Red sky

A couple of firsts for me this week. I have seen the red sky at morning, but never in the evening. The old  adage: "red sky at night sailors delight; red sky in the morning sailors take warning."  was true at least that evening.

The next first for me was getting a picture of dolphins. I have seen lots of them, and even a few wild ones doing tricks for free. I have tried a couple times to get a picture but dolphins have their fun quickly and move on. This pod of 4 alerted us with heavy breathing right on our stern. They went to the end of the bay and I was ready for their return.

 

Lost at sea

OK, the title is a bit misleading. A more appropriate title could be "Adrift in the moorings". Some child's teddy bear jumped ship or maybe was forced to walk the plank. In any event our dinghy was stowed for the night and I declined relenqushing my slothful ways to rescue the remains of an inanimate object.

Not to be confused with last week's Marathon Christmas boat parade - last night was the mooring field dinghy Christmas parade.

A few boat bucks

Tuesday we made the 10 minute trip to the Marathon Boatyard. Five hours and 18 boat bucks later (for you landlubbers a boat buck is the smallest denomination for sailors and is equivilant to $100 in US currency) we pulled out with 2 new house batteries, a new generator battery, and both diesels gone over and maintained as needed.

 Leaving the boat yard required 200 yards down a very narrow canal. Just as we were about to enter the canal a big 55-60 foot cabin cruiser entered from the oppisite side. With a few choice oaths I got as far over as possible and told De Anne to tell the other captain to hurry up. The boatyard workers gathered in a hurry and yelled to me that he was coming in under one engine. I held back on noting that I always had one engine and concentrated on not hitting any boats on my right as he passed inches away on my left. One boat had a sailing dinghy side tied and our fenders tangled with it. De Anne leter told me that the condition of the sailing dinghy was rough and it would be hard to prove anything aganist us. We went out into the Atlantic (Ok, only about one mile) opened it up and checked everything was working fine. 

 The mooring folks have been collecting money for bikes for under-privileged kids. Some of the results:

Christmas boat parade

Saturday night fun without leaving the boat. The annual Christmas boat parade.

Even after all the excitement De Anne still had energy for a Sunday morning kayak ride. Note the neighboring boat and the "creative" way it has been enclosed for extra living space. Third world plywood and tarpaper construction right here in the USA.

Turn on the heat

 This morning was cold - 58 degrees. I got up at 6:30, cranked up the diesel generator, and turned on the heater for the first time ever. It started out blowing cold air, but in a couple minutes it was warm air and within 5 minutes the boat was warming up enough for De Anne to peek out from under the heavy blanket.

Larry asked me in an email if his boat sign (Enchantress) was still up by the Tiki hut. 

Island Sunday

Sunday in Boot Key harbor. Plans must be made for the day during breakfast. Discussion and refinements ended with a plan satisfactory to all crew. I took the dinghy ashore with the water can and trash, plus shower bags. De Anne kayaked to Sombrero Beach while I rode the bike around to meet up with her.

 Sombrero Beach meets Sister Creek:

We reunited at the marina after showers and went to The Fisheries for lunch of Conch Po boy and coconut shrimp:

Thanks to Donna on a boat of the same name for this picture:

Settling in for winter

The weather has turned cold with a strong north wind. In the Florida keys that is not so bad. Sixty at night and seventy during the day. 

 There are 200 boats in the mooring field with lots of dinghies going by. It seems like once a day someone slows down too comment on how beautiful our boat is. 

 Sunset over Boot Key harbor:

The cruiser's lounge decorated for Christmas:

Down the Keys

We were happy to leave Dinner Key. It was not the same place we loved a dozen years ago, but few places are. The exception is Marathon. 

We are on a buoy in Boot Key and it is the same it always was. Our big decision now is between wings at the Hurricane Bar or a lobster ruben sandwich at the Fisheries. 

 We do have some problems with the house batteries, but the generator helps hide the problem. Tomorrow I will check a couple marine vendors for a pair of new 4D batteries - preferably vendor installed. I would rather spend money than to start hoisting 90 lbs batteries into and out of a dinghy. 

 In the mean time..... enjoying the 80 degree days and 70 degree nights.

Dinner Key

 We made it to Dinner Key mooring field Monday afternoon and will stay three days with a Thanksgiving Day departure scheduled. The marina is still being repaired from Irma almost three years ago.

Empty slips still being reconstructed:

Our trip down the ICW was uneventful with the major exception of a large cargo ship entering Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale. We were in a line of other boats that all turned left to go out to sea leaving us alone crossing the ship channel. Looking left we saw a cargo ship bow on about a mile away. That may not seem close to landlubbers; but trust sailors when they tell you that is way too close! I put the wheel over hard and gunned it like a sissy. We did lazy circles for half an hour then continued down the ICW past the port terminals. 

We passed the same cargo ship docking with the help of a tug. The tug pushed as we went by and the surge of water was huge. The boat surfed sideways and the crew nearly experienced loose bowel syndrome. Once again - pedal to the metal escape.

Monday happy hour was a special treat!

Port of Palm Beach

The marina where we are weather-trapped is next door to the Port of Palm Beach. Big cargo ships load and unload day and night. We can, once in a while, hear the trains leaving and if a pleasure boat gets too close to a cargo ship the harbor pilot boat or Coast Guard will blow a combo horn and siren so loud you can almost feel it. I watched a large catamaran pirouette in mid channel and beat a hasty retreat with a heavy steel pilot boat bearing down on it. The pilot boats are berthed in our marina so we have advance notice of a cargo ship coming in when the pilot boat goes out.

There is a constant on both coasts of Florida. Derelict boats are everywhere. Property owners complain to their city, then laws are passed that hurt liveaboards. The boat bums leave the boat abandoned and it sinks creating a very expensive mess for the local government. The State government passed a law that boats could anchor at least 48 hours with some local restrictions allowed. Just north of our marina is a small anchorage with 2 boats blown ashore and 2 sunk boats just barely showing. In the picture below a bum boat is tied to a sunk boat - very convenient!

The wind is relentless and it now looks like we will remain hunkered down 2 or 3 more days enjoying the delights of marina life.

Hanging out with the big boys

We are spending the night at Riviera Beach city marina just north of Palm Beach. The marina is full of large, expensive yachts.

The big boys in the sunset:

The only slight mis-adventure of the day was when a boat with four 400hp outboards passed us throwing a 5 foot wake. In the insuing rocking and rolling I must have hit the refrigerator switch with my foot. A few hours later we discovered our ice was on the slushy side. Three dollars and a trip to the gas dock and now we have 10 lbs of this vital commodity.

Tomorrow we fight our way through the boating capital of the world.

Update: Tuesday morning - upon weather review the crew saw upcoming winds in south FL of 30 to 40 mph and decided to wait it out in this nice marina opting for comfort in lieu of intrepid seamanship.

Fair weather

 Two weeks of strong to gale force winds grew tiresome. It is now gentle breezes and sunshine. We could move on, but do not want to subject ourselves to one of the busiest waterways in America on the weekend. Monday morning seems soon enough.

Last night during happy hour(s) De Anne pointed up and yelled “what is that?”. It took a moment, but then we realized it was a rocket taking off from Cape Canaveral. I was so enthralled watching the magnificent sight that I never got out the camera. Oh well, another launch Sunday at 7:27 pm is scheduled.

Our location is called Sunset Bay and here is why:

TS Eta

The outer bands of Eta are whipping around us today. Our dinghy, like several others in the buoy field, is in the davits. We added chaff guards to our mooring lines and watched as others added additional lines.

The steady winds are in the twenties with frequent gusts above fourty:

It looks like tomorrow will be more of the same.

My last picture of the schooner Lilly was into the sun. Here is a better picture of her under sail two days ago:

Holding in place

We had plans to leave yesterday for points south; however, a weather check Tuesday night on the storm Eta gave us pause to rethink traveling to south Florida this week. Another week in Stuart seems prudent. 

There are moments of crisis in the buoy field. Lilly, a prow, gaff-rigged schooner started to sink. SeaTow arrived with big pumps and after a couple hours saved the ship. They moved to a dock and did the repairs. 

Lilly going by us - all well again:

Tuesday afternoon we spotted a large ketch trying to pick up a mooring ball in a 12 knot breeze. The multiple attempts were fun to watch for a few minutes, but their technique was very poor and became painful to watch. 

De Anne and I began to debate rendering assistance (she - pro, me - con). 10 minutes later we were in our dinghy with a stout mooring line. 

It was an older couple in a very large, heavy boat. We attached our mooring line and held it out for their next pass. De Anne passed him the line while I attempted to stay close without being rammed. Their boat looked much bigger from the front approching too fast with the husband yelling "Stop" to the wife at the helm. He cleated the line and all was well.

Gale

 A gale is blowing today. Yesterday we raised the dingy and stowed the kayak in preparation. The water is foam streaked, but wave action is minimal because of the protection of land and the marina to the north and east. It is a stay aboard day.

Two days ago SeaTow brought a sailboat in to the buoy two down from us. 4 little girls plus Mom and Dad. They abandoned ship last night. I would not like to ride a gale on a small sailboat with 6 people either.

Rising moon from the buoy field:

End to end

We crossed the Okeechobee Waterway and have a buoy for the week in Stuart, FL. 

 While the lake crossing was uneventful the locks entering and leaving the lake proved stressful. We were delayed 2 hours leaving the marina because a boat club of very large yachts had to pass before us, and their size allowed only one boat per lock through - at 15 minutes per boat. Finally at 10:30 am with another small boat we were allowed to pass. 

 On the east side of the lake we had a short wait before the lock master called us into the lock. I was pulling to the wall and saw just ahead a couple stalks of sugar cane in front of us. With no where to go I went over it and not only heard, but felt it in the prop. After the gates opened we left at idle speed and tied up to a dol. Dols are for big barges to lay aganist while waiting for a lock opening. We tied tight and I gunned reverse a couple times. Problem solved! Sugar cane is grown in this area, and we saw a lot of it - just not in the water, until we were in a lock. 

 On buoy in the Sunset Bay marina:

 

Locks and concrete

We left Fort Meyers Saturday morning to cross the Okeechobee waterway. An hour and a half later we entered our first ever lock. It was not too stressful and we only bumped the concrete wall a little bit, and fenders absorbed the blow. 

 We spent the night at the cheapest marina in Florida - $1.00 per foot. No electricity or WIFI, but hey, we could rough it one night! It rained off and on so ports and sliding windows had to be closed multiple times. Between showers mosquitoes staged attack waves. 

Tonight we are docked at Roland and Mary Marina just a couple hundred yards west of Lake Okeechobee. The boat is plugged in, AC is on, and I have WIFI. The local pests will have to find dinner elsewhere. 

We will wait out tomorrow's storms and cross to the east side of the lake on Tuesday. 

 Approaching Franklin lock:

Sunday afternoon on the dock at Roland and Mary marina. The black gate in the background is a hurricane gate that is almost always open.... except for us, so De Anne declared it our third lock of the day:

Trump visit

Today President Trump visited the Fort Myers Convention Center which is about 2 blocks from our slip. Free entertainment! Because of closed streets and police tape we did have to walk a few extra blocks. 

 One short cut when De Anne held up the tape for me to duck under:

We also crashed the line to get into the convention center but just when we thought we would get in some police officers shooed us back behind the barricades:

So we saw hundreds of Trump supporters, maybe a dozen Biden supporters, and one tattooed kid, dressed in black, with a skateboard who looked kinda like Antifa.... maybe.

As cruisers we take our fun where we can find it. Note that in all the pictures I am standing away from the crowds!

Chores

When you live on a boat the chores list never quite gets finished. I am proud to report that it has been reduced over the past week to a manageable level. 

 De Anne has found time to kayak, and on Monday we did a barnacle run accompanied by Linda and Larry - former cruisers we first met in Marathon a dozen years ago. They now live in Cape Coral across the river. It was great to have them along and Larry was gracious enough to man the starboard side of the boat to push off the piling, thus avoiding those little nicks that upset De Anne's day. 

 Also in the below picture of De Anne in her kayak, you can see evidence of one of my boat chores. It seems the installer of the davits (me) did a poor job of sealing the davit bases and in the rain, water was seeping into the lazarette. We took down the dinghy, removed the davits, and made a better attempt at weatherproofing.

Second mode of transportation

We have a second mode of transportation carried aboard. A folding bike sits undercover on deck ready to deploy when in port.

In just the first week the bike has proved its' worth. I can accompany De Anne to Publix without slowing down her brisk walking pace by sedately riding at her side. On the return trip the rack on the back of the bike can hold a weeks worth of Diet Coke that is so necessary as mixer for our Sailor Jerry rum.

After several days of wind and occasional light showers we were brave enough to walk/bike the bridge. When I slowed down on the uphill De Anne was kind enough to assist with a hand on my back pushing. The metaphor does not need belaboring.

From the apex of the bridge with the marina to the left:

South on the Intracoastal waterway

 Our one-way journey started Wednesday morning. Fair weather and light chop in the bay made for a good first day.

The anchorage we had picked out for the night in Lemon bay was exposed to the east, so with higher east winds forecast during the night, we decided to go to Gasparilla Marina for a transit/overnight slip. This is when things started to go bad. 

It was a narrow fairway to our assigned slip in the very back of the marina; however I was able to get in without a lot of excitement. The electric hookup did not work - nor the wifi. The dock hand tried to fix it, and even offered us another slip (when I asked for proof of power there was none) so an hour later (hot and sweaty) De Anne and I took showers at the marina cruiser's lounge. When I rejoined De Anne in the lounge she was talking to the security guard. The marina staff had been looking for us and wanted to make things right. We moved the boat to the fuel dock and all problems were solved.

On Thursday the higher winds caused quite a fetch (wind blown waves) requiring the use of the windshield wipers as saltwater spray cascaded over the bow. After passing Charlotte Bay we were behind mangrove islands which cut down the fetch considerably. 

Entering the Caloosahatchee river is a very narrow passage about a mile long and a hundred feet wide. This is the choke point for all the boats from all the river towns and cities wanting to go to the gulf or bay. It is akin to a downtown Atlanta or Houston freeway suddenly becoming a two lane road.

We managed to find the marina and our slip, and once again I did not hurt the wax job that De Anne spent so much time applying.

Proof of life in Fort Myers:

  

Burning diesel

Our boat (soon-to-be home) is functioning perfectly. We took it out into the bay twice last week and got it up to full speed. Besides burning diesel in a most extravagant manner (16 gallons/hour at full throttle) it also helps detach the flora and fauna that so quickly infest boat hulls, props, rudders and bow thrusters in a sub-tropical climate. Of course it is fun too!

Next door neighbors - Ron and Sue joined us aboard for the bottom cleaning run:

Note matching crew uniforms.

Depending on the path Hurricane Laura chooses next week we may be adding extra dock lines over the weekend.

2 complex, complicated systems

 De Anne has discovered the major time and effort required to maintain two complex and complicated systems that are under her responsibility. One is beautiful, but 15 year old yacht and the other is an ulgy, 68 year old husband.

The boat is in the yard having hydraulic steering lines replaced, bow thruster repaired, and throttle linkage adjusted.

My high maintenance is now eye drops 4 times a day for the two new eye lens surgically implanted to replaced the original equipment rendered unusable by cataracts. 

The boat and I should both be ready for travel when our lease expires on September 23rd. 

Our neighbor snapped this picture of us leaving for the boat yard.

Sheltered

OK, truthfully - we are somewhat bored, but considering how things are in many places I guess that is not too bad.

The front door remains unlocked during daylight hours, we still go for bike rides and wave to the island police, and the number of infections on the island has increased by one since March.

 The only big excitement was when a cruising sailboat spent a couple days anchored in our bay before running aground. A tow boat freed them on the second try; however, returned a couple days later to retrieve the keel that broke off during the tow. A huge float bag was attached by a diver and the multi-ton keel was towed to  (presumably) reunite with the sailboat.

De Anne kayaking near Longboat Pass with Jewfish Key as a back drop.

Locked down, but not up

Our complaints on the lockdown pale in comparison to 99.9% of the country. We have a private beach (not subject to lockdown) on the Gulf of Mexico, a couple hundred yards from our front door and beautiful Sarasota Bay is just a few feet away.

I have wiled away this lonely time working on my tan while De Anne's worst experience this month was when a manatee surfaced under her kayak startling both of them and injuring neither.

Our biggest complaint is that our new boat refrigerator is back-ordered in Italy. Pity us if you can.

I know you have seen my ugly toes before, but at least here they are demurely covered with sand:

De Anne headed out to fight for Bay space with the wildlife:

Stir crazy

We decided to take a little trip and obey the Florida stay-at-home order/recommendation by using the boat.

We headed north to Tampa Bay and across, ending up anchored outside of Gulfport Marina in St Petersburg. It was the first time we have gotten the anchor wet.

We surveyed the anchorage, making snide comments about the derelict boats and the 3 slightly sunk boats. A couple hours later 2 inflatables arrived at one sunk boat laying over at a 45 degree angle, A few minutes later a cascade of water was poring over the side. We enjoyed the rescue show until dark; however, the sailboat still had 10-15 degree list. This morning it was floating upright like nothing had happened. I imagine the interior is a mess - as only saltwater can do.

Click to enlarge and you can see the water over the starboard rail:

Sunset over Boca Ceiga Bay:

There was a good breeze last night and this morning, so we crossed Tampa Bay at a sedate 7 knots. She could handle more speed but I did not care for waves breaking over the bow and the jarring ride - therefore I  was quite willing to sacrifice speed for comfort.

We were going to stay out a second night, but it was breezy and overcast plus (and this is the important reason) we ran out of ice for my happy hour Sailor Jerry's rum and coke. I am not a savage!
Next boat purchase is a new refrigerator.

On buoy.....then not

Little did we know when I took the picture of the floating Tiki hut/bar it would be its last bay cruise for the foreseeable future.

De Anne returning from her walk back and forth on the Ringling Bridge.

 The marina from whom we were renting the mooring ball has been incrementally discontinuing services. Every few days another needed service would be cancelled with little to no warning. We realized a change was needed quickly. Through a series of rapid fire texts and emails we were able to lease our old condo again and secure a slip for the boat. De Anne is safe, the boat is safe, and I am relived. De Anne might reverse the order on the first two items in the previous sentence - if you know her you get it.

 Maybe in a month or two the Florida Keys will reopen and possibly our Bahamas plans can be renewed at a future date, but until then so many others are in real trouble that we will be grateful for our good fortune.