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Sunday, January 17, 2016

Five Bridges



We pulled into Venice Florida and are once again staying at a marina. This is more marina time than we planned, but my lovely wife has friends here in Venice so we hope to meet up with them.

It wasn't supposed to be a great sailing day, nor is the ICW considered good sailing waters. In spite of that we sailed enough to only use about a quart of gasoline. Not too shabby.

The route required us to get 5 different bridges to open. There's a procedure for that. The bridges on the west coast of Florida operate on VHF channel 9. You hail them on the radio giving the name of your boat and using the name of the bridge. Most of these bridges opened on request which means they open soon after you ask. One of today's bridges opens on a schedule, but we only had to wait 10 minutes, so it wasn't too bad.

Always, always, always be polite to the Bridgemaster. A huge powerboat did not identify itself by name. They took forever to get around to calling the bridge by name, and on top if it they were rude to the Bridgemaster. They were ignored. They ended up squeezing through the unopened bridge by staying in the center of the channel and passing where the bridge arched a bit.

I came up behind them, was polite and used proper protocol, and the bridge opened right away. The Bridgemaster was laughing.

This is the view over the stern of the boat. Way in the distance is one of the bridges that opened for me.


There's an awful lot of powerboat traffic on the weekend. Very few slow down to limit their wakes. Some power through the no wake manatee zones. We saw a manatee in one of those zones so they are definitely there for a reason.

What do think about this boat? It's a bargain!


-Sixbears

8 comments:

  1. No shore patrol to give out speeding tickets? That would sure slow down the cowboys!

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    Replies
    1. Some people get citations, but it's a tiny percentage. Seems most power boaters don't even know the rules.

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  2. There's an occasional jerk in every crowd it seems.

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    Replies
    1. The polite and courteous ones really stick out.

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  3. Wow! is that reflected sunlight? I haven't seen the sun in how many days here at the westside homestead? Too many to count but looking at that one picture sure gave me that summer time feeling! I have to say thank you for that and please keep the warm weather pictures coming :):):) I'm afraid winter came late so to make up for it it will stay late :(

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    Replies
    1. Some places have daylight. Florida has sunshine.

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  4. I'd love to see a photo of your boat showing the whole thing, and maybe you or the wife on board. I'm not good with getting a mental picture of the size of your new abode, and even pics of the deck or inside fixings would be appreciated, if it's not getting too personal for your comfort. Thanks ~

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