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. |
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