This posting catches up the Blog covering our journey from
Tarpon Springs through our arrival at Ft. Myers and our return home. Since we
plan to leave the boat for a while due to scheduling and family matters, we
chose a Marina we felt would be safe in most conditions. Legacy Harbor in
downtown Ft. Myers is 17 miles up the Caloosahatchee River from the Gulf and
has floating concrete docks.
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| View of Legacy Harbor Marina from our slip |
It is highly rated in Active Captain and is highly
rated by other Loopers. The Marina is built to withstand a class 2 hurricane
and the associated storm surge. The dockmaster also looks after boats for
absentee owners, and we arranged with him to have our stairs removed and
repaired while we are home and away from the boat. They will also do engine oil
changes during our layover so we won’t have to take cruising days to do this
routine maintenance.
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| Marina Office and Hotel |
We hope to return to the boat for a visit in mid-June when I
have a scheduled trip to Miami for 7th District Coast Guard
Commander Admiral Baumgartner’s Change of Watch and Auxiliary EXCOM (Executive
Committee) meeting. We will be combining this business trip with a little
touring of areas we could not visit by boat. This includes Gasparilla Island as
the marina there was full when we went by. We also want to spend a little time
in Ft. Myers at the Edison estate and sample a couple of the downtown
restaurants. We hope to resume our Loop around the middle to the end of July
once our calendar clears of commitments and appointments. We are anxious to
continue around the Keys and begin our trip up the east coast of Florida. We
have MANY friends and some family to visit as we work our way north up the east
coast.
We learn many lessons on each leg of our journey, and this
one was no exception. On this leg we learned to allow two days on each end to
commission the boat (get it ready to go) and two days to decommission the boat
(get ready to leave it). There is far too much work to do to plan on arriving
on day one and departing the marina on day two, not counting a travel day. So
really, three days in all are required on each end to have everything squared
away and not be rushed. Another lesson learned is that we packed too many
clothes, and had too much prepared foods aboard. These are things like oatmeal,
hot chocolate (only need it in the fall and early spring), tea, nuts, beef
jerky, canned goods, honey, and several other stored staples like raisins,
dried fruit, cereal, etc. We ate enough peanut butter and peanuts to effectively
rotate those stocks (or they had long expiration dates), but will be more
conservative with the things we brought back home and not carry such a large
inventory aboard. We have had much better access to fresh groceries than we had
imagined and we expect our next leg to have good access to fresh groceries.
Also, since we will be traveling in summer months, we won’t need to pack clothes
for both cold and hot weather, so it should make clothes easier to manage and
take less space.
That is about it for now. We hope you enjoy reading this Blog
and following our trip of a lifetime. We will resume the Blog as we start our
preparations for return to Looping in mid to late July.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
It is time to go home today so we can be home by Mother’s
Day on Sunday. We got up at 4:30 and hit the showers. After returning to the
boat, we stripped down the bed sheets, and started packing all the refrigerator
items in the cooler. Most everything else had already been loaded on Wednesday
night. All that was left was to place the bicycles and the grill inside the
cabin, and finish carrying up the final two dock carts of stuff. It all fit in
the car (surprise!), and we were on the road by 7 – about an hour later than I
had planned. We stopped at a Bob Evans for breakfast an hour or so later. It
was an uneventful trip back home and it took about 11 hours including stops. We
unloaded everything once home but only put up the items from the cooler.
Everything else will have to wait until morning. It was a very long day and we
are tired of travel. It felt good to be home, but it was strange that our bed at
home never moved all night! We will adjust in a couple of days.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Today, we picked up the rental car to return home as we wish
to get on the road VERY early before Enterprise Car Rental opens and so we can
begin loading the car. Enterprise had a terrific deal on one way rentals as
long as you were moving the car out of Florida. They have a special program to
readjust their inventory after the tourist season ends on May 1 and you can get
a one way rental for about $20 a day instead of the usual $200 per day they
normally charge for one way rentals. We spent most of the day in the Boaters
Lounge above the Marina Office catching up on e-mails and other business. We
took up 4 loads of stuff in the dock carts to make the move out easier on
Thursday morning.
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| We are on C Dock |
I doubled up the dock lines, deployed more fenders, and duct
taped our leaking starboard Navigation light to keep the cabin dry. I will
order a replacement for the Navigation light and install it when we return to
the boat. I had to do a temporary repair while we were in Port St. Joe as the
mounting base was cracked. I super glued the mounting base back together along
with extra silicone sealer to try to make it water tight. We did not have any
leaks after that, but I am not taking chances since we are going to leave the
boat open to the elements for a couple of months. The duct tape just adds piece
of mind and an extra barrier to water penetration.
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| WACI 3's home for the next two months |
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Today was a day to clean up the boat and start the process
of getting ready to return home. We took out everything that had gotten wet,
and laid it out on the dock to dry thoroughly. We thoroughly cleaned the boat
and started the process of going through the food stored aboard checking for
expiration dates. Most packaged and prepared foods had been on board since
October of 2012 before we realized that we had far too much food stored aboard.
This gives us a chance to reduce our inventory and rotate out our staples of
canned and packaged food that can be stored long term without refrigeration.
When we return to looping later this summer, we will buy new stocks and less of
it based on our previous usage. We worked the entire day on this project before
calling it a day.
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| Legacy Harbour Marina with Caloosahatchee Bridge in background |
Monday, May 6, 2013
No rest for the weary as we are on the move again today. We
visited Cabbage Key where Jimmy Buffett is reported to have received his
inspiration for “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. As we arrived and turned in the
channel to Cabbage Key, a large tourist boat bringing folks to the island
followed us in VERY closely and made me a bit nervous with the wind blowing
about 20 MPH.
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| Cabbage Key docks |
The dockmaster wanted me to back into a slip 14 feet wide with a
12 foot wide boat with the wind blowing directly (90 degrees) on my port (left
side) beam. Nan Ellen was ready to lasso the piling to get control of the bow,
but the wind caught me and I was not able to pivot our boat into the slip with
the poles so close together and the dingy hanging off the back. Fortunately,
there was an open spot on the end of a finger pier where I was able to
satisfactorily dock.
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| The thieves |
We set the fenders and lines and made our way up to the
restaurant for lunch. As we were walking up the ramp, we noticed what looked
like two otters, and the dockmaster said they were the local thieves stealing
fish and anything else they could eat from boats. He said that they were just
like raccoons and could open up lockers, fish boxes, and anything else that
held something they could eat!
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| New look to an old restaurant |
As we walked up the hill to the restaurant, it
looked different than we remembered it from years ago when we visited with TIP
SIE WACI 1 in the early 1990s. They put on a front porch and an outside dining
area in the front. The main dining room in the back with all the dollar bills
was VERY familiar and brought back old memories along with the shower sign at
the dockmaster’ s office. Nan Ellen had Stone Crab Claws and I had a Cheeseburger - of course!
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| Almost an identical picture from 20 years ago - except now more handsome! |
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| Our "contribution" to the decorations |
After lunch, I marked up a dollar bill and we placed
it on a pipe near the ceiling on the patio area right over our table. As we returned to the boat, the dockmaster said the otters had been on one of the boats eating fish while the owners were having lunch at the same time as us.
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| That's the spot! |
After lunch, we continued toward Ft. Myers and crossed the
“miserable mile” where side currents on tidal changes make staying in the
narrow channel a real challenge. Autopilot does not help as you quickly find
the 3 foot deep water outside the channel. We did not run aground, but the
depth alarm went off several times.
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| Big wake- narrow channel |
The “close calls” with other boats passing
close by and putting out a big wake continued. One Sea Ray came from behind us
putting out a big wake and then they turned around and started back toward us
for an encore performance. As they were coming toward us, we saw what looked
like something flopping around off the side and back of the boat like a board
or a dingy. As they got closer, we realized that it was actually dolphins
jumping their wake.
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| The first "jumping" dolphins we have seen |
They took a third pass at us and this time, they were
taking pictures of us since the dolphins decided to go play somewhere else. A
rough day getting waked, but we enjoyed seeing the dolphins – the first ones we
have seen jumping.
The rest of the trip was uneventful with a couple of
COURTEOUS boaters passing us the correct way with minimal or no wake –
hallelujah!!! Once we arrived at downtown Ft. Myers and Legacy Harbor Marina,
it was a simple matter to tie up and relax. Sine we had been here by car, we
were somewhat familiar and decided to go to Publix a couple of blocks away, and
on the way over, ran into another couple from the marina that was going to eat
at the Chinese restaurant next to Publix. We decided to have dinner with them,
picked up my fresh bananas and walked back to the boat for a quiet evening.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
On the move again today as we leave Venice in 20 plus MPH
winds. The wind and the close proximity to the Gulf made for some VERY rough
conditions at the dock in the marina. In fact, after dinner last night, I
actually got a little queasy and went to bed early. Looking at a computer
screen and typing this blog does not work for me while the boat is pitching
back and forth. The trip was fairly easy as we headed south, and there was
much boat traffic today. Obviously, they do not have the 100 foot rule in
Florida like we do in Georgia as we were overtaken and passed repeatedly by
boats at planning speed. One IDIOT and discourteous boater in a 45 footer
Selene (brand of power boat) pulled up beside us about 20 feet away, and slowed
down for other oncoming traffic. While still immediately beside us, he gunned
it and created a 5 foot wake that we fell into as there was no room for me to
move, turn, or otherwise mitigate the effect of the boat falling into a 5 foot
deep hole in the water. I strongly considered catching up to him, calling him
on the radio, or some other way to let him know how much we appreciated his
show of courtesy for us, but then I decided that it would do no good. It might
make me feel better, but he will continue to do the same behavior, and there
was also potential for a confrontation that would have no winner. You never
know when something like this could be like showing up to a gun fight with a
knife! There were MANY examples of discourteous boaters today, and only a
couple of them were courteous and slowed down for a smooth pass.
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| Palm Island Ferry |
As we continued south, we had to wait for the Palm Island Ferry, a car ferry that runs between Palm Island Marina and Palm Island just across the ICW. As we turned to the east to go across Charlotte Harbor, the
winds turned more to the north causing beam seas, so for the first time in a
long time, we actually went up on plane to make for a smoother ride and to
lessen the time we needed to endure those conditions. Waves eventually became 2
to 3 feet after starting out at less than 1 foot. We arrived at Burnt Store
Marina, filled up with gas because of their cheaper prices, and pumped out the
holding tank.
After tying up in our slip, it was time for happy hour at
the marina restaurant and we also had a Portobello mushroom appetizer. After a
couple of drinks, it was back to the boat and time to grill our Pork Loin,
fresh corn, and red peppers. The wind was still blowing about 20 and we needed
to lower the enclosure to eat dinner as it was beginning to get cold as the sun
set.
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| Marina Restaurant and Office |
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| Little Waci uncovered and drying out |
We had a quiet evening on the boat before going to bed in smooth water,
unlike our two previous days.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Today is another day for laundry, computer chores, and an
early dingy ride. We started the breezy day with a trip to downtown Venice for
breakfast using marina bicycles and then pedaled back to the boat into the
wind.
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| Bicycling to Breakfast |
Once back, we launched Little Waci for a short ride around the area. We
stuck our nose out into the Gulf just past the jetties and promptly turned
around due to wind and waves. We then explored the other direction toward
downtown before coming back and cleaning up Little Waci. It had developed a bit
of mildew on the interior, but was easily washed off. By now, the wind was
blowing at least 25 to 30 MPH and it was rocking and rolling in the slip. The
interior of Little Waci dried off quickly in the wind, but it is far too rough
to try replacing the cover. We planned to grill the pork loin at dinner, but it is far
too windy to even consider this plan. It is off to the restaurant in the marina
for the third night in a row for dinner.
Friday, May 3, 2013
We got up late today before hitting the very clean showers
and then had breakfast on board the boat. After breakfast, Nan Ellen and I took
care of some urgent Auxiliary business before leaving mid-morning for downtown
Venice. We used the marina bikes for the 2 mile ride into downtown and lunch.
After lunch, we briefly stopped at the beach and spoke with the Lifeguards.
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| Venice Beach |
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| Lifeguard Stand |
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| Happy couple on the beach |
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| Hope we don't need this! |
Then it was back to the boat for more work on the computer. Just before
we left for downtown on the bikes, a Gold Looper pulled in and we introduced
ourselves. It turned out that we were meeting Clearwater AGLCA Harbor Hosts
Fred and Sharon Clarkson aboard “Perfect Remedy”. They were part of a larger
group of cruisers from the Clearwater area on a weekend trip and stopped here.
We were invited to docktails on the beach (while watching the sunset) and then
to dinner in the same restaurant we had visited on Thursday night.
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| Sunset from the Venice Inlet |
Due to
internet connections being very good here in Venice, we plan to stay until
Sunday so I can send in a time sensitive report to the Commodore on Sunday
morning before we leave. We had originally planned to leave on Saturday.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Venice, here we come. The trip today includes the protected
water of the Intracoastal Waterway followed by a trip across Tampa Bay and
under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge out into the Gulf for a short distance before
returning to the protected waters of the ICW for the remainder of the journey
to Venice.
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| Gorgeous home on the waterway |
There was some rough water as we entered Tampa Bay with 2 to 3
footers about 45 degrees of the port bow (front left of the boat for you not
familiar with boating terms) and we took a lot of spray and slowed down because
of it. The route takes you out to about the middle of the bay before turning to
starboard (right hand turn) when you enter the large ship channel. The depth
goes from 8 feet to over 40 feet and it is well marked and easy to follow.
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| AIS target "Montego Bay" |
The
AIS (automatic identification system) really lit up with several other vessels
showing up and the alert sounded as two of them closed to within 2 miles of our
position. This is the distance I chose to alert me of other traffic so I have
plenty of time to take necessary action to avoid collision. After we made the
turn at the ship channel, the seas were coming from behind us and helped push
us along a little faster using the same RPM.
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| Tug towing barge behind them |
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| Sunshine Skyway Bridge |
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| Dredge and tug |
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| Coast Guard 25 Foot Fast Response Boat |
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| Which way do we go? (Hint - yellow triangle) |
Before long, we were back in protected water in the marked
GICW (Gulf Intracoastal Waterway) channel. We continued south passing several
communities and under several bridges until we approached the Blackburn Swing Bridge.
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| Blackburn Swing Bridge 9 foot clearance |
This is a swing bridge that only small runabouts could clear without it opening
and the operator must go to the middle of the bridge to swing it out of the
way. The final bridge of the day was about 1 mile from our destination and the
guide books were wrong on the clearance. They say it is 14 feet which we can
clear with our antennas lowered, but when we arrived, the true clearance was
only 12 feet, so we had to request an opening here as well.
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| Last bridge today |
No problem, but we unnecessarily
lowered our antennas to fit under the bridge, and Nan Ellen put them back up
once we realized the bridge needed to go up for us to pass. About a mile later,
we arrived at our destination for the day at the Crow’s Nest marina at the
Venice inlet.
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| Crow's Nest Marina and Electric Boats |
We tied up and promptly set out to wash off the salt spray
from the Tampa Bay crossing before happy hour arrived. We walked the very short distance to the inlet and the jetties as this marina is only 300 yards off the Gulf and we wanted to take a look around before dinner.
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| Pelican on the south jetty with Venice Beach in background |
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| 2 birds on the south jetty overlooking the inlet |
We did not feel like
cooking, and a great restaurant was here at the marina, so we decided to have
dinner there. After a tiring day, it was off to bed again.
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| Water Tower with antenna farm |
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Today, we start our journey again. It is time to move on,
and after getting fuel and a pump out, we set off for Gulfport. On the way out from the marina, we took one last tour of the sponge docks , this time by boat.
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| Tour of Sponge Docks by boat |
As we moved
south, the weather deteriorated and became stormy. It was a very wet day with
long downpours and reduced visibility. We needed to bring the heater and fan up
on deck to keep the windshield defogged so we could see.
Even though it was fewer miles than we normally travel each
day, we had to slow down and stop a couple of times due to visibility issues
and to make sure were still in the channel. It gets shallow quickly if you
stray. On the approach to Gulfport, they have a lighted range marker to help keep you in the channel due to no other aids to navigation being visible.
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| Lighted range marker |
We arrived in Gulfport around 4 PM and tied up during a downpour. Once
we checked in with the marina office, we came back to the boat to set up the
internet connection and found it was unreliable, so we won’t be doing much
internet or e-mail at this stop. We hope our next stop in Venice will be
improved with internet connectivity.
We downloaded and photos from the camera and edited this
narrative. Since it was still raining, we decided against grilling the pork
roast as we had planned and instead thawed out meatloaf and cooked a sweet
potato for dinner. It looks like a quiet evening watching TV as we need to get
an early start on Thursday as we need to make the 60 miles to Venice.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Today was another early day as we needed to go to Publix for
replenishment of fresh groceries before we resume our journey on Wednesday. I
dropped off Nan Ellen with the groceries and set off to return the car to
Enterprise. Once back at the boat, it was time to take showers, do laundry, catch
up on e-mails, and get ready to go on Wednesday. When we took the sheets off
the bed, we noticed that we still had a water leak as the mattress was wet. We
drug it up to the cockpit to dry out and tried to find the source of the leak.
I thought I had thoroughly sealed the Navigation light, so I need to
investigate where the leak might be coming from. The porthole in the head was
wet, so it is possible that one of the portholes is leaking. We have not had
this problem in the past, but as in everything else on a boat, it is likely to
have a failure at some point in time. We went to dinner at Rusty Bellies again
with our friend in the Auxiliary – Karen Miller. She was in town to conduct a
member training class and invited us to dinner before the class. Back to the
boat for more e-mails, and then off to bed again.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Instead of turning in the car this morning, we had another
road trip to Venice today. Again, we were on the road early, but today there
was more traffic than we experienced on Sunday. It is still NOTHING like
Atlanta traffic! About an hour and a half later, we were in Venice.
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| Painted dolphin in Venice |
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| One of MANY painted turtles |
They have a
great downtown area with all kinds of painted turtles and dolphins. When we
found the Crow’s Nest marina, the water here was clean and blue as it is
literally at the Inlet (called a Pass on Florida’s west coast) and has
reportedly the best restaurant in town right at the marina. They have bicycles
and multiple clean bathrooms and showers – unusual for any marina. This place
looks like a real winner.
We stopped at a liquor store on the way back to the boat to
replenish our ship’s stores. We then returned to the boat to unload and then we
went to the Sponge Docks to be tourists.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
It was early to rise and get our showers today. We stopped
for breakfast on the way out of town. Today, we are investigating the road
ahead – or should I say the waterway ahead. Today is recon day to scout out
marinas ahead of us. We started at the farthest out point – Ft. Myers and
Legacy Harbor Marina. We spoke to the office folks and then walked down the
dock to have a conversation with slip holders. With this being 17 miles up the Caloosahatchee
River and not far from the first lock on the Okeechobee Waterway, we feel this
is a safe place to leave the boat. This marina is known as a good place for
boats during a storm and since we plan to leave the boat for a couple of months
or more, we wanted someplace safe. Concrete floating docks are a real plus and
they have folks to look after the boat while you are away make this a great
choice.
We started heading back up north and checked out additional
marinas along the way. Next up was Palm
Island Marina in Cape Hayes / Rotunda West. This was an OK marina, but we were
not overly impressed. One night here would be OK, but not our first choice in
this area. We had lunch at Leverrocks at the marina, and were disappointed in
the quality versus price paid. The waitress was not friendly and the service
was slow with a lot of employees standing around talking instead of taking care
of customers. No reason to come here, so we won’t.
One of our expected stops was at Regatta Point in Bradenton,
but when we went there, they we not friendly, the facilities were less than we
wanted, and they had the most expensive dockage price so far. The choice was
simply to find something else.
Next was the Gulfport Municipal Marina. This was a basic
marina with clean facilities, floating docks, and a town about a mile or so
away with several restaurants and shops. It will require a bike ride to get
there – too long to walk. This one will be one of our stops.
As we crossed Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, we saw a marker for a memorial to the USCGC Blackthorn. This was a 180 foot Coast Guard buoy tender that was involved in a collision with the Tanker Capricorn and sunk on 28 January, 1980 in Tampa Bay. This resulted in the loss of 23 crew on the Blackthorn. It currently serves as an artificial reef. The investigation and analysis of the accident was instrumental in numerous procedure and policy changes for Coast Guard Operations. It is still used today as a case study by the Coast Guard as we teach risk management.
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| Blackthorn Memorial |
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| Crew Members lost in collision and sinking |
We had been on the road all day, and were tired, so we
retreated to the boat to recalculate and plan our trip from Tarpon Springs to
Ft. Myers. Nan Ellen worked tirelessly on this while I drove and then we
discussed the options back at the boat. We decided that we needed to look at another
alternate marina in Venice, so we decided to keep the rental car another day
and drive to Venice to check it out.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
At breakfast, we had the goodies we bought at Hellas on
Friday night. As expected, they were VERY sweet – almost too sweet for our
taste. We will try something different next time. I updated the I–Pad and
I-Phones while waiting for Nan Ellen to take her shower. Next on the agenda is
to get a car from Enterprise. After picking up the car, we had lunch at a local
restaurant at a marina (OZONO Blue) and checked out the location of the Dunedin
Country Club. This is where we are attending the Coast Guard Auxiliary Division
11 Awards Banquet tonight. We brought our uniforms with us on the boat in case
we needed to attend an event. This is part of my responsibility as District
Captain – being invited to awards dinners. After the dinner and awards, it was
back to the boat for bed as we have a LONG and busy day planned for Sunday.
Friday, April 26,
2013
It was hot yesterday afternoon and the weather is predicted
to be the same for the next few days, so we decided to get an early start on
our chores. Washing the boat is the first priority and we managed that task in
a couple of hours while sweating as it warms up fast here. We normally wash the
boat as soon as we come into port, but because of being too tired after 22
hours at sea, we decided to wait.
We called Enterprise Car Rental today and found they were
sold out of cars, but expect more back in the morning. We will give them a call
when they open to pick us up so we can attend the Awards Dinner in Dunedin Saturday
night and to allow us to scout out marinas ahead of us on Sunday. I also
contacted MarineMax in St. Petersburg to get talk to them about repairs to our
stairs. They are a big repair yard and handle every service need including our
problem. They will call me back after I send them photos and they talk to one
of their welders. We plan to stay here at least through Monday and take the
boat to them one day next week. Laundry and showers are next on the list.
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| Hard at work |
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| Pool and Deck at Turtle Cove |
I had previously downloaded the photos from the camera and
we finished editing the photos while waiting for the clothes to dry. I spent
the next two hours uploading the narrative and the photos to update the Blog.
The laundry was finished and Nan Ellen took it back to the boat while I
finished the Blog posting. It was now time for dinner, so we walked to
Dimitri’s on the Sponge Docks.
We started with a flaming goat cheese appetizer (OPA!!!!!) and
then split a grilled seafood dinner with squid (calamari), octopus, shrimp, and
scallops in a lemon herb sauce. It was great, and the first time we ever had
octopus for dinner. You can’t find this sort of food just anywhere!!! On the
way back to the boat, we stopped by Hellas Bakery and picked up a Karidopita,
and a Melomakarona. I had to have them write it down for me as I can’t even
pronounce them, let alone spell them! This place reminds me of the Marietta
Diner with their display cases full of every kind of sweet imaginable. You
can’t go away from here without satisfying your sweet tooth. We plan to eat
them Saturday morning at breakfast.
