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.
