Day 228 – 231; 1/2/2024 – 1/5/2024: The evening of 1/1/2024 we said goodbye to Rick and Heidi as they headed off for a few days of relaxation here in FL before heading home to St. Louis. Particularly memorable from their trip was the plethora of dolphins that swam with us from Bradenton to Longboat Key.
The facilities at Longboat Key Moorings Marina and Resort were particularly nice, but we had not really had a chance to enjoy them, so we decided to stay a couple more days before heading further south. The Marina is connected to 2 wonderful restaurants (so we had to try both!), a golf course (Gary tried to get on but could not) and a heated pool and spa. It also had great walking paths so Carol ventured out for a few miles, first time in a while. Wednesday, we met Jeff (high school friend of Carol’s) and his wife Kathy for lunch – it was great to catch up in person after sooooooo many years!
Thursday, 1/4 we left Longboat Key after pumping out the black water (that’s what boaters call the waste from the heads… “heads” is also boater talk for toilets) and filling our fuel tanks. Legacy holds just over 1400 gallons of fuel. We were less than half full, so topped her off. The price was right at $3.95/gallon versus over $5.00/gallon we’d seen at other places for the last couple weeks. With 1400 gallons, our range is about 1400 miles at our normal cruising speed. Now that we are full, we may just have enough fuel to get all the way home to MD!
From Longboat Key, we passed several beautiful beaches we would have loved to stop at, but couldn’t: Lido Key, Siesta Key, Venice and Manasota Key to name a few. Instead we ran for about 5 hours (43.6 miles) to an anchorage at the south end of Lemon Bay, just north of Placida Harbor on the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) to get closer to Punta Gorda. We needed to be in Punta Gorda by 1/5 since early morning of 1/6, we will be leaving Legacy for a week to go the North Myrtle Beach, SC and do some maintenance on the properties there. It’s that time of year for a work week and the Loop doesn’t get us out of that!
Our run to Lemon Bay was entirely on the ICW, so we were well protected from the wind and waves of the Gulf. We were very quickly greeted by a group of 3 or 4 dolphins who were very acrobatic and entertaining. Check out their jumps and antics below:
It’s pretty amazing to think that they are swimming along side of us doing 10 knots (11.5 mph). Let’s put swimming that fast into persepective: Michael Phelps, a twenty-eight time Olympic Gold Medalist can reach speeds of six miles per hour but even Big Mike cannot keep up in the race when it comes to a dolphin! They can achieve a top speed of about 22 mph.
The dolphins we are seeing are bottlenose dolphins – common to this area. At first we were impressed they swam so fast to keep up with us, but then realized they truly are just moseying along having fun. I swear they roll over on their side and look straight up at us when we are watching them! Then if they see we are watching, we get some nice jumps or they may even roll over and swim upside down. Check out this video of this acrobatic Mama trying to teach her juvenile to jump. She catches some pretty great air multiple times in a row about 1 minute in.
Here are a few fun facts about bottlenose dolphins: first off they are mammals, not fish. They breathe air from the surface, not underwater through gills. Average length of a bottlenose dolphin is 6 to 12 feet and they can weigh over 1,000 pounds. At birth, a calf will weigh in at 30-40 pounds; Average lifespan is 40 to 60 years with females on the 60 year side and males on the 40. Being mammals, they experience a live birth after a 12 month gestation period; babies are born tail first, unlike humans. Mama’s will give birth close to the surface to help the calf surface and take its first breath. Mama dolphins produce milk to nurse their babies underwater, nurse for up to 2 years and will stay with their babies for up to 6 years. Dolphins reach sexual maturity between 5 and 14 years, and will reproduce actively their entire lives with females giving birth every 3-6 years. They generally live in small groups and organize complex, group behaviors when mating and hunting, but do not mate for life. Their preferred food includes small schooling fish and squid, eating 13-15 lbs/day. Adults have no known predators, but juveniles have been known to be attacked by large sharks or other predatory marine mammals.
Check out the videos below of the dolphins in our bow; we are always amazed at how close they like to get to us. We don’t quite understand why they choose to run in the bow (in front of us) or on the side just ahead of our wake, but they do change it up sometimes. Our boat is a particular dolphin magnet, attracting more than the rest of the flotilla we have been running with…. It must be something about the sound, hull displacement or speed.
Pay particular attention in the below video to see the number 326 on one of the dolphin’s dorsal fins. It turns out that dolphin is named Squirt! He is a playful male born in 2019 and first observed in November 2022 as an independent juvenile. During a health assessment in May 2023, researchers discovered a large healed shark bite wound on the underside of his body. During an ultrasound, they discovered that the wound actually rearranged his urinary tract. The veterinarians were concerned about his health, so they attached a satellite-linked transmitter to his dorsal fin and gave him the 326 freeze-brand. The freeze brand acts as a medical ID bracelet and allows them to continue to monitor him into the future, even after the transmitter detaches as designed. He likes to hang out in the Siesta Key area, which is exactly where we saw him. Coastal populations of common bottlenose dolphins are more territorial whereas oceanic populations are more migratory, visiting coastal ecosystems.
Other than watching the dolphins, our trip reminded us of being in the Trent Severn Waterway in Canada, in a particular section we called “the ditch”….that section here in Florida is called the “Cut Off” just north of Placida Harbor. It’s basically a man made ditch filled with water about 10’ deep connecting 2 more naturally occurring bodies of water… we were in this ditch for atleast an hour…. BORING! This portion of the ICW requires you to stay in a very defined and well marked channel, where depths range from 7-12 feet. Venturing out of the channel, you will find yourself aground! We anchored just north of Gasparilla point on the south end of Lemon Bay for the night. Sunset was okay, but not super remarkable. We were up and out around 9:00 am for our short run to Punta Gorda.
Within minutes of getting underway, a group of dolphins joined us again. They swam along with us on the starboard side and in the bow for over 20 minutes. We had to stop and wait for a swing bridge to open and could see them hanging around waiting for us to start moving again. It was hilarious to see them in an all out sprint to catch us again when we started moving! I only caught one of them on video. Check it out! (10 seconds)
Check out these 5 or 6 swimming along side, turning sideways to see us and even swimming upside down at times (4 mins)
Friday, 1/5 we were up and out around 9:00 am, arriving in Punta Gorda around 11:30. Burnt Store Marina is a well protected marina with a nice bar and restaurant right there on the premises. We had lunch on the boat, washed off all the salt and crud from the last week or so, caught up on laundry and prepared to leave Saturday morning for South Carolina. We secured a few extra lines and put out a couple extra fenders and called it a day. It was finally warming up (78 degrees), so we were sad to see the weather forecast in SC with lows in the 40’s and highs in the 60’s. We’ve been waiting for the warm weather for so long and would now leave it behind! Guess we’ll have something to look forward to when we get back!
Saturday we were up at 4:45 am and calling an Uber/Lyft by 5:45 for the 45 minute ride to the airport. Best of plans crashed hard when we figured out we were in an Uber/Lyft dead zone! Yikes! It took about 45 minutes, but Gary finally found a taxi service that would pick us up. We got to the airport with little time to spare and made the flight! Our connection in Atlanta was also a sprint, but we arrived close to on time after a slight delay landing in Myrtle Beach since Air Force 2 was using the airport!
While we are away, Legacy will get her bottom cleaned…. Then we are off to Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, the Everglades and the Keys. Hello warm weather!!
chashurley
Really great tutorial on dolphins! Also spectacular sunset off your stern above Punta Gorda.