Thanksgiving in Fort Myers

Hi all, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving surrounded by friends and family. Dirk and I spent ours sitting on a mooring ball here in Estero Bay in Fort Myers. Well we actually did find a nice restaurant called the Gulfshore Grill that was serving Thanksgiving dinner. We walked in about 11:30 and they told us they were closed for the rest of the day unless we had a reservation for dinner starting at 12:30. Since we didn't have a reservation we were told we could sit at the bar and they could get us a meal there. We agreed to come back and decided to spend some time walking the beach. When we returned we were still a bit early but as the bar was open we went ahead and grabbed two stools ordered a couple cocktails and gabbed with the bartenders. We were approached a few moments later by a hostess who said that they had set up a table for us if we wanted to be seated in the dining area. Now that was a nice surprise and of course we graciously accepted. We had the option of a Shrimp, salmon, prime rib, rosemary lamb or traditional turkey with all the trimmings. Thanksgiving is all about the turkey for me so we elected for the traditional and have to say we were not disappointed. What a great spread this restaurant put on and well it was nice to be treated so nicely.


Above Dirk and I are enjoying our Turkey meal and below our bartender that we called Sara due to her resemblance to Mrs. Palin.

I think last time I wrote we were in Boca Grande and only spent one evening there as we are anxious to get south. It was a beautiful area with many small islands screaming to be explored, but it would have to be some other time. On Tuesday we pulled anchor and cruised down the ICW putting up the sails to very little winds. Once in Sanibel area we went through the area that some cruisers call the miserable mile. We had no problem but I can see where it could be. When you are cruising down the ICW and you look over and see someone shin deep in water very close to your boat you get a little white knuckled especially when you know that you need at least 5 feet under your boat not to hit bottom. When you look at the charts in many areas it shows a depth of 1 to 2 feet so you dont let your boat stray. It took us about five and a half hours to make the trip and like I said we ended up in a mooring field in Estero Bay. The Matanzas Inn runs the field and at 13 bucks a day its not bad for this area. Pretty empty too as they put us in the back forty as I say. But that's fine, was a bit of a dinghy ride to the dingy dock but they had nice laundry facility's there and it makes for an easy walk to the beaches a couple blocks away. Tomorrow we shall head out bright and early to make the 7 hour sail down to Marco Island where we will spend a day then we are looking at another long sail of 20 hours down to Boca Chica in the Keys. We both are looking forward to getting there as we will spend some time and relax a bit taking time to soak up some sun and fun. We have been moving so much that it will be nice to breath for a while.

Just a quick update from Boca Grande

I'm writing this from the cockpit anchored in front of Punta Biance Island which is behind Cayo Costa ( Lacosta Island) here in Boca Grande. We Left Bradenton on Sunday at 9am sharp and traveled five hours down the ICW (Inner Coastal Waterway) till we ended up in Venice. There we stayed at the city dock which is next to the Venice Yacht Club which is another story. Dirk walked over to see if he could purchase some diesel from them for the cans only to be told that they could not sell him any because he was not a member. Guess our money is different then theirs. So we ended up walking the jugs down to the Crows Nest Marina where they thought our money was perfectly acceptable. Anyway the dock allows you to stay 18 hours free in any given 10 days, we just took it all at once.
This morning we woke early to a foggy morning and ended up going out the Venice pass and traveled another five hours to end up here. Can I tell you the crab pots are everywhere, below is a photo of our radar showing how many there were around to avoid.


It was like playing frogger and was pretty nerve racking till we got further out and I could keep them to the left. Every once in a while a straggler would pop up and test you. Once we got here we set the hook and took the dinghy down and motored about to check out the islands. Its so pretty as you can hear all the sounds of nature. The dolphins seem abundant and I spotted my first manatee today. Here Dirk is walking the island checking out the scenery
Tomorrow or the next we should be headed for the Ft. Meyers area. Once we sit for more then a day then I will catch up.

Made it to Bradenton

Well here it is Tuesday and I am finally bringing everyone up to speed on our where abouts. My brain was fried for a couple days after staying awake so much during the 36 hour crossing to get here from Carrabelle. Friday we pulled away from the marina and motor sailed for an hour to get to Dog Island where we planned on staging our getaway from. We set anchor about 1pm and I set about getting things ready below as Dirk was doing the same up on deck. I baked a pan of muffins and made a big pot of gumbo so the cooking would be done and all it would take was a quick heat up to eat. We had two routes planned this time. One was for seas and winds that would cooperate and the other was in case we ran into the same type of mess we got into on our last attempt. The weather reports were calling for anywhere between 5 to 15 knot winds and seas 1 to 3 feet. About 6pm we tried to settle in trying to prep our brains for an early night to bed as we were to be up early. 1:30am the alarm went off and we were up and ready to go in 30 minutes. Of course it felt as if neither of us got any sleep as we were both anxious to get a move on. We pulled anchor in pitch darkness and headed to the pass circling around a couple of the buoys a couple times as we completely lost our bearings. It was quiet unsettling seeing lights all around and yet not quiet knowing where we were. It seemed so straight forward during the daylight hours. Finally we made it out the pass and set our sails and autopilot. I have to say, I really don't know how people make long crossings without one. I cant imagine having to hand steer for any length of time. Well the winds and seas were exactly what they called for, somehow we didn't really trust them but they were. We ended up doing the wing on wing with the sails as the wind was coming from right behind us. We motor sailed at about 5.5 knots the entire morning till a little after sunrise when we decided to give Max our trusty westerbeke a rest. It was a quiet slow moving ride for the next six hours till Dirk did the math and realized if we were gonna get through the Egmont channel during the daylight hours we would need to get a move on. Dirk fired up Max once again and we headed off with seas being a pleasant 1 to 3 feet. Butters was very catered to on this trip as he has finally realized the best place to be is in the cockpit with us. I tried taking him down a couple times to use his litter box but he made a bee line up top once again. So momma or daddy would go down, retrieve the litter box every once in a while, bring it up top, drop the cat into it and wait. With Dirk and I taking turns on the helm the other person would doze or rest with the cat happily plastered between our legs covered with a blanket. This is how he feels the safest and that's how he stayed after dark. During the day we could just cover him with a blanket and he was content. We call him our tunneler as I have never known a cat that loved being buried under blankets like him. Any time you cant find him usually go to the bed and look for the lump. Anyway, the first day came and went and as it was turning into night on the second day I wondered if it would end. I felt like the little train that could, I think I can, I think I can. We had nice breaks when the dolphins would come and play in the wake of the boat. We would go to the bow and hang over the front watching them.

As many times as I see them it never gets old. The only scare we had was during the night on Saturday when I am dozing and Dirk says there is a ship out there over 150 feet showing up on the radar coming right at us. We watched it as it kept heading for us in the pitch darkness. Finally we decided to change our course as he wasn't doing anything. Dirk tried hailing the vessel to no avail and we figure they just had the auto pilot set and were all asleep. Whew! I'm awake.....Daylight broke on the second morning and we were in the home stretch. Yes....I was never so happy to see the sun rise. About 11am we hit the Egmont channel and were greeted by a very large pod of dolphins being our welcome committee. I was at the helm and suddenly I felt like a very small boat on big waters as these huge container ships were headed in and out of Tampa Bay. Wow those suckers can move some water and go fast. Once I saw the sunshine skyway bridge I knew it was only a matter of time before we could say we did it.
The longest leg of our journey was over and it was 36 hours after we had begun.Dirk saw all these boats trolling so he threw his line out and it was only a matter of time before we got a hit.We were hoping for a grouper but we ended up with a king mackerel. That would do.....I got the fish whiskey out and Dirk gaffed the fish and raised it up for me to spray the Jim Beam into its gills. I have read that if you spray alcohol down the fishes gills it sedates them and they wont thrash as much. Ha....I think he didn't like Jim too much and he thrashed away sending blood spaying around everywhere. Finally he succumbed to the drunk and went beddy bye. It was either the whiskey or the fact that Dirk gaffed him through a major artery and he bled out. Hummm..... So now I need to see the best way to cook King Mackerel, any ideas?

We are docked right now in a good place on the inter coastal waterway in Bradenton. A place called the seafood shack marina whose rates are the best we found in the area if you go for the weekly rate. They have a marina lounge with washer/dryer and shower/bathroom facilities. To boot we are docked right in front of the restaurant which we have eaten at a couple times and the food it good. Below is where we are docked with Tybee Time on the left.

On the blog position map it shows us several docks down where we were when we first got here. We have since moved on down a ways as we wanted a little more protection. Right across the bridge is Anna Maria Island with many shops and a beautiful beach. These parts are some of my old stomping grounds as I lived here many years ago for a couple years. We will stay here a week, relax and visit with family and friends that are down this way. Our next stop will probably be down in the Naples area somewhere. It feels so good though to be on our way. Dirk and I both have to keep saying that this is real, this is happening, finally.......

Still in Carrabelle waiting for weather

So here we sit still waiting for weather still in Carrabelle at C Quarters marina.The above photo is the view from the cockpit. Nice place like I said before and great people, so if you find yourselves in this neck of the woods check them out. Ida came and went without too much problem here. We set our alarm every two hours and did line checks as these are fixed docks and the water was lapping over the tops of them. Marina crew was out and about every couple hours checking on things but all went well. Now Dirk and I are checking and rechecking weather looking for our next possible weather window which looks like it will be Friday or early Saturday for taking off. We will probably leave here and stage ourselves behind Dog Island as the river here has a fairly strong current and we will wait till slack tide to get outta here. Once we are sure the weather will work out we will take off and head for the Tampa area semi hugging the coastline just in case we have a repeat of our last offshore trip. We also added a new feature to the blog. If you notice at the top left of the blog there is a section for our current position. We have integrated the spot messenger that we got for our anniversary into the blog so that you readers could follow our progress. It shows you a map or you can choose to see the satellite image if you want. It seems to be really accurate as right now it actually shows the slip we are sitting in. So hopefully the next post you will see will be coming at you from parts further south.

Headed to Tampa, at least that was our intention....

In the days leading up to our departure time seemed to fly by. We had sold our truck 2 weeks earlier and were using the motorcycle to get around. On the 29th of Oct. we rented a car and I was able to do the last of the bulk laundry and some provisioning. Friday Dirk drove his bike and I drove the car up to Enterprise to put it in storage. Last minute items got booted from the boat and taken to storage. While we were there we decided to pay our poker league buddies one last visit. So Friday evening we headed to Oscars and said our farewells. Dirk ended up winning the tournament so he was happy. We did however stay another day and returned on Saturday night, Had to get the last fix in. Sunday we visited other friends and ended up having lunch with my Uncle to get our farewells exchanged then it was back to the boat where we piled the last of the provisions we had gotten over the weekend onto it.

Monday was spent doing last minute errands. All the items topside were double checked, I made a big pot of soup for the crossing, items down below were tied down, lee clothes picked up from CB Sails and installed,

and a dozen other things that I'm forgetting at this moment. We had several dock neighbors and friends that wanted say their goodbyes so we all went out to dinner. I hated that we didn't have more time with them but we had to go. Just know you guys that you will all be missed and thought about. In between all this we had been checking and rechecking weather,

calculating times and rechecking everything. From here I will let Dirk put in his guest appearance as he requested to do so and I wasn't going to say no. Dirk, you have the floor.......

Well, today is the day that Nancy and I had been dreaming about for so long. The day that we have worked for since we bought the boat back in 2007.You all know what I am talking about. Today we cut the dock lines and leave everything behind. November 2nd was our official start date. We had been checking the weather for a week now, and according to NOAA the winds were going to be around 15 knots out of the NE with waves around 3-5 feet. That would be a good wind speed and a perfect direction. That being said, we figured it would take us around 40-48 hours to make it to Tampa, depending on our speed along the way. Since we wanted to arrive in Tampa in the morning, we figured a take off time of noon would suffice. After a very restless night we got up early in the morning to do the last minute stuff like saying goodbyes and making final checks on the boat. Came noon we were more than ready. We backed out of the slip and headed out. The CD player was blasting Southern Cross, by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. A few tears of joy and a big sigh…what a feeling. We made it out of the Pass and into the Gulf with no problems. Once in the Gulf we decided to appease the Gods of the sea with a shot of Metaxa. It would have been rude to make them drink alone, so we joined them for a little glass.

Right after that we had a Dolphin swimming next to us, which is a good sign. The weather was just as predicted if not even better. Now this is how sailing is supposed to be. We shut of Max, our trusty Westerbeke engine, and sailed at about 5-6 knots. Everything went as planned. As the sun set it got a little chilly and the wind and waves started to pick up. Even though it got a bit rougher, it was still not a bad sail. By now we had turned a little more to the east and the waves, which now reached 4-6 feet, hit us from the port. We were both pleasantly surprised on how well the boat took the waves. Nancy and I were feeling a little queasy, but other than that we were okay. Butters on the other hand was not too happy with us or anything at this point. He had already blessed every rug with puke and was lying under the bed. We had given him some paste that was supposed to help him relax, but I am not sure it worked too good. The wind now had reached 20 knots, gusting to 25, so we furled in the Jib and reefed down the main sail. Up to this point I always wondered why sailors say that they reef down for the night. I decided to reef the main after the weather got worse. Not a great idea. Nancy took me into the wind; I lowered the main, then tethered in and went forward to attach the main tack to the mast. Hmmmm, did I mention that I had nothing prepared for that. I took a rope from a bumper and used that to tie of the reef point to the mast. Then I tied down the excess sail. Hmmm, I guess having ties for that would have helped. I found another line of a bumper and used it. Now back to the cockpit to tighten up the main halyard. Hey, I had one of those. So after about 20 minutes being thrown back and forth and a few choice words, the reefing was done. Only 30+ hours to go, piece of cake! Nancy and I took 2 hour turns behind the autopilot. Of course in these kind of conditions neither one of us could sleep. So the two hour shifts were out. What it came down to is that we switched out more frequent and stayed behind the helm until we got tired. We kept checking the weather on our C-80, which was a life saver. The forecast had not changed. Still calling for 15-20 knots and 3-5 feet waves. That right there should have given us a clue. When NOAA reports 3-5 feet, just add 3+5 together and use that. That is what we are going to do from now on. By now we were in 20-25 knots and at least 8-10 foot waves. This all was a little scary, but not too bad as long as the engine holds up. My vacuum gage on the fuel filter was going towards the red line, and there was no way in hell that I could have gone down below in these conditions to change a filter. Luckily the engine held out just fine and never missed a beat. Thank you Max! The rest of the night was pretty event less, just very, very bumpy. At times I tried to turn more into the wind to limit our motion to the up and down vs. the up and down and all around. When I turned into the waves, we made about 2 knots over the ground. At that speed we would get there a little past never. Staying on course at least gave us 4-5 knots. The only good thing about the night was that we had a full moon which gave us plenty of light, even though sometimes I think it would have been better not to see what was about to hit us. When the sun came up in the morning we once again checked the forecast and yup, you guessed it, it changed. Now they are forecasting 15-20 knots, becoming 20-25 at night, with 4-6, building to 6-8 at night. My ass I was saying, we had 8-10 now with 25, gusting to 30. After we looked at the charts, we found that the closest shoreline was not only 30 miles away, but also 30 miles almost behind us. So we turned towards Government Cut, which would lead us into Apalachicola Bay. To make a long story a little shorter, we did just that, and after about 30 hours we ended up, totally pooped, in a nice little place called Scipio Creek Marina. If we would have gone there from Panama City, it would have taken us only 10 hours. Oh well. This was by far the roughest weather we have seen so far and we hope this will be the only time that we have to endure it. Never the less it did give us confidence in the boat’s handling capabilities and our sailing skills. I am going to close with a few lessons learned, and then Nancy is going to take back over and finish off.
1. The SR-50 Sirius Wx for the Raymarine was a lifesaver.
2. Reefing the Mainsail before the weather gets bad is a must.
3. If you plan on long trips, and you have the space, I would recommend installing a dual fuel filter system that will let you switch filters without having to shut down. I think I will get one of those too.
4. Hope for the best weather and conditions, but prepare for the worse.
5. The Gods don’t like Metaxa, so use something else.
6. Last but not least Nancy I love you!

I think Dirk summed everything up nicely. Like he said we stayed at the Scipio Marina in Apalachicola. Nice little place in a very small creek with a nice restaurant overlooking our boat. Price was 1.50 per ft. and helpful staff. Since the seafood festival was going on that weekend we had to move down to Carrabelle about a 5 hour motor sail down the inter coastal. We experienced our first ever bridge to go under. I can see why people say its nerve racking as it looks like your mast is gonna hit it even though it says 65 foot clearance. We have a 57 foot mast so with the antenna on top it looks close. We saw the oyster boats out collecting the days haul and a huge number of dolphins. We even saw a bald eagle,my first out of captivity sitting on a channel marker. On the way into the river here Dirk spotted a manatee, I missed it. So we are sitting in a marina called C Quarters. The price was right at 1.00 per ft. water and elec included. If you stay a week you might even get a deal. Clean restrooms and showers, laundry at 1.50 per wash and 1.50 dry. There is a grocery store within walking distance, haven't gone but see others doing it. Seems like a nice quaint town, where fishing seems to be a big part of life. Very nice folks here that seem to think that beer makes a good breakfast drink. So we hangout here till the weather decides to play nice. With Ida out there and the fronts on the move we will try to pick our time wisely. For now we are enjoying the lazy days. We will get to Tampa as soon as mother nature says we can. By the way, one nice book we got before we left that has been helpful has been the cruising guide from Maptech of Florida and the Bahamas edition 3. Lots of good information thus far.

Time to go

I'm writing this wedged in between food stuffs that need to be stowed on the settee. Lots of last minute prepping to be done. Laundry is in the wash, a big pot of soup is being cooked so we have something nice and warm to keep us nice and warm. Last minute items stowed, fuel topped off, and the list goes on and on. Keeping this short as we have so much to do and time is short. Our plan is to leave the marina sometime early by 7am tomorrow. We are looking at about 48 hours give or take to get to the Tampa area. The weather should be near perfect for crossing so we should be getting to our destination sometime early Thursday morning. As soon as we get on the other side and settled I will update and let you all know how it went. Planning on giving an offering to the wind and water gods for safe passage as we leave so perhaps they will be nice to us. Till we reach the other side......