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Wednesday 15th February
After taking Buddy for his last walk in the Keys for a while, we up anchor and head through the Moser Channel under the ‘7-Mile Bridge’ and motorsail in the general direction of north towards the tip of Florida.
The crab pots were like a minefield and half way across we got a line tangled round the prop. when we were just sailing. On starting the engine there was an ominous thump-thump from below so nothing for it but to drop the anchor and go take a look. With the help of Carol’s best Cutco knife I managed to cut the two floats off that were rotating with the prop and bumping the hull.
Engine back on, anchor up and on our way.
Just like last time we did that trip, we had favourable winds allowing us to anchor off the western shore of Cape Sable just above Florida mainland’s southern most point.
It’s a beautiful wild place devoid of human habitation.
John and I took Buddy ashore.
Only one other boat anchored with us.
Thursday 16th February
The wind was moderate and coming from the east so we raised the sails and sailed away from the anchorage without even starting the engine – not too often you can do that.
It was a short trip to Little Shark River and the peaceful spot we were in two years previously.
This time I did some advance scouting with Google Map satellite views and found the closest ‘land’ for Buddy to run around on. It turned out that the first choice didn’t seem to be anything but mangroves. However, a few dinghy miles further we found a beach and Buddy got to stretch his legs.
When we returned to the anchorage another boat had joined us that had a problem with crab-pot lines. He was in his seventies and apprehensive about diving down to fix the problem so John and I volunteered our services for the following day.
Movie of the day: Sahara – just like the Clive Cussler Dirk Pit novel I once read – I will never read another.
Friday 17th February
When I took Buddy for his morning constitutional John came with me for the dolphin encounter of a lifetime. As we were planing across Ponce de Lion Bay we were surrounded by them, racing on either side of us. I slowed down to possible avoid hurting them, but then they seemed to lose interest. As soon as we speeded up again they started chasing us again. We could have reached out and touched them on either side of the dinghy. One of them went directly under the dinghy and then surfaced right in front of us, flicking spray at us with his tail! It did this several times, incredible. Of course neither of us had a camera!
After breakfast John and I donned wet-suits, masks and flippers and went over to deal with the crab-pot lines. John actually did all the work but then again he has had years of diving experience. I just swam around giving him moral support! We then went over to Incognita and got off the last bits wrapped around the prop.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out in Little Shark River. When we took Buddy ashore in the evening we saw lots of dolphins but no close encounters this time.
Saturday 18th February
We made and early start the next morning and motorsailed to Indian Key. We headed up towards Everglades City and anchored in Russell Pass.
A small shell beach served for Buddy’s walk.
Movie of the day: Lady in the Water – pretty silly.
Sunday 19th February
The plan was to visit Everglades City this time around but the there was way too much wind and waves for the long dinghy journey. So we spent the day just swinging on the hook.
Monday 20th February
Taking advantage of the incoming tide we set out with both dinghies for Everglades City. It was a 1/2hr dinghy ride at below planing speed but very pleasant.
Everglades City is a big centre for tourist trips using these boats:
They were everywhere and they make lots of noise.
We tied up at a waterside café and sampled the local fare.
Took a walk into the centre of town which is strangely spread out and sparsely inhabited.
Visited the one supermarket and headed back to the dinghies. It was quite hot with little wind so it was a relief to get back on the water and moving.
The Rod and Gun Club seems to be some kind of local institution.
Tuesday 21st February
Time to move on. Back into the Gulf and ½ hr of sailing with no motor in very rolly following seas. Carol got a little seasick and slept down below most of the time.
It took us until about 4:30 to be anchored in Factory Bay at Marco Island, you have to make a long slog west to make it around the shoals to the SW of Marco.
Movie of the Day: Why Has Bodhi Darma Left For The East – incomprehensible for other than a Zen master we think.
Wednesday 22nd February
We all took a trip ashore to do some shopping. Carol found an item of clothing she’s been looking for everywhere and we made the inevitable pilgrimage to Publix.
Tuesday 23rd February
Last time we came up the east coast we passed by Naples, but this time after reading an article about the moorings there we made the trip in-land to the City Marina and took a couple of their reasonably priced moorings.
Movie of the day: Traitor – We got ½ way through it before realizing we’d seen it already and it wasn’t worth a second go.
Friday 24th February
Started the day with an excellent breakfast at the only place (The Cove Inn) close by. A day for laundry since this has been our first opportunity since Marathon.
Some guys were cutting fish from a charter boat on the dock and I asked them if I could I buy any fish. They said they couldn’t sell me any but they gave me a couple of huge fillets of King Mackerel – nothing like any mackerel we ever had.
Before that, however, we took a walk down to the beach to watch the sun go down.
There were dozens of people watching the sunset. It was difficult to walk to the end of the pier.
Saturday 25th February
Took a walk to the farmer’s market which was definitely up-market compared to most of them.
We got some good food and I bought a CD of the duo that was entertaining the shoppers - Terra Guitarra – they were very good and so is the album.
Couldn’t resist taking a picture of this ‘unused’ dock which seems to be pelican central.
Movie of the day: A Little Princess – Really made for kids (as you might imagine with a title like that).
Sunday 26th February
Bilbo’s outboard motor is no longer squirting out cooling water – this is bad. A second wi-fi amplifier blows up on us, perhaps the computer USB port is doing something bad?
Monday 27th February
Without the wi-fi amp I still manage to download the Oscars overnight. However, we won’t be watching them in Naples as today we are moving on to Fort Myers Beach.
By mid-afternoon we are on mooring balls in Matanzas Harbour in Fort Myers Beach, also a place we spent time in two years ago.
After having to change mooring balls because apparently we were too long for the one we had chosen (???) we all went ashore for happy hour and pizza.
There were distant thunderstorms and light rain but nothing bad.
Tuesday 28th February
All ashore for laundry and good Internet. I ordered a replacement wi-fi amp and started looking at new netbooks while Rejeanne went to the beach and Carol and John went wandering around.
We had an Oscar night complete with Japanese commentary.
Wednesday 29th February
All ashore and a trip to Publix on the Trolley which is really just a bus done up to look like an old street car. In the afternoon we took a walk to the beach for a welcome cooling swim (except for Carol of course).
Ospreys abound down here and we even got one on the boat for a while.
Movie of the day: From Paris With Love – Muchos bang bang action.
Thursday 1st March
Fort Myers Beach got a visit from the Budweiser draft horses.
Quite a setup with two huge horse boxes and goodness knows what to move the cart around.
Another trip to the beach and a cooling swim.
Friday 2nd March
John started work on fixing his outboard and I went over to help. We got stuck at removing the lower unit, neither of us having done this before. John found a mechanic who was willing to come right away so I went ashore and picked him up. He didn’t do much, John did all the work but he did offer advice and didn’t charge much at all. But when John took the water pump apart there was nothing wrong with it so the guy said the problem was probably just a blockage.
Dropped off the mechanic at the dock and picked up our new netbook fresh from Amazon.
Saturday 3rd March
John had his outboard back on his dinghy and they were off ashore to go see a movie. We belatedly tried to follow but missed the connecting bus that would have got us there on time so dejectedly went back to the boat.
Sunday 4th March
A change in the weather with overcast skies and strong NW winds.
Met one of our neighbours, Ken Jackson on Southern Journey, a Kiwi who has lived most of his life in North America and now plans to sail back to New Zealand on his 28’ sailboat.
Discovered that our new netbook memory cannot be upgraded contrary to Amazon’s web page. I accept a $75 discount rather than wait three weeks for a new computer.
Monday 5th March
Laundry day again!!!
On my birthday when we were here last time, we went to Nervous Nellie’s and had a really good meal. Anxious to sample their spicy mussels (at least I was) we all went and had a rare restaurant meal.
Tuesday 6th March
A day of high winds and computing aboard.
Wednesday 7th March
Carol was finally persuaded to have an e-reader so one was promptly ordered.
A walk to the beach and swim.
Thursday 8th March
We had a pow wow aboard Incognita with John and Rejeanne and Ken Jackson about our imminent trip along the Okeechobee waterway.
Last trip to Publix.
Friday 9th March
8 o’clock and we’re heading out of Matanzas Harbour and into the gulf for a short while before heading east past Fort Myers (the city) and to the Franklin Lock, a pretty spot we stopped at last time.
Ken had left at first light and we met up with him here.
We got there just in time before we got a couple of hours of heavy rain.
Movie of the day: We Are Marshal –too all American, what can I say!
Saturday 10th March
Franklin Lock should be a very quiet spot and it would have been except for this damn bird screeching all night – we assume there was more than one of them. I would have gladly thrown a rock at it.
Called in at Port Labelle for a pump out where we left the boat over summer a couple of years ago. Met up with the couple that cut Buddy’s hair.
On the way through the Ortona lock the lockmaster asked us if we’d lost a cell-phone back at the Franklin Lock. No we hadn’t, but wondered who had.
We anchored for the night in a piece of water called the lollipop. This aerial view illustrates why.
Well, it sort of looks like one.
Sunday 11th March
Remember that lost cell phone? I found that my Dell Axim, a PDA that’s looks suspiciously like a modern cell-phone was missing so slowly dawns on me that it was I who left my Axim in the washrooms at the Franklin Lock.
After several phone calls I located Ranger Phil Hart who had my Axim. To our amazement he offered to drive it to the locks at Moorehaven where we would pass through later in the day. Wow! Am I lucky when I lose things or what?
Sure enough when we got to the Moorehaven Lock my Axim was waiting for me. Pretty amazing when you consider I left it somewhere I wasn’t supposed be – the washrooms are for the camp site NOT for boaters as John and Rejeanne found out at the Franklin Lock where they were yelled at by some belligerent ex-employee. Not only that, the guy drove 60m one way to return it.
When we got to Clewiston we found Ken already tied to the dolphins (large posts in the water with cleats) there. We have never done that before, however, it couldn’t be that hard, could it?
Turned out to be not that bad, but it would be tricky without a dinghy and if the wind was in the wrong direction.
Ken came over with a bottle of excellent vintage Spanish wine and we had happy hour aboard Incognita.
Monday 12th March
Time to cross Lake Okeechobee. Up early and ashore in the dark and then out into the lake. It was probably a bit windier than we would have liked ‘cos we sure heeled some but we made it across in good time.
We anchored out in the canal at the Indiantown Marina while Bilbo continued on down to the St. Lucie Lock.
Carol picked up her Kindle from the marina and I spent an hour trying to find something in the RV that turned out to be aboard the boat all the time – sigh!
Tuesday 13th March
Off again down to the Atlantic, well at least the eastern Intracoastal. Through the St. Lucie Lock where we locked with this strange vessel:
It’s a wind powered catamaran. Well you might say that all boats with a sail are wind powered. However this (homemade) oddity has a huge windmill that drives a shaft that drives a prop in the water.
Past Stuart and the “&^%&^%” power boaters there and down the Intracoastal a little way to meet up with Bilbo in Peck Lake.
Wednesday 14th March
Motorsailed up the Intracoastal to Fort Pierce and took a trip ashore for provisions,
Thursday 15th March
Motorsailing again to Vero Beach where we took a mooring rafted up as is the custom there.
Movie of the day: August Rush – Highly improbable but fun anyway.
Friday 16th March
Free buses to Publix, ABC Wines, Movie Theatres and everything we could want.
We started with Publix and ABC.
Saturday 17th March
Hanging around on the boat and fixing things.
John and Rejeanne rented a car to go visit his brother and sister who were staying in Kissimmee near Orlando.
Sunday 18th March
Laundry day. Movie of the day: Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Turned out to part ½ as the last half wasn’t there. Better copy required.
Substitute movie of the day: Leonard Cohen at the Isle of Wight – Not to be missed by Cohen fans.
Monday 19th March
John and Rejeanne returned from their trip and we discovered Fresh Market, a wonderful new gourmet supermarket in Vero – you could spend a lot of money on food there.
Tuesday 20th March
We took the bus to Indian River Mall (the big Vero Beach Mall) to buy a tarp to keep the sun off the boat
We have visitors coming so time to start tidying (and cleaning) up.
Movie of the day: Fool's Gold – Pretty bad. Who knew there mountains in Key West?
Saturday 24th March
Tidying up and stocking up.
John and Rejeanne came over for happy hour. We’ll miss these guys when they leave before us.
Movie of the day: Nim's Island – really a kid’s movie but it’s well done and Jodi Foster is always good.
Sunday 25th March
More tidying up and laundry.
We got a thunderstorm in the middle of the day with lots of rain.
Monday 26th March
Our new netbook was not getting the battery life advertised so I had arranged with Asus to return it. The day started with a trip to the post office to send it off and then when we got we picked up Richard and Feliciy Wormleighton our longtime friends from Ottawa and ferried them over to the boat.
After lunch we took a trip over to the beach for a ‘swim’. The strong north east winds made for a bracing dip
We ate aboard and talked until bedtime while John and Rejeanne did the same next door with his sister and husband on their way back from Key West.
Tuesday 27th March
We had a huge fried breakfast and then sat around on the boat until it was time for our guests to leave and head back to their friend’s condo in Daytona Beach.
Bilbo’s guests were gone too so we had nightcaps aboard Bilbo to continue the socializing.
Wednesday 28th March
Movie day at the AMC again: A Separation – excellent movie (won best foreign movie Oscar), should be required watching for all war mongering Americans. Iranians are just like us.
Thursday 29th March
Fridge defrost and cleanout day, a big event in the cruising life.
Friday 30th March
Publix for restocking
Saturday 31st March
Publix again (?)
Sunday 1st April
John and Rejeannne are about to leave so we had them over for a last supper.
Monday 2nd April
Last happy hour aboard Bilbo for a long time.
Tuesday 3rd April
7 a.m. and Bilbo cast off from us and headed south to Indiantown.
We are alone, but not for long.
Wednesday 4th April
Buddy got a haircut from Robin the traveling dog groomer.
Met John & Ann on Moonlight who sailed their boat from the UK.
Thursday 5th April
Movie day. As we neared the movie theatre on the bus we saw unusual birds close to the parking lot. We spoke to two people who assured us that that this family of Sandhill Cranes are quite famous around those parts.
The movie: John Carter – Total nonsense but entertaining in 3D.
Friday 6th April
High winds from the west.
Visited Moonlight for a chat.
Saturday 7th April
Much cooler with a visit to Publix and ABC liquor store. Boy these trips to Publix seem pretty frequent.
Sunday 8th April
Laundry day again. Got our netbook battery back from Asus, let’s see if that’s any kind of improvement.
Over to Moonlight for a movie swap and happy hour.
A free Domino’s pizza for supper – not that bad.
Monday 9th April
Movie of the day: Without a Clue – cute!
Tuesday 10th April
Did a test on the Asus netbook’s supposed 10hr battery life. In less than 5 hrs of very light use it shut off!!!
John and Ann came over to watch a movie. Galaxy Quest was the chosen flick – what more can one say, a total classic.
Wednesday 11th April
An email to Asus complaining about their misrepresentation resulted in a response that what I experienced is ‘normal’. I responded by pointing out that getting less than 5 hrs when you are promised 10 is not ‘normal’ it’s actually called false advertising. They don’t seem to care because there was no reply to that.
Thursday 12th April
Over to Moonlight to say goodbye before they headed down to West Palm Beach to ship their boat back to the UK.
Saturday 14th April
Carol took a trip to Publix and we met up with Marilyn & Vic on Whisper, Newfoundlanders we first met on Geoff and Bunkie’s Party of Two in Marathon and then met again in Warderick Wells, Bahamas where had a snorkeling trip together.
Back at the boat I installed our new FM radio. Due to the fact that most radios on boats are car radios with removable faceplates lots of problems occur due to bad connections between the faceplate and the radio. Ours had been driving us crazy, so we ordered an actual marine radio with SD card, USB and external input, conformally coated, with marine weather band for $50!!! It works better than the replaced Pioneer and has a remote control. God bless those Chinese workers.
We finished watching Donnie Brasco – excellent gangster movies though quite violent.
Sunday 15th April
After communicating with Amazon we find they are willing to take back the Asus netbook, even after nearly two months use, so we went ahead and ordered a replacement. Asus you are dead to me!
Monday 16th April
Carol went to Publix to get goodies to serve Marilyn and Vic when they came over for happy hour.
Tuesday 17th April
New Acer netbook arrived a day ahead of schedule so the tedious process of reloading everything commences.
We went over to Whisper for happy hour with Marilyn and Vic.
Wednesday 18th April
Got a phone call from Chris and Divya (Maggie M) who we last saw in Marathon, to tell us they were in the mooring field at the other end from us.
I went over to say hi and print out the return authorization for the Asus.
Later in the day it was happy hour again aboard Maggie M with Marilyn and Vic joining us.
Thursday 19th April
Whisper left for their summer storage place up in Georgia.
Another thunderstorm rolled through with lots of rain.
Friday 20th April
Chris and Divya were eager to go to the movies with us even though there wasn’t much on that excited any of us. 21 Jump Street was a lot of fun.
When we got back we found we had a boat rafted to us just in time for a very severe thunderstorm with hail and someone claimed up to 57mph winds. It was pretty scary with no visibility and the boat heeling over like crazy.
Saturday 21st April
When we got up our immediate neighbour had already moved.
Time to stock up for our journey back to Indiantown so a last trip to Publix as buses don’t run on Sundays.
Then we had Chris and Divya aboard for happy hour.
Sunday 22nd April
It was my birthday so we dinghied over to the nearby Riverside Restaurant with Chris and Divya for supper.
We ate way too much including deserts and had to go for a walk to ease the pain.
Monday 23rd April
Time to move on. On hitching up the dinghy you can see the results of staying in a place like Vero Beach for a month.
It was a carpet of green.
Friday 13th April
We noticed right away that we must have barnacles on Incognita’s propeller because we got vibration and lack of speed. Perhaps at that point we should not have continued.
But with the genoa giving us some help we made reasonable progress and as the wind picked up we even turned the motor off. Then the wind gusts got way to strong and we had to furl in most of the genny and turn the motor back on.
When we started up the St. Lucie River to Stuart we found we had timed things really badly. Our speed at some points was down to less than a knot and we were pushing the engine way too hard.
When the engine vibrations seemed to get louder we decided to anchor and call for a tow. Within half an hour we were being towed at six knots to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart and a mooring next to Maggie M.
Carol was not in the mood for cooking so we went to the restaurant that’s part of the marina. It’s a very nice place with excellent food.
Tuesday 24th April
Maggie M was due back in Indiantown two days before us so they left and we stayed on the mooring where we arranged for a very nice lady with scuba gear to come and clean our propeller.
Movie of the day: He's Just Not That Into You – very enjoyable.
Wednesday 25th April
After heading over to the fuel dock for a pump out we headed on our way to Indiantown and arrived in time to make the 1 o’clock opening of the St. Lucie Lock.
Anchoring on the West side of the lock is one of our favourite spots and we weren’t due back until the Thursday so we dropped anchor and spent a relaxing time watching the schools of tilapia swimming by.
Movie of the day: Borat – If you’ve seen it you know, if you haven’t you probably don’t want to.
Thursday 26th April
We were on the dock in Indiantown before 1 o’clock and I went off to unwrap the RV. That went OK except when I came to start it, the battery was dead. There was a reason for that which wasn’t apparent at the time. Anyway, Chris came and gave me a jump start and after driving it round for half an hour it restarted fine.
Maggie M had us over for supper which was a nice way to end our first day getting ready to put the boat away.
Friday 27th April
Took the dinghy for a last run to get the outboard thoroughly rinsed out with fresh water, put it up on the boat and hauled the dinghy out to remove the vegetable garden off the bottom.
Maggie M got hauled out and Carol Divya went to pay our boat registration fee at the local Sherriff’s office and a trip to Rines while I got the sails down.
We had pizza on the marina patio with Chris and Divya then watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in the RV – very hard movie to follow but also well done. We let Chris and Divya sleep in the RV since their boat was now in the yard and pretty hard to sleep in.
Saturday 28th April
The weather was overcast which made working on the boat a little pleasanter without the usual blazing sun.
We cleared out the forward cabin. Chris and Divya left for their trek north to Massachusetts.
Scraped off the bottom of the dinghy and hoisted it back onto the boat.
Moved the RV to the RV park in the marina and crashed for the night.
Sunday 29th April
Lugged the sails back to the boat, cleared out the aft cabin and generally hefted stuff from the boat to the RV. This is everyone’s worst part of the seasonal cruising life.
Monday 30th April
After a last pump out, I removed the holding tank and the next thing we were hauled.
Tuesday 1st May
Performed all the jobs involved in readying the boat to be left in a climate where a hurricane might wander by, including taking one of the solar panels off to put on the RV.
Wednesday 2nd May
The sun’s back out so working in the afternoon is brutal. However, tarping of the boat is started and it’s the last job.
Thursday 3rd May
Up early before the heat starts to finish the tarping and the boat is done.
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