A Day at Marineland???

I came back from the grocery store this morning to find a large crowd milling around the dock at Burnt Store Marina by our boat. The people were expressing great delight as they were gawking at the water around our boat. I worked my way up the finger pier through a group of onlookers to our boat's boarding gate. After depositing my groceries down below I went back up on deck to see what the commotion was about. Manatees! There were several manatees that took up residence in the waters all around our boat. It was pretty cool to see so many manatees romping around our home. Maris saw one that "kissed our boat". The obvious evidence was a smear of red paint that matched our bottom on the manatee's head. I tried in vain to get a good picture as several would surface at once but unfortunately by the time the picture would actually snap the sea cows would be once again submerged. I did get one right next to our boat (see below). Note the red color (Amekaya's bottom paint) on the Manatee's head. He liked to rub against our keel. In fact, at times so much so that he would noticeably rock our boat.  Manatees can grow up to 13 feet long and weigh as much as 13,000 pounds.

While the manatees played right outside the galley I spent most of the day cooking meals to freeze. That's so we'll have good meals to eat on our offshore passages, especially good if it's rocking and rolling out there. It's easy and delicious to heat up a frozen home cooked meal when it's uncomfortable to cook while underway. As they say a well fed crew is a happy crew! While I cooked Maris did some work on our dinghy motors. It was hard to get work done with so many people stopping by our boat asking questions and complimenting us on our beautiful boat.

Tonight we enjoyed a home cooked vegetable Panang curry dinner on board with our friends Cathy Bleakly and Tom McGarry. The weather was warm and beautiful with a full moon shining down on us. We'll miss our friends here as tomorrow we'll begin our sail back to the Keys to finish prepping for our Bahama trip. As much as I really like this part of the world and have enjoyed the company of good friends here I am looking forward to moving on and contining our adventure to new destinations. I can hear the sea calling......

Skipping over the ocean like a stone

Today we left Punta Gorda Isles Yacht Club as a guest of Ellen Andreas, Jack's mother. Ellen is 91 and everyone at the Club knew her. Still active going to dances and swinging. Best to her and again thanks for sponsoring us at such a wonderful facility. Special thanks to Jack for asking her for us and lending us a car while we were there. It is definitely on the list to come back to.

We waited to leave until close to high tide due to the shallow water depth in the channel. Our friend Tom McGarry came about 1 and we took off.

What a beautiful day. Wind was blowing in the low double digits (out of the direction we needed to go of course), temperature was in the 80's and a beautiful blue sky.

The deep part of the river is fairly shallow by Punta Gorda so we made 2 tacks before we cleared into a wider part and did about a 5 mile tack. But then we tacked back and made a 10 mile tack that took us right to the entrance of Burnt Store Marina.

We were initially doing about 5 kts but once we got onto the longer tacks we were doing over 7 kts and made it very quickly and nicely to our destination without using the engine. There were many other boats out sailing in the perfect weather.

We enjoyed having our friend Tom along to help with the sail and to show us where the slip was.

We are enjoying this slip courtesy of Cathy Bleakly. As a homeowner in the community she has free dockage rights so we are able to use it for a couple nights as we prepare to head to Key West on Friday.

Hopefully we will see manatees in the morning. We understand they congregate here so we look forward to breakfast pals.

So now it is a beautiful night with a nearly full moon above. It is quiet with the halyard of the yacht club flagpole clanking in the breeze.

Really looking forward to getting back out and sailing to Key West on Friday.

Our last night at PGIYC

Tonight is the 7th night we've been at the Punta Gorda Isles Yacht Club and we need to move on by Club policy. Jack Andreas' mom was nice enough to sponsor us as a guest so we could stay here.So we don't want to wear out our welcome. Tomorrow we move on to Burnt Store Marina which is about 20 miles from here to spend 2 nights thanks to Cathy Bleakly's auspices. From there we will sail on to Key West where we will make our final prep to head over to the Bahamas for 2 months.

The last 2 days were spent arduously replacing head hoses and replacing valves in our head. The hose for our forward head became extremely difficult when the coupling severed somewhere out of sight. But we were able to snake a line through and by getting into spaces I could barely see we were able to coax the hose through and finish the job. I also found my way into spaces on the boat I only knew of before. Still a few loose ends to finish but better by far. Doing this work myself provides the opportunity to know more about the boat, where things are and how they work.

Tonight Jack and Dora Andreas came by the boat and then we went to dinner in downtown PG. But first we took some pix.

Here is a great shot of Jack and Dora in our cockpit.

And we asked if we could get a rare shot of us that we can use on our boat card. Not sure why we were holding on because the harbor was very peaceful and calm.

And a picture of Jack and me enjoying some of Pennsylvania's finest. Class of 1972.

Many boat chores left to do before we head over to the Bahamas but only a few that must be done. Some can wait, some can be done better at anchor and some will get done at some future date.

Another beautiful evening to be sitting in the cockpit writing this and reviewing the days events. Tomorrow will be 3 months since we threw off the dock lines in Oxford, MD and headed south. What an adventure it has been so far. In spite of the work, the challenges and the hardships the return on that investment has been immeasurable. We have met so many wonderful people, have enjoyed so many great times and seen some absolutely incredible moments. The sunrises and sunsets at sea have been far better than colors on canvas applied by any human.

What is truly amazing is that while we have nothing to do we have so much to do. On many occasions in my previous life I had thought about continuing to be engaged in professional work, but now I can't imagine when I would have the time to do anything. Maybe when we get to the Bahamas it will slow down.

When the sun goes down on Charlotte Harbor

Finally today, Sunday 1 March, the Chamber of Commerce weather arrived in Charlotte Harbor. We have had rain off and on since we arrived Wednesday but that hasn't kept us from enjoying the amenities of this low key community hidden away on the Gulf Coast. I'm not really sure what we've gotten done since we've been here but today we started in replacing the rest of the head hoses. We should finish it tomorrow.

Friday was spent running errands but Saturday was a great day. We started out by going downtown to the weekly Farmer's Market where they actually had a few farmers selling victuals. The market was packed with snowbirds looking for bargains. So we quickly walked through and got some fresh produce for our next few days, then went to West Marine for stuff to help out with the hose job and then headed out of town.

We have been very lucky that Jack and Dora Andreas loaned us a car so we could do the errands we need to do. Since it's been rainy it wouldn't have been fun riding our bikes everywhere and some things are just way far.

But on Saturday we had the opportunity to see one of our music favorites Mr. Jim Morris play at his home venue, the Nav-A-Gator in Lake Suzy just a few miles from here. We first heard Jim Morris on Radio Margaritaville and loved him. We've seen him at the Jetty on Maryland's eastern shore several times but we saw him do a Nav-A-Gator afternoon concert.

  
Tom McGarry came with us. We've spent time with him while we've been here and shared lots of stories and information.

And here you can see one of his groupies getting an autograph on the latest CD.

Fortunately the rain held off all afternoon and we met quite a lot of wonderful folks. We met folks from visitors from Illinois, recent transplants and some Brits who were raving Jim Morris fans as well as some other folks. Everyone was fascinated to hear about life aboard.

Saturday night we met Jack and Dora for dinner at a fish place out the road. Wasn't more than a place that served what they caught that day but the food was incredibly good and of course the company was outstanding. After we closed down the fish place we wandered around in the rain looking for a quiet bar where we could continue our stories. We found a place that was mostly quiet but as it got later it got louder. So somewhere on the down side of 11 we adjourned and Linda and I came back to our waterborne condo.

This morning started out with a workout in the great fitness center at this yacht club and then right into working on head hoses. Once we complete this and the rebuild of our forward head that should complete that major project and a major annoyance since it first acted up back in Cherry Point. Of course I have other major projects I haven't started yet. Some I'm saving for the Bahamas but some I need to do while we're at a dock.

Tonight Tom McGarry picked us up and drove us down to Burnt Store for dinner at Cathy Bleakly's house. Tom and Cathy are both old friends from Herrington Harbour who have relocated here to Punta Gorda and enjoying it all.

We had appetizers and then a wonderful Cobia dinner that Cathy prepared.

This weekend we were also forced to make some decisions about our travel. There are some additional things we need to do before we go to the Bahamas and we can only stay here until Wednesday so we will be leaving here and going back to Key West for a few days until we receive everything we need and then we can head over to the Bahamas.

What's really amazing at each point is that when we leave it is the actualization of plans and dreams we've made for years. It's one thing to think about them but when the actual departure time arrives and we start the engine it is exciting and almost scary. Ever since St Augustine everything has been new and the realization that other than a few points in time it really doesn't matter when we get there. We're living in the land of no Mondays so we can go where we want when we want. I don't think we yet appreciate the power of that.

There isn't anyplace we've been that we "wanted" to leave but each next adventure was better than the last and we certainly enjoy the sailing. Time spent at sea is magical. So far we haven't seen the fury that the sea can provide but I'm sure we will soon enough once we venture forth to foreign lands.

This is truly the time of our lives because it is the time of our lives.

From fog to sunshine

Tuesday afternoon in Naples we were walking down the sunny and warm dock to do shopping when we noticed a wall of fog rolling in from the sea. It was not heavy at first but thickened as the day slid away and was forecasted to increase over night. We planned to leave at first light to head to Charlotte Harbor. Because the channel along the Gordon River through Naples Bay was narrow and led through numerous daymarks,it was essential to have reasonably good visibility.So we began to become concerned about our trip since it would take all day to travel the 60 miles from Naples to Punta Gorda.

When we got up Wednesday morning it was indeed foggy but with daylight it became apparent that visibility was not so bad but it still delayed our departure until about 7 so enough daylight was available. We knew that once we got to sea we would be fine but it was getting down the 3 and 1/2 mile channel and out the pass before we would be safe. So we left our Naples slip in dead calm and motored slowly down the channel as we went from mark to mark ensuring we did not get out of the channel because low tide was fast approaching.

We made offshore and motored along as the morning sun slowly burned away the haze. From Naples there is an inside route available by following Gulf Intracoastal Waterway that really picks up in San Carlos Bay south of Fort Myers and goes up through Pine Island Sound and into Charlotte Harbor. Although our preference is always for deeper water, the fog made the slightly shorter inside passage even more undesirable. Land is the enemy of boats so the safest thing is to stay in deep waterso we motored directly to the waters by Sanibel and Captiva Islands where land began to finally emerge from the mist.

We made good progress dodging crab pots and unseen boats in water that was rather choppy for the absence of wind. At one point on AIS we saw the Key West Express heading directly at us going 32 kts on its trip from Ft Myers to Key West. At about 1 mile away they began to turn behind us and we never saw them. Several other boats passed in the fog. So nice to have electronics.

As the fog lifted we could see more of the shore with the homes and resorts on these beautiful islands.

Then just after noon time we came up to Boca Grande pass into Charlotte Harbor. At this point the wind began to come up but still behind us as we rode the incoming tide and quickly added over a knot of speed through the pass. With the wind building and we could now comfortably estimate our arrival time we pulled out our sails to see how much of the remaining 18 miles we could sail. We look forward to a time when we can just rely on our sails and go at whatever speed and wherever we get to will be our destination. A schedule is an enemy of sailing and even if it is to make it to a destination before dark or before the crew goes home it often mandates reversion to means of other power.

We quickly got up to over 8 kts sailing in the wind that had built up to the middle teens traveling smoothly with the current in a waveless sea. Sailing is so magical when the ride is smooth. One thing I always enjoy after we have the sails trimmed well and with the boat on auto is to go to the bow and watch the slicing of the water under the keel with the perfect symmetry of the bow waves, the evenly trimmed sails and of course the feeling of knowing the boat is moving well without any mechanical device largely through our own skills. A well trimmed, well engineered sailboat slicing through the water is as fine an instrument as any artisan ever produced. Sailing under a bright sun sky through deep azure water resolves any doubt about why we came this way. It provides a deep satisfaction and experience that only comes from doing it. People see pictures, read stories or hear songs about it but there is no substitute for being there doing it.

On our passage from Napleswe left the fog and for a short period experienced the joy we always aspire to. When we turned up the Bay and the wind fell behind us we again had to resort to power to get us to the Marina.We found our way in through narrow channels and got safely tied to the dock at the Punta Gorda Isles Yacht Club where we will spend the next week or so and ready ourselves for the trip to the Bahamas.

After arriving we were greeted by our friends Tom McGarry and Cathy Bleakly and my college classmate Jack Andreas and his wife Dora with whom we willshare some good times while here. Much more to follow about those.

Marathon in the Rear View Mirror

                                             Leaving our slip in Harbor Cay Club

Hard to believe but our four weeks in Marathon are up and it's time to leave the wonderful Harbor Cay Club. It was a fabulous time making new friends and catching up with old, dear friends. Biking all around Marathon, Boot Key, Sombrero Beach and other local spots. Hanging around in Key West. And not doing many of the boat chores we intended to do while there. It was definitely a hard spot to leave. I can see why so many that visit the area end up staying. But the lure of the sea keeps calling us so with a good weather window we untied the dock lines about 3pm yesterday with hopes of a pleasant overnight sail to Naples. Although the winds weren't as strong as forecasted we were able to sail all but a couple of hours of the 90 mile plus passage. I am always astounded at the beauty of the sky and sea, day and night. We are so fortunate to be able to witness the amazing rising and setting of the sun and the moon at sea. The little sliver of a crescent moon emitted a surprisingly bright reflection on the water last night. The sky was brilliantly lit with the twinkling of stars. We glided smoothly through the light chop under sail like a phantom on the water. Sailing offshore of Marco Island beside several miles of lit skyline of mid-rise buildings felt hauntingly surreal as we slipped by in the dark. Sunrise found us coming up on Gordon Pass, the channel in to the city of Naples. After navigating the pass and the channel to Naples City Dock, Captain Maris did a superb job on backing Amekaya into a too small slip in between 2 large vessels. Several people came up and commended him for the excellent docking job. Then while Maris cleaned the salt of the deck I made a Sunday blueberry pancake breakfast accompanied by Mimosas to celebrate our arrival in Naples. We took out the bikes and did some sightseeing this afternoon but the rest of our stay in Naples will be picking up supplies and provisions for our upcoming passage and stay in the Bahamas before we move on to Punta Gorda for about a week to catch up with some friends. 
So time to go work on that shopping list!

The Gods must have been satisfied with our offering

Tonight I'm sitting in our cockpit which is in Naples, FL tonight. We made it here with no surprises and things we fixed appear to have stayed fixed. So maybe we should have done the name changing earlier.

For the first time in many weeks the wind isn't blowing like stink and the boat isn't rocking like a hobby horse trying to break free of its springs. We are in a slip at Naples City Dock on Crayton Cove, Naples, FL. We got into this slip this morning after an all-night sail up from Marathon. Don't know what the slip dimensions are but it looks like it is about a foot wider than the boat and a foot shorter. Using the bow thruster really helps get into tight places. When backing I actually use it to steer because it can point the stern where I want it to go easier than using a rudder that is confused with water flow and prop walk. Lots of folks don't understand laws of motion. If you want the bow or stern to go one way, sometimes its easier to just move the opposite end the other way.

After a month in Marathon we sadly had to leave. We enjoyed everything about our stay and could easily spend more time there. But, we are on a mission. There are too many places to go and too little time to see them. We really wanted to visit Naples for lots of reasons. This is a really cool town and there are stores here we want to shop before we go to the Bahamas like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's as well as Target, Bed Bath etc. Naples has it all and good restaurants so it is easy to spend time here. Then we are going on to Charlotte Harbor for about a week to visit Jack and Dora Andreas, a classmate from PMC and 2 friends from HHSA Tom McGarry and Cathy Bleakley. Hopefully we can also see Jim Morris in his home turf while we are there.

The sunset views from Harbour Cay Club were spectacular. Almost like what you could see in the tropics. Some of the folks there actually saw the green flash one night.

But we left the slip at 1500 on Saturday 21 Feb and arrived in Naples Gordon Pass just after 0700 on the 22nd. We frequently do night passages just like they do on big cruise ships. On big cruise ships the passengers sleep at sea and the crew drives the boat. On our ship we do it all.

We left Saturday with great weather. Warm sun and a fair breeze in the right direction. As we left there were showers moving in to the Keys which we managed to stay ahead of.

 
One of the beauties of sailing at sea is that you have the opportunity to see your weather coming and have a chance to prepare. We watched this weather and were convinced it was going behind us as we moved to the North and it did. We didn't have any rain which can really impact a night sail by reducing visibility even farther than it already is in the darkness.

Winds came up nicely behind the beam and later ahead of it as we were able to maintain speed at between 6-7 kts with little chop in winds of 10-15 kts. Our IP 420 slid across the water as if propelled by magic and into the night on autopilot the boat just sailed itself as the sun sank into the sea.

After the sun set we could see the waxing moon that was already passed its zenith but was really bright even though only about 10% of it was visible. Because the moon was not as bright the stars and planets were greatly evident and it made for a beautiful sail.

As the sky got dark into night we could see the lights of the Miami area in the clouds even though it was over a hundred miles away and we could see the lit sky of Marco Island just some 60 miles way. It was reminiscent of being offshore and seeing the glow of cities onshore that were a hundred miles away. It's too bad that the beauty of the sky is crowded out by the light pollution.

But as we do we switched watches and were able to sail most of the night although at one point the wind got down into low single digits and at sometime in the future we may be content to travel at whatever speed but we did have a slip waiting so we motored until the wind came back up. When I came back on watch at 0100 I noticed bigger chop and checked out the wind and we went back to sail right up to the channel at Naples. The sail was the kind where you want to just keep going but we arrived at our destination.

A very beautiful scene in nautical twilight.

Naples straight ahead.

The sun sandwiched between the earth and a cloud at sunrise as we approached Gordon Pass, the entrance to Naples Bay.

So after we arrived and got settled we had out usual Sunday Morning breakfast of pancakes from scratch but today we used a bottle of champagne leftover from our name changing and some OJ left over from the last batch of painkillers and made mimosas to toast our arrival. After that we took naps to make up for some of the sleep lost overnight. We missed a beautiful day but we had a beautiful night at sea and there will be many more beautiful days. Hopefully for us all the weather will be turning better. But, there are no better days than a day on the water.

So we toasted the Gods and hopefully they are satisfied and will smile on us favorably on our voyage as we sail their waters and ride their winds.