March 27th, 2025

The above photo, which I did not take by the way,  is of both the Venice and Nokomis jetties which form a channel which in turn is an entrance to the Intercoastal Waterway.   If you've never heard of the Intercoastal Waterway (or just intercoastal)  it is a 3,000 mile inland waterway that runs along the Atlantic and Gulf of the US.    It stretches from Massachusetts south along the Atlantic Seaboard around the southern tip of Florida and ends in Brownsville Texas.  In short, it's quite long.  heh  And wildly popular with boaters.

Venice, the town we live in has the south Jetty and Nokomis, which is one town north of us, obviously has the north jetty.  Both have a lovely long walkout  which is lined with enormous rocks and is usually populated with sightseers ogling dolphins and manatees, fisher people, folks waiting to watch the sunset and loads of birds.  There are often surfers to be seen, boats to wave at and a public beach to access.  Ours used to have a snack shack called, Jetty Jacks that offered, in addition to food and drinks, live music, clean bathrooms and picnic tables  - some with umbrellas for shade.  used to have.

Our jetty is pretty much toast right now. The last hurricane season beat the absolute snot out of it. Jetty Jacks sadly, was completely destroyed and the rest is, well, it's barricaded right now. Though shalt not pass!    We are coming dangerously close to hurricane season once again and our jetty remains closed.  Oh I'm sure that eventually it will be repaired and that will be grand but in the meantime, we are jetty-less.

The folks who fish can fish elsewhere, off the pier if nothing else, sightseers can see wildlife from any point on the beach and y'know, we are in island so there is a lot of beach /waterfront to choose from,   The sunset  is right there in the same spot, every night, all you have to do is look west.  I'm not certain where the surfers went.  It's just a matter of time and patience until it is repaired and once again accessible to all.

But in the meantime, poor Tim is going through some sort of Jetty Withdrawal I think.  For reasons known only to Tim, our jetty just speaks to him. It was one of his most  favorite places to be here.  That's where we  went to watch the solar eclipse (with the proper eye protection naturally).  It's also where we would sometimes go on a moonless night to star gaze very very very late.  As if we were tourists we would go there, on the regular, camera in hand to capture frolicking dolphins, huge waves, not yet dangerous but still very impressive storms, bird close ups and whatever else happened to be there.  We went there to celebrate, to eat donuts on cold rainy mornings,   to squint through thick chewy fog to see what appeared to be ghost ships passing through the channel or just to find some peace when life gets to be a bit much.

And now, it's not an option.  He misses it. He doesn't complain of course, he's not the sort of person who complains about anything. But I know him.  And I know how much he misses being there.  If jetty visits were a once in a long while thing, it wouldn't be a big deal.  But it was at least weekly, sometimes multiple times in a week that Tim and I, or just Tim alone, would end up there. I felt so badly for him :(

This past weekend it occurred to me that the Nokomis jetty had reopened. Perhaps a visit to that jetty would fill the gap so to speak?  So on Sunday, we drove over to check it out. 

We stood at the edge looking down into the water from the rocks, we watched the birds, waved to the boats and made out way on to the beach and watched the sun begin it's descent.  Eventually we left.  I asked him how he felt about it and he said it was fine but just not the same.  And he was completely correct.  We stood on the Nokomis side looking at what remained of the Venice side with longing and nostalgia and, I suspect, missed it more than ever.  

For some things, there simply are no substitutes, it seems.

But hey, we tried.  And it isn't as though we had a bad time after all, we did not.  But it wasn't the same.

I did take a few photos which I will end with.  Eventually our jetty will be repaired, I have no doubt and then we can return to visit one of Tim's favourite places.