Woke up at 5:30 and decided to wait until daylight to set of on our gulf sail. Jim was out on his boat drinking coffee and we waved goodbye. We slowly motored out to the gulf and headed south to Sarasota. There were a lot of dolphins around us and lots of birds. Did not see any sea turtles today. While Steve reviewed charts and took a break from navigating, i took over the helm and played boatcross (avoiding crab pods by zigzagging and still trying to make good time). Well my luck kicked in and the auto pilot decided to just strip a gear while in route, whew well we manually navigated into Sarasota. We were going to stop at Longboat key but it was too crowded. And we were making good time so we decidedtot head on to Sarasota. Going in to Longboat key was an adventure in itself. The channel was so shallow we ran aground several times going in to bridge, the boat surfed a little and steve suddenly yelled ” look behind me!” and “close the doors”, a huge wave came in right behind us and flooded the helm. Luckily i got the doors shut just in time, unluckily we left the window open to the berth under the helm. That window is low and right under the seating on the helm. When we made it through the bridge there were boats everywhere it looked like a boat convention. We slowly navigated our way through the hoards of boats. We saw some guys in fishing boats almost running over each other in a small area throwing nets and hauling in tons of fish. These guys surrounded by pleasure boats too! Looked like New York at rush hour. We started down the GIWW (intercostal waterway) and it was hard, the powerboaters would fly by us and send our boat rocking. You are supposed to give a slow pass when boats pass to be considerate and not rock the other boat. Steve and i have noticed the further south we get the more rude and unfriendly people are getting! It is obvious! We made our way to Charlotte Harbor and had a guy run at us head on then turn in front of us at last minute and just looked back to see what he did. I guess.Steve said  later did our bed get wet?, I checked and it was soaked at top and it got about 5 pillowcases and soaked 2 pillows, the mattress top, the sheets and the memory foam. Needless to say we looked like sea gypsies with our memory foam hung over the rail with wet rug and towels. We came into Sarasota and anchored out in bay with other anchored boats. We were outside the mooring field and were told it was fine. We cooked some dinner and tried to sleep on the couch that makes a bed! Ugh it was bad after getting used to our bed. Needless to say we had little sleep and still had a mess to clean up. O well on till tomorrow!

CAPTAINS LOG: Be very cautious of shallow water and waves when approaching longboat key entrance. All bridge channels VHF is channel 9 on GIWW.  Captain Steve