Thursday, Jan. 25 – Sunday, Jan. 27

  

As we departed St Pete at 10:45am, the wind was about 15 mph from the northeast, so our trip down Tampa Bay was much rougher than Bo cared for. We made our way down the main shipping channel, under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and then back onto the more protected GIWW. 

 

We arrived at Marina Jack’s in Sarasota at 3:15pm. It’s a very nice upscale marina with big luxurious boats similar to The Wharf in Orange Beach on the panhandle. Brian picked out a restaurant for dinner called Smokey Joe’s a couple blocks from the harbor. The reviews were good; however, when we arrived there, the Smokey part of Joe’s was not attributed to the food, it was in the air. They allowed indoor smoking (including cigars). It took about 5 seconds to turn around and head to our second choice, which turned out to be a great little Italian place a couple blocks away. 

 

Marina Jack’s courtesy-van service provided rides to various locations around town. We coordinated with two other Looper couples to make a trip to The Ringling - the Ringling family estate with the mansion, circus museum, art collections, glass collection, gardens, full miniature circus created by Howard Tibbal (over 50 years in the making) and an education center. There is also a theater which is used for various productions that was originally built in 1798 in the castle of Queen Caterina Cornaro (widow of King Cyprus) in the town of Asolo near Venice, Italy. The Asolo theater was de-constructed and re-constructed off the Museum’s north wing from 1955-57.

 

We spent over three hours there viewing part of the theater, circus museum, the Tibbal Learning center with miniature circus, and most of the art collections, though some of the exhibits were closed for building renovations. Everything we saw was quite extraordinary and it would have taken another 3 hours to see everything on the grounds. On a separate note, our Looper group made for fun and interesting conversation on the rides there and back because we went with a Canadian couple from British Colombia (Peter and Laurie on the Myra-Marie) and another couple from Australia (Mark and Heather on Bushranger). 

 

A few quick facts about one thing we saw and one that we didn’t see at The Ringling…

 

We saw the incredible Miniature Circus by Howard Tibbal:

  • He collected almost one million photographs, advertisements, posters and news stories, and measured historic wagons, train cars, and other circus equipment to construct his model at a scale of 3/4 inch to a foot.
  • He handcrafted nearly 1 million pieces to make up his miniature circus, including 1500 performers, 152 wagons, 7000 folding chairs for spectators, and dishes and tableware to serve 900 people, tiny fully equipped train cars, historic wagons, a four-foot-high big top, 500 circus animals and thousands of other items comprising a 3,800-square-foot, 1/16th scale model three-ring circus.
  • The perimeter of the model is approximately 450 feet, or the length of 1.5 football fields. The area is large enough to park 11 school busses.
  • The details and activities depicted of the circus show and behind the scenes were amazing!


We did not tour the mansion, or the Ca’ d’Zan (“House of John” in the Venetian dialect):

  • John was one of the five brothers who owned and operated “The Greatest Show on Earth.” 
  • In the Roaring Twenties, John was one of the richest men in America, with an estimated worth of nearly $200 million.
  • In 1911, John and his wife, Mable, purchased 20 acres of waterfront property in Sarasota, and later purchased additional land.
  • Mable wanted to build their winter home in the Venetian Gothic style of the palazzi in Venice, Italy.
  • Construction on the home began in 1924 and was completed two years later at a then staggering cost of $1.5 million.
  • The 36,000 square foot mansion is five stories tall, with 41 rooms and 15 bathrooms. (Their art collections are housed in a completely separate museum structure on the grounds.)

 

We highly recommend a visit to The Ringling if you are ever in Sarasota, and be sure to give yourself plenty of time.

https://www.ringling.org/history-ringling

https://www.fsu.edu/news/2005/07/21/miniature.circus/

 

We stayed in Sarasota a third day to wait out some heavy rain and windy weather giving us a chance to catch up on some inside chores and maintenance. We had not expected to add to the repair list but (surprise!) we found a leak dripping off the top door jamb of the master closet.  After removing the ceiling panel and tracing the leak to a possible source, it appeared to be running down the inside of the back of our flybridge arch behind some wood reinforcement panels. Brian’s attempt to plug the leak with epoxy while it was still raining was only partially effective. He quickly devised a water collection system (an old butter dish) to collect the remaining seepage until we had a dry day to implement more effective repairs.   

 

The next morning the rain had stopped. We removed our ceiling panel, emptied our water collection system, replaced the ceiling panel and prepared to get underway to Boca Grande, Florida.