to normal. So hopefully it will be a better's night rest tonight.  Tomorrow we set off to Marco island 6 hour sail down the coast of Florida.  Then the big jump to Key West with an overnighter run.  We will be meeting Tom and Debra in Key West on Sunday for 3 days of fun.  Then back home to Gulfport to have the bottom painted on the boat.  On May 16th we fly back to California and we will be there until next year when we start another adventure on Sail La Vie.