March 12th 2017: Captiva Island, FL to Venice, FL

Sunday March 12th:

We departed Captiva Island at 8:15 and cruised 47.4 miles to the Fisherman's Wharf Marina at Venice, FL arriving at 4:48pm. We had stayed at a different marina in Venice at the start of our trip. We had never been to this one so we wanted to try it. On arrival we were assigned a slip on the outside of the dock along the river. Due to the combination of cross wind and cross current in the channel, I had to try four times to get into the slip. At first I tried to stern in and then gave up and went bow in. The dock hand said I did good because it usually takes the slip's owner eight tries to get into it.

When I made the reservation the dock hand had told me that the "Nina" and "Pinta" replica Columbus ships were there for a few days. We ended up in a slip near the Pinta. We saw a steady stream of tourists who had bought tickets to tour the Columbus ships.

Red Pearl alongside the "Pinta" Columbus ship at Fisherman's Wharf Marina, Venice, FL.

A constant line of tourists at the Columbus ships.

Something very special about those old "square rigged" sailing ships.

We walked a short walk into the downtown Venice shops and restaurants. They were having a car show in the park in the center of town.

After we closed down all the shops we returned to the Red Pearl and then went to the on-site restaurant at the marina for dinner and live music. The sesame encrusted seared tuna entre was outstanding...very fresh and a huge portion.

We met a couple of other loopers in the boat behind us. Their boat is a larger version of our boat and they let us look at it. They expect to be looping in 2018.

We turned-in and had a good night's rest for our last leg home tomorrow.