We decided that since we were traveling solo today, we would get up when we got up and no alarm clock. But at exactly 6:15m, my inner alarm clock sounded and I woke up. A short bit later, Matt was out of bed.
We had breakfast and were motoring away from at 7:00. We waved so long to the sailors in our group and we were on our way. The chop increased as we left Matanzas Pass with the northwest wind on our nose, but we were riding with the tide. JourneyOn, Blown Way and English Rose were a short distance behind us. When we arrived at the beginning of the Miserable Mile, they continued going west while we went north to Matlache. We were taken the less traveled 9 nm route which goes up the east side of Pine Island. Due to 34 ft power line and the shallow depths, sailboats are unable to utilize this short cut. I had telephoned the bridge tender yesterday to make sure that the Matlache bascule bridge was operating today and she assured me that she would be there. We have previously gone this route twice. The first time, there was no problem. But the last time we went through there, we got stuck and had to wait until we floated off. Today the tide was rising and would be 1 ft above MLW. We went through the obstacle course of markers slowing down to 5 kts in the worrisome places. The water level was lower than we had expected as the winds were blowing out of the sound. When we got to RED 38, we bumped but kept going. We realized that was the exact spot where we went aground on our last trup through. I immediately marked that spot on the GPS chart with a skull and crossbones. We arrived at the new Matlache Bridge at 9:20 and it immediately opened to let us pass through. We continued north between the land masses and since we were protected, it was a pleasant ride. But once we hit Charlotte Harbor, the fun began. We were rocking, rolling and bouncing in every direction. I quickly stowed all items in the boat that might go flying while Matt worked on getting Blue Moon to Burnt Store Marina. Our brief stay at the marina was a nice break from the bouncing seas. We put 63 gallons of diesel into Blue Moon's tank, which was less than we anticipated. Burnt Store had the cheapest diesel ($3.83 including tax) found on this trip and they consistently have the best prices around. We discovered that Burnt Store now has pumpout hoses on both ends of the fuel dock, which is much better than the old set-up of having to move the boat to the pumpout dock. After getting all the marina stuff done, we headed back into the bouncy harbor. Blue Moon was still rocking and rolling, but the winds has decreased a bit and it was better. At 2:00, we were safely at the dock. There was a lot of work to be done. We unpacked the boat, but the rest, we'll do tomorrow. While unpacking, I realized that we didn't eat three quarters of the food that we brought and we never even wore the sweatshirts, jackets or the rain gear. Again, we over packed. Overall, this was a very nice trip and recommend it to anyone reading this blog. The trip stats: Trip length: 27 days Total miles: 515 nm or 592 statute miles Cost of diesel: $575 Total cost of trip (including food, drink, marinas, fuel, etc): $1200 or $300 per week.
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The alarm rang at 6:15. I don't like using an alarm clock while on the boat (too much like working), but these days with the early starts, we need a little reminder that it's time to get up. I don't think we used the alarm at all on our trip to the Chesapeake last year, but on that trip, we had no agenda and no particular schedule. On this trip, we have places that we needed to be in order to do this trip in 3 weeks. Last night at dinner, we discussed that we all would have liked to spend more time at the places that we visited and to have made some additional stops. This trip needed another week so that the pace could have been slower. That's just one reason it isn't good to cruise on a schedule.
Today, we were picking up our anchor at 6:45 and heading out into Gulf of Mexico. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and the winds were minimal. It was a great day to have a trawler. We patted ourselves on our backs for the decision we made to stay in Marco yesterday. Yes, we could have gone and we would have lived, but why go? This is suppose to be fun, not a chore. Today, that same trip was a pleasure. We were going 30+nm today and our ETA was noon. The seas had a pleasant rolling component, but no waves. We arrived at Ft. Myers Beach and picked up our mooring ball. The poop boat came by and asked us to use their slimey, dirty pendant to tie to the boat. In most mooring fields, we use our own line attached to their pendant. We tied up tight to the mooring so as to minimize the ball bumping on the hull at night when the tide changed. Once settled, we went to shore and paid our $15 (plus tax) mooring fee at the Matanzas Inn. We were then joined by Mary, Bob, Nancy and Ken and headed to the beach to get an ice cream. After devouring our ice creams, we headed to our favorite beer dive that overlooks the beach. We were bummed to find that the building had been torn down and all that remained was an empty lot. Never fear...there are lots of waterfront bars on Ft Myers Beach, so we jumped in our dinghies and went to Bonita Bill's on the mainland. Here we were entertained by a singer playing the guitar and by a drunken "sea hag" who had fallen out of her dinghy (backpack and all) and was trying to get back into the dinghy with the help of her drunken friends. At 4:00, we got back into the dinghies and returned to the island. We went upstairs to the deck at Nervous Nellie's for Happy Hour where we were eventually joined by the rest of the group. It was the first time that the whole group had gotten together since that last night in Marathon. There was a lot of catching up to do. We all went downstairs for dinner. Our waitress was efficient and a fun person . The meals were tasty and HUGE. I ended up taking half my meal back to the boat since Matt was too full to eat it after finishing his own meal. As we were dinghing toward the mooring field, a stingray jumped 4 or 5 ft out of the water right next to us and Nancy/Ken's dinghy. The 3 ft black creature with white spots hung in mid-air for seconds then belly flopped back into the water. On our way back to Blue Moon, we took a detour to Salty Sam's Marina to visit our old friend, Gettinair. She was all closed up and it was evident that Glen was not in town. Even though, Gettinair was looking good. Glen is taking good care of her which both Matt and I were glad to see. The teak on the rails has been stripped and is ready to be given a new coat of cetol or maybe varnish. This may motivate us to do the same for Blue Moon. We went back to our boat, took showers and then sent an email to Glen telling him that we were in Ft Myers Beach and had visited Gettinair. Matt and I were both tired and were asleep by 9:30. Tomorrow, we are heading back home. We have 37 miles to go and we need to stop at the marina for fuel and pump out. The wind is suppose to be blowing 15-20 on our nose up the harbor. We were up and ready to go at 6:45, but it was raining. After checking the internet and having a radio chat, the group decided to wait 30 minutes and then check the weather again. The areas of rain were becoming larger and were headed our way. After several hours and with the weather condition deteriorating, most of the boats decided to stay at Smokehouse Bay. Wanker's engine problem had resurfaced and was going to be towed to a local marina by BoatUS. JourneyOn and Blown Away felt that they needed to get to Ft Myers today even after the BoatUS operator suggested that it wasn't a good idea to go offshore.
We spent the day monitoring the weather radar, reading, playing on the computer and watching it rain. This down time gave Matt the opportunity to practice his ukulele. He played every melody in his song book. We did receive a phone call from Bob saying that Blown Away and JourneyOn had turned back and were now on their way to Naples. We were happy to hear that they were headed to a safe port. At about 3:00, the rains began to lessen and blue sky was spotted. We decided to go ashore for Happy Hour and dinner at 5:00. Tigger, Ladyhawk, English Rose and us dinghied to shore. We went to CJ's On The Water for Happy Hour. They had draft beers for $2.25, which is good for Marco. As we were getting caught up on the last 48 hours, Judy and Chuck walked in. The marina that they were towed to was only a couple blocks away. It was a lively happy hour after being cooped up in the boats. The stories and laughing overflowed . After a couple drinks, the group wandered down the street to the "Crazy Flamingo" for first rate sandwiches and burgers. On our way back to our dinghies, Lea, Fred, Matt and I made one last stop at the Cold Stone Creamery for an encore of yestersday's flavor...it was so good. We returned to the boat as the sun was setting, lifted the dinghy onto the davits, turned on the generator and retired to the v-berth to read. We are hoping to be able to get to Ft. Myers Beach tomorrow We had a good sleep last night. There were a lot of bugs outside, but since we had kept the boat closed with the fans going, only the very smart ones found a way in.
It was another early morning start since we had 50+nm to go. We were picking up our anchor by 6:50. Our plan was to go to Goodland, then take the Big Marco River to tonight's anchorage at Smokehouse Bay. Tigger was also going this route, but all the other boats would be staying on the outside and taking the longer route around Cape Romano. The morning started off nice. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing 10-14 kts over the back quarter. Blue Moon was making good time at 7+ kts. At 11:00, we were abeam of Everglade City. I thought I'd check to see if I could get any internet service and I got a very weak signal. When I looked at the weather radar map, I saw a massive area of rain from Tampa to the Keys. It was coming our way. It had a lot of green and yellow colors, but it also had a stripe of dark red ( which meant heavy rains and possibly heavy winds). I radioed the sailboats in our group and warned them of the weather headed toward us. Blue Moon was 12 nm from Coon Pass where we would be more protected from strong winds and waves, but it looked like we had only an hour before the rains came. We were still 6 nm out when when light rain started. I watched the weather radar as the massive colored area got closer. At 13:10, we were entering Coon Pass. I knew if things got real bad, we could just drop an anchor and wait, but we were concerned about our friends offshore. We knew that a couple of the boats hadn't experienced what they were going to get today. The wind and rain increased, but we were steering from the inside and were warm and dry. Matt and I both remarked how much more comfortable we were in this trawler, than we would be if we were on Gettinair. We arrived a Smokehouse Bay and dropped our anchor. We could see some blue sky. After an hour of relaxing, we headed to shore in search of ice cream. We went to Cold Stone Creamery for a $7.00 cup of ice cream (which we shared). Then we dinghied over to Winn Dixie where a dock is provided for visiting boaters. We picked up a few items and headed back to Blue Moon in the drizzling rain. It was 17:00, when we returned to the anchorage and found all the boats safely anchored. We made a quick pass by them and saw many tired sailors. A couple of the boat crews were going out for Mexican, but since we had just had ice cream, we opted out. Instead, we returned to Blue Moon for Happy Hour. We had a light meal, then watched the sunset. Tomorrow, we are continuing our trip north and we'll be aiming to get to the Ft. Myers Beach mooring balls before the rain begins. We were up at 6:15 and had left the mooring ball by 6:50. We had a long trip ahead of us...40+ nm. I made one last check of the marine forecast before losing our internet. The predicted winds had changed to 10-15 kts from the SE. That wasn't bad, but Blue Moon would have liked the 5-10 kts that were originally forecast.
We headed out of the harbor and immediately turned north and went under the 19ft bridge. This short cut saved us about 5 miles. Once we got to the Florida Bay side, the waves decreased and we had a very comfortable ride. The tide began to push us along and we were doing 7+ kts. It was a nice day to be on the water. We have done this trek many, many times and 75% of the time its not a good ride. Today was a good day. At 11:30, we could see dark clouds hovering over Little Shark River, our destination. But when we arrived, an hour later, all the clouds were gone and the sun was shining. We were the first boat to arrive for the evening and we had the pick of the anchorage. We dropped the anchor and it immediately caught. We lowered our screens on the back deck and were ready for the bugs (which this anchorage is know for). It was a very peaceful place to spend the afternoon reading. Throughout the afternoon, a 3 ft sea turtle would occasionally surface around Blue Moon. At 15:00 or so, the sailboats arrived and picked their spots. By nightfall, there were 11 boats anchored here...7 from our group and 4 others. Matt and I enjoyed Happy Hour in our bug-free zone, then Matt barbecued some chicken for dinner. This was the last of our frozen raw meats, which means more room in the freezer to super chill the beer. After sunset, we went inside and closed up the boat. Our screens work for mosquitos and horse flies, but are useless against no-seeums. We have found that if we close the boat up before they have a chance to invade and turn on the fans in the v- berth, we can have a very comfortable night. The remainder of the quiet evening was spent reading before drifting off the sleep. Wanted to post this before we lost our service. Will edit later
We woke up to lots of wind but as strong as we've been seeing in recent days. Both Matt and I were still full from last night's feast so we limited breakfast to OJ and coffee. It was a nice morning to have coffee out on the back deck. Once Blue Moon was finished with her morning battery charging. We went ashore to fill our water containers again. We had put the 10 gallons that we got yesterday into Blue Moon's large tank, so we needed to refill the drinking water containers. That should give us enough water to get us home. The sky was beginning to darken and it was looking like we would get some rain. As soon as we got back to Blue Moon, it began to rain. It didn't stop for several hours. We wasted the afternoon reading and playing on the computer. We even put on our French music, poured some red wine while we reminenced about cruising on the Canal du Midi Finally at about 3:00,the rains stopped. Matt and I headed ashore for showers, then back to Blue Moon. At 5:00, it was time for Happy Hour. The group met at the City Marina's chickee hut for heavy appetizers and drinks. The whole group was there except for Fancy Free who started their trip home this morning. We had thought that that would be the last place that the mini-loopers would be all together. Most of us were heading home, but English Rose and Lady hawk were going to stay in Marathon a couple more days. But before the Happy Hour was over, they decided to stay with the group and leave tomorrow. We were back on Blue Moon by 8:00 preparing for an early departure tomorrow. We have over 40 nm to travel to Little Shark River. We won't have internet or cellphone service until we get to Naples. Today was to be a day of play. We slept late this morning...until 7:30 and went to "The Stuffed Pig" for breakfast. This little restaurant is very "Keys like". We sat under a chickee hut, had a wonderful meal and felt like stuffed pigs when we left.
Back on Blue Moon, we turned on the generator and I used this time to do some boat keeping chores. With the boat batteries charged, we went back to shore to refill our water containers. There is a spigot with drinkable water within dinghy reach where we could easily refill our containers. It is metered and you pay on the honor system at the rate of $.05/gallon. We took 10 gallons of water and I went to the office to pay our $.50 fee. After stowing the water on Blue Moon, we set off for some dinghy exploration. We went through Sister's Creek to the beach side. As we were exploring the various canals and checking out the waterfront homes, our engine died . I took the oars out and started to row as Matt tried to get the motor going, but no luck. We were about a mile from Blue Moon. Finally, a young guy fishing from his dinghy came by and offered us a tow. The timing was good because my arms were getting tired. It took about 20 minutes to get us back to Blue Moon. Once back on board, we offered our new friend, Logan, a beer. We chatted for an hour or so. He and his new wife are traveling in their recently purchased Tartan 37 which he bought in Port Charlotte. They are taking a year or so off and planning to sail the Carribean islands, then will return to a "normal" life of having a house and kids. After Logan left, Matt went to work on the dinghy motor. He took the carburetor out and found more white jelly-like material. Matt is guessing it is coming from some bad fuel that he had bought at the Marathon gas station in Port Charlotte. Once he had that cleaned out, the motor started up. At 5:30, we headed to shore with our dish for dinner. We were having a potluck dinner at the marina chickee hut. There were now 20 Punta Gorda Sailing Club members moored in Boot Key Harbor and we were all at the dinner. The food was delicious but the strong winds made keeping the food on the plates difficult at times. It was nice to be able to visit with everyone. After dinner, it was shower time, followed by wine and sunset time, then bedtime. We awoke at our usual time and had breakfast. At 8:15, it was time for our morning radio chat. The group decided to leave at 9:00 to go the Jewfish Hole, but after looking at the chart and seeing the weather forecast, Matt and I decided to go on to Marathon.
We upped our anchor at 8:45 and were on our way, We had over 30nm to go. The wind was blowing 15-20 kts on our stern. It was a sunny day which made the surroundings even more scenic. While underway, we heard on the radio that English Rose got a polypropolene line wrapped around her prop shaft. Frank had to dive the boat to free the line. Also, we heard that Blown Away had been flying her spinnaker and suffered a knockdown. Later, we heard the Tigger lost a chuck of her prop and it had teeth marks on it?? Finally, we heard a May Day from a 22 ft runaboat with 2 adults and 4 children onboard. They were five miles offshore during small craft warnings and it was taking on water. We saw the two coast guard boats go off to assist them. Never a dull moment today. When we got to Vaca Key (where Marathon is), Blue Moon was able to get under the 19 ft bridge and avoid that 3 mile trek down to the bridge opening and 3 miles back to Marathon into the wind. We arrived at Boot Key at about 13:00. We got our mooring ball assignment, and were quicky tied up. We were moored directly behind Fancy Free (from Punta Gorda). We also saw Dora Lee and Fantasy, both from Punta Gorda, when we entered the harbor. We went ashore to register, take showers and do a load of laundry. In the meantime, the sailboats had decided to skip Jewfish Hole and come to Marathon. They arrived and found their moorings. Ladyhawk managed to find the one shoaled spot in the mooring field and went aground. They contacted Tow BoatUS, but they were hard aground. They would have to wait for the tide to rise. The rest of us met for Happy Hour under the Chickee Pavillion at the marina. We ordered pizza and enjoyed our dinner in the 20 kts of wind. A local policeman joined our group and had his sushi dinner in the pavillion with us. He was surprised that we were returning to our boats so early on a Saturday evening. I explained to him that Punta Gorda midnight was at 9:00. Back on Blue Moon, Matt and I had a glass of wine and watched the sunset. As darkness set on the anchorage, Ladyhawk was finally freed by the rising tide and was finding her mooring. It was windy outside. A good night to be on a mooring. Both Matt and I didn't sleep well last night. I can't blame it on the weather conditions, it was just one of those nights. I awoke at 5:00 am and watched the light from the full moon dance on the water. It was very calm out there.
Matt got out of bed at 6:15. We had breakfast and waited until 8:00 which was "anchors up" time. At 7:50, as we were preparing to bring up the anchor, we heard on the radio that Wanker was unable to start his engine. The guys gave them advice on the radio on what to check, but soon Bob, Ken and Matt were on Wanker trying to figure out the mystery. Matt returned to Blue Moon an hour later and reported "no luck". BoatUS had been called and Wanker would be towed to a marina where a mechanic would look at it. Blue Moon and the rest of the fleet would go to Islamorada and wait for word. We left at about 9:30 and traveled southwest on the ICW. The seas were fairly calm considering the forecast was for 10-20 mph winds. Matt and I stopped at Plantation Harbor Yacht Marina for fuel, pump out ($10 for pump out) and water. We decided to get fuel here rather than Marathon because of the $.70 per gallon price difference. That would pay for tonight's dinner. When we arrived at the anchorage, the sailboats were all settled in. We dropped anchor and it held. Since we know lots of people who have dragged here and since winds of 20 mph were predicted, we dug it in with extra engine RPM's...insurance. Then we sat back and watched for a while as Matt practiced on his ukulele. Once satisfied that Blue Moon was secure, we went over to Islamorada's Fish Company for Key Lime pie on a stick and to the big World Wide Sportsman store. We met up with Bob and Mary there and decided that 3:30 was close enough to Happy Hour. We dinghied to Lorelei's and settled ourselves in with some very cold beer that went down real easy. At 5:00, the group arrived for our pre-arranged Happy Hour and dinner. Everyone was there including Jack and Nikki from Tigger and Judy and Chuck from Wanker. Wanker had been towed to Mangrove Marina. Chuck had contacted a marine mechanic who said that he could fix it on Monday. But resourceful Chuck didn't want to wait so long. As he was wandering the marina docks looking for answers, he spotted a marine mechanic, who lived on a nearby boat. He was coming home from work. Chuck asked him to look at his engine...$50 later, it was running and Wanker was on her way to rejoin the group. So we were all back together and we had a few additional people.. Tigger's friend, Dan and a couple from Punta Gorda, Larry and Stephanie on "Lady Lassie" joined us. The meal was very good and I had the huge salad that I'd been craving. When I learned that Stephanie was from Ireland, I started to pepper her with lots of questions. She told me to "friend her" on Facebook and I could use her for a reference for our upcoming Ireland trip in September. We finished dinner by 6:30, as we were told previously that our table area had been reserved for a "meeting" at 7:00. We returned to our boats. Matt and I enjoyed a glass of wine as we watched the sunset (no green flash tonight). After we took our showers, we ran the generator and retired to the cabin for dessert and games. At 10:45, I was in the salon reading when I heard a long whistle then a "bang" . I looked outside and saw a beautiful professional fireworks display. Oh yes, how could we forget...the Cambodian New Year Celebration! I woke Matt up and we enjoyed the show then we went to sleep. It was another great night on the water with both Matt and I sleeping soundly. We were up by 6:45 and picking up the anchor by 8:00.
We headed south on Biscayne Bay. There was a gentle north breeze behind us and the sun was shining. We arrived at Barnes Sound at 10:30 and dropped our anchor in the northwest corner. Once the sailboats arrived, we lowered our dinghies and headed through the mangroves to Alabama Jacks for lunch. Alabama Jacks is a funky Keys style restaurant/bar. The food was great, but there was one problem. The waitress lost Judy and Chuck's credit card. We searched the bar for it, but our guess is that she gave it to another patron or it slipped between the floor boards into the waters below. They called their credit card company from the restaurant to cancel the card. After returning to our boats, we upped anchors and headed south another 10 nm to Tarpon Basin. On our way, we saw Tigger anchored near Jewfish Cut. They had separated from the group last night. We hailed them on the radio and told them where we were headed. They would meet us there. We arrived at Tarpon Basin and dropped our hook, but it didn't catch. So we tried again and this time, we were successful. We lowered the dinghy and went to the government building which has a dinghy dock, garbage disposal and water. We found a shaded picnic pavillion and played a Pig It/Hog It tournament. We played for over three hours, but then it began to get dark and the bugs were coming out. We returned to the boat at 20:00, took our showers then started up the generator. It was time to retire to the v-berth to read and sleep. |
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