Underway part 2

We ended up staying at Marina Jacks in Sarasota longer than intended while the props got fixed and reinstalled and we waited for mail to arrive. It was a really nice time, meeting Debbie and Tim aboard Low Profile, really great people to share a dock with. I finally found a Perfect shell - but after getting to it discovered that someone still lived there, so back in the water he went.

We enjoyed getting to the Ringling Museum. We thought the miniature circus (which is huge!) was the best part,

and enjoyed seeing the rail car that John and Mabel Ringling travelled in - quite elegant. Also worth doing in town is the Marie Selby botanical garden.

Didn’t get to the Mote Aquarium, but have heard its good too.

Once the mail was in hand we headed out again, in perfect conditions. Given that it was already noon we thought we would anchor in Blackburn Bay before heading out the Venice Inlet and down the Boca Grande Pass. Once again Active Captain and shallow waters let us down: keeping any water under the keel had us anchoring right in the ICW. So - up anchor, a quick call to Fishermans Wharf Marina in Venice and another tie up for the night. But what a beautiful spot to do it: Very quiet and low key, a treat after the noise and activity of Marina Jack’s.



An early morning departure, going out Venice Inlet into the Gulf was fine. Rough ride south though as swells coming from the northwest were countered by easterly winds. Took a lot of water over the bow, spraying up onto the flybridge. Happy to have the pilothouse!

Rough but clearly marked entry in Boca Grande Pass and around the tip of Costa Cayo Island. Took 2 attempts to find deep enough water to enter Pelican Bay, but succeeded and anchored in 5 feet. We continue to be amazed by the shallowness of Florida’s water - so much of it can just be walked through. Quite a few other boats here.+++

What a wonderful place Pelican Bay turned out to be. Most of the boats left over the weekend and the quiet isolation was perfect after all the city time. Explored in the kayaks, finding two perfect ‘hurricane holes’ - little bays surrounded by mangroves. Entries were too shallow to bring a boat in, but deep enough for us and dolphins! What fun we had paddling with them surfacing around us.

Landing at the Cayo Costa State Park we had a 15 minute walk to the gulf side of the island with several miles of unspoiled beach. Found many perfect seashells, favorites were lightening whelks and pear whelks.

From Cayo Costa we followed the ICW inside the barrier islands. Reputed to be difficult and shallow, but we had no problems at all and spent the night anchored in a bay along the Ding Darling Preserve on the north side of Sanibel Island.

Jack found good fishing here and we had flounder for dinner

Big thunderstorms rolled in - our anchor dug in and we were secure through the wind and waves.

We left the ICW, traveling through the last 5 mile stretch collectively referred to as ‘the miserable mile’ due to narrow and shallow channels with tremendous cross currents. Again, its reputation seemed exaggerated and we had no problems at all.


While the Florida coast is packed with McMansions and Starter-Castles crammed side by side, we found one house in the ICW that defied the norm:



The end of the west coast ICW is the beginning of the OWW - Okeechobee WaterWay - which crosses Florida from San Carlos Bay on the west coast via the Caloosahatchee River and Lake Okeechobee, coming out at Stuart on the east coast. This is the route we are taking.



Stopped at Fort Myers Yacht Basin to leave the boat for a week while we make a needed trip home. Lucked into the annual South Florida Art Fest at the waterfront, a bit of fun along with the usual boat maintenance issues: After living aboard our sailboat with just one head we knew that having 2 heads was essential given the frequency with which they break. Who knew that both heads would choose to have problems at the same time, lol. The alternator and tachometer for the port engine both need looking at. And of course it just wouldn’t be a proper stop without at least one trip to West Marine, this time to replace a part that fell overboard…


The Art Fest was Huge, and filled with lovely work. A real treat, along with the food trucks: bbq pork tacos to die for.





A week at home in Chattanooga - gotta go there sometime! Paperwork, haircuts, wonderful time with friends. Had the real pleasure of seeing Cindy Procious as the maid Nelly in “Dracula:the Musical” - such a fun evening.

Back to Fort Myers and a day on Sanibel Island - what we thought would be a quiet walk on the beaches was more like rush hour traffic. Huge crowds of people! So we didn’t stay long.
Tragedy struck on Wednesday when I stupidly carted some CostCo stuff on board, rupturing a disc. Now on complete bedrest, trying to keep my mouth shut as Jack picks up the slack doing the ‘housework’. Now thats a challenge… Using a cane when I Have to get up, but it looks like we will be staying in Ft Myers much longer than planned as there is no way I can handle lines, anchor etc. Can’t even cash in on some restaurant meals. Bummer.

Underway again, round one

Underway again

It was a long layover in Clearwater, with the holidays, some minor boat repairs/maintenance, and lots of kayaking and bike riding. Pinellas Trail is a great example of "rails to trails", making bike/walking paths out of unused railway areas. Pinellas goes from St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs, about 40 miles of easy riding. The weather was warm enough for shorts and cold enough to dig out the parkas.





The birds played “whose boat is it”, with strong assertions that it was theirs. One in particular startled me as I went out on the aft deck - he was on the swim platform and stuck his head up to ask why I was disturbing him. Head down. Head up: are you still there? After several rounds he flew off in a huff, sqwaking as only Great Blue Herons can.



Sunsets and sunrises, Osprey building a nest on top of a channel marker,they weren't so sure about my kayak’s presence.


A Balkan restaurant - interesting food, who knew??


Best of all, a visit from daughter Rebecca. Parka clad beach time at Honeymoon Island State Park,



some fun shopping in Tampa.


And a great trip to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.




We finally loosed the lines after Rebecca's visit and headed south to the Manatee River. An unexpectedly easy departure in spite of the heavy current and somewhat more wind than planned on. Lots of rock-and-roll for the first couple of hours: yes, I do still get seasick. (no picture here!) As we got away from land and our heading became more southerly it settled down and we had an easy trip. We anchored off of Desoto Point where the Desoto National Monument Park comes to the water. No manatee sightings yet but keeping fingers crossed.
Monday MLK DAY - Quite the adventure getting the kayaks off the fly bridge and directly into the water - till now we’ve been doing it onto a dock. Lots of wind and small white caps plus the somewhat frequent wake from boaters speeding down the river made it extra interesting. Happily the boats went in the water and we did not. Then off to explore DeSoto National Monument/Park.

A gorgeous spot, some excellent shells on the beach and a nice walk through the mangroves. There are a number of informational plaques that not only give the Spanish point of view from the 1500s, but also the native one. As Jack said after reading a few, “WHY are we celebrating DeSoto and the Spanish conquest?” But - its history, good and bad. After checking it all out we returned to the kayaks the water was calmer and we paddled up around the point - some of it so shallow we had to raise rudders - maybe 2-3” under the boat. Some great seashells and sea urchins just below, but oddly no fish at all.
When we returned to our boat we saw the sad sight of a boat sharing our anchorage getting a tow. Engine problems of some sort - not the way to end the day!


And then it was - nearly - our turnto get towed! We left the lovely DeSoto Point and headed down Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. Our first Bascule bridges were easy.


We headed to a tucked-away anchorage that had been recommended… but found ourselves in a very tiny channel with no water under us at high tide. Not good. Well and truly stuck. Two options - work the engines and try to get clear, cringing at what it does to the bottom paint and props, or wait for a tow, well past high tide, when paint and props might be worse off. Chose option one and got the heck out of there. Marina Jack’s in Sarasota kindly offered us a place to sort things out; next job was sipping Margaritas (okay, water for me) after conferring with the very nice staff about pulling out the propellers in the morning…




Our boat got moved to the slips by the park, under a Banyon tree (so pretty, but maybe not the best place, see below!) and the diver came and pulled the very damaged props, which are now off at General Props in Bradenton for repair.




RATS! Why tieing up under a tree in a park is maybe not the best idea.

The next morning I was awakened to “Rafferty We Have A Problem”. Stumbling out of bed I got the news: we have a rat on board. Aside from the eeek factor, and the icky factor of rat poop everywhere, they are dangerous onboard, chewing through wires, plumbing lines, etc. And Clumsy! This one managed to knock over a plant, redistribute some seashells… So the first part of the morning was spent finding and chasing him off the boat and then cleaning up his mess.

A fun note: the next slip over has a beautiful Ocean Alexander pilothouse. Turns out that it was brokered by the same boat broker we had, in Fort Lauderdale the same week we bought ours in Pensacola. Tim and Debbie aboard ‘Low Profile’. +++What are the chances we would ever cross paths, much less be next to each other in Sarasota?! Have enjoyed their company all week, trading boat-adventure stories. And now we are beholden to Tim, who came over yesterday to help diagnose our heater problem (no heat, 46 degrees out) AND was willing to take a look at our holding tank problem. He had the heater fixed in minutes (to his own apparent surprise!) but we’re on our own with the holding tank. Its a boat: “Broke Or About To”.

Holiday week

And a Merry Christmas was had - instead of 8 tiny Reindeer we had 3 sassy seadragons to bring Santa's trove.

Non-boating friends have asked what we do all day. And have commented on how many 'new and exciting' things we are doing. Well, yes and no. Here is an all too typical morning: Up with daylight, think about all the fun activities to be done. Brush teeth. Hmmm. The water pump isn't shutting off. Go above decks to check with Captain. Uhhh... guess we forgot to switch water tanks. Down to the engine room. Shut pump off. Switch tanks. No good, have the dreaded airlock. Run. Prime. Run. Open all the water faucets. (Even the forward head? Yes, Even the forward head.) Pump on pump off, bleed pump. Success. Now the water is spraying all over the engine room. Pump off. Close spraying valve. Pump on. Yea!! Now to clean up: dry off the engine room, shut all the open faucets. Open the floorboards over the bilge and sump pumps to the forward head. For some reason they just don't clear. Curse the forward head. Get out the wet/dry vacc. Suck, fill, empty, repeat. Clean up, close the floorboards back up. Think about getting a shower. Collect everything, walk 400 yards to the marina head, shower and walk back. Now its nearly noon... lets go kayaking!


Kayaking in urban areas can have exciting moments - we crossed the ICW from Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, a couple of miles. Six jet skis whizzing by to port, and enormous commercial vessels churning to starboard. Creates interesting wakes to toss my little boat about. But we raced a sailboat and won! Okay, so the wind was Very light, and the sailboat's sails very old and tired. But you take the victories you can, lol. Clearwater Beach is a barrier island with additional areas of landfill; these are long fingers of homes surrounded by waterways and, on land, connected by low bridges. Paddling through these bridges - barely tall enough for us to fit under - was rather magical.
We paddled to a couple of small islands and beached the kayaks while we explored:



Made the trip up to Tarpon Springs again to see if the food was as incredible as we thought. (yes!) This time we ate at Demitri's on the Water, just across the street from Mykonos. The birds think its a great place to eat too - not always waiting for an empty table to get a quick bite from.

Jack liked his braised lamb better than what he had at Mykonos, but my Moussaka and Dolmades weren't quite as good. Our waiter was charming though, and when I asked for Galaktobouriko for dessert he went into raptures about it. A few moments later he was back, empty handed. "I have to break your heart... But No!" said our waiter, and off he rushed. Minutes later he produced a huge portion, warmed, with two forks. Then he told us a story. Galactobouriko is his favorite treat in the world. When he was a child, his mother would make big pans of it. One day after she made it she went to the store to get ingredients for baklava too. She invited her son to come with her but he said no, he was old enough to stay home. So she left him. But he had big plans. As soon as she left he sat down to the pan of Galactobouriko and ate every bit of it. And we ate every bit of the one he brought us, from his home!

The Jolly Trolley failed us coming home from Tarpon Springs and we ended up calling for a taxi. Our driver was another charming person. A Coptic Christian from Egypt, his businesses there were burned out by the Islamic Brotherhood and he brought his family to New York, opening a store just in time for Hurricane Sandy. They relocated to Clearwater where his wife teaches and he drives a cab. We learned about the Egyptian Coptic community here, which is quite large, and about facing such losses with great grace...

Back on the boat a few days later, Jack had the stereo playing quite low through speakers on the aft deck. We were delighted to have a Great Heron land on the rail, cock his head to listen closely, and start a stately dance, swaying, lifting his feet, a master! Was lucky enough to get a couple of pictures.



Jack decided This should be our boat:
For some reason he likes the name. I think he should just put the name on his kayak - same color, after all! And a great fishing boat.

A wonderful week, now New Years Eve. Expecting to see some amazing fireworks from the flybridge - if we stay up that late - but probably nothing as lovely as the daily sunset shows.

Happy New Year to All!