After a very early start - 3am- Nana and Nandad arrive at Fisherman’s Wharf in Venice at 1.15pm. Lots of time to have lunch at the Dockside Grille , check on the boat, provision, and start the prep for the next few weeks of adventure. Ireland’s Eye looks great. It makes all the difference when you leave a boat nice and clean and properly maintained. Also this is a great Marina - thanks to Dylan and Kya both very busy dockhands.
Having the rental car for the extra day also helps in the event we need extra supplies. Now the holiday parade is a big deal in Venice and we arrived just in time for the 6pm starting point. Fisherman’s Wharf is literally a ten minute walk over the bridge to downtown which despite all the construction is decorated for the holidays with lots of festive lighting. People are everywhere and the place is jam packed with chairs, picnic tables, rugs , children, dogs all dressed for the occasion. The parade lasted at least 90 minutes and included angels on horse back, lots of The Grinch, brass bands, dance academy drills, antique cas and fire trucks and of course The Harley Motorcycle club, the Corvette club - there was something for young, middle age and old.
Sunday November 25th.
A slow start this morning but we finally got ourselves into gear. Nana missed her beach walk as Fisherman’s Wharf is further up from the Crows Nest so had to make do with walking the local neighborhood which was not the same but still quite pleasant. The homes are small but right on the ICW and each with its own slip. We attended mass at Epithany Cathedral once again. It really is a beautiful church with a fantastic choir. Afterwards Nandad dropped Nana off at the laundromat ( no laundry at the Marina which meant Nana did not get a chance to do it before she left) while he returned to IE.
There are always tasks on a boat that nobody wants to do so together we tackled cleaning the dingy. The gas tank had leaked so the petrol was floating around the bottom and as you can imagine a not to pleasant odor. Donned rubber gloves, soaked up the gas with those filter pads, cleaned with bilge cleaner and two hours later we are ready for a dingy ride. Sunset is at 5.30pm and the moon is a Waning Gibbous at about 90% so still very bright. A fabulous dinner at Cassariano,an Italian Eatery downtown, with a wonderful Quintet playing great Jazz.
Tomorrow we will leave Venice and maybe anchor heading towards Siesta Key, Longboat Key and Sarasota. The weather so far is perfect with warm days in the 70s cooling down a little at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment