Adios Carona!

Oh boy…with this virus heating up again in Florida and the sand cloud from the Sahara Desert looming like an episode of The Mummy, we decided to get out of town yet again and head for Boca Grande for a week.

We love that we can anchor there with the tiny beach at our stern, mostly to ourselves. The doggies love playing on the beach and they get to swim 4 times a day in this incredible heat that we are having. Record highs make the beach and boat life even more enticing for sure. We left our marina just after lunch and made the three hour trip under the Sunshine Skyway bridge to anchor in Anna Maria, also a favored little getaway spot for us. After anchoring, we dropped the dinghy taking the puppies to swim and potty on shore. We had dinner up on the helm and set sail for Boca Grande with the sunrise. It takes us about 9 hours or so to get there on the outside, but with perfect conditions and a very hot still day, it went smoothly and we anchored at Cayo Costa a little earlier We spent one whole week here. It’s so beautiful and on our arrival, there was only one other boat in the distance in this vast anchorage and so it felt as though we had it all to ourselves. There are two beautiful beaches for the doggies to go to and we anchored as close as we could to our private one because we take them to play and potty so much during the day. Cali has become so comfortable in the water now. She hops onto the paddle board when you ask her to and loves trying to catch fish in the shallows. My Petes swims with us and then lies on his towel under the trees until we leave. They are so happy here and that makes us happy. Cali rings her bell to go potty and she has figured out that she can also get her hoomans to go swim and play that way too lol We had the most beautiful sunsets in our week here. One evening, we moved our table from helm up onto the bow for the most perfect dinner date with a gorgeous sunset at just the right time as an added blessing. We relaxed, swam, paddle boarded and sometimes I swam to shore and back for the exercise. Shaun fished, I painted and wrote and as always on these trips we have way too may cocktails to be healthy I’m sure! Even Cali and Mr Petes know the time we go up on the helm for cocktail hour every night and bark at the stairs to go up. But how can you not with all this gorgeousness surrounding you and with stunning views. On Sat, the 4th of July, we went to our tiny beach very early and set up our 2 chairs and umbrella to secure a space, knowing that everything would get crazy busy and for sure it did. We still had our very own section all to ourselves so it worked out beautifully. We brought crackers, cheese, nuts and drinks to the beach to enjoy and stayed until late. We are so thankful for our adoptive country and remain grateful daily to be woven into the fabric of America. Tonight we would enjoy our dinner up on the helm, quietly and peacefully without fireworks for the first time since coming to the US. Because the wind was not conducive to allow us travel back home on the outside which is much shorter, we opted to go back on the intercoastal which is slow and beautiful. This means us sleeping over in Sarasota and we got a ball at Marina Jacks to do so. With winds still strong we made the second leg of our journey up the inside again to Anna Maria where we anchored for the rest of the day. The bay was very choppy so made the decision to stay over. In the evening, we took the dinghy up to Waterside cafe for supper leaving the doggies on board. We woke early to funny sounds outside only to find the dinghy winch had been pulling up all night pulling it so tight that it was squashing it into the lift. Shaun tried to repair the winch but it would not release, so we had to saw the cable to let it loose. We took the little ones to potty one last time before retying the dinghy for the trip back home to Tampa. We reached our shores mid morning where Jax and Justine were to greet us and catch our ropes. The last ten days have been so lovely as always, but today is a very special day because it is Grayon’s 6th birthday and we haven’t been able to be close to the kiddies due to Covid-19. We will get to hug them today for the first time since our vacation in March to Georgia. We are SO excited and very happy to be home again!