Wed 3-2-2011

 

Turned on the anchor light on and the circuit breaker would trip. A little investigation and I found the problem. Where the wire goes through the radar arch had rubbed the insulation off the wire letting it short out. I put some electrical tape around the wire and then filled the excess space in the hole with a small piece swimming pool noodle.

Did some house keeping while the Cobb grill did the cooking of some chicken. Fixed a salad to go with it. That made a fine dinner. Sitting in the cockpit watching the sunset.

Waited until 0900. Found a West Marine in Naples that has my chart chip. Got underway around 0915. Worked my way out of the harbor and back on course for the last few miles of the GIWW. At 1200 crossed the GIWW 5 mile marker. 331 miles from Carrabelle 50 hours travel time. Did I say it has been a real PITA having to go back to paper charts. That’s a lot of work.

1530 entered Gordon Pass at Naples. What a beautiful entrance if anything looks like Florida this is it. With the help of my Garmin I found that the West Marine is up Naples Bay and down a canal. I worked up way as close as I could. When I found a dock and ask the dock master the location of West Marine, he pointed across the parking lot. It was about 200 feet away. He said I could tie up to go to WM. I went in to get the chart. He didn’t have it. He said I must have called the other Naples store. He placed the call and sure enough they had it. It was only 2 miles away. I trucked off on foot to the other store to get there before they closed.

 

 

It was about 1860 by the time I got back to the boat. By then the marina was closed and everyone gone. Since is was now dark, looked to me like a good place to just stay the night.

Shortly after I got back to the boat Jim C-Brat (jennykatz) gave me a call on the phone. He lives about 15 miles form where I was. Since neither of us had eaten yet he said he would come pick me up and we’d go get a burger some place. He showed up in short and off we went. He gave me the tour of Naples and had a great visit. When we got back to the boat he pointed out some things on the charts.

3-3-2011

Jim had pointed out the best (cheapest) place to get fuel. I got to the America Marine Club around 0800 and topped off the tanks. I then motored down to the county dock by Gordon Pass. Jim didn’t have to work today so he met me again. We drove to an ACE hardware where I was able to get some butane for my Kenyon Stove. We then picked up a Cuban sandwich and went to his boat. We went to where my boat was and then he traveled with me partway to Marco. We stopped at a nice place to eat lunch. After lunch Jim headed back to Naples and I continued South.

I putted all the way to Goodland. This is the last inland place to hold up before going outside again. My late afternoon the winds were up again out of the East. I looked like I could be in Goodland for a few days. I checked out the area and ended up at the Calusa Island Marine. I didn’t even get tied up when the dock master showed up and said “that’s a C-Dory. Our Service manager has one of those.” I went to the office and found Susie Keirn. She and her husband Sam own 2002 CD 22. “MUSKRAT” Susie was full of local knowledge and weather interpreter. Like I had observed this morning was good but got bad in the afternoon. It is suppose to be worse tomorrow but if its calm I could make it to Everglades City. She said Everglades was a much better place to hang out. There are many places to walk, several restaurants and even a grocery store. There is none of this in Goodland. She also pointed out a very good anchorage. I went to the area and set the hook. Even back where I was the wind was whipping and my c-dory would swing 180 deg. By midnight the wind started lying down. Looks like I may be able to make a go of it in the morning. The only problem was where I was I could not pick up any WiFi and even the cell signal was very weak. I tried to call Mary Jo but dropped the call three times.

3-4-2011

0630 Moved the boat around the corner and was able to pickup a wifi. The wind was calm. Checked the weather on the internet. The morning looked good. Off to Everglades City. Nice cursing. I could see that on many of the islands people had set up tents and were camping for the week-end. I got to the outer marker for Everglades City and followed the well marked channel into town. Once again Garmin helped out it showed me a circle K that was close to a canal. I went to the location and topped off the tanks with 11 gal of gas. I walked the town for a couple of hours. Found the store and public library. I went in used their computer to check email and the weather. Once again the forecast is not good for tomorrow but Sun and Mon look good.

In walking the waterfront I found another C-Dory.

There are too jobs in the place. Commercial fisherman and Airboat tour operator. I have never seen so many in one place. They are everywhere, going along with from 4 to 6 tourists. I also can’t figure out where all the customers are coming from. They must have a central booking place somewhere. Every few min on the marine radio I hear some one calling out how many customers they have and someone answering back with the next departure time.

Tuesday 3-1-11

 

0815  Underway, Sunny with some breeze.  Things not working.  The hobbs meter is stuck and not showing the engine hours.  That’s not a big deal because the NEMA 2000 network also has engine hours.  Today the the Lowrance NEMA 2000 gps stopped working.  I don’t know what the problem is.  I tried resetting but it is just dead.  The is also not a major problem because the only thing this gps does is connect to the engine gauge network.  It lets me get a fuel flow reading in miles per gal.  That handy for figuring the best rpm’s to run. 

Ran along just enjoying the sights until I got to Cabbage Key.  A friend said this was a good place to stop for a night.  It is well protected and there is a very nice restaurant with docks.  I stopped but I was the only boat there and no one in the restaurant so I went to plan B and just went on a few more miles to Safety Harbor at North Captiva Island.  Now I really liked it here. It is only accessible by boat. There are several houses here a a couple of restaurants.  The best part is, I picked up several strong WiFi connections.  It’s a bit tricky to get into especially because the Navionics chat that I have for my Hummingbird Gps does NOT have detailed charts South of Venice.  I thought it did.  This is going to be a real PITA.  All the electronics now days makes one very lazy.  I do have paper charts.  They show you where a sandbar is but not where you are.  I’ve got to see if I can find a chart chip for the GPS.  It’s too much work trying to figure out where you are.  Navigating a route along the ICW is not too bad but getting off the beaten path is another.

Picture way back in Safety Harbor

BIRDS

Monday 2-28-11

 

Yesterday was a very easy going pleasant day.  The weather was picture perfect.  I just tooled around day at 5 mph.  That was great for gas mileage.  I got 7.5 mpg.  The week-end boaters all out.  They were going every which way.  All creating 3 foot wakes.  I did a little fishing along the way but the fish were the lucky ones.  I ended the day a Welch Bridge that goes to Madeira.  27  48.542n  82 47.630w.  It is an ideal spot very well protected.  There is a McDonalds and a Publix there.  McDonalds has a very nice floating dock. 

              

See the little John boat in the one picture?  There were four or five of these rag tag type boats at the dock.  I couldn’t figure them out.  They were all beat up, obviously being used but not for fishing.  I saw no fishing gear.  Anyway I went in MacD’s and got an order of fries.  I ask the manager about buying a bucket of ice.  The one in Pensacola will.  The lady manager said “no, I always give you guys some.  Bring in your bucket.”  It wasn’t until about 8pm that I figured it out.  The boat’s belong to a flotilla of local homeless.  There are all kinds of little islands around.  These guy’s just pick one out and call in home.  They come into the dock and go to the store for supplies.  They all started coming back to the boat about dark and were all gone by 7:30. 

For my dinner I fired up the grill and had one of the two rib eyes that I brought.  I been putting a little “Slap Ya Mama”  cajun seasoning on mine before cooking.  My o my is that ever good.  

Got up around 6 am took a little walk before casting off for the day.  It started out another nice day with zero wind.  That didn’t last too long.  Sunny but the wind just keep blowing harder and harder. By the time it came to crossing Tampa Bay it was really blowing.  They are doing some dredging at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  I called the tug on the radio and said the his wind gauge was reading 35 mph.  Even though I was getting bounced around I got a neat picture of a ship coming under the bridge.  I couldn’t get across the channel fast enough so I had wait for him to pass. 

After crossing Tampa Bay I went a few more miles to Longboat Key.  I was given specific instructions by a friend that I must eat at MOORE’S Stone Crab Restaurant.  http://www.mooresstonecrab.com/id1.html

  

SUNDAY 2-27-11

LEG III

2-27-11

What another outstanding day. Got up around 6am. A little fog but it burned off as soon as the sun came up. The wind was dead still. I piddled around the boat for awhile trying to get things a little organized. Then fixed me some scrambled eggs and then took one last stroll around the neighborhood before starting the engine hitting the water.

I got off the dock at 0840. I have no plans or destination for today. When I leave Hudson and turn on a southerly course it’s about 9 miles before I pick up mile 150 of the intracoastal waterway at the juncture to Tarpon Springs.

Leg III

 

LEG III

It has been just too long since Leg II but that is just life. Too many things going on. It’s hell being retired. You just don’t have time to do anything. Well last week I saw a post on the c-brat forum from some c-brats that were on the way to the keys. It got me motivated. I did some calculations and decided I had to leave like now if I was going to have any time at all for Leg III.

The boat was pretty much ready. A few months back I had done some re-arranging of some of the electronics and mainly dressing up the inevitable rats nets of wires behind the dash. I did add a fluxgate compass that I had retained from previous boats. I cut about a 5 in by 7in access hole in bunk in the v-berth for a place to install the sensor for the compass.

I also overhauled the breaks on the trailer in Sept. It had 13” tires but my cousin gave me an almost new set of 14” trailer tires and I wanted to swap those out. I thought that would be easy enough, just go get some 14” rims at the junk yard for a couple of bucks. Wrong. I spent two days tracking that down. I could find rims with the correct lug pattern but the center hole on a trailer tire needs to be bigger than the rims that fit a car. The with of the rim may also be different but I didn’t get that far. I just ended up buying new rims with new tires. I would have left the 13’s on but the plan is for Mary Jo to drive the two vehicle and trailer to Jacksonville and I would feel better knowing she had new tires.

The biggest thing I needed before leaving on the trip was a new SPOT tracker. Then came out last year with a Delorme gps/spot combination. That will let you type in short messages to send rather than just the canned OK and or help message. I like the idea of being able to pass on a little detail, especially if I ever had to send a request for HELP. I could tell what the problem is rather than just saying I need some help. I ordered that from AMAZON and it was due to get here on Tuesday. All I would have to do is activate it and I would be ready to leave. Well it got here but it didn’t work so just activated my old unit and sent the new one back.

All of this delayed me being able to get to Carrabelle until Thursday. Now weather is an issue. The first of the week the weather was perfect. Now there are two back to back fronts closing in with not much of window until next week. I took the gamble and Mary Jo and I headed to Carrabelle. I figured she could drop me off and I would just wait it out if need be. Winter weather in the panhandle is a coin toss at best. The initial forecast had some promise for Sat. The Moorings at Carrabelle is a combination Marina and Motel. The have a great deal, you get a free boat slip a room rental. The place is really nice. Well Mary Jo stayed Thursday night and left Friday morning. The wind was blowing just like the weatherman said. Every hour I would put up the weather and track the front. At about 2pm the front came through Carrabelle. About a hour later the winds laid down switched to the west. Now they were saying that by Sat the wind would clock around the East and Southeast at 15 and seas 2-3. This is the worst direction for Carrabelle. Anything with East in it is bad and 2 to 3 there is like 5 to 7 and I’d be going straight into it. It didn’t sound fun. Now looked like the best time. I had a plan. Go across the bay, around the East end of Dog Island, stick my nose out and if I didn’t like what I saw there is a good anchorage on the East end of Dog Island.

I started loading the boat at 1600 and was under way at 1615. I turned to a heading of 100 degree after passing green #1 at the entrance to Carrabelle. At 1750 rpm I was making 6.5k. The wind was still about 15 in the bay but it from the SW and I was riding with it. When I cleared the island the wind was coming a bit more from the south but it wasn’t too bad. At 1900 rpm I was making 6mph. The boat was rolling some but not enough to toss everything on the floor. I figured I could ride the backside of this front all the way. I set a course to the marker off Cedar Key and set George, the autopilot. Distance 90 miles.

All went well. Even after it got dark and was it ever dark. No moon. No lights from shore. You know once it gets dark the weather always seems a little worse than it is but not tonight. The winds and seas just kept laying down. By about 2130 the stars were out in their full glory. What a view. I haven’t seen such a sight for many years. But that was short lived by midnight the fog rolled in. I mean from the back of the boat I couldn’t hardly see the front of the boat but the good thing was the Gulf of Mexico became the Lake of Mexico. Things stayed like this all night. By sunrise I was just off of Cedar Key where I had planned to make a landing, rest and fuel the boat. Even though the fog was still there I could now see well enough to see just how calm it was. The fog did thin some to where I could see about ¼ mile at times. I had plenty of fuel I had only used about 20 gal of my 58 that I had. I decided to take advantage of the calm gulf and run at cruise speed to Hudson which is just north of Tarpon Springs. I have always gone in at Tarpon but my canvass guy told me about Hudson. It is a good find. More about Hudson later. I kicked her up to 1900 rpm and made 20 mph for the 70 mile run. By 0830 the fog had burned off. By 1050 I was in Hudson.

This is a great place. 28 21.704N 82 42.555W. There is a string of canals with houses but at the end of one is a county boat launce. It is very well maintained with clean public rest rooms and a floating dock with enough room for at least 8 boats. There is no electric or water but you can stay here for up to 18 hours. Actually I talked to Marine Patrol officer that told me that in reality unless you were there more than 3 or 4 days they wouldn’t say anything. There are two or three places to eat within a block the best being Ollie’s Oyster Bar. You can also dock your boat at Ollie’s. There is also a couple of marinas with fuel. All in all this is a must stop location.

SuperLoop LegII

Well, it's been too long off of the water. My arm was getting to the point that I had to do something so went under the knife in Sept. The Dr. said I wouldn't even be able to drive a car for two months much less take a boat ride but I did much better than he expected. The 4th Annual Gulf Coast C-Brat Gathering in Apalachicola was this past week-end. At the last min I decided to take C-Lover East from Pensacola and join the group. This let me get Leg II of my Super Loop completed. The weather going down was great. I got ahead of a front that was working it's way from West to East. I left on Tuesday and only made it about 20 miles to Navarre the first day. On day two I went to Panama City. I found out that another C-Brat was just around the corner from where I was staying. I met up with Mike and Judy Taylor on the Papillon the next morning and we traveled together Thursday from Panama City to Apalachicola.

The gathering was great. Lots of great food and even better friends.

Marc Grove from Wefings Marine out did himself with great eats. We definitely put a hurting on the seafood supply on the Gulf Coast. I, of course, in the rush to get underway forgot to take my camera. I will try and pirate some of the pictures from the C-Brats and post them here.

Shucking OYSTERS

The food Line

MASTER CHEF Marc doing his magic

THE FEAST

Roger and Mike solving the worlds problems

CLUSTER of C-DORY’s

The next leg will be to cross the Gulf of Mexico from Apalachicola down to Tarpon Springs where I can pick up the ICW again.  I can’t see this happening until January but maybe December. 

Figured that I had better give an update. I got back to Pensacola from segment one and found several minor little mods that I need to make to C-Lover to make things a little better. I changed locations of the VHF radio and did some re-wiring to dress thing up. I had also completely lost the VHF antenna so also had to replace that. Complete fluid changes, etc. Now need to do a wax job. I also replaced the fuel filter with the one that has the clear bowl on the bottom so I can see if I'm picking up any crud and/or any water in the gas.

I had wanted to be back on the water by now for segment two but these things plus my Dad is having a few medical issues. I have to take him in on Tues for a heart cath. Now it's getting unbelievably hot here now. Until a week ago the evening temps were dropping to the 70* I may have to go with an AC for night time. We will see what next week brings and go from there.