The big trip 2016 (part 9)

Essentially just elaborating on the last post but the weather crept up on us quicker than expected. Sunday morning we decided there was no way we were going out in the washing machine conditions out in the gulf. After combing through our crusing guide and phone apps we settled on Snook Bight Yacht Club & Marina on Fort Myers Beach.

Today is now Tuesday and we couldn't be happier with our choice of marinas.  The staff is courteous and professional. Everything is clean and well maintained.  They have nice showers (which feel fantastic after a week of solar showers), laundry, pool, etc.

We have spent the past two days hanging on the boat, taking the trolley into town to shop and bar crawl, visiting with our awesome neighbors mike, lee, and marvin, and sleeping with no worries of impending death as tropical storm colin roared over us.

Now the plan is to leave first thing in the morning (wednesday) for Marco Island and get ready for the big jump across to the keys.

The big trip 2016 (part 8)

The rain has settled to a steady pattering on the cabin top of the boat.  I am awake at 2 in the morning because one of the first serious bands of tropical storm Colin has blown through.  For a short period it seemed to be chaos.  The wind and torrential water just above our heads may have been what stirred us but the slow drip of a leak from the hatch right above Amber definitely sealed the deal.  Water gets through the damnedest place you wouldn't expect.

So while trying to figure out the leak above our heads the wind is busy pounding the crap out of our bimini top like it owed the wind money.  We suited up in our rain gear, waited for a lull in the wind and rain, and shuffled the hatchboards out of the way to face the weather.  I'm not a fan of going outside of the boat in stormy weather but if you priced new bimini tops you would do the same.

The fact is the storm kind of snuck up on us.  We knew It was coming in on Monday but we didn't think that meant 12:01am Monday.  The weather wasn't bad when we went to bed so we got caught off guard.  

It could be worse though. We could be out in the gulf. Instead we are tucked into a slip at Snook Bight Yacht Club & Marina.  A sweet place to say the least.  We shopped around a little bit while anchored in Sanibel bay this morning.  The weather forecast had shown the weather approaching sooner than expected and we didn't want to get caught halfway to Naples or Marco Island in a serious blow.  So now we are tied to a dock in Fort Myers Beach riding out the storm with access to showers, and laundry, and a full marina store, and a pool, and a Publix, and a very nice restaurant, and a very nice outside bar, etc etc. Things could be worse.  Unless the weather is too too bad we may ride the trolley into town tomorrow and check things out. In rain gear of course. :)

The big trip 2016 (part 7)

The better part of the day was spent motoring today. Directly into the wind i might add. There was only a brief period that we actually sailed while i added gas to the tank. The wind in our close hauled direction was only enough for about 2 mph though.

We made it to Sanibel riding up and down big (for us) oncoming swells and enjoying beautiful weather.

We did stop and anchor a 1/4 mile off Sanibel's beautiful beach and do some swimming but the boat took a bit of a beating in the waves to do it.

As we rounded the southern portion of Sanibel i discovered we were faced with a decision. We wanted to get to the Sanibel marina and our timeframe to get there was dependant on us being able to go straight around to tip of the island.  I now saw that the tip of the island had sections of "deep enough" and sections of "i think we just lost the centerboard."  I'm sure i would have cut through the bar somewhere but if we took the safe route around the bar it would add about 6 miles to our journey. Which is over an hour at our pace.

I was about to go for it and ease my way over the bar like the fishing boats were doing when a thought struck me. The vhf radio. We always have it on but to be honest we never use it.

I radioed asking for someone to give me advice on going south around the light house.  I was immediately responded by a guy from Tow Boat U.S. who, after a change to his working channel, buzzed around Sanibel to escort us.  This did not take long since he had twin 225's strapped to his stern. He was awaiting a dispatch and said he didn't mind helping. He guided us through the closest path that was still safe for us. He said if we had went the path closer like the fishing boats we would have hit something for sure.  What an awesome guy!

So then we continue around and head to the Sanibel marina. Unfortunately we were greated with an extremely narrow channel, strong side wind, and a narrow parallel parking spot between two towering motor yachts. No thank you!

We decided to spin around and just anchor out for the night.  Salt, coffee creamer, etc is not worth sliding against a million dollar yacht.  A little bit of it is my lack of skill and confidence with the maneuvering ability of out boat.  We have a rudder but the motor is not set in line with it like a normal sailboat. Our outboard is in a fixed position and is to the side of the rudder. This makes any prop walk, or prop wash maneuvers impossible. I avoid tight/high wind areas like the plague.

Now I'm sitting up at 2am typing this because the wind and waves are slapping us around pretty good and there is an important decision looming in the morning. There is a nasty tropical storm coming in starting tomorrow night. We only have tomorrow to get to whatever marina we want to be at before we are down for 2-3 days.  Depending on slip availability we may stay here in Sanibel or push south to Naples while we still can.

Decisions decisions.

The big trip 2016 (part 6)

Yesterday started out well enough. We woke up in a quiet harbor in venice, FL. Although it turns out it was a watersports area and we probably weren't supposed to anchor there.

We left venice and cruised down to Boca Grande. This sounded like a lovely place. In fact we have friends with a vacation house on the gulf side so it must be nice.

We hated it.

First the channel is ridiculously long and for next to no reason. We were going to go out to the channel entrance but we kept seeing boat after boat ignore the channel completely.  Finally we cut the channel in half and had no problems at all.
We just happened to catch the channel on the way to low tide. Since Charlotte harbor is such a massive body of water there is a massive amount of water that must move through this opening at tide changes. We are estimating the current to have been around 3mph. It took us forever to get into the bay.

On the way in there were hundreds of crabs swimming by and fishing boats were scooping them up left and right. We also so some kind of hawk/falcon dive into the water, come up with a nice size fish, circle around our boat, and then carry his prize over the crowd of fishing boats just to rub it in their face. Pretty awesome.

So not all bad until we pulled into a little cove on Cayo Costa just south of Boca Grande. We were dying to swim after traveling all day.  The water was cloudy and dirty. We inner-tubed to shore and were greeted with a lovely smell, sea urchins, wasps, and best of all deer flies.

We hauled it back to the boat after discovering what looked like the path a large creature took to drag it kill back into the mangroves. Only slightly exaggerating.

We got back on the boat and motored almost a mile off shore. Still fighting off a deer fly we anchored for the night.

That night, right at sunset, we were treated to a doozy of a storm. We heard about it on vhf, comfirmed with weather apps, and started securing everything.

We got rocked pretty hard slamming into oncoming waves and trying to stop the inflow of water through our hatchboards and top hatch.

After what seemed like much longer than it was the storm subsided.  The rest of the night was better but still restless due to the strong current and strong winds fighting over which one would control the boat.

It's the next morning now and we are headed to Sanibel. Hopefully this experience will be better.

The big trip 2016 (part 5)

Yesterday was one of the first days for serious destination planning. We left from Anna Maria island, through a pack of about 40 boats fishing in the channel, and turned south.  Our destination was to be Sarasota but we discovered through our cruising guide, google maps, and navionics that the only marina that for sure had ice, gas, and supplies would be "marina jack." That would be great but it is 5 miles up the channel from the gulf.  A two hour round trip.

We changed plans and found we could spend that 10 miles traveling further south and make it to Venice, where there was a marina directly inside the channel.

So we pushed hard for 7 hours hoping to make it by 5 when they closed at 6. We were close reached motor/sailing hard and made it by 4:15. We were holding about 6mph headlong crashing into swells. It was quite exciting.

At the crows nest marina we got 4 bags of ice (our most important supply ) and figured out in the exactly 105 miles we have traveled we only used 10.5 gallons of gas, including a night running the generator.  I now realize the 29 gallons of gas i brought to be sure we had enough to get the hundred miles from Marco island to the keys was ridiculously overkill. But thats ok!

The big trip 2016 (part 4)

Looking back at day two I'm starting to understand that this is a marathon not a sprint. I've been doing my best to stay out of the sun unnecessarily, wear long sleeves, hydrate, not drink too too much.  But sailing uses your body in ways much different from regular life. Not better or worse, just different.

I'm feeling a little sun soaked and sore from banging against things, hauling lines, cranking winches, etc.

All this sounds negative but i assure you i am in my happy place.  Im anchored off of Anna Maria island with my beautiful fiance, frosty beverage in hand, and freshly showered from our hanging solar shower. Life is good.

The big trip 2016 (part 3)

The first day, i must say, was an overwhelming success. I could not ask for a better start.
 
Once we finally got fuel, water, and all our last minute things done at the marina we pulled out of our slip at exacty 11am. We motor/sailed a little over 20 miles to get to hurricane pass and the south side of honeymoon island.  If i would have take Ambers advice and stopped at anclote key we could have stopped in relatively clear water to scrub the hull and test out our new aqua lung dive masks and snorkels. When we anchored at honeymoon island the water was so cloudy you could only see a foot in front of your face. (Can't wait for the keys!)

Once we left from there we continued down looking for a suitable place to anchor. We had left the relatively shallow areas and we're forced to continue down until right off Indian Rocks beach where there is a small section of shallow water. This is good though because even with a late start and stopping to scrub the boat we got basically to where we planned to get to in the first day.

(We like to anchor in 14 feet of water or less. That gives us the safe anchoring scope of 7:1 with all of our line payed out.)

We traveled approximately 36 mile, getting roughly 10+ miles to the gallon. This is better fuel economy than expected but tomorrow we are going to sail more.  I needed one day for testing the fuel and making sure the boat would ride well with the extra weight from supplies. Overall everything was better than predicted.

The best part was while we were anchored there, during a blazing orange sunset, I asked the love of my life, Amber Henry, to marry me. I could not think of a more appropriate place than on our boat, anchored offshore, headed out on the biggest adventure of our lives. I only hope the rest of the days of our trip don't dull too much in comparison to this one.