St. Petersburg, FL

Sunday January 20, 2013
27 46.571 N
82 37.733 W

Great Mooring Ball, right downtown

There are good days and there are great days - and today was a great day!

We had the anchor up at 7AM sharp, called the bridge and were on our way. We had about 12 miles of waterway to Venice and then we were heading out into the Gulf. Overall trip to St. Petersburg was 63 NM.

A bridge

As we approached Venice we saw dead fish in the water, the numbers increasing to the thousands. I asked a bridge operator on the radio and he explained that there had recently been a large algae bloom in the Gulf that had killed the fish. This is a problem in the Gulf, seems to happen every summer, because of the warm water temps and all the fertilizer coming down the rivers.

By 9:30 AM we were out in the Gulf. The pass at Venice was very attractive, with marinas, white sand beaches and beautiful houses on either side as we approached. The Gulf was very benign and all we had to do was set a course and keep an eye out for crab pots. We set a course that would take us out past the 3 miles limit so we could "you know what". The sun was in and out, when it was shining the water was perfect blue. A bit of weather rolled past, for an hour or less we had breaking waves, but then it settled again.

After about 40 miles off shore we made the turn into Tampa Bay. There is a new cable stayed bridge spanning the entrance. We were in this area 20 odd years ago on vacation and a ship hit the bridge the day after we arrived, bringing it and a dozen cars down. It made the drive back to the airport later that week much longer for us. The new bridge is quite impressive, and it is well protected!

Into Tampa Bay

We were heading for a mooring field in St. Petersburg. The couple who sold us Tide Hiker, Norm and Vicki Naughton, now live in a fancy high rise apartment building overlooking the mooring field.and they had kindly invited us to dinner. The mooring field was right down town "in the middle of the action". When we were moored we had "front row seats" to a rock concert going on in the park. The mooring field was surrounded by parks and right down town. What a spot.

We picked up Bonnie and Jon in the dinghy and headed to the Naughtons for dinner. Their condo was on the 10th floor with fantastic views of the waterfront. Norm had watched us approach from 10 miles away. (Deidre and I had expertly picked up the mooring ball, and knowing Norm would be watching, we had taken a bow towards his building. He had seen us and appreciated the show of respect.) Vicki put on a great dinner and a good time was had by all.

Monday January 21, 2013

Today is MLK day so we are headed down town for the parade and an explore.

Lemon Bay

Saturday January 19, 2013
26 55.670 N
82 21.221 W

We are now travelling with Jon and Bonnie so "early" is the plan of the day. We were underway at 8 AM sharp. (Tomorrow we head out at 7 AM!) For the first 20 miles or so we were retracing our route North past Pelican Bay. Other than a couple of bridges it was an uneventful day. We were anchored by 3 PM.

Shortly thereafter we watched a Monk 36' arrive in the same anchorage. We waved to the captain as he passed and 1/2 an hour later he was back in his dinghy for a beer. What a character. I found him quite interesting, meantime Deidre was hiding the silver.

Early to bed, we are raising the anchor at 7 AM tomorrow for a 62 NM offshore run to Tampa Bay.

Ft. Myers Beach

Thursday January 17, 2013
26 27.310 N
81 56.462 W

One of my new "rule of thumb" habits is to watch what the sailing boats do. When we struggled out of bed and put on the coffee this morning, it was hard to ignore the fact that the sailing boats were leaving the anchorage "en masse". So we rubbed our groggy eyes and looked at the weather forecast, to discover that the cool front due on Friday was a day early and was bringing some strong winds.

Sailors are strange people

So we decided to beat a path back to the Ft Myers area so that we would be strategically placed to get Kylie to the airport on Friday - tomorrow. So we had the dinghy back on the roof and the anchor up in no time flat. Unfortunately our departure was only about an hour after low tide so we needed to carefully feel our way out. All went well.

The wind picked up as we headed south, but it was mostly on our beam. The front "blew through" at a bout 1 PM and we retreated to the pilot house and Deidre made hot chocolate all round. We had been offered use of a private dock on the south end of Pine Island, but we decided to get close to the AP, just in case the wind was strong in the AM. We reserved a ball at Ft. Myers Beach, and arrived about 3 PM. It was blowing a bit and the balls were in poor condition, many of them missing the pennant. We tried 3 or 4 times before succeeding. At one point we ran over a ball and heard a loud "crunch". I assume it hit a prop.

The pennant was in poor shape (covered in growth) and I was concerned it could fail so decided to put our own lines on the ball, so we launched the dinghy in record time and Kylie and I added an extra line from our bow to the ball. Much better.

Chicken salad for dinner followed by plum pudding and hot custard in front of the fire. Kylie chose a DVD (Mr. Brooks) and we settled down for a windy night. I have just put an extra line on the dinghy, run up the batteries and we are going to hit the sack.

Friday January 18, 2013

Easy morning. We loaded into the dinghy about 10 AM and headed to shore. Ky needed to be in a cab on her way to the AP by 12:30PM. We paid for the ball and then headed into town looking for breakfast, which we found at a restaurant overlooking the beach. Ky ordered the taxi and it arrived on time and we said our goodbyes. It had been fun.

Deidre and I killed an hour wandering around this beach town doing a little window shopping. We were impressed with the beach and decided that we would like to return one day in the summer. Back in the dinghy we cruised around the shrimp fleet till we saw a "Shrimp for sale" sign and found a place to land the dinghy. We bought two pounds of fresh large headless shrimp for $20. The lady even boiled them for us and packed them in ice.

Moored at Ft. Myers Beach

Back on Tide Hiker we made contact with Bon Voyage and plans for dinner. Deidre and I were both looking forward to the reunion - we had left Bon Voyage in Charleston December 4. The mooring field was in bad shape, so I identified a ball for Bon Voyage and visited it in the dinghy and added a 1" line and a float so they would have an easy pick up. They arrived on time.

Deidre put on a slap up shrimp dinner and we drank two bottles of champagne. It was fun.

Pelican Bay

Tuesday January 15, 2013
26 41.483 N
82 14 561 W

We set off at about 9 AM and made the 35 NM run to Pelican Bay in perfect weather. As we left the Caloosahatchee River and turned North into Pine Island Sound the water started to clear and turn blue. At last! There were lots of dolphins around and several times a pod of 3 or 4 decided to ride our bow wave. It is intriguing to lean over the rail and watch them swimming so effortlessly and watching back at us.

Porpoise watching

The entry into Pelican Bay was a bit tricky but we had done our research and all went well. The anchorage is separated from the Gulf by Cayo Costa and also protected from the East by a cluster of mangrove islands. There was about a dozen other boats anchored when we arrived.

We quickly launched the dinghy and Kylie and I went for an explore. There is a park Rangers Camp on the Island (the island is also a popular camping site) so we went ashore to investigate. They sold a few supplies including ice creams, so we bought one for Deidre and ran it back to Tide Hiker. The ranger had also told us of a Manatee breeding creek, so the 3 of us found the creek and puttered arround in the mangroves. We did not find any manatees, but we did find a lot of mosquitoes and no-see-ums. I am still itching 12 hours later.

Cheeseburger in paradise.

Two or three miles before anchorage we passed Cabbage Key. It is a little island with a famous cafe, reportedly where the Jimmy Buffet wrote the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise". Some how I managed to con Deidre into making the trip for dinner in the dinghy, knowing that we would be coming back in the dark. The trip there took about 45 minutes as we navigated around the various mangrove islands to Cabbage Key. On arrival the place seemed deserted, but the cafe was open for business. We were the only people there. I had a cheeseburger.

The trip back in the dark was a hoot. It was dead calm, Deidre drove and I used the iPad to navigate. I enjoyed the whole experience, the Admiral said "Not again". Kylie remained neutral.

Wednesday January 17, 2013

Yikes!

A really relaxing day. French Toast and lots of coffee for breakfast. It was a perfect morning, warm and sunny with a gentle breeze. We loaded into the dink and headed for the island. We landed at the Rangers pier and walked over to the beach and spent a hour or so walking in the shallows towards the point. We hitched a ride on the "tram" back to the bay side and dinked back to the boat for lunch.

After lunch Kylie and I had a go at cleaning the "mustache" off the bow with lemon juice. It worked! We should be in "clean" water for a few months now so hopefully the mustache is a thing of the past. Kylie wanted to be a bit "blonder" and so we then used the  same supply of lemon juice to give her hair a treatment.

Deidre had her stockings on back to front

Girls on the beach

Then back into the dink for a trip to an isolated sand bar for a relax.

Ft. Myers

Monday January 14, 2013
26 38.853 N
81 52.207 W

Power Station

We were moving at 9 AM and we were docked in Ft. Myers by 11:30 AM. The only interesting feature on the way west was a new natural gas power station.

Deidre headed off on foot to the supermarket, I headed off to the hardware store on the bike. I rode back to the supermarket to meet Deidre and we both humped the groceries back to the boat.

Kylie turned up right on time. That evening we walked into town for dinner.

Franklin Lock Marina and Park

Friday January 11, 2013
26 43.390 N
81 41.461 W

"We" scratched the boat today. Its not that bad but it frustrates me that I make these mistakes. We were heading into a lock on the Chattahoochee river. The lock master told us "any side" and we were set up for port so I decided port. But as we entered the lock the wind caught Tide Hiker and I just could not move her close enough port side for Deidre to grab a line. So I decided to let the wind blow us the other way and called down to Deidre to move the fenders to starboard side. But now the problem was reversed and I had a hard time holding her off the starboard wall. Deidre got one fender in at the stern and I ran out to tend to the bow. That was my mistake. If I had stayed put I could have used the bow thruster to keep her off. The forward rub rail touched the dock ever so softly, but 30 tons of boat running into the immovable concrete wall, even so slowly, popped the paint on the rub rail. DAMN.

Otherwise it was a good but long day. We had planned for 42 NM day ending up in a little town called La Belle. We had 2 alternate plans for the night in the area. It's a river/canal so there are not a lot of anchorage choices. But when we arrived at about 4 PM it turned out that neither alternative would work, so we had to continue on. The next possible spot was a Corp of Engineers camp ground that had a small marina attached, about 14 miles ahead. Sunset was at 5:50 PM, we would arrive at about 6:15 PM. I used the satellite image of the approach and docks on the iPad - we were the little blue ball.

Mostly pellicans

The track around the lake had been a bit boring, but the ride along the waterway was rather pleasant. As we moved west the waterway changed from mostly man made to mostly river. We had seen plenty of bird life, but only one alligator and he dived before I could get the camera. Much of our surrounds had been swamp or sugar cane farms. During the morning we had seen several columns of smoke that we concluded to be burning sugar fields. Sure enough, ash started to land on the boat and make quite a mess.

The marina camp ground turned out to be good value. With our senior card, just $12 per day, including water and electricity. We are now only 12 miles from Ft. Myers so will probably stay here a couple of nights.

In the photo on the left shows us running the boat on dry land, per the chart plotter. This bothers me, it cannot be good for the paint on the keel!

Saturday & Sunday January 12 & 13, 2013

Nice spot!

We stayed two more nights., planning to leave on Monday Morning so we can meet Kylie in Ft Myers some time in the afternoon.

Torry Island Free Town Dock

Thursday January 19, 2013
26 42.197 N
80 42.937 W

Woke with somewhat of a sensitive head this morning, do not understand that. Nevertheless we were underway by 8:30 AM with out cruise plan calling for two locks and 49 NM, so quite a big day. Weather forecast was OK though calling for 15-20 mph winds during the afternoon, calming to 10-15 mph this evening.

Hang on Deidre!!

We were soon out of the river and into the first lock of the canal system. This lock lifted us 16' and took about 20 minutes. We were the only boat in the lock and all went well. The canal was "canal-ish" cutting thru swamp and mangrove alternating with farm land. By 3 PM we had arrived at the lock that let us out into the lake. This lock lifted us a mighty 2". (Not a typo, just two inches.)

The swing railway bridge

We also had a couple of lifting railroad bridges to pass. They are typically up and open, just closed when there was a train coming. To our dismay the first such bridge closed as we approached. Usually they are automatic, but I tried the radio to get details. To my surprise we received an immediate response to our call, that was something like: "Sorry about that! The train is on its way but if you hurry I will open the bridge and let you through!" We sure hurried, Deidre had visions of a four locomotive freight train slamming on its \brakes as it approached the open bridge at 75 MPH.

We must have been protected in the canal for as soon as we hit the lake the wind hit us. My new hat went straight overboard – it was a Christmas present from Deidre. (It was sorta inevitable - I left it at the restaurant last night and the waiter had to chase us down with it.) The wind was quite strong, but mostly on our beam and so in effect was just a nuisance. We hugged the east shore (it was an east wind) and so the water was still reasonably flat. We had about 20 miles to cover.

Too fast....

Lake Okeechobee is the Bass Fishing Capital of America, so we are told. And people who fish for bass drive bass fishing boats. BFB tend to be about 25' long, flat on top, painted with sparkly paint and powered by one or two enormous outboards. They are driven at 80 MPH or more wherever they go. I have no idea why this is the case, although maybe bass fish can swim really fast? I suspect the BFB owners also own assault rifles, but that is just a guess. Anyway, we were passed by a bunch of these boats today and I tried to take a photo but they go too fast to get a decent photo. I have included my best results below.

Hand operated swing bridge

We had picked out an anchorage that would be a bit tight, now especially so because the wind was forecast to swing from East to West during the night. There was a small town on the way that offered a city dock for free, and we planned to check out to see if we could fit. To get to the dock we had to go through a hand powered swing bridge – no kidding. We called them on the radio but the guy who operated the bridge was cutting his lawn and could not hear the phone, so someone had to go “fetch him”. But after a 20 minute delay he arrived and the bridge was duly opened.

A little tight

The dock was probably a bit small for Tide Hiker but by now I was pretty keen to make it work. So we did, and here we are, although our bow is nestled in the water hyacinth that grows by the shore.