Aw, s__t!

Well, today did not turn out at all like I had planned, and we ended up in a place I did not want to be doing things I did NOT want to do.


Our anchorage at the power plant was well protected from winds and wave action, but it was not at all protected from completely clueless/aggressive boaters, both in the nearby channel and from the trailer boats going to and fro from the nearby ramp.

In order to anchor in the confines of the chosen area, we more or less had to raft up because two of us swinging around at separate anchors would have been iffy. However, two large boats rolling into each other from big-boat wakes in the channel could do some serious damage to each other had we not had large fenders and, in a couple of cases, physically pushed the boats apart.

The smaller wakes from the trailer boats were a nuisance, but not dangerous to us. Sometimes I thought the jerks in these vessels were purposely zooming as close to us as possible with wakes as large as they could make right out of the ramp area out of some kind of class-envy or annoyance at our being close to their ramp. At other times I saw people zoom right up to the area of the ramp creating turbulence for themselves as well as for other boaters preparing to get their boats out of the water. Too bad some local waterway law enforcement couldn’t have had an officer there for the day. A lot of reckless boating tickets could have been written.

Something kept me awake after about 1:30 AM, and I finally gave it up and got up and dressed to check out the weather when the GPS anchor alarm went off – it was set for a very tight position and was just beeping because we had swung around from the spot we had sat in for about 8 hours. We were swinging around quite a bit as the surrounding thunderstorms, flashing threateningly all around, pushed winds in from different directions. We luckily got no direct hit, just some rain, but at one point I saw the anchor buoy I had attached to our anchor to mark our anchor for the trailer boats disappear under the boat. Since it did not reappear, I figured it had gotten hung up on our running gear, and now I began to worry about the buoy’s line pulling the anchor loose! I normally hate using anchor buoys, and I never seem to have good luck with them.

While roaming around the decks of both boats looking for the darned buoy or its line, I woke Jim and Jackie. Jim eventually ended up jumping into the dark water where he found the buoy submerged and entangled in the anchor chain. He also found our keels were now about three inches off the bottom (we were at low tide). We removed the buoy and had no more issues in that regard and soon swung into deeper water.

While it was still dark and too early to begin our anticipated run in the open Gulf to Cedar Key, I began to surf the weather sites on the internet that I use to figure out good Gulf-crossing days. I soon found that the bad weather expected to move across from Texas later in the week was having some advanced effects NOW and that our weather window had slammed shut in our faces. I found that for the second leg of our crossing Cedar Key to Dog island that we would run into ever-increasing wave heights and 70 percent chance of thunderstorms – way to risky for pleasure boats.

We ended up running several more miles up the Anclote River to Tarpon Springs where we ended up at the same pier we used over a month ago on our way south – not where I wanted to be. I expect we may be here a number of days while the nation’s weather sorts itself out.

This delay has used up all the remaining slack we had in our schedule to get home by 4 May, and in order to get Mary to very important family obligations beginning next Monday, we now must rent a one-way car for her so she can get home and prepare to travel onward from there. Unfortunately, there is nobody in the Tarpon Springs area willing to rent one-way, and we will have use the Enterprise rent-a-car we got today (for local running about) to take her to Clearwater where Avis will rent her a one-way. She will depart Thursday morning and visit Florence in Lake City that night and arrive home Friday.

While not happy about running the boat alone all the way from here to home, but with Seminole nearby, all will be fine, since I do most of the conning (boat driving to the uninitiated) anyway.

Last stop before open Gulf water

We cleared ST Petersburg Municipal Marina a bit after 8 AM and cruised south down the western side of Tampa Bay until we turned west to go under the causeway leading to the Sunshine Skyway and into the ICW. We were lucky in bridge timings as well as with a following current most to the way today. With the winds a bit adverse to a quiet anchorage at Anclote Key, I decided to check out the power plant canal just off the Anclote River a couple of miles east of Anclote. We arrived at the canal and anchored at bit after 3 PM. This place is well protected from the wind and wave action of the bay out at Anclote. We are also just off the boat ramp at a public park and subject to the wakes of the boats being launched and recovered there. All that activity will probably become minimal as darkness comes on.


Seminole rafted alongside, and Mary and Jackie put together a nice steak dinner. We may not be able to raft tomorrow night in the more exposed anchorage of Cedar Key.

Mary got a slow start today as regards her recovery, but tonight she is much more animated and herself again.  She will need to be for tomorrow.

Our trip to Cedar Key will cover about 70 statute miles of open water, probably full of crab pot floats. We will not be going all the way into the harbor there because the channel is so long, and we would have to reverse many miles down it to get headed for Dog Island the next day.

The seas are predicted to be around 2 feet or less, and the light winds from the south. During the night tomorrow, we hope to see light and variable winds at anchorage off Cedar Key. As we head out toward Dog Island for the 123 mile run on Wednesday, we are again seeing small seas predicted and 10-knot or less winds backing from south to east and then northeast.

Of course, predictions are just that, and our boat is only 42 feet long upon a big ocean. We will be prepared for whatever Mother Nature serves up – we taken nothing for granted. This brings to mind that in the sunken nuclear submarine Thresher there is reputed to have been a plaque which read, “Oh, God, your ocean is so big, and my boat is so small.”

Nursing the sick in St Petersburg

Mary and I attended a boaters’ dinner at Grazzi, a local Italian restaurant, at the invitation of Trawler and Trawlering listee, Joe Pica and his wife Punk. Attending were a number of their cruising acquaintances who are here in the area and getting ready to head off in various directions.


I had trekked around the yacht basin earlier in the day to visit Joe on their very fine Great Harbor 37. I enjoyed looking around the immaculate and almost new boat and talking about all things boat with Joe.

Unfortunately, Mary fell victim to a stomach virus early Friday, which laid her low with all the horrible symptoms at both ends of her body. I have been pushing her to consume whatever liquids, and Jim and Jackie have provided appropriate meds, advice, and food item, and they fed me dinner last night. This morning she may be starting to come out of it saying she’d take a shower and consume a bit of applesauce.

As for the weather for our anticipated crossing, Monday is now not looking as good as the several succeeding days of next week, which is good because Mary will likely need all of Sunday to get established on the road to recovery. Thus, hopefully, Monday will be an easy travel day through the calm ICW along the coast west of this St Petersburg peninsula heading toward our jumping off anchorage near Anclote Key/Tarpon Springs.

Saint Petersburg

We enjoyed a very fine day crossing Tampa Bay. The air was dry, and even with temperatures trying to hit the upper 80s, we had a bit of a breeze, which kept us comfortable, that is until we got into the marina. I don’t know why it is, but all marinas seem airless, and by the time we were tied up, I was all sticky and wanting a shower.


St Petersburg Municipal Marina is located in the heart of the downtown tourist/museum/college/shopping/eating area (what more can I say about convenience?). We got out and walked around and took the downtown loop trolley to get the lay of the land and later went out for dinner at a nearby waterfront bistro.

A fellow Trawler and Trawlering email listee, Joe Pica, who keeps his boat here, has invited us to go along on an Italian dinner night with some other boaters tonight. He has graciously offered taxi service in case we have some needs farther than easy bike or walking distance.

It appears that the forecast for “crossing weather” may have undergone a change for the better for the coming week. My first impression after looking at it the day before yesterday was that we would be spending more than just a few of days here in St Pete waiting for a window of opportunity to open up, but now it appears that next Monday and Tuesday will be our best opening for a while. That means we have to leave here by Sunday morning at latest to get into position at Anclote Key near tarpon Springs for the first leg to Cedar Key where we will spend the night at anchor before getting a very early start the next morning for Dog Island.

Longboat Key - again

After having to honk around on the Rocna anchor to get it out of the mud, we left our anchorage in Placida at 0825 and arrived here at Moore’s Crab Restaurant pier on Longboat Key by 1500. The wind picked up out of the east in the middle of the night bouncing us around a bit for a few hours.


We enjoyed some appetizers and adult beverages on the back porch of the restaurant after arrival and later went back for dinner.

A look at the weather coming weather, especially on www.stormsurf.com, we are seeing no opportunity to cross the Gulf of Mexico to the panhandle in the coming week. We had been hoping to arrive in this area with a good crossing window in the near future, but that is not to be.  Mary must attend Lynn's graduation in Alabama on May 6th, meaning we either get home by May 4th or she will have to rent a car from this area.

For now, we intend to head across Tampa Bay and spend some time at the St Petersburg Municipal Marina and then maybe head toward Treasure Island and Clearwater as a window becomes apparent on the long range weather forecasts.

Placida (Cape Haze area) again

At 0700, it was nearly still dark when we got underway from Fort Myers City Marina for the nearly three-hour run to Ballard Oil in Fort Myers Beach. The run down the Caloosahatchee River is rather boring as it is too wide, full of silt, and surrounded by low-lying lands.


After fueling Jim headed Seminole up toward Doc Ford’s, a local waterfront restaurant while we dropped down the bay another half mile to “speak” Tom and Wilda Theobald on the Further, which was moored to a ball.

Then we moored outboard of Seminole at Doc Ford’s for an early lunch on the dock.

We departed the area at 1200 and made it to an anchorage we used last month here in Placida. The transit through Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor and Gasparilla Sound we mostly glassy calm in fair air. The water was mostly an attractive lime green, but it was a bit murky making the playful porpoises quickly disappear when they left the surface for deeper water. As predicted, showers were formed inland as we passed close to the barrier islands leaving us dry all day.

Mary and Jackie put together a couple of delicious pizzas that we cooked on the grill as the sunset over our anchorage.

We are looking at a fifty-mile run tomorrow as we plan to bypass Sarasota and continue another ten miles to anchor at Long Boat Key. From Long Boat, it will be an easy 26-mile day to get to the municipal marina at St Petersburg.

In Fort Myers

Today dawned bright and sunny and a whole lot less humid.  Yesterday was so damp that I just didn’t even want to stick my nose outside.  That little issue did not deter Mary and Jackie from venturing forth both on foot and bicycle (yes, two trips) to explore the nearby downtown area.

Jim installed a new antenna to correct a nagging VHF radio problem, and I did the same today thanks to the lady next door who chauffeured Mary and me to West Marine and WalMart this morning.  It seems that a lot of the radio-to-radio interference here aboard Calypso has ceased with the removal of the old antenna and its attendant coax splice right above the radios.

Yesterday I occupied myself with a bit of laundry (yes, I do that with Mary’s permission when she’s busy shopping) and mechanical and electronic work. 

The starboard engine has had an annoying oil leak, which might collect a few tablespoons worth of oil in the drip pan every day of running.  I think I tracked it to the vicinity of some cover bolts on the front of the engine, but I could not get to them all without removing the coolant pump hose, meaning I needed to drain the nearly 20 quarts of antifreeze solution from the engine via the tiny drain cock.  Running back and forth with laundry occupied the time of coolant draining.  Hopefully, the tightened bolts will result in a stopped leak – it takes a bunch of steaming hours to determine if it is so.

Jim and Jackie picked a fine day today to go to the Edison and Ford summer homes and museum a mile down the river and said the tour was well worth it.

Heavy rain last night was as predicted, and more is due later tonight.

We will hopefully get an early start tomorrow in order to get fueled down in Fort Myers Beach and on our way north.

 

Crossing Florida by boat - day 3 of 3 - Fort Myers

Well, the steering committee spoke, and we have landed here in Fort Myers at the city marina. Underway from Moore Haven happened about 0820, and we had uneventful passage through the Ortona and Franklin locks. The increasing breeze presaging bad weather this coming weekend made the humid air a bit more bearable. Arrived here at 1530.


In order to place Seminole and Calypso in adjacent slips, the marina staff had us come into slips designed for boats half again our size. We were not aware of this until we actually entered the slip. Getting our lines out to the distant pilings in a manner that would allow us to easily exit when that time comes was a difficult job because we don’t carry many lines long enough for such a mooring. I was about to break out some anchor rode to get set.

This marina is in a very good location within easy walking distance of the heart of downtown, and this night was some sort of “event” with music in the streets and lots of folks out for a stroll and a good time.

It really didn’t matter where we picked for dinner in regard to noise level because it was pretty cacophonous everywhere. The place we picked served excellent food, but with my hearing bad in one ear and the noise level physically hurting the other, about all I could do during the long wait for food was to plug my good ear to save it and read the news of the capture of the second Boston Marathon bomber on the TV over the bar. But great food!

I think Jim and Jackie may go to the Ford and Edison (I have been twice) homes down the river from us while we do whatever occurs to us.

Our plans at this point include riding out some forecasted bad weather over the next two or three days followed by a 23-mile run to Fort Myers Beach for fuel at Ballard Oil after which we will immediately get underway (what the Navy calls a BSF – brief stop for fuel) and head north to some undetermined location for the night.

Crossing Florida by boat - day 2

We enjoyed generally mild weather in the first part of the day before it became a bit sultry as the afternoon wore on. The weekend into Monday coming up may not be so cheery weatherwise.


A couple of idiots in 30-plus foot boats with two and three outboards on the back badly waked us in the narrow channel before we got to the Port Mayaka Lock on the lake. Luckily for us, they got held up at the normally open lock because lake levels were up enough to require that condition. That meant we caught up with them and locked through with them, making them look like the dolts they were. As I stood on our bow towering over the stern of one, the driver would not look at me.

Wind blew briskly from the south as we crossed Lake Okeechobee giving us a herky-jerky ride.

We “spoke” the Morning Star in mid lake as well as another stranger boat named Why Knot which I tried to recruit into the Trawlers and Trawlering list.

Then it was a dozen or so miles along the rim route until we turned into the Moore Haven Lock. A half mile or so farther downstream from the lock is the city dock of Moore Haven. It is cheap, neat, clean, and offers power and water. Hard to beat.

Mary and Jackie went for a walk into town where they discovered an antique store where Mary bought a book, Jackie got some cash from an ATM, and they visited the Dollar General store. The only eateries they could discover were a Mexican joint and a pizzeria – we are eating hamburgers cooked aboard for dinner.

We are within a day of Fort Myers and within a LOOONG day of Ballard Oil in Fort Walton Beach. Right now, I am uncertain where we will head to tomorrow. I await the input of the "steering" committee.

Crossing Florida by boat - day one

We were underway at 0730 from Lake Worth anchorage after a peaceful night. The air has dried out considerably from what it has been since leaving the Keys, and most of the day was passed comfortably until we left the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and entered the St Lucie Canal. At that time the easterly wind came astern of us meaning our forward motion negated the wind speed. It got a bit sticky.

As we passed through Stewart, I saw ahead a familiar vessel whose presence I was forewarned of by Linda Vanaman.  It was the Say Goodbye with Ralph Yost and wife aboard headed to New Jersey to finish their Great Loop off.  To use an old sailing ship term, we "spoke" them in passing.

Another interestingly named trawler yacht, the Compass Rose, went by and when I asked the skipper on the radio about it, he confirmed that it was named after the doughty corvette in Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Monsarrat's immortal semi-autobiographical novel of life and death in the North Atlantic convoys of WWII, The Cruel Sea.  I read it in my early teens and was inspired by it to experience the "hard lying" life in destroyers.

Tomorrow we could end up speaking the Morning Star with Randy Pickleman and wife aboard as we meet out on the Lake on opposite courses.  If we stop and chat, it will be a "gam," something the old-time whaling ships used to do out on the far-flung whaling grounds of the world.

Instead of bringing up a file I have on the Okeechobee Waterway and reviewing listings of the locks and bridges like I should have, I just sallied forth this morning with little concern for what we would find. In the 20-plus years since I had last passed this way, I had forgotten that we would encounter a lock shortly after starting the St Lucie portion of the waterway. So I had not forewarned the Seminole crew about the lock, and we came around a bend to find a sign saying “Arrival Point,” I thought, “Aww sh__, there’s a lock coming up. Luckily, there was a delay while the lock was bringing down some boats coming the other way, and I briefed Jim and Jackie about a few points to ponder about locking through.

The lift was about thirteen feet or so, and the way they admit water into and out of the chambers here is to crack the lock doors open a bit. In the waiting about to get in the lock, Seminole ended up going in first and thus received the brunt of the water flow coming into the lock chamber. That pushed the boat a bit catawampus, and Jim and Jackie struggled a bit with the bow and stern lines to keep the boat straight.

We arrived here at Indiantown Marina, ten miles from Lake Okeechobee at about 3:30 PM, and we all rode our bikes the mile into town to eat Italian at Dee Stephano’s and grocery shop at the IOGA store next door.

We will get underway at 8-ish tomorrow for a 50-mile run through the rest of the St Lucie Canal, across the lake, and along the rim route a few miles to Moore Haven, where we hope to find overnight moorings.

Lake Worth, last full day on the east coast

Yesterday, we were informed via TV of the despicable bombing of the Boston Marathon. We saw flags at half-mast along the way through Palm Beach today. Hopefully, the idiot(s) responsible will be quickly collared and made to pay.


Our own little part of the world moved along the waterway again today, as we will for pretty much every day until we end up in Sarasota. We left Sands Harbor Marina in Pompano Beach at 0930 in good weather and ran the ICW north along the Gold Coast through Delray Beach, Hillsborough beach, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach and a few others.

We were all impressed one more time with the other-worldliness of the mega-homes and yachts we encountered along the waterway. The agglomeration of mega-yachts in West Palm was especially eye opening.

Tonight finds us safely anchored in Lake Worth north of West Palm Beach with Calypso’s big Rocna anchor with Seminole rafted alongside. Steak dinner was served aboard Seminole after being cooked aboard Calypso.

Tomorrow will be an early underway as we hope to make around 55 miles to Indiantown Marina in the Saint Lucie Canal west of Stewart.

Pompano Beach

Tax Day found us underway at 0800 from anchorage behind the home of our gracious hosts in Miami Beach. We were between Hibiscus and Palm Islands.


I did not count the bridges we went under today, but there were a lot of them. Weather was a bit cloudy to start with and degraded to rather heavy rain in the Hollywood area as we passed though a “Condo Canyon.”

Luckily, by the time we got to Lauderdale and the port there, the weather had cleared, and we enjoyed the scenery as mega-home after mega-home and monster yacht after monster yacht passed close by.

We were able to find a reasonable marina here in Pompano Beach at the Sands Harbor Resort where the charge is a mere $1.50 a foot. Amenities include a pool, laundry, showers, restaurant, etc. Thanks to Wayne McManus who reviewed this place on Active Captain where I picked it up.

Pompano Beach

Tax Day found us underway at 0800 from anchorage behind the home of our gracious hosts in Miami Beach. We were between Hibiscus and Palm Islands.


I did not count the bridges we went under today, but there were a lot of them. Weather was a bit cloudy to start with and degraded to rather heavy rain in the Hollywood area as we passed though a “Condo Canyon.”

Luckily, by the time we got to Lauderdale and the port there, the weather had cleared, and we enjoyed the scenery as mega-home after mega-home and monster yacht after monster yacht passed close by.

We were able to find a reasonable marina here in Pompano Beach at the Sands Harbor Resort where the charge is a mere $1.50 a foot. Amenities include a pool, laundry, showers, restaurant, etc. Thanks to Wayne McManus who reviewed this place on Active Captain where I picked it up.

Soggy Daze in Miami

After a stormy night and a drenching downpour earlier today, the skies cleared and our hosts showed up to provide wonderful company and a delicious rib dinner on their back porch overlooking our two boats anchored in the canal. We took out a Fortress FX-37 stern anchor out via dinghy from Seminole as the morning thunder-bumper loomed in the west. At one point, the dinghy, tied to the stern, was about 1/3 full of rainwater, and I had to go out and pump it clear before I could get it safely into the skid and covered with its weather cover.


Arrangements have been made with our hosts for a repeat performance tomorrow evening with us providing meat for hamburgers. Before that, our hosts will take Jim and Jackie, and maybe Mary (if she can wake up) to early their early Sunday morning Starbucks coffee run on the Atlantic in nearby Miami Beach.

As in Seminole, we are running our generator 24/7 for air conditioning while sitting still in this wet-towel environment that the early end of spring has brought here. It’s the only way we can sleep. These 2-3 days will be the longest period of time I have run the generator since I bought the boat 26 years ago. While trying to shut it down today in order to check its oil, it failed to shut down when I held the shut-off switch down, and I had to manually hold the throttle linkage down to kill it. It took about twenty minutes to remove the fuel shut-off solenoid from the unit, extend the adjustment screw a few turns and re-install it – problem solved. I had been required to hold the switch down a long time to shut the generator off after installing the new solenoid in 2010 – glad to have it properly adjusted.

We have, by one count here, around fifty-plus bridges to clear between here and the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway across the state. Many of them open on schedules rather than on demand, and many of them are over the 17-foot air-draft we can get down to by lowering our masts; so that is what we will do tomorrow.

Miami

Thursday was an uneventful passage through the various sounds, “creeks,” and banks which together are joined to make the “inside passage” of the ICW through the Keys from our anchorage at Matecumbe Bight to an anchorage in Card Sound. This was not much more than 30 miles of running, and we arrived in mid-afternoon, but we were glad it was done during high tide because there were places we lost sounder readings in the clutter of less than a foot under the keel.


In this run, we passed along the coast of Key Largo, and at one point we passed through the town of Largo in a narrow pass spanned by a high-rise bridge.

I had initially planned an anchorage in the northern reaches of Card Sound, but the strong easterly to south easterly winds caused us to rethink this, and we ended up anchoring about 100 yards from each other in the south eastern section, well protected from the winds howling overhead.

Today we had mostly following seas and winds as we transited Card Sound and Biscayne Bay on our way into Miami. We passed under a couple of bridges and right by the cruise ship docks where we saw a couple of those monsters. We ended up anchored off the man-made Palm Island behind the home of a boating email acquaintance who has offered taxi service to grocery stores and a pork rib dinner tomorrow at his home. We are always ready and happy to make new face-to-face boating acquaintances and have so far enjoyed huge success in that direction.

Tonight Seminole and we are rafted together hanging on our Rocna 73-pound anchor, and Jackie served us up a fine lasagna meal while Mary provided salad.

Pretty much everybody, including our hosts here suggest not running the ICW hereabouts on the weekends because it is a riot of wakes from ignorant boaters bouncing off the seawalls of “condo canyon.” So we will remain here until Monday morning when we hope for a more peaceful journey of about 35 miles up to Pompano Beach. With luck, Wednesday night should find us at Indiantown Marina on the Saint Lucie Canal ready to cross Lake Okeechobee the next day.

Matecumbe Bight anchorage

Yesterday morning Linda Vanaman dropped by with some coconuts for us after taking wonder dog Mercy to a vet appointment. Before she left, we all decided to meet at 1800 at the No name Pub on Big Pine Key. Linda extolled its virtues as a funky place and great pizza parlor.


In true mariner style, she and the four of us arrived in the same minute. In addition to the great company and pizza, we saw bunches of Key Deer out there. You see signs about slowing down for them in Route 1, but they are not there. They are all at the No Name begging and scavenging for food.

We left Sombrero Marina in Boot key Harbor today at 0925 with fresh easterly winds at around 15 MPH. After transiting the choppy channel through the Atlantic side to the Florida Bay side of Seven Mile Bridge, the waters settled into a chop from pretty much on the nose making for a wet ride. It was a relatively short day as we anchored about 1430 close into the shore here in Matecumbe Bight in about six feet of clear water.

The channel from Boot Key Harbor to this point is generally wide open with several well-marked choke points. We dodged a lot of crab pots and suffered through the anxiety of just about one foot under the keel at times. Jim said he could see a faint line of stirred up coral sand behind us from his vantage point on Seminole’s flying bridge.

Tomorrow will not be an early day because we probably don’t have far to go to the next stopping point, but getting the anchor up is infinitely simpler than getting out of a marina – cheaper too.

Mercy in paradise

The big event today was heading on down to Summerland Key to meet Linda Vanaman and getting to know her and faithful golden retriever Mercy.  Linda fed us a delicious lobster dinner, which will not soon be forgotten.  In getting acquainted with this remarkable person, we discovered that she had lived for a time near Chipley and indeed knew a relative or two of Mary’s.  We indeed hope she will do us the honor of visiting us anytime she is in our area visiting relatives or passing through on her fine tug-trawler mercy.

Tomorrow will see us doing a few tasks preparatory to getting underway toward home on Wednesday morning.

Running around the Keys

Based on potentially unfriendly winds for anchoring in Newfound Harbor off Linda Vanaman’s home on Summerland Key, we have elected to remain in Marathon until next Wednesday, when we will commence a three-day journey up the inside of the Keys to Miami where we plan to anchor off Frank Condon’s home.


After a day or two there, we will begin the several day transit of the ICW up to Stuart where we will turn westward and transit the Okeechobee Waterway to cross the state to Fort Myers. The Okeechobee WW actually consists of three parts; the Lake itself in the middle with the Caloosahatchee River/ Waterway draining off westward and the St Lucie Canal leading eastward.

Yesterday was our Key West day where we walked our legs off around the waterfront and up and down Duval Street.

Today, Jim and I were expressly excluded from a run to Islamorada, an equal distance in the other direction, so Mary and Jackie could have unhindered shopping time. Apparently Mary’s knee is pretty well completely recovered.


Weather is partly cloudy in the low 80s and breezy. We slept well last night without air conditioning, but by 1 PM, I needed one unit going to wring some of the moisture out of the air in the boat.

Thunder in paradise

The bad weather predicted for last night and today arrived in force at 2:30 this morning. We had lots of wind, rain, and lightning. This morning dawned with distant thunder and a constant drizzle, which may go on all day. Tomorrow is supposed to be a much better day.


We have elected to extend our stay at Sombrero Marina by one day. We plan to depart here for an anchorage near Linda Vanaman’s home on Ramrod Key on Sunday 20 miles distant. Linda has church-related obligations that evening and will motor out to pick us up off our boats sometime Monday. She has plans to feed us at her house from her stash of frozen lobster.

We plan to depart the area Tuesday and head in the direction of Miami anchoring at two or three places along the way.  Yes, Amanda, mommy will be generally  headed homeward.

We will likely use the rental car to make a run to Key West on Saturday and possibly turn it in on Sunday before departing Marathon.

Doctor visit and good knee news

Good news on Mary’s injured left knee from the Dr Collin, the orthopedist we visited today. An X-ray and a physical examination revealed that she had simply overworked it. The recent 8-mile bicycle ride to Chokoloskee Island from Everglades City likely had a lot to do with this condition.


We expect rough weather here tomorrow and will remain here at Sombrero Marina.

We four are trying to sort out what we want to be doing over the next several days. Possibilities range all over the map including Jim and Jackie using the rental car to visit Key West while Mary and I get underway to anchor off Ramrod Key near Linda Vanaman’s home for a short visit.

Boot Key Harbor at Marathon

We got underway from Everglades City after an hour and a half fog delay and found Florida Bay to be flat with calm. After an hour or so of cruising along, we decided to alter course to starboard 17 degrees and take the 10-hour run to Marathon, instead of the planned 5-hour run to Little Shark River, so as to take advantage of the wonderful day. We figured that we would arrive in Marathon just at sunset, but owing to being way out of cell phone range, we could not call ahead for a marina reservation. I was finally able to get through to the city marina late in the day just before they left for the day. We idled up the channel to their bulkhead just as the sunset.  Jackie said it was beautiful, but as lead boat and navigator, I was too focussed on the diminishing depths on the depth sounder to pay attention.  Being alongside a big warehouse structure, we couldn't see a sunset now if our lives depended on it.  We will move to Sombrero Marina later this morning.


Along the nearly 80-mile trip, we were in and out of light fog until mid-afternoon in light green colored water usually no deeper than 15 feet. We saw a few turtles, some dolphins, tropical birds and plenty of crab pot buoys to avoid.

We are not sure why, but Mary’s left knee/leg began hurting and the knee swelled slightly about half way here. Ice and aspirin and Advil helped to reduce the pain and swelling, but she remained on the settee all the rest of the day and all night. We will have a rental car today and will be able to take her to medical assistance if necessary. Until this situation is resolved, all other plans are on hold.

Everglades City

Easter Sunday saw us moving out of the cul-de-sac in Naples at noon because we wanted high tides going through the inland passes between Naples and Marco Island and between Marco Island and Goodland.


Everybody else with a small fast boat or the money to rent one was going the same way, and they were zooming past us on both sides all afternoon. Apparently, they were headed for the funky Jimmy Buffet style town of Goodland where we found them tied up all over the waterfront at tiki bars.

The water was “skinny” in several places along the way, and the channel marks were a bit confusing once or twice, but all in all, we did well and were out into the shallow lime-green waters of Florida Bay by about 3 PM. The seas were kindly, the air temperature was mild, and we scooted along with Seminole in loose trail about a quarter mile to starboard until we reached the long channel into Everglades City.

The currents are strong in the channel at the Rod and Gun Club here in Everglades City, and the tide tables indicated that we would get to the seawall at the club with the ebb just starting. So we rigged lines and fenders to starboard. However, when we arrived at about 5:30 PM there was a VERY strong current sweeping us by the club. We re-rigged to port in short order and easily moored by motoring into the current and getting lines over and secured before shutting down.

Today’s we got the bicycles off the boats and labored the 8-mile round trip to Chokoloskee Island where Mary and Jackie went through the old Indian settlement store/museum while Jim and I idled away on the dock o’ the bay.

We then had lunch at the Cuban Café on the island and then returned to Everglades City. After a quick ice cream treat at a K-Store and some grocery shopping for Mary, we all ended up back on the boats for rest and relaxation.

Tomorrow morning we will head off toward the Little Shark River on the western flank of Cape Sable, the southernmost part of the Florida peninsula. We will anchor the night either in or near the river before getting an early start the next morning for Marathon on Vaca Key. There we will hopefully moor at Sombrero Marina in Boot Key Harbor for a day or so before heading off the Newfound Harbor near Summerland Key, which is where Linda Vanaman of the Trawlersand Trawlering email list has offered her hospitality.