One of our favourite spots.

August 21^st 2012

Position N 27° 34.535’,

               W 82° 45.280’.

Egmont Key, Tampa Bay, FL

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Last weekend we decided to travel up to Tampa Bay and spend the night at Egmont Key. It was Friday evening and I had prepared Partners to go to sea, the weather forecast was perfect with light breezes and only a 30% chance of a thunderstorm. All we needed was for Lavinia (HT) to get home from work after a brief shopping detour for the weekends supplies. She arrived at 17:15 and as soon as she had her work clothes off and her comfy boating clothes on we set sail. It is a slow business leaving the dock as we don’t have acres of room behind us before the next dock and its occupants become too close! ‘Partners’ has a single engine and an electric bow thruster. The significance of the ‘electric’ is that unlike a hydraulic bow thruster an electric one is not continuous duty which in layman’s term means one can’t just ‘lean’ on it indefinitely, in fact not more than 30 seconds at a time. The operation therefore is best carried out slowly, occasionally, if the wind is blowing, a little ‘goose’ of the main engine is necessary in order to correct a drift in the direction of the sterns travel, the bow thruster takes care of the bow. We reverse out slowly and bring the bow round to starboard in the direction of the main channel which is in the centre of the marina. Depth is not a problem, we have 16’ feet at our dock and no less than 10’ until we get to the entrance channel leading out to Sarasota Bay; at low tide there is about 7’, we draw 5’. Dredging is done about every two years which has caused sand banks to build each side of the marked channel which become exposed at low tide. Once clear of the marked channel we were finally free, on went the auto pilot and Partners was steaming towards the ICW channel in the centre of Sarasota Bay. From the ICW we head north and eventually, just a few miles, arrive at Longboat Key pass and bridge. One could continue on north up the ICW straight into Tampa Bay but we usually choose to enter the Gulf of Mexico through Longboat Pass; it is so much nicer getting to deeper water and not having to worry about the two bridges at Cortez and Manatee, both of which have to open for us. Once adjacent to Tampa Bay we turn to enter using Southwest Channel and head for the marker buoy G “3”. When the southern tip of Egmont Key is bearing approx 355° we turn, staying in about 20’ of water, and approach the half moon bay at the southern end of Egmont Key. This is where we like to anchor; the bay provides good protection from winds and seas from South through North. The anchorage is open to the East and would be uncomfortable in winds from that direction. Egmont Key is a National Park and bird sanctuary. If you find the tweeting and squawking of bird offensive this is not a place for you, it can be loud at times although one does become oblivious to it and we frequently eat dinner on our back deck without any ‘visitors’ and without having to raise our voices to communicate. On the Island is the Tampa Bay Pilots station, where they have supplied service to the shipping traffic of the busy port of Tampa for over 70 years, a lighthouse and the ruins of the Spanish-American War era Fort Dade.

Fort Dade

The Skyway Bridge in the background

Egmont key was surveyed by Spanish explorers in 1757. In 1761, the English named the island Egmont Key for the Earl of Egmont. With the rest of Florida, it passed back and forth between Spain and England and finally to the United States in 1827. In 1847, concerns with hazardous navigation at the mouth of Tampa Bay led to the construction of the first lighthouse. The Great Gale of 1848 swamped the island and all but destroyed the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper reportedly rode out the storm in a rowboat tied to a palmetto. After the storm had passed, he rowed to nearby Fort Brooke and tendered his resignation. In 1858, the lighthouse was replaced with the one we all see today.

We spent Friday night anchored in Sarasota Bay staging ourselves for an early cruise up to Egmont. We arrive at Egmont late morning and immediately lowered the dinghy and proceeded to motor round to the west side of the island where the Saturday merrymakers’ gather and anchor their boats for the afternoon. We had packed some snacks and cold beverages and proceeded to enjoy the music and party atmosphere that prevailed through 5 o’clock; we returned to ‘Partners’ hoisted the dinghy and spent the rest of Saturday just relaxing onboard. We ate a wonderful poached haddock dinner with a lemon sauce, rice and fresh carrots accompanied by a nice pinot grigio to wash it down. The birds had all found their roost and the quiet of the evening was complimented with coffee and a little tipple of Patron XO Café…we slept well! On Sunday after a full, yes you guessed it, English breakfast we weighed anchor and cruised back to Sarasota Bay. We were tied up in our slip by mid afternoon. A great weekend, healthy, simple pleasures and a time spent in a different world…I wonder where we will cruise to next.

Lavinia has been practicing chart work and course plotting and appears to be gaining a good understanding. As she becomes more comfortable with the process her knowledge is now enabling her to ask more relevant questions as she continues to hone her skills and her competence is exponential. For someone to go from no knowledge of navigation and the use of all the instruments and electronics is an awesome task and is not accomplished quickly, things I do ‘in automatic pilot’ such as calling on the VHF radio for a bridge opening is frightening to someone who has never done it before. I have also found out that I am not the greatest teacher, I am told I am not ‘global’ enough and get into the details before HT has a concept of what we are trying to achieve…I’m trying to remember that and change!

That is enough drivel for this episode…