Good Morning and Happy Memorial Day! We had the perfect night at anchor with calm winds for peaceful sleeping and woke up to a beautiful sunny day.
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Last night before dinner, we had a surprising visit by a huge manatee. He hung around our boat for over 30 minutes just eating and coming up for air every 5 minutes. I finally got a picture of him after many previous failed attempts.
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Around 11:30, we hopped in the dinghy and took the short ride to Englewood Beach. We beached the dinghy and found a shady spot near the beach to watch the boat traffic motoring down “ski alley”. Ski alley is a long stretch of water that runs between Manasota Key (where the beach is located) and Peterson Island. Boats race up and down this waterway to exit Stump Pass and reach the Gulf.
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From our vantage point on Manasota Key, we could see our boat off in the distance.
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While we enjoyed the shade, a tortoise came walking by. He meandered along until he got close to us. Then he turned and slowly moved towards the parking lot. I was afraid that he’d wander into the traffic and get squished, so I notified the Ranger who came and gave him a “lift” to the other side of the parking lot and safety.
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After awhile, we packed up our things and took a ride down “ski alley” to check out all the action on the Stump Pass sandbar. It was nice to see so many boats displaying the flag on this Memorial Day. There were over a hundred boats enjoying the holiday at Stump Pass.
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We dinghied back to the boat to spend some time with Auggie. That was enough sun for one day. We’ll wait for the day to cool off a bit before we take Auggie to shore for his walk and a chance to check out the beach for shark’s teeth. Englewood Beach is one of the best places to find them. Tomorrow we leave for Cayo Costa for a few days to enjoy the state park island and nearby Cabbage Key.