Naples in amongst the uber-rich

Today we had a pretty pleasant cruise down the coast from Fort Myers Beach to the familiar cul-de-sac we anchored in twice during our 2009 trip down here. This place is in amongst palacial homes of the uber-rich here in the Naples area.


As we exited the Fort Myers Beach area we were “over flown” by para-sail chutes towed by para-sail boats. It was obvious that it was being done on purpose, and I was quite concerned at the potential hazard to all concerned. As a result, I called the local Coast Guard station and complained and told them that they need to reach out to the para-sail companies and straighten them out.

This evening Seminole is rafted alongside Calypso, and we all got together and ginned up a nice steak dinner.

Tomorrow, it is our intention to head down the inland passage between Naples and Marco Island and then into the inland passage from Marco to Goodland after which we will debouch into Florida Bay, turn eastward and end up our 40-plus mile day in Everglades City at the Rod and Gun Club for a day or two.

Going south instead of east

We don’t have a plan, and we are sticking to it.  That’s what any sensible cruiser tells himself over and over.  Yes, we must at least have some idea of the ultimate goal of a cruise and even some idea of what you are doing the next day, but weather, bridges, mechanical problems, and social changes can create havoc with the anal planner.  I always lay out potential routes on Coastal Explorer on my laptop and make a quick reference table on Excel so we can make decisions on the fly without a lot of chart work on a boat navigating narrow waterways, but things change.

The big change now is that our contact in Miami will be unable to be there when we pass through, if we were to head across Lake Okeechobee now.  That’s not all bad since we were trying to figure out how to stall for a couple of days to avoid the weekend on the lake-crossing route.  So now we have decided to generally pursue our 2009 route where we went south from here in FMB to Naples and thence to the Everglades and the Keys.

So now it is time to transfer the routes down the southwest coast of Florida toward the Keys from the computer to the Garmin chartplotter and get out of here tomorrow.

Jim got a new alternator today and installed it, and I replaced a failing marine VHF radio on the flying bridge (thanks to Tom for the lift to West marine) – fixing boats in exotic places….

We took Tom and Willie out to dinner here at the marina last night and had them over for pizza cooked on our grills tonight.  Nice folks and a lot of help here.

Fort Myers Beach and the Theobalds

Both boats got underway yesterday (Wednesday) around 0800 from the anchorage in which we sought refuge from the fierce northerly winds and successfully negotiated the Boca Grand swing bridge at the 0830 opening.  We arrived in good order at Cabbage Key around 1030 and moored in two of the three big-boat slips inside their curiously aligned pier.  Later that night we dined in the Cabbage Key restaurant where the walls and ceilings are covered in taped up dollar bills with peoples’ and boats’ names and dates scribbled on them.

Cabbage Key was bought in the 1930s by a couple wanting to establish an estate.  By 1944 it was established as an inn.  Today it has a few rooms and old-fashioned cottages for rent and is a popular lunchtime stop for those who have a boat or can get there on one of the several small ferryboats from surrounding towns like Captiva.

Today we got underway at 1000 and arrived at the Ballard Oil Company for fuel in Fort Myers Beach.  There we met Tom and Willie Theobald and their two dogs that had walked down from their boat at Olsen Marine.  After taking on 180 gallons of diesel as well as the Theobalds, we made way for Seminole to top off tanks.  We moved on down San Carlos Bay about a quarter mile to Salty Sam’s Marina a=where we moored alongside A dock.

Tom brought aboard the Nissan 9.8 HP outboard carburetor repair kit I had ordered for overnight shipping to him yesterday, and we then took the carburetor off the engine before walking the mile or so up to Olsen Marine where Tom used their solvent tank to clean out the carburetor of any possible contaminants.

Meanwhile, Jim, Jackie, and Mary were taken by Willie in her car to find some groceries and a bimini repair part for Seminole’s bimini, which had torn loose in the gale we encountered at the stalled Boca Grand Bridge on Tuesday.

After looking over Tom’s projects on his Grand Banks woodie, we two walked back to the marina where Tom reassembled the Nissan’s carburetor using the repair kit parts.  The motor ran very well once we re-installed the carburetor with none on the slow speed stalling it had been guilty of before.  In payment for their kindnesses, we took Tom and Willie out to dinner at Salty Sam’s Café.  It is soooo nice to have helping hands like these when you are cruisin,.

We have the heaters on tonight since temperatures will be in the 40s.

Tomorrow will be another day in port here in Fort Myers Beach where we expect another visit from Tom and Willie.  I’ll give him a good look around our cooled down engine room, and then maybe we’ll travel to a place where I can buy a new VHF radio to replace the sketchy one we have on the flying bridge.  Jim expects to receive a new alternator to replace the one that overheated on the way to Cabbage Key on Wednesday.

After that, we must make a decision on how and where to kill the weekend before starting across the state in the Okeechobee Waterway because we do not want to be there on the busy weekend days. 

14 miles north of Cabbage Key

We left Venice in good order and made good time down the waterway with high winds astern pushing us along. We had to wait for several bridges to open, but no wait was excessive until we got to the Boca Grand swing bridge here at Cape Haze just before Charlotte Harbor. It was to be our last bridge, but winds over 30 knots prohibited the bridge tender form opening.


We elected to backtrack about 2 miles or so to a nice hole in the side of the channel surrounded by nice dwellings where we anchored for the night.

Tomorrow we will get underway and get on down to Cabbage Key by about 10 AM. The next day, we will head for Fort Myers Beach.

I found out this evening that our Nissan 9.8 HP outboard just wouldn’t run unless it is at full throttle. I am hoping an acquaintance in Ft Myers Beach, Tom Theobald, can help me solve this issue,

Venice

Poor weather prevented us from leaving Longboat Key yesterday, so we occupied ourselves with reading and eating lunch and dinner at the two nearby restaurants. We got underway this morning at 0845 for Venice.
This afternoon finds us at the Crows Nest Marina in Venice at a bouncy slip. It took a couple of tries to get into this slip in the high winds, and Jim and Jackie in Seminole ended up alongside the fuel dock. This marina is right near the inlet from the Gulf, and we can see the white caps on it from the boat.

Today’s trip was only about 27 miles long but with a lot of bridges and manatee zones requiring slow speeds. Saw no manatees. They probably fled this cool weather.

Winds were strong from the north, and we had plenty of current pushing us along too. At one point at near idle on both engines we were making over 8 MPH.

While passing through Sarasota, I spied Chip’s boat the Eleohn off to port at a bouncy anchorage. We went over to them and said hi and that we would see them at Dog Island on our way home.

Since the weather is not expected to get any better, and we don’t like bouncing off piers, we will get underway tomorrow for Cabbage Key, about 30 miles south of here.

Crab dinner at Longboat Key

It is always difficult to say too many kind things about Jeff and Suzanne Wright because they just take us in like lost puppies when we come by in our peregrinations. This time we also had the pleasure of meeting their houseguest, Robert Scott, a childhood friend of Jeff’s. He and I have common ground as we both worked at the Navy base in the Bahamas, albeit at slightly different times, and we know some of the same folks.




Today we are contemplating heading on down to an anchorage at Longboat Key just 26 miles from here. The consensus of our crews is to remain there overnight, although we could elect to continue on to Sarasota if things don’t go our way at the anchorage. There is supposed to be a fine restaurant there, and the small village has been cited as worth a walk around. I would normally avoid such a popular place on a weekend in this densely populated area of Florida, but the weather is definitely not the sunny clear sky type weather, which brings out tons of folks on the water.



Later that day:



We transited the condo canyons of the lower St Pete peninsula without incident and crossed the opening to Tampa Bay where we entered Anna Maria Sound. There we were met by a Florida Fish and Game boat, which directed us to turn on our navigation lights due to “low visibility.” I looked around at the navigation marks and land in view and though to myself, why does he think these conditions constitute low visibility? At the moment, we had one-mile visibility, certainly not what I would call low visibility. It was curious that he made no mention of me turning on my radar or foghorn. So much for the nautical knowledge of the FWC.



As we entered Tampa Bay, I noted that there was an Automated Information System (AIS) target showing on my chart plotters with the name Islander and listed as a pleasure vessel. AIS is a wonderful new aid which allows us to see the GPS position course and speed as well as type vessel and name. You can have a system that transmits this information for your own boat (required on large vessels and towboats) as well as receive that of other similarly equipped vessels, or you can have just a receiver like we do.



The Islander was ahead of us crossing the bay, and I thought to myself, I bet he is going to Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant on Longboat key where we were headed and that he’s get the free pier space there before we could get in. Sure enough, as we caught up to him in the thickening fog, I saw him turn into the anchorage at Longboat Key, and then we were able to watch his AIS symbol slide right over to the pier at the restaurant – DANG!

It all turned out well as there was sufficient pier space there for us to moor ahead of him and Seminole to moor astern of him. We ran into them at the bar and enjoyed a pleasant exchange of boat experiences.



Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be 60% chance of thunderstorms after 2PM, and we have an incoming tide until 1130, which will help us get off this pier. If conditions are not too shabby we may try to run to Marina Jack in Sarasota or continue on down to Venice.

Aaarrgh! It's Treasure Island

Oddly enough, we came across the "Pirate ride" ship from this area as we cruised down the channel.  I hailed them on the radio and said, we come in piece and request a one-whistle passage."

We arrived at Jeff and Suzanne Wright’s home in Treasure Island yesterday after a slow 20-plus mile transit from Caladesi.

The exit from Caladesi at times showed as little as 0.8 feet under our keel at the time of the lower of two daily high tides. However, it was not until just before turning into this canal that I ran lightly aground while idling along. One must stay close to the seawalls and away from the island in the middle of John’s Pass.



We managed to tuck our two boats into Jeff’s pier by having Calypso moor along the outside end of the pier (head of the pier to us nautical types) and Seminole nosed in toward shore in the slip along side the pier. Our stern is pointed at about their amidships location.



Suzanne took the ladies out for dinner and Jeff took Jim and me to a local yacht club to see a presentation by a well-known nautical author.



Today the women are going to Publix in the afternoon, and we guys are headed to West Marine for a couple of items.



Our plan for tomorrow is to head to Longboat Key to see if we can find room in an anchorage for lunch. Then we will stay the night or head for Sarasota a few mile miles along the way.

Moving on to Treasure Island

Mary and Jackie and I took off on a long walk south on the beach yesterday under cloudy skies and an occasional spit of rain. We passed by the south boundary of the park and were within sight of the northernmost houses of Clearwater Beach when we turned around. There was a pass between Caladesi Island and Clearwater Beach area in years gone by, but now it is all one long beach.




Mary has picked up a book in gift shop here (actually two books). One book was written by an elderly lady whose father settled on Caladesi in the 1880s. There are pictures of her growing up on the island and stories about her rowing a boat across the sound to the mainland 2 miles away to go to school. The other book was, of course, a cookbook.



The wind blew hard out of the north all night rattling lines and canvas. Although we were very well sheltered here, the noise was a bother, and until about 8 AM, I was concerned about getting difficulties in getting underway from our tight little corner and being shoved by the wind into some concrete pilings nearby. However, conditions were moderating nicely by 8:30 making it possible to take advantage of the 9:30 AM high tide to get across the shallow flats of the sound. It is 8:40 AM now, and we shall see soon enough.

Sticking around at Caladesi

We have decided to remain here at Caladesi Island State Park until Thursday morning the 21st due to anticipated unfriendly weather tomorrow.




Tuesday was a beach day as all four of us trekked across the park’s boardwalk to the beach with all the required “beach junk.” Then it was back to the boat via a visit to the little café for a late lunch. Dinner was at our boat with pizzas Jim and I cooked on our respective grills.  Today has been overcast, but at noon began to clear a bit.  Strong winds are predicted tonight and tomorrow morning possibly complicating getting out of our slip.



Over dinner, we all discussed where we were going. We may be with Jeff and Suzanne Wright for a couple of days before heading to Long Boat Key a half day south of them and Tampa Bay. We saw this neat anchorage there in 2009 on our way to Sarasota. I think it could be a good lunch stop, maybe an overnight. After that, Sarasota may be the next stop. After that I think I’d like to get us to stop at Venice and eat at the Crow’s Nest Restaurant near the marina there.



A really neat looking vessel pulled in today crewed by Mike and Dana Farrell from Knoxville, TN. It turned out to be a modified Gulf Star sailboat. It has no mast and a pilothouse very similar to an American Tug. Mike said he did the conversion over a period of 15 years – beyond insanity, he said.

Caladesi Island State Park

We got underway from Tarpon Springs after lunch under cloudy skies for the short couple of hours run to Caladesi Island State Park Marina. In order to enter this very nice place one has to depart the small boat channel of Hurricane Pass at Dunedin and close a mile of shallow water. Boats our size have to ensure there is a mid- to high-tide water level before attempting the run.




After running across the shallow area with only 3.5 feet of water under our keel, we entered the marked channel into the marina where we had to negotiate two ninety-degree turns. The mangroves growing tall alongside the canal hid the marina basin from us until we turned into it. There we found four floating piers made of aluminum decking. We are too big for the hundred or so slips in this place and had to occupy two of the tee-heads at the ends of two of these piers.



Being a non-weekend day and with potential poor weather closing in, there are only about six boats in here.



The grounds look to be well kept and there are walking path ground lights along most of the marina basin. Tomorrow we hope to get out and make the five-minute hike across to the beach and have lunch at the café.



Our plan when we arrived here was to leave on the high tide on Wednesday morning and get to Jeff Wright’s house at Treasure island by lunch time, but now we see that a good chance of rain is forecast for Wednesday making me wonder if it is worth traveling on that day, especially since Thursday is forecast as dry.



Don’t worry, Jeff and Suzanne, we will get there.



Engineering wise, all is well as we continue with the historical fuel usage of a tiny bit over 2 statute miles to the gallon of diesel. Seminole carries about a hundred less gallons of fuel than we do, and I figured for Jim that he’d have around 50% fuel remaining when we get the Ballard Oil for refueling in Fort Myers Beach in the next week or two.



Jim and Jackie continue to refine the Seminole for extended cruising, and now he has added another radio at the lower station so they can have better communications when conning from down there.

Here we were in Tarpon Springs.  Calypso right and Seminole left.

Fixing stuff in new places

Mary and Jackie, the Two Musketeers, will be shopping today, while Jim and I putter about the boats fixing things.  That’s what they say cruising is, fixing your boat in exotic places.  Maybe TS is not the most exotic of locales, but nonetheless, stuff needs fixing.  In Calypso’s case, it is the failure of yet another main engine starter button. 

We have four main engine starter buttons aboard, two on the flying bridge and two at the lower helm, and last September we had the port engine starter button on the flying bridge stick “on”, which caused the port starter motor to run until it burnt out.  We got luckier this time when I stopped one engine at a time, just before we went into the Gulf of Mexico to check lube and transmission oil levels for the last time in what was expected to be a nearly 20-hour transit.  Upon hitting the starboard starter button after checking its fluid levels, I got nothing, nada, zilch, zip.  At least it did not stick like the flying bridge starter button had done.  We got the engine restarted using the flying bridge button and decided to continue on our way.

Yesterday, we rode our bikes out to Walmart and West Marine to buy sundries and a new starter button.  This will be the fourth one I have replaced on this 42-year old vessel since 2002.  Maybe it will be the last.

Weather continues to be Florida-perfect spring days with cool nights making for comfortable sleeping sans air conditioning.  

Crossed!

Today found us at anchorage off Anclote Key waiting to go into Tarpon Springs after a very long day and night crossing the Gulf. It was not intended that we be here until tomorrow, but as we moved along from White City, the forecasted winds sea state for the Gulf began to show that Friday was potentially a better day to cross the Gulf than Saturday. The only problem was that it was 4 PM before we even got into the Gulf. Since the winds were also going to make the planned anchorage at Cedar Key a bit iffy, we all elected to make the dreaded night crossing direct to this place.


We all quickly made last minute preparations like removing the dinghy cover and placing emergency water and flares in it so it could be used as a life raft. Red-lens flashlights were all placed in strategic locations, and lights and radar tested.

As soon as we got in the Gulf it was apparent that the prediction for 1-2 foot seas was accurate, which was good. What was not so good was the fact that they were coming at us on the beam making for about 10 hours of short, snappy rolling. It was much more comfortable than our 2009 crossing but still not so much fun.

The crews of both boats swapped off several hours at a time on watch, and all went well, except that another boat reported one of the dreaded crab pots, which proliferate hereabouts at 5 AM while it was still quite dark. For the next couple of hours all hands were on deck as the ladies steered and navigated at the lower stations, while Jim and I went topside to the upper stations to watch for crab pot buoys with spotlights.

Everybody pooped out for awhile after we anchored, and then it was decided that we will go into Tarpon Springs for a couple of days followed by a couple of days at Caladesi State Park just a couple of hours south. We hope to make it to our friends’ pier in Treasure Island by Wednesday.

First day underway

Seminole and Calypso got underway from Southport this morning with Jim and Jackie Seminole leading by about an hour because they wanted to top off fuel tanks at Pier 98. We caught up with them there. We arrived at the White City County Park at 5:30 PM EDT. We found 20-Amp 120-Volt power, enough to run refrigerators and a couple of lights for the night. We charcoal grilled some burgers on a park grill, drank some wine, talked some and then went to our boats for the night.
Tomorrow we will have a leisurely morning and get underway for our anchorage at Dog Island, about 41 nautical miles away. We will pass through Lake Wimico and Apalachicola getting there.

The plan, assuming the forecasted calm waters prevail in the Gulf, we will depart at 5:30 AM on Saturday for the 110-mile run across the Gulf for and overnight anchorage off Cedar Key. Sunday may see us arriving at Caladesi Island State Park.

A Gulf crossing window

It appears that there will be a period of relative calm in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on 15-16 March.  Jim and Jackie in their Grand Banks 42 Seminole will be here on Sunday 10 March for a couple of days of final provisioning before both boats depart Panama City on Wednesday 13 March for Dog Island.  We plan a short first day to White City where we will spend the night at the free floating pier there.  Thursday night should see us anchored off Dog Island ready for a very early departure on the 110-mile run on Friday to possible anchorage off Cedar Key.  Then on Saturday, we'll be looking at a 70-mile run to the beginning of the intracoastal waterway at Anclote Key.  Anyway, that's our plan for now.