MOVING Day

My original plan of movement had us at anchor tonight some where in Charlotte Harbor not far from Fort Myers, but we have elected to go to Fort Myers "all the way in one play" today. That required a pre-dawn departure of about 0700.

Many of the people who read this realize that the admiral of this barge is NOT an early morning person, but luckily the winds were calm and the tide at a stand meaning no extra assistance was needed for the deckhand to get the water hose , and cable TV cable, and power cords, and six mooring lines aboard in time for a 0705 departure form Marina Jack in Sarasota. The admiral was informed shortly before engine start to avoid any unhappy repercussions as a result of sudden unexpected rumblings rumblings.

Our new radar was of assistance in guiding us clear of the marina. After which we encountered a number of manatee zones where slow speed was required.

After a couple of hours and several bridges, two of which had to be raised or swung clear for us to pass, we entered Venice inlet and passed out into a very calm Gulf for a faster passage of 27 miles to Boca Grande, the entrance to Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor. After the last bridge we raised all masts and antennas and should not have cause to lower them again for quite awhile.

At Boca we had 34 NM to go to get to Fort Myers.

A day like this (typing as we sail along) on the Gulf tempts me to just aim a bit to the southwest and go straight for Fort Jefferson, but we will continue to adhere loosely to our plan. If we get to Naples in a few days and find a salubrious prognostication, we may indeed wing it and go straight on out the 109 NM to Fort Jeff with a 0500 departure to ensure arrival in daylight. The current long range weather forecast does not look all that favorable for such a run.

We are in Pine Island Sound and have just passed between Useppa Island and Cabbage Key. Useppa is an invitation-only type of place with some famous names attached, and Cabbage has a restaurant and is open to the public. The Skinners and I anchored their Vendredi hereabout in 1992, and I had the hot duty of changing the attached fuel filters on but engines that night. The diesel fumes were nasty, and so was I by the time I was finished.

One of my regular checks of the engine room revealed a bit of oil smoke coming from the port engine valve cover gasket area. I pulled the cover this evening and found the cork gasket had bowed inward between the hold down screws allowing the oily smoke escape. I cleaned up around the gasket and clipped the sagging sections to the cover after putting some hardening Permatex in between to hold the gasket. Tomorrow I'll goop it up good with non-hardening Permatex and slap it together and hope for the best.