Jen started the day by going for a run around downtown Sarasota. There is a path that goes around the bay, with super pretty views of the boats in the mooring field.

Mike spent the morning working while Kelly did some trip planning.

For lunch the Wishes crew walk downtown to eat at Melvin’s, a Mexican restaurant with a cute outdoor seating area on the street. Food was fantastic, the flavor was unique and we loved people watching. The weather was great. After lunch we walked over and had ice cream at Main Street Creamery… highly recommend going there. The ice cream is super creamy and the flavors are delicious.

After lunch we headed back to the boat and Mike finished up working.

We made dinner at the boat and watched Game Of Thrones. The show depicts a medieval, fantasy world based off the book series “A Song of Fire and Ice” by George R.R. Martin. The show depicts a few powerful families all fighting to sit on the throne and rule the seven kingdoms. It can get a get a little confusing as the story focuses on many different families. So Jen made a family tree to help keep it all straight. It’s been fun watching the show and crossing off people as they die in battle, marking who’s getting married and having kids.

After a few episodes we let the dogs out to go “night night potty” and they barked at a bird… we keep trying to explain to the dogs that the birds are not a threat to us, but they still don’t understand.

Today, Jen and Kelly spent the day exploring Sarasota. Sarasota is a town with multimillion dollar condos, outdoor cafes, cute high end shops and streets named after tropical fruit. One of the highlights was stumbling onto a little outdoor cove part of the Opera House. It was so beautiful. We could hear the music and singing inside. There was also actors rehearsing at individual tables. Their singing was so wonderful. The acoustics were fantastic. It was a very special experience.

While the girls were out exploring, Mike worked.

After a long day of barking at every person who walked by, Harley was very tired. The puppies were too, and they spent the day running around the boat.

We stated the day with a prayer as we fired up the starboard engine to check our repairs on the transmission gauge from the night before. It worked!!

When it was time to pull out of the marina the dock-master came and helped us. We untied all our lines except the port bow line. Mike gave it a little gas and we pivoted around to where we could pull out bow first instead of having to back out.

While we were underway about every 15-20 minutes Jen went down into the engine room to check on the starboard transmission. It held beautifully. It was a great day out on the water, and we made it to Marina Jack with no issues. Docking went great, captain and crew used the headsets to communicate and got in on the first try.

Once we got settled in Sarasota, we took the dogs for a walk in the park. It is a beautiful park with a lot of people walking around with their dogs as well. The dogs were surprisingly good with the temptation of so many dogs. They didn’t bark and seemed to really enjoy it. Afterwards, we walked around the docks and met future loopers. It was fun to share our experiences and encourage them.

We also met the AGLCA Harbor Hosts, on their beautiful Saline ”Sea Life”. Richard gave us tips on Sarasota including restaurants. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Marina Jacks restaurant. The key lime pie still wasn’t as good as the restaurant in Destin, Dewey Destin. It is still #1 with Fisherman’s Wife in Carrabelle as #2!

Unfortunately on the trip leaving Clearwater we lost the STB(starboard, right side engine) transmission while waiting for the Cortez Bridge to open just outside of Bradenton. Jen went down into the engine room to check and found oil under the STB engine.

We quickly pulled up Aqua Maps and found a marina just on the other side of the bridge. We pulled into Bradenton Beach Marina, where they cleared off a spot on their side wall for us. We were able to limp in on just our Port engine, and docked safely.

After cleaning up all the transmission oil, Mike found out it was the pressure relief valve on the top of the pressure gauge that blew. (think China had some influence here…LOL) A few hours in the engine room and a Lyft ride to both Autozone for oIl and Home Depot for a pipe plug, we were back running again. I put the pressure gauge from the port motor on the starboard just to make sure it was not an over pressure situation, and used a pipe plug temporally on the port side where the gauge was removed.

After our stressful evening, we ordered food from DoorDash. It all worked out okay, we were mostly sad we missed a chance to anchor with our friends on C. Marie. We will catch up with them again on the East side of Florida, and get a chance to catch up.

Jen started the day by going for a run. She ran up the bridge by the boat and took pictures. it was a total of about a 3 mile run. Afterwards Jen spent the day unpacking her stuff and getting reorganized, and playing with Harley.

Mike spent the day working.

Kelly did some trip planning, getting us ready to head farther south. As well as dropping off our rental car at Avis.

Tomorrow we leave Clearwater and will be heading to an anchorage with our friends from C. Marie. They are our friends from Blue Dolphin Marina in Seabrook, Texas. WE haven’t seen them since Gulf Shores, Alabama so we are very excited.

Reunited again!

Michael drove Jen to the airport in Houston and gave her big hugs.

Fight was great, and Jen made friends with the guy she was sitting next to her the row in front of her. It made the flight go by pretty quick, and was fun to share her loop stories with new friends.

Mike and Kelly came and picked Jen up from the airport. It was so nice to have the Wishes crew back together again. Jen found a restaurant for us to go to on yelp called Izakaya Tori. It was amazing! It was such a unique flavor explosion with everything we tried.

After dinner, we drove back to the boat. Harley was so excited to see him mommy, that poor Jen got her feet peed on. Jen and Harley have a very strong bond and hate to be apart from one another, so the excitement between the two upon being reunited was very high to say the least. We all called it an early evening and wet to bed.