Bahamas!

It has been a long time since we last updated you on our big adventure. We spent December, January and February at Longboat Key in Sarasota. It is a lovely Marina but you do need a car to get around. The Marina has a shuttle to a very nice shopping area St. Armand’s Circle. There were also some good restaurants, one that we liked in particular was Cha Cha Coconuts. Great coconut shrimp and chicken wings!

Christmas was spent with Fred and Liz in St. Pete’s Beach. Sandy’s sister had arrived from London so it was quite a party. We had Christmas crackers after dinner which had whistles and song sheets included. There were lots of laughs as Jennifer tried to conduct us!!

New Year’s was spent with Fred and Liz joining us on the boat for a quiet celebration.

Bill was able to enjoy quite a few games of golf with the Zick’s ,while Jennifer,Sandy and Lesley enjoyed some shopping.

We all flew back to Canada Jan. 12, Lesley and Jennifer to Toronto and us to Montreal.  Lesley then travelled on to visit with their brother while Jennifer had to go back to work after a 3 month Sabbatical cruise.

After a hectic week of Doctors and Dentist appointments and a lovely dinner hosted by Betty Thompson allowing us to see everyone, we returned to Sarasota.  Shortly after, we were joined by Bill’s sister from Vancouver. 

The Picture

Yes Carter I did anchor

As Chuck was planning on doing a shakedown cruise on C’est La Vie before our trip to the Bahamas, we took the opportunity to give Marilyn a cruise down to Pelican bay on Cayo Costa where we had anchored earlier.  A good trip with the exception that in trying to take a better picture of the Osprey nest on one of the channel markers, the draft of the boat exceeded the depth of the water.  Our membership with Boat US paid off and two hours later we were back underway.  Now we were in a rush as we wanted to get back to the marina before dark.  Would you want to back in a 17’wide boat into a 19’ slip in the dark?  All’s well that ends well.

SUNKEN BOAT ON WAY

During this period, Patsy and Stu Taylor were visiting with Fred and Liz.  We were able to get together and even played a game of golf with Stu while Sandy, Patsy and Marilyn did some shopping.  Dinner that evening at Mattison’s in downtown Sarasota which is a great place.  Good food and good  music.

Lise and Ian joined us on board for 2 nights. It was good to see them and needless to say after about 6 months, there was a lot to catch up with!! Lots of giggles too!!

We also had been invited to Chuck’s in Naples for a visit so Sandy and I piled into Fred’s car and off we went.  A relaxing time for two evenings with good wine, good home cooked food and Sambuca.  Monday am we were on the road as Chuck had a trade show to go to.

Fast forward to the end of February.  We left Longboat Key and took the Intracoastal back to Pelican Bay anchorage.  We had arranged to meet with Jeannie and Rusty Thompson but that was in jeopardy as he was having problems with his generator and the boat was for sale.  Everything worked out as all of their company checked out that morning so we had a lovely evening and a leisurely morning as I had to wait for a higher tide to get out,

We then progressed to Legacy Harbor in Fort Myers where we met up with C’est La Vie.

The next day was a  5 hour run to River Forest on the Caloosahatchee river.  We were up early the next morning for the long run to Stuart.  The wind was blowing 20 with gust to 25 so it was not a smooth run across Lake Okeechobee .  We finally arrived in Stuart back at the Sunset Bay marina.  We had scheduled to be there a maximum of 3 days to allow for acceptable crossing conditions.  Unfortunately, that turned into 5 days as the wind howled from the north, not conditions to cross the Gulf Stream.

The weather finally broke on Wednesday and off we went.  We made good time crossing to West End at 20 Kn.  The admiral would have liked a smoother ride but you cannot always get what you want.  After checking through customs, we elected to proceed to Spanish Cay to try to get back on our schedule.  Smooth cruising across the Abaco sea and we made the marina by 5:30.  Altogether a 160 Kn ride.  A long way!!

We are currently in Green Turtle Cay at a lovely resort.  This afternoon we will be renting a golf cart to explore the Island then off to Treasure Cay tomorrow.

ROWERS PRACTICING WHEN I NEEDED TO MAKE SPEED

RESTAURANT ON WAY TO FORT MYERS

We will try to make the blog more frequent so that Carter stops bugging Chuck but doubt that it will be as frequent as the trip south.  Short one crew there is more work to do and less time to compose.

We hope this finds everyone well and healthy. Spring is just around the corner so better weather is coming.

Fort Myers - Longboat Key

Saturday, December 3

Take a Peek!

Saturday we spent in Fort Myers.  We walked the downtown area which while compact was very vibrant and certainly lots of restaurants.  There is a monumental exhibit consisting of 23 iron scultures by Edgardo Carmona that had previously been exhibited in Paris.

Statue in one of the squares

Interestlingly, many of the restaurants here are owned by one firm.  We decided to eat at Capones, a pizza restaurant that cooks in coal burning ovens and is decorated with Al Capone memorabilia, complete with a glassed over “secret room” in the floor.  The pizza was delicious!!  After dinner we wandered the town and into a square with live music by the 'Hip Nauticals'.  They have live music every Saturday night during the season.

Sunday, December 4

Lots of Traffic

Depature was leisurely the next day as we made our way north to anchor out for the first time this trip.  Our destination was Pelican Bay. 

We had been there before when we had the opportunity to do a cruise on Rusty and Jeannie’s Sea Ray.  As always, the cruising guide took many pages and much verbiage to say what it always does:  stay in the Channel!  Upon arrival I had the words of Rusty and Chuck in my mind as I navigated along a sand bar anxiously watching the depth sounder.

Entrance to Pelican Bay

At Anchor

We got in without touching but depths below the props were only 1 foot.  This is a large bay with a dock for access to a National Park.  Cruise boats bring visitors from the mainland.

We took a dinghy ride to a small bay that I knew would have Manatees which we could view. 

Small bay with Manatees

Not much to see other than a big blob in water that is not very clear. 

That is a Manatee

We added our own!

We elected to spend another night and dinghied to a local landmark, Cabbage Key which hosts a restaurant where the dining area is covered by dollar bills that people sign and tape up.  When the money falls down, it is donated to charity.

Lots of Dollar Bills

Cheese Burger in Paradise!

There is also a nature walk at Cabbage Key with lots of wildlife roaming the area.

Gopher Turtle

White Heron

Tuesday, December 6

We departed early, as we knew that there were going to be a lot of bridges on our route.  Fortunately, we were able to pass most of them without requiring opening due to our height.  Those that we did need to open all did so on demand.  

The highlights of this trip were many encounters with dolphins.  Many of them wanted to play, and one in particular enjoyed surfing our stern wave and flopping back into the water.

Everything went well until we got into Sarasota Bay.  All day the Coast Guard was broadcasting a weather warning about severe winds and warnings to small craft.  As we got within 3 miles of the Marina, the weather app showed a line squall passing through with a lot of yellow and red areas.  When it reached us, our visibility went down to about 200 ft.  We elected to anchor out from the Marina until it passed.  No way were we going to try and dock in those conditions!

We are now all set in our slip.  The marina has fixed docks and the fingers are only 20 ft. long with “Posts” on the outer end.  They are not that wide, probably about 18’.  Again, thank you for the Yacht Controller which makes backing into narrow slips much less stressful.  It does represent a challenge to organize a method to get on and off as the finger does not reach to the side boarding ladder.  We will probably be going to the local Home Depot to purchase another small ladder for boarding.

Our slip is close to the marina office, the onsite restaurant and a great swimming pool and spa/hot tub.  Think that we will be spending some time there when it warms up again!  Temperatures have fallen to highs of 21 today and cooler weather forecast for tomorrow.

Today, Sandy and Jennifer walked to the Publix which is only a 10 minute walk.  The resort provides a shuttle and you just call them to get picked up or to visit a shopping district a bit further away.

Crew was happy to finally get a good look at a visiting manatee in the adjacent slip.

Mother and baby

Stuart to Fort Myers

Thursday, December 1 & Friday, December 2 

After a month of rest, relaxation and some work, we left Sunset Bay to start our trek to our next longterm destination, Longboat Key in Sarasota.  The month of November went past very quickly and we will be sorry to leave Stuart behind.  In particular, we really enjoyed walking along the boardwalk that went from the marina into town.

Tunnel under train tracks on boardwalk - we weren't brave enough to walk through while a train was overhead

Train that goes through middle of Stuart and blows its whistle a lot

Bagged oyster shells

Participating local restaurants collect the shells which are then quarantined and, after the required isolation period, bagged and returned to the St. Lucie River Estuary to restore the important oyster habitat.  A single oyster can filter between 20 and 50 gallons of water per day!

Curly Tailed lizard

Look out for the Dockhands as they whiz past!

We also loved watching the curlytail lizards that were plentiful at the marina and the three wheel electric scooters that the dockhands used to move around.

Wouldn't you like to be doing his job, Carter?

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Boats decorated at night

Marina Office at night

The marina was very friendly and a lot of the boats were live-aboard.  For Thanksgiving, they hosted a dinner buffet and it was a huge spread.  Way too much food … but tasty!  They have now decorated for Christmas and I wonder if there will be another meal?

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We left early Thursday morning to cover the distance to our planned overnight stop without arriving too late in the day.  Much of the distance was traveled in canals making the navigation very easy.

Easy travelling with lots of depth

Depths were also better than what we had experienced on the last legs of our journey into Stuart.   We had to transit through locks to move up to Lake Okeechobee and were very lucky with our timing.  The first lock we came to was just about to close the doors as we arrived but waited for us so that we could pass through as well.  These locks are unique.  The doors are semi circular and the way they adjust the water level is by just opening the doors a foot and thus allowing the water to flow in or out as needed. 

Note water entering lock though door

There were two locks to go up before entering the Lake, which is the highest level. 

Wreck on Lake Okeechobee

Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake located entirely in the US and has been described as a large saucer of water.  Average depth is only 9 feet though it covers 730 square miles!  It is surrounded by a levee system, officialy know as the Hoover dike.  

Can you find the Admiral?

It was built after 2 disastorous hurricanes when the lake was literally  blown out of its banks.  After the lake we went through one more lock before spending the night at River Forest.  This facility specializes in storing boats during the summer in large buildings.

Cows getting a drink of water

Much of the canal is through farming country.  We did see citrus orchards and lots of livestock.

After two more Locks we arrived in Fort Myers.  We were lucky as they had been working on the locks last week and they are going to be working on them again next week too which would have considerably slowed our passage across. Lucky timing for our trip ... or good planning by the Captain?