Day 190: Friday, Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Port to Port: Belle Glade, Florida to Stuart, Florida

Underway: 12:00 pm    Motor Off: 2:00 pm     Miles Traveled: 7     Stayed At: Mooring Ball

First Things First: First time using a mooring ball; first time having an alligator swim leisurely by the front of the channel where were anchored.

Mile 15 to Mile 8: We were so comfortable in our little cove, we decided to stay another night. Why not – its free, quiet and completely protected. We needed ice, though, so we dinghied over to the state park to see if they had ice – no luck. And we met a not-so-nice park ranger – the first thing out of his mouth was not hi, how are you? He immediately told us Corp of Engineer rules allow only a one day stay in any given area. Our information said we could stay 2 days. But what business is it of this guy anyways?. Too much time on his hands, I guess. Maybe time for retirement.

So we decided to leave. Instead of spending money for ice and lunch and maybe gas in Belle Glade, we headed for Stuart less than a couple hours away. Except for gusty winds right on the nose, the voyage went smooth and we pulled up to the gas dock to get ice and arrange for a mooring ball. We headed back out and found our ball and slowly approached it when suddenly the motor died. We started drifting toward some other balls between a couple other boats (they are spaced very close together in this mooring field. The extra painter (bow line) for the dinghy somehow blew out of the boat and got sucked into the prop wrapping itself around tightly. We dropped the anchor but we were still drifting. Luckily, I was able to unwrap the line and restart the motor (one advantage of a small outboard). Our second try at the mooring ball went much smoother and we were soon securely tied off waiting for the wind to die down.

After resting a little, we packed up our dirty clothes and shower gear and dinghied through the choppy water to the dinghy dock. This is the first marina with key codes for everything – the laundry room, the restroom, the lounge and the dock gate. A few hours later, we were clean, our laundry was dry, we had a double batch of rice ready to go and we had a little local intelligence on good places to explore and eat in downtown Stuart. We met a couple from Fenelon Falls, Canada on the Trent Severn Canal System who spend the winter down here and they gave us a list of places worth checking out. We can’t wait.

The wind had died by the time we returned to the boat and Aurora was lying quiet at her mooring. As we made dinner, a beautiful sunset kept getting better and better until it finally set for good on another day on the Great Loop.

Day 189: Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Port to Port: Belle Glade, Florida to St Lucie, Florida

Underway: 7:19 am      Motor Off: 4:03 pm      Miles Traveled: 48      Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: First manually operated swing bridge at Torry Island; first time having ash from the big sugar cane burns falling like black snow around the boat.

Mile 63 to Mile 15: Even though we were tired, we got up predawn so we could get to the next bridge right at 7 am when it is open for the day. This was a pretty unique bridge – a guy from the Fish Camp walks up the road and over the bridge, manually unlatches the bridge, inserts a long pole into a turnstyle and starts manually turning the gears until the bridge opens. I’m pretty sure that gets old after 5 or 10 boats a day. But it moves fast and we were soon on our way to Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River. (FYI: Lake Okeechobee is the second biggest freshwater lake in the US and very shallow).

The morning started perfect for travel. A little cloudy but not threatening. We put up the sails and boosted our speed about 1 mph. For the first two hours of our journey, we had a wonderful passage motorsailing at about 6 mph with the wind on our stern. About a hour before the Port Mayaka Lock at the north east end of Lake Okeechobee, the waves were starting the build up fast and we were only probably 100’ offshore with very little room for error. The waves were skewing Aurora all around and we decided it was time to depower and drop the sails – easier said than done. After an exciting 10 minutes, we settled down a little but the waves were very uncomfortable and we were extremely happy to enter the lock where the water was flat and both doors were open so we didn’t have to wait to lock through. What a relief to be in protected waters again. We even got a nice boost from a little current adding about 1/2 mph down the channel. Except for a little sprinkle mid-afternoon, the day was a great travel day. It’s all downhill to the Atlantic Ocean.

We were originally going to stop and tie up to some dolphins (large pilings made up of 3 or more wood pilings lashed together spaced about 50’ apart) at the Port Mayaka Lock but they were somewhat exposed and it was only 11:30 in the morning – too early to stop – so we decided to keep going. After another long but productive day, we anchored just above the St Lucie lock in a tiny little dead end channel completely protected from the wind. We are excited to get to Stuart and start the next phase of our journey – the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean.

Day 188: Monday, March 11, 2013

Port to Port: La Belle, Florida to Belle Glade, Florida

Underway: 9:00 am      Motor Off: 7:20 pm      Miles Traveled: 50     Stayed At: Free Dock

First Things First: First time seeing alligators from the boat (after 15+ hours on the river); first time seeing sugar cane burns.

Mile 103 to Mile 65 and Mile 75 to Mile 63: After a late start waiting until the first bridge opening (they wait until after rush hour), we started what turned out to be a really long day. We had originally planned to stop in Clewiston but the weather was perfect for travel and a strong front is moving in that is going to stir up Lake Okeechobee making it difficult to navigate on Tuesday afternoon. And Wednesday. And maybe Thursday. So we just kept going. And going. And going. We were aiming for a little cove where we could anchor but found a nice new T-dock at a boat landing that had our name on it. The large parking lot was empty and no signs said we couldn’t stay. So we stayed.

It was a long day but the scenery was ever changing – at least on one side of the canal. The other side of the canal was a tall levee with random big, long piles of rocks along the canal. We couldn’t see anything on the other side but there may be some large-scale plantations over there – and roads of some kind. There were lots of birds along the natural side of the canal…and alligators. It took until almost sunset before we saw our first alligators from the boat. We even saw a couple big ones swimming along the shore (only 30’ from Aurora). What a rush. They look a lot more menacing when you are that close to the water.

By going so far today, we will only have 24 miles to go early tomorrow morning (with 15 miles of that out in the open along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee) which we are hoping to finish before noon to avoid any rain and big waves.

After we got tied up to our nice new floating dock, the sun was setting and we were exhausted. I decided to see what was on the other side of the levee and walked up the path and over the hill to look (the levee is about 70’ tall here). Civilization, sort of. There was a nice motorhome campground spread out at the bottom of the hill and a highway off in the distance. If I squinted I could see the tell-tale sign of some kind of gas station (I hoped). To be sure, I checked Google Maps on my phone and sure enough there was a gas station 1 mile away. I decided to fill up our empty container just in case we couldn’t find any later. The walk was much better than expected – normally I’m walking right next to traffic, in the gravel or weeds, to get to a gas station. Here, there was a nice, wide concrete sidewalk the whole way along the highway. Lucky since it was pitch dark by this time. I returned to the boat a little while later with enough gas to get us to the Atlantic Ocean and a pint of vanilla ice cream as a treat (we have some older strawberries we need to use up so we don’t waste them). We slept soundly.

In Passing: Hogpen Gully, Long Hammock Creek, Glade Land, Lake Hicpochee, Moore Haven, Grambling Plantation, Observation Island, Clewiston, Little Bare Beach, Halifax Bank

Day 187: Sunday, March 10, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida to Labelle, Florida

Underway: 8:28 am     Motor Off: 3:14 pm     Miles Traveled: 32    Stayed At: Free Dock

First Things First: Cindy’s first time seeing a manatee from the boat – we saw its nose and then it rolled a little and flipped its tail; first time seeing a cow in someone’s front yard.

Mile 135 to Mile: 103: We’re off! We finally broke free of our marina fix and headed across Florida. It was nice to be underway going somewhere again. And we enjoy watching the changing scenery passing by at a little over 5 mph. We went through one swing, three basqule draw bridges and one lock (plus a couple tall bridges which we passed under just fine) in our 32 miles.

The locks are interesting along the Okeechobee Waterway. They are smaller than the ones we have been used to and, instead of opening valves and letting water in or out through underwater pipes, they just open the doors a little to let a waterfall of water flow in/out. Simple and effective but kind of disconcerting seeing a 5’ head of water rushing in – they probably do this when the water levels are relatively low to save wear and tear on their piping system.

The wind picked up as the morning wore on and was probably gusting to 20 mph but we were fairly well protected going up the channel – a little wind blown but when the sun finally came out for good, it was warm.

We decided to stop in Labelle for our first night back on the water. They have a free town dock (sort of) but you need to tie up Med style with an anchor at the bow or stern and then tie off the other end to the dock – we’ve never done that (and we actually didn’t find the town dock hidden right next to the lift bridge until I walked into town). We tied up to a dock right next to a nice town park on the opposite side of the river from town and relaxed for a while glad to be moving again. It was quieter here too.

I walked into town over the bridge – only about a 20 minute walk. Cindy is resting her feet a little after all of our walking around Fort Myers. The trees were the most memorable part of the walk. Big, ancient oaks spreading out over whole yards. And, of course, when I walked far enough to the main highway, I found a McDonalds, Burger King and a Little Caesars Pizza. And I didn’t buy anything. I returned to the boat and got the gas can and walked back to the gas station a 1/2 mile from the boat to top off our tanks. We are all set for tomorrow.

We met Joe and Gloria (and Teak, there little terrier) on a 26’ McGreggor who Cindy helped dock while I was in town. They just happen to be from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and are spending the month of March down here to get away from winter. They have sailed a lot here and up in the Lake of the Woods. We had a blast trading stories and enjoying a beer or two until well after Cindy’s bedtime. They have the Great Loop on their bucket list in the future. Go for it!

In Passing: Beautiful Island, Olga, Upcoball, Trout Creek, Franklin Lock, Hickey Creek, Banana Branch

Total Miles to Date: 2,050

Day 186: Saturday, March 9, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: We started our last day in Fort Myers with breakfast at L’Mambos with Cristina, Pierre (Cristina), and Dick (The Turtle). What a bargain for all of us and great conversation too. Cindy and I peeled off to walk to a free standing ice machine where ice is $2 for 20 lbs – hard to carry but much better deal than marina ice.

We returned to the marina and finished our route planning, emptied water out of the dinghy and went over our checklist. On the way back, we randomly walked by a large practice stadium where the Twins were practicing. We also made a final grocery run and toured Dicks boat. He has a very unique boat – a 43’ canal boat. Its probably the only one in 1,000 miles. Talk about spacious. It looked like a Minnesota northwoods cabin inside with bedrooms, a full kitchen, fridge, washer/dryer and even a bent willow rocking chair. And the hull, deck and cabin are made of thick steel. It is just about a perfect boat for doing the Great Loop. Dick told us there is a hull just waiting to be built out somewhere in Texas. Hum?

After our tour, we relaxed, made dinner, and reviewed our passage plans. After dark, we wandered downtown one last time to check out Bike Night – the main street downtown was blocked off and hundreds of motorcycles were lining the street with vendors and music stages along the sidewalks and intersections. What an amazing zoo. It was interesting people watching too – many of the bikers were our age or even older – baby boomers in leather. What a way to end our wonderful stay in Fort Myers.

Day 185: Friday, March 8, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: After a (hopefully) last morning at the library on a sunny beautiful day, Cindy and I took the bus down 41 – the Tamiami Trail – to Mel’s Diner for one more lunch and margarita combo. The meals are reasonably priced and the margaritas are the best of the trip so far. Its worth the bus ride. Its lucky the marina is in the old historic part of Fort Myers – I would be hard pressed to find interesting things to take pictures of in the “modern” strip mall sections of the city.

One thing we have noticed in our many miles of walking around the city is the number of law offices and bail bond places. This is the county seat for Lee County and the courthouse is here but it still is surprising. It at least keeps a lot of historic store front offices rented and well maintained.

We spent a little time gathering a small pile of items to send home – we are almost done purging junk now – there isn’t much else to get rid of that isn’t useful in some way. Our waterline is still just below the water but at least we get to see it occasionally now.

We closed out the evening with a Netflix movie and are looking forward to our last day in Fort Myers before heading east for the Atlantic Ocean. New adventures await.

Day 184: Thursday, March 7, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: We agonized over whether to stay a few more days or go today. In the end we decided to just relax for a few more days “for free” (since we are paid for a month) and leave Sunday morning. It’s surprisingly hard to make this decision since we don’t have somewhere we have to be – we just want to get to Norfolk VA by May 1 just a little ahead of the Great Loop Rendezvous boats. We’ll just take it one day at a time.

I spent part of today at the library again. I’m getting caught up on a bunch of To Do items like our taxes, expenses, route planning, etc. Its nice to have nice reliable internet for doing these projects. We probably won’t ever stay in one place this long again so we need to take advantage of this “free” time.

Since we bailed on the Meet and Greet yesterday because it was too windy, some of our neighbors decided to try again tonight so we took our chicken and rice and a plate of crackers and cheese up to the deck in front of the marina office and enjoyed a beautiful evening of wine, snacks, dinner and conversation. We will miss our new friends in Fort Myers.

Day 183: Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time getting the bottom of the boat scraped.

Mile to Mile: A front moved through and kicked up a cool wind. The boats anchored out in the bay were rockin’ and rollin’ again. We’re just feeling the cold breeze making a pants wearing day (yes Eddy, I wore pants today). I feel sorry for the Spring Breakers who are hoping for bikini weather on the beach.

We have been in the water for six months and never had the bottom professionally scraped. I have been putting it off but now that we are going to be traveling again, it may be a good time to consider it. As luck would have it, a couple of guys were up at the marina this morning getting their gear ready to do several large boats in the harbor so I asked them to take a look at Aurora. Her hull wasn’t too bad surprisingly (especially given the murky water at Fort Myers Beach), but the bare spots and the rudder (which doesn’t have any bottom paint on it), needed some work. We lucked out and he was willing to do us first so we didn’t have to come back in a couple of hours, and 25 minutes and $50 later, we have a clean bottom for the next couple of months. Maybe that will help us go “fast” now. (Hey, 1/2 mph make a difference when you are lucky to go 6 mph).

After the bottom job, I headed to the library to work on the internet ( blog, taxes, route research) and Cindy headed off to take the bus to a nearby mall to look for better walking shoes.

For those who are interested, we found out from Bill and Kate II why Dark and Stormy’s are a sailor’s drink. The ginger in the ginger beer is for mal de mar (sea sickness); the lime is to avoid rickets (sounds ugly); and the rum is for the daily allotment of rum each sailor was entitled too (I didn’t know we have a daily allotment). Sounds like a good story to me.

On our way back from the grocery, we lucked upon a party getting ready to start – Ford’s Garage was celebrating its one year anniversary with free beer and sliders. As luck would have it, we like free beer and sliders. So we got in line and soon were enjoying a nice meal we didn’t have to cook and wishing Fords Garage a Happy Anniversary. They have been so successful in their first year, they are building two more somewhere in the Fort Myers area.

Day 182: Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: Since we might get moving again as early as Thursday, today was project day. It didn’t hurt that is was sunny and comfortable which makes working on boat projects much more enjoyable. We started the day, though, trying out a small Cuban restaurant we saw on one of our walks that advertised a $3.50 breakfast deal – 3 eggs, bacon, toast and a drink – energy for a hard days work. The view wasn’t as good as the Lani Kai but the breakfast was a bargain.

For whatever reason, I was motivated to clean the boat – the waterline looks disgusting and the rest of the boat needs a nice scrubbing. Each time we clean the boat we try to fix or improve one more thing on the boat to make it a little nicer to live on. This time I scrubbed all the bumpers – they are now bright white instead of a mix of rust, black grime and orange slime streaks – and I fixed one that has a small leak. We cleaned the floor in the salon, scrubbed the cockpit and cleaned mold off our inflatable life preservers, too. Oh, the easy life of the Great Looper.

After cleaning, it was time to finish the dinghy lift project. It took about 2 hours to drill, lash and tie everything together but it looks like it may work pretty good – a great deal for $5 plus a few dollars in hardware. I will test it tomorrow with the dinghy.

I also cleaned and modified the rudder. When we are motoring there is a little play in the rudder and tiller that annoyingly wobbles back and forth. I added a large, thin, plastic washer (made from a plastic cover) to replace a smaller, thicker metal washer on the rudder – this joint seems to be a lot tighter now. I did something similar on the tiller – hopefully this will fix the problem.

We still had energy left, so we decided to check two more projects off our list late in the day – we did laundry and went for a walk downtown after dark. We are almost ready to go now – just a few more internet projects to work on – and maybe another visit to a favorite restaurant before we leave. The countdown begins.

Day 181: Monday, March 4, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: We need to start checking off our To Do List this warm and sunny day so we can be ready to move sometime between Thursday and early next week. We have a goal of being in Norfolk, Virginia by May 1 and this is about 1,033 miles from Fort Myers. At a leisurely 25 miles per day, this would take about 41 days – we have 56 days to play with but there are many places we will want to spend 2 or 3 days so we need to get moving soon.

Our projects include route planning, taxes, finishing the dinghy lift, tightening up the rudder (it wobbles a little) and provisioning for the next several legs of our journey. If we are lucky, we should be ready to go Wednesday or Thursday of this week. We are mentally ready to go (as soon as we make a road trip to Mel’s Diner for $3 margaritas again).

So today was route planning and tax day – yuck. I spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon doing the girls and our taxes – surprisingly, I almost finished but I need a few more pieces of information and I need to go over the info with the girls so they can have this much fun next year. Cindy worked on our route and potential stops between here and Stuart which sounds easy but ends up being a pain because there are options and bridges and locks and other obstacles in the way.

It sounds like Minnesota has been getting a real winter for a change. Lots of snow and cold which we don’t miss at all. We’ll try to send some warm sunshine north to speed spring on its way (we have had the boats in the water in March once or twice so maybe spring will come in fast). Think Spring!

Day 180: Sunday, March 3, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: The night was cold and rainy but we were dry and comfortable in our little mobile home. Thankfully, the rain stopped by morning and we awoke to loud music being played nearby to motivate hundreds of runners doing the Hooter’s to Hooter’s Marathon for charity. It was cold but most of the runners were wearing shorts and t-shirts. I suspect they were already fully motivated to keep moving – especially crossing the bridge over the river – the windchill would have been wicked if you stopped.

We enjoyed a hot breakfast of steel cut oatmeal again – cooked in the rice cooker – and headed out on a circuitous walk down to the hardware store. I needed a couple screws and nuts for our dinghy lift. Surprisingly, the hardware store was closed. So we turned around and walked a different random path back to the marina stopping at a couple interesting shops on the way home. We don’t ever buy anything but it is entertaining to look.

As I write this, I am sitting in the cruisers lounge area watching the whitecaps on the bay in front of the marina dance all over. There are several boats anchored across the channel that look like bucking broncos trying to get loose – and since there are dinghy’s attached to them – there are people onboard hoping for the wind to die down as soon as possible. We are almost completely protected by a seawall but even Aurora is bobbing up and down today. I like it better here, though.

And the day wasn’t quite over yet. We had briefly met a couple – Bill and Kate – on the dock by our boat and chatted about the Loop and our experiences and their future plans on their boat. They are taking a break from winter from their home in Hallieford, VA near the Chesapeake Bay where they sail their 27’ Com Pac “Steadfast”. They are hoping to bring their boat down here next winter to explore. Well, they called later in the afternoon (I missed the call) and texted me a little later (I thankfully didn’t miss the text) inviting us to join them for drinks and dinner. Well, we jumped at the chance to share a Dark and Stormy with another fun couple named Bill and Kate (odd coincidence isn’t it). Well, we had a blast sharing stories and talking sailing and ended the evening several hours later promising to visit them on the Chesapeake this spring. We can’t wait.

Day 179: Saturday, March 2, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: The day started cold, windy and overcast with only intermittent peaks at the sun. That didn’t stop us from exploring Fort Myers some more. This time we hopped on the free downtown trolley and rode it for one complete circuit. The driver gave us a little history lesson on some of the downtown buildings and founding families. And we were out of the wind for a little while.

We stopped at a church sale and found a small $5 folding table that had chrome U-shaped legs that may work perfectly to build a lift for towing the dinghy. We are hoping that by lifting the stern and towing the dinghy backwards, we can significantly reduce the drag and increase our average speed a few tenths of a mph. We’ll see if it works.

Although we were tempted to go out to eat, we decided to cook some steak that we bought several days ago and add some fried potatoes and green beans. To make it easy, I grilled the steak and potatoes on the big grill by the office and brought it back to the boat. The sun made a welcome if belated appearance just in time to enjoy while I was cooking.

We tried to watch a movie on Netflix but the internet was overloaded (probably with other people watching Netflix) so we gave up and watched a movie DVD instead. It is incredibly frustrating when the technology we have come to rely on doesn’t meet our expectations. And we can’t do anything easy to fix it. At least we’ll sleep good tonight.

Day 178: Friday, March 1, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: Our first agenda item today is to get a few donuts at Bennetts to share with Spiritus. Our second agenda item is to say goodbye to as they are moving toward the east coast. They have been here for a month and may end up wintering here in the future. We can’t wait to meet again.

After some errands (groceries, post office, shopping), we stopped at Ford’s Garage for lunch – they have excellent hamburgers and the décor is antique Ford’s garage – in honor of Henry Ford having chosen Fort Myers as the place he spent a couple weeks each winter at his vacation home along the Caloosahatchee River. Rough life.

We needed to burn off our lunch so, instead of naps, we explored a new area of Fort Myers by heading farther east to see what that part of town looks like. There are several large condo complexes along the water – just now getting sold after sitting for several years. In fact, a firefighter from NY had bought a unit in one of the towers in 2008 and ended up being the only person in the tower for more than a year – others who bought baled out after the real estate market crashed.

We are starting to get a little antsy to move but need to finish a few boat projects and miscellaneous online tasks before we go. We also have a lot of planning to do to kind of lay out the next month of travel so we can make some longer term plans. We may start moving next Thursday or Friday if the weather looks good. Until then, we’ll just have to find more places to explore in Fort Myers.