The big trip 2016 (part 13)

Two grueling days of putting miles under Happy Day have us resting peacefully in a backwater channel between Marco Island and Naples.  The journey here was not peaceful or uneventful however.

Day 1 started well enough except for a very unfortunate case of pink eye and illness Amber picked up and struggled with all day.  She struggled through but was essentially bedridden.

We had made it out of the keys, raised sails, and motor/sailed north.  The evening brought about an inevitable Florida storm. We prepped early and entered the storm with a double reefed main and a (perhaps not quite enough) double reefed jib. Austin and I had life jacketed and harnessed ourselves.

In the ensuing chaos we lost a batton in the main and our aging jib sang it's last song, splitting horizontally.

Luckily the storm passed relatively quickly and we only had wind to deal with.

Now the race was on to reach our only option for safe harbor, little shark river, before sunset. We pushed hard calculating an arrival of 5 to 10 minutes after sunset. We made it but didn't anticipate three other boats seeking shelter in the same harbor.

Quickly losing light i chose a spot the furthest in and Austin dropped anchor. Not before nearly being carried away by an everglades native, the mosquito.  In the span of two minutes, just enough time to drop anchor and set not nearly enough scope, we were bitten 20 to 30 times each.

We had anticipated bugs and already had mosquito netting in place so we dove inside the cabin and slapped each other around a bit.

Once we purged the interior of the boat off all living things, except the 5 of us, we enjoyed a relaxing rest of the night bug free.

Except for Amber who had a raging fever and did not even remember conversation or anything the next morning. Thankfully her fever broke in the middle of the night because the next day was no pleasure cruise either.

I exited the cabin at 6:30 only to be greeted instantly by more flying bloodsucking fiends. I wasted no time, fired up the motor, and we bounced out.

Out of the harbor we were greated with strong 10 to 15 mph winds and 1 to 2 foot waves coming at our broadside. This may have been ok but without a jib and even with a double reefed main the boat was horribly unbalanced. It was not long before the tiller pilot was no longer an option and it was handsteering only.

Handsteering is ok in calm conditions or in bad conditions for short bursts but we didn't arrive in Goodland until 3:30 that afternoon. I was a grumpy guy. It's aggravating to me when the tiller needs so much attention that i can't do anything else. Like pee, or brush my teeth, or check navionics. Amber (who thankfully felt better today) took over steering a couple times but she agreed it was a nightmare trying to keep Happy on course.

Aaliah was not a fan of the waves when the boat would come crashing down or veer off course from a big gust but overall she did very well. After finally getting the nerve to put on her life jacket come into the cockpit she got to enjoy watching out and calling out the big wave set. 

Austin spent a good portion laying in the cabin and actully sleeping some too. Lucky...

Finally we arrived in Goodland and everything was right as rain. We pushed through to our current anchorage in rookery bay and tossed the hook.  We were all thrilled to have two 13 hour days of solid movement behind us.  Tomorrow is a relativly short hop to Fort Myers.

The big trip 2016 (part 12)

The blur is over. I think. Or maybe its just beginning. The entire week has been a blur.

We have been going non-stop and we are thoroughly exhausted. The cherry on top is that Austin and Aaliah were suppose to have returned home via automobile but due to a "miscommunication" they are now having to sail with us from Plantation key to Fort Myers. This is no easy trip and there is not a ton of space.

This will be the first long distance test for them. Hopefully weather work with us and hopefully we won't kill each other on our floating world in 26ft.

Our time in the keys was great though! We did the standard Duval crawl in Key West. We boated off Islamoada. (I can't call it fishing because there were no fish out there. We did some awesome snorkeling. Lots of drinking. All and all a great time.

Now we have spent all day today (Saturday) provisioning and we are starting the retun trip 1st thing in the am.

The big trip 2016 (part 11)

It been a couple days since a post because its been a couple of crazy days.

The morning we head out to Marco Island we motor out into the biggest, nastiest (for us) waves we have incountered in our boat. It was remnants of tropical storm Colin and we would not have went out if we knew it was that bad. We must have misinterpreted our weather apps.  We had life jackets on (and the dog), harnessed ourselves to the boat, and prayed for our lives for four hours. Not cool.

After having to do an emergency fuel tank refill in eye level breaking waves right before traversing the rock lined inlet to Naples we were treated to beautiful rustic Florida canals that winded their way down to Marco Island. We skipped right over this and went to Goodland, FL.  We were drawn to goodland's laid back small town fishing atmosphere. The coon key marina was very friendly and accommodating as we provisioned in the morning.

Friday at about 10:30, and after triple checking every weather app we have we struck out towards the keys.  We covered 80 miles in 17.5 hours before we decided we should throw out the anchor. If we knew more about traversing the waterways in the keys we may have attempted it in the dark but the small channels you have to slip through do not look fun at 3am. Nor was it comforting picking up a crab pot line at 1am. We now have a bent prop to get fixed before we head back north.

The sun woke us at about 7am and off we went. Another 30 miles is all that seperated us from Plantation key.

Finally after 13 days of traveling we arrived at our marina. Our first visit to the keys!

 

The big trip 2016 (part 10)

So we left Snook Bight Marina a little later than expected but it didn't matter anyway. We waited at Big Carlos Pass bridge for what we thought was a passing band that turned out to last all day. We did not want to head out into the choppy gulf conditions, so we didn't.  We had a lazy day.

Even in a protected bay we had a "fire drill" that evening.  We were inside reading and watching laptop videos when we noticed that we were getting alarmingly close to an island in the bay. Our anchor was dragging.  I tore down the hatch boards and in my haste to get the motor and rudder down I busted my pinky toe on a latch im the cockpit. Only a little blood but it hurt like a sob.  It definitely made the situation 10x worse.

We tried tossing the anchor out again (which had become tangled while retrieving) but it didn't hold again. 

We motored aimlessly up the channel until we finally found a spot that was deep enough to anchor and had enough space around us.  Luckily the anchor held this time and we made it through the night.

Now hell or high water we head out to Marco Island.

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.