GL033: Florida Rules and Boat Parades

We left Clearwater on Saturday the 9^th of December hoping to get “about halfway to Punta Gorda.”   No other plan.   As we headed out into the Gulf of Mexico the plan was to “stay outside” to the Long Boat Key or Sarasota area while we figured out a place to stay. 

Two facts quickly became apparent:

1)    The seas were a lot rougher than we anticipated.  Not terrible, but still.

2) Saturday was “Boat Parade Day” all down the coast.  A Boat Parade is when boats get decorated for the Holidays and parade in the evening for all to see. 

 

The ramification of #1, is that we decided to take the ICW “inside” after crossing the mouth of Tampa Bay.  The ramification of #2 was that we couldn’t get a slip anywhere, all the transient slips were booked for the Parades.

When we got onto the ICW a few things also became apparent about Florida boaters.  By observation, I deduced the following “Florida Boating Rules:””

1)    Stay in the middle of the channel, not to the right side like you are supposed to, but in the middle of the channel, because you own it.

2) No matter who big your boat and how big a wake it throws out, go as fast as you can.

3) Never give the courtesy of a “slow pass,” that is “woke-ism” and Florida does not do “woke.”  If you rock the living sh-t out of the boat you pass, that is their problem, not yours.

4) No Wake zones are optional.

What is the ICW like on a beautiful Saturday?    Like this:

 

Our last option for a place to stay that night that didn’t involve anchoring was the mooring ball field in Sarasota.   We put in a request on the “app” but didn’t hear from them.  As we got closer, we decided to pull into the marina and inquire directly with the staff while we also added some fuel to the boats having gone forty-nine miles and burning forty-two gallons of fuel (yes, that is 1.16 n/m per gallon: ouch!   We can do better than that if we slow it down, but we thought we might have to farther south that day for a nice anchorage, so we were going at cruise speed, which is approximately thirteen n/m’s per hours.)

While Matt and I fueled our boats, Nancy and Kathy went into the office to see about a getting a mooring ball.  Technically they had no transient mooring balls available.  The office manager did, however, know of two non-transient mooring balls (i.e., seasonal usage) that were vacant, so she took pity on us and let us tie up to them for the night (for the usual fee of course.)

The weather forecast indicated that big storm was going to blow in starting Sunday night and going through Monday night.   We hoped to get to the Punta Gorda area Sunday night but a lot of those marinas were destroyed by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and not rebuilt.   As a last resort we called the Cabbage Key Inn to see if they could accommodate us.  They have overnight slips but limit usage to one night and “you have to be out by eleven, no exceptions.” The reason being that they have a well-regarded restaurant and need the slips for the lunch crowd.    The woman also told us that we couldn’t stay Monday night as the Inn would be closed for the annual employee Holiday Party.   I told her about the storm coming and asked her if they could accommodate us both Sunday and Monday, and promised that we wouldn’t be any trouble, we just wanted a shelter from the storm.   Well, long story short, the Cabbage Key Inn did make and exception for us, so they are tops on my list.  Next post, we’ll report back on the stay.

Having taken care of that task, we took our respective dinghies into the marina from the mooring and went into Sarasota’s downtown area to see a few sights and have dinner.  Passed this private yacht with a Big F’ng Crane.   Apparently, it was a converted working boat.  Why you need a crane that big is a mystery to me, but to each is own.

 

We dinghy’d back to the boats as the sun set and prepared for the “big show”. 

Our photography skills are obviously not up to the task of night shoots, but we did get a few serviceable pictures of the boat parade:

 

Kim Russo, the Director of the AGLCA, whom I gave a bottle of Kanzler Vineyards Pinto Noir to, sent me this shot of a boat parade in St. Petersburg along with a nice note of thanks.

After the parade it was time for bed.   We had feared that the mooring field would be “rocky” overnight, but we actually had a relatively calm night.  The wind did pickup the next morning, but that is tale for post 034.

  

Dave

 

Odometer:  1,851

 

GL032 Crab Pots, IPhones and Old Friends

On Thursday, December 7^th, we reluctantly left Crystal River and the manatees to head south.  We had seventy-two n/m to go to get to Clearwater, FL, so we were at the fuel dock at 7:30 to fill up the tank.  Note on this topic:  we have paid anywhere from $3.59 to $5.99 per gallon for diesel fuel.  More expensive than “at the pump” on land, AND the marinas don’t pay road tax on marine diesel.  So, they are really making money hand over fist, but what “whatcha gonna do?”

Got a nice sunrise picture:

 

The ride down was a bit “lumpy” but not too bad.   The big challenge in this area and with a lumpy sea is crab pots.  They are everywhere and hard to spot in other than a calm sea.  You can’t just put the boat on autopilot and zone out.   We were constantly dodging them.  The ramifications of hitting one is getting a line caught around your prop which can potentially be disastrous, bent shafts and ruined transmissions are not unknown. 

KatMat unfortunately hit one got some line around its prop, but luckily nothing got bound up.  Again, in a lumpy sea, they are hard to spot.  More on this later.

As we approached Clearwater, the waves calmed down a bit, and we saw a pretty big fire which you could smell miles offshore:

 

 These structures are under bridges and function the same way as guardrails on a highway.  The pelicans love them:

We pulled into Clearwater at about 2:30 p.m.  Nancy’s iPhone 7+ had been having trouble charging the last few weeks.   I’d have to go through multiple lightning cords, jiggle them, bow to the east, say a prayer, and burn incense to get that little lightning bolt icon to show up.  And when it did, I immediately said, “Ok, its charging, now nobody breath.”     And even when we did get it charged, the battery would drain in a few hours.    It was time to get a new phone. 

We took an Uber over to a Verizon store and bit the bullet on the fees and the even more fees (they even charge extra now for transferring the data).   (As painful as all the fees were, the annoying older gentleman next to us was worse.   For one hour we had to listen to him try and “get a deal” on a phone plan:  “look, I need this phone, I have an important congresswomen who calls me for advice all the time, I have people I need to talk to that I can’t talk to you about, blah blah blah.”   The salesperson and manager repeatedly and patiently explained that they can only offer what plans are available, but he would not let it go.  Finally, as we finished up He left with no new phone having wasted two people’s time.  Note to God:  please don’t let me get like that.)   Major bonus is that Nancy's new Iphone has the USB C connection, so goodbye to the tyranny of the lightning cord for her!

We appreciate our friends/family worrying about our safety at sea, we worry about your safety on land.  Passed this accident in the shopping complex with the Verizon store.  (How do you get that much speed up in shopping complex?)

The next day we tackled some chores: worked on month-end financial statements for my client most of the day.  KatMat had a line to take off their prop.  Glad to note that my wet suit and scuba gear came in handy for Matt has he cut the crab pot line off his prop.   

 (Of course, there is one ticked off crab fisherman out there, but c'est la vie.)

That evening Nancy and I visited a college friend of hers, Jack Berlin and his wife at their condo a few miles away.  They hadn’t seen each other since 1977!    We went to their beachfront condo for the sunset, and got this shot from the pool area:

We had a lovely visit and were impressed with Jack’s large collection of shark’s teeth all gathered up on beach walks.   Jack's father, who recently passed away, had been a team physician at Duke University (where Nancy and Jack went to college) and Jack told us that  Coach K had called him a couple of times to express his condolences: I was impressed by that as well!.

 

Dave

Odometer:  1,802 n/m

GL031: Nice Run and Manatees!

On Monday December 4th we finally left Steinhatchee to make our way south.    We were headed to Crystal River, 78 n/m away, so we got an early start at 7:30 a.m.    We stayed four nights there waiting for smooth seas, and we got our wish with the waves less than one foot.  It is nice to report that the ride was completely uneventful.

The town of Crystal River is approx. six n/m up a river from the coast, and parts of the trip are relatively shallow.  In fact, the cruising guides steer away boats with more than a 4.5’ draft.  That is probably a bit extreme as we saw plenty of larger boats in the marina, but you definitely want to stick to the channel and come in at high tide of you draft much more than that.  At 2.5’ draft, we were fine through the channel.  We couldn’t get a spot at the one marina in town, which turned out to be just fine as a) the anchorage was great and b) the marina was ridiculously expensive for not much in the way of services.

We anchored in Kings Bay, and I took Nancy to shore to meet up with her sister Susan who lives in Ocala, Fl.   Nancy drove back with Susan for an overnight visit and to do some much-needed laundry (the last marina not having washers and dryers back on-line yet).   I microwaved a Dinty Moore Chicken Dumpling meal, having bought some for just such an inevitability.

Hygge and Katmat at anchor:

I did a poor job of taking a picture of these teenagers catching a shark, I was too late, and they had just released it back.  But note the picture, we’ll use it later.

Got a nice sunset shot:

Nancy and Susan came back the next day and we went over to Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge.   The land had been privately owned and the owner wanted to develop it with condos but from what we heard, “The deal fell through,” and he sold the land to the government which turned it into a great wildlife refuge.   The Refuge contains natural freshwater springs that are literally crystal clear and provide a safe haven for the manatees.

We attended a short talk about the manatees from a volunteer.  The volunteer and her husband divide their time between the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest and Crystal River (so I guess we'll catch her "Orca talk" when we do our Alaska trip) and as marine biologist by training, she was very knowledgeable:

The manatees come upriver to the springs for a) the fresh water and b) warmth in the winter.  Manatees don’t have a lot of body fat and the water comes out of the ground at a constant temperature of 72F.    Here are some views from the land.

Freshwater spring:

Manatees:

The scene all day on the river.

After the visit to the Refuge, Nancy, Susan and I got lunch and some pictures of the town.

City hall:

Manatees are a big theme:

We also noticed that a boat had run aground at some point since I tried to get a picture of the shark the boys caught.  Note the picture above of the boys taken the afternoon before.  This is a low tide the next day:

That night we went to dinner with Matt and Kathy at a local restaurant after first looking at the weather forecast for the next day (Wednesday).   It was calling for some decent sized waves offshore (twenty n/m) and two to three closer in.  The problem is that it is relatively shallow up to ten miles offshore on the run down to Clearwater for most of the trip.  We decided to wait until Thursday when the wind was supposed to switch from Northwest to North and calling for more like one-to-two-foot waves.

The next day, Nancy, Kathy and I did an morning run over to see the manatees by water.

Me looking all "skipperly" and serious.   Actually, you have to be careful and on your game so you don't hit a manatee.   We couldn't really hurt them with our dinghy and anemic electric outboard motor, but still.   

Manatees:

You are not allowed to touch the manatees, but it did not stop this person from giving belly rubs and getting right in the manatees' face.   Not cool, these are wild animals, and though gentile they still weigh twelve hundred pounds, and mothers are naturally protective of their calves:

They also don't want manatees to turn into aquatic versions of pelicans, who always know where the fish cleaning is happening:

The rest of the morning Nancy and Kathy went shopping while I worked.   This involved Nancy’s first use of the dinghy, and she took to it like a pro.  Speaking of the dinghy, after the repair work noted in the prior posting I pumped up the dinghy on Monday morning, as of this writing (Friday morning) the dinghy pontoon is still fully inflated.  Victory?   Time will tell.

Kathy and the fully functional (for now) dinghy:

When Nancy got back from shopping, we got out her snorkel gear so she could swim with the manatees.  We took the dinghy over in the late afternoon.  Luckily it was past peak tourist time so there wasn't the hoard of snorkelers as in the picture above.  She said it was one of the best experiences she has ever had:

We sent word back to the crews of Willie Dawes and Sol Maria that they had to make Crystal River a stop on their journey.  Even sent them this map so they could get to the manatees via dinghy:

That night Nancy made some meat sauce and cooked pasta for us and Matt and Kathy and we had a nice meal on Hygge.  We could have stayed a week in Crystal River, and I would have liked to get a turn in the water with the manatees, but we need to get to Ft. Meyers/Naples by the 16th to meet up with our son, Jack, who is flying down to meet us for Christmas.  Our daughter Charlotte and Nancy's sister Patty are also coming down as well.  

Dave

Odometer:  1,730 n/m

GL030: Knotting and Splicing

I’ve read approximately eighty British Naval Historical fiction books and in most of them their ship goes through a bad storm and when it is over, they spend a few days “knotting and splicing” ripped rigging and repairing broken spars.   That is what Friday, December 1^st was for us.  My luggage rack design was obviously not up to the task of bigger seas, so with the help of the marine supply section of the local Ace Hardware and various spare parts I had onboard, I significantly strengthened the set up by bracing the rack with poles on either side:

That night we had a quintessential “Looper” moment: a potluck dinner with other boaters.   We got to share our “sea tales” of the crossing on Thursday, and again, everyone had something that broke.   

 

On Saturday the 2^nd, Nancy and I walked up to taco-truck for breakfast, and each got a latte’ at the coffee-truck.   The latte’s felt like we were back in civilization a bit, though Steinhatchee, Fl is not exactly a metropolis. 

The proprietor of the trucks told us that it is one of the last of the “old Florida” towns, “Like Florida used to be sixty years ago before all the development and condo buildings.”  

Amazingly it had been hit by a hurricane just three months earlier (“Idalia”).   There was still a fair amount of debris around town but remarkably put back together given the footage we saw on Youtube.  The storm surge at the marina:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPFOBiiYU0

Still have some debris piles.  They had trucks going on Sunday removing debris.

Poor boats around town:

I had another "bumpy" ;-)

 

Later that day Nancy and Kathy went to a school bazaar, and I did some boat-cleaning and went for round three with the dinghy.   I located another leak and smeared it with silicone sealant.  Time will tell the results of this attempt.  When Nancy got back with some nice treats, she started on the inside of the boat and cleaned the cockpit area.    She also came back with some local knowledge:  Steinhatchee is known for its stone crabs and scallops.  It happens to be stone crab season and a local restaurant was having a craft fair on Sunday, so we made plans to sample some crabmeat and check out the crafts.

I took some time out to sit and have my first cigar since, well I'm not quite sure since when, but I did enjoy it.    That night Kathy made us all Italian sausage for dinner and we watched Jeopardy!

Sunday morning found me catching up with work items washing out rags in a bucket from the day before.  The marina's laundry facility was destroyed in the hurricane and they have yet to get it back online, so it was "doing it old school" for me.   

A nice lady that Nancy and Kathy had met the day before gave us a ride to "Kathi's Crabs" for the craft fair and stone crabs as it was raining.   The crabs were good, but so much effort for so little meat!

We walked the 1.5 miles back along the river to the marina where the pelicans rule:

 

Dave