Incognita finds a new home

Sunday 3rd May (Cont)
Gary and Irene (from Thunder Bay, Ontario aboard trawler Mandi Ross) have a standard schnauzer and a set of dog clippers and offered to show me how to use them to shear Buddy.  Gary ended up doing the whole Buddy (how could we not have a picture of that) for which Buddy seemed to be very grateful.

We also got to talk to Joe Krunk about leaving the boat here.  Joe is in his early eighties and is in charge of the marina and is the ultimate authority on who gets to stay.  The place is always ‘full’ but clearly isn’t, so essentially Joe has to think you’re OK folks before you get leave your boat here.  He was quite non-committal but told us to come see him on Wednesday, his work day.

Nick aboard Tovaki,  happened to be  heading back to Miami the following morning to fly back to the UK and his family and offered to detour to Indiantown and drop me off to retrieve our RV “The Big Easy”.  We made a decision to take him up on the offer because even if Joe didn’t find us a spot we could take the boat to Glades just further up the waterway and leave it there.

We had Gary and Irene over for happy hour and talked about the marina and cruising in general.

Monday 4th May
6 am and we’re up and by 7:00.  Nick and I are buzzing down the highway going round north of Lake Okeechobee (incidentally the second largest lake within the US) to Indiantown.

By 9:00 I was pulling the cover off the RV, the engine started right away and after calling in at the marina for mail I took the beast to get the oil changed, the tire pressures checked (it’s an absolute b$%@# of a job to do without a truck style pressure pump and gauge).

After some shopping on my bicycle, it was ready to go and off we trundled.

We parked the RV fairly close to the boat and started the dreaded task of moving from one to the other before spending our last miserable night trying to sleep on the boat.  There’s nowhere in the marina to plug the RV in and run the air conditioner.
  
Tuesday 5th May
A long day getting things moved but at the end we head off in the RV to Granny’s Grove RV park to plug in and have blessed cooling, running water and showers.
  

Plus the campsite has a pool even though it was 93 degF. We are parked right next to Peter and Roberta who told us about the reasonably priced Granny’s and incidentally are also next to us in our mooring slip at the marina in their Catalac catamaran Llamedos.   A rather unusual name that has to be read in reverse.

Wednesday 6th May
We head to the marina as soon as we have paid for our stay at Granny’s Grove and we meet up with Joe and it’s a done deal.  We can stay and even use the spot we are in.

One of the reasons for staying here is that Scott, who is two boats over from our spot, had a friend coming who he said had completely rebuilt his engine for him and was a very knowledgeable guy.   Herb had arrived the day before as predicted and anchored his sailboat, Lively Lady, in the bay.  We met him and passenger Sayrah and when he’d finished dismantling Scott’s alternator he came and took a look at my problem.  In a couple of hours he had found the problem.  As most people I had talked to suspected , it turned out to be a fuel problem.  In the primary filter that is first in line from the fuel tank there is a small cavity that acts as a non-return valve.  I didn’t even know it existed but anyway it was practically filled with slimy crud.

We were very very grateful for his assistance.  Herb, it turns out comes from Calabogie just west of Ottawa.

Then it was back to moving our worldly goods.

Thursday 7th May
Peter and Roberta lent us their truck for the day and we used the opportunity to pick up stuff like fuel stabilizer etc.

Down came the sails and more stuff to move.

Friday 8th May
Back in the RV to the marina to motor into the next bay for fuel and a last pumput.  On the way, I couldn’t believe it, the engine failed again.  However, Herb was still around and diagnosed a leak in the bottom end of the filter that was causing air to get into the system.  New filter housing required!

After preparing the outboard for storage and removing it from my now quite famous (locally anyway) motor mount it was up on deck with the dinghy.

Saturday 9th May
Time to run the lines that will protect the boat in the case of a passing hurricane and finish removing the last of the stuff that’s going with us.  Another long day in the hot sun.  This is no fun – time to go.

Sunday 10th May
It took all day to tension the lines so the boat was away from the dock and cover the most vulnerable parts with tarps.

We had Peter and Roberta over for supper to celebrate our completion and readiness to go.
So ends another season of sailing.

A new place to leave the boat?

Wednesday 21st April (cont)
Along one side the yacht basin are docked shrimp boats.
 

So naturally we had to have some.  However, we tried these for a change.

They’re called rock shrimp and are a sort of cross between a lobster and a shrimp.  Hard shell and very delicate flavor.  We overpowered them with cocktail sauce and agreed melted garlic butter would be better.

Thursday 22nd April
It’s a birthday celebration day.  “Ah!  Now I’m 64”.  We did a spell on the beach.  Here’s the birthday boy prior to his swim.

Fort Myer’s Beach comes complete with pier.

Fort Myers Beach is actually on an island and after the swim we took a walk across the bridge with its spectacular views.

Here’s the west mooring field and we’re in there somewhere.

On the other side of the bridge are several restaurants and marinas.

But for birthday supper we chose a place next to the dinghy dock called Nervous Nellie’s where we had an excellent supper.

Friday 23rd April
Hung about on the boat for most of the day and then took another walk down to the beach area with Buddy for his afternoon constitutional.

Saturday 24th April
Set out for Fort Myers itself.  We were doing OK motorsailing at a good rate and then as we started up the river towards our destination the engine finally conked out completely.   We were sailing through a very narrow stretch with lots of power boat traffic and we didn’t feel too good about the whole thing so we called Tow Boat US for the first time.  Fortunately we had checked our coverage a few days before and upped it considerably which saved us a bundle.

By the time Capt Ed caught up with us we’d actually sailed through the worst bit and could have made it all the way.  However picking up a mooring under sail might need some practice.
Here we are being pulled by Capt Ed.

The bill for the tow (about 10 miles) was over $700.00

We were dropped off at a mooring ball in the Fort Myers Yacht Basin which turned out to be right next to a heavily used bridge and right in the waves created by several miles of fetch.

Sunday 25th April
After a noisy rolly night and the threat of a powerful front coming through it didn’t need much to convince ourselves that we might be better off in the marina since if the mooring gave way (I wouldn’t have trusted my dinghy to the line you are supposed to tie to your boat with) we had no motive force.

So Capt Ed to the rescue again and we get into the safety of the marina.

About two in the morning the front came through with a thunderstorm that hit two boats in the marina.  Oddly enough they weren’t sailboats.

Monday 26th April
We had reserved a car with our Aeroplan points so we could visit Sanibel Island a place with fond memories for us.

However, now we had a bit of mission first.   Several people had suggested to me that the source of our engine problems was the fuel lift pump and I should buy an electrical one and bypass the mechanical one on the Volvo.  I also thought it would be very useful to be able to drive the boat with the dinghy’s 15hp outboard motor.   So we went in search of pumps and pieces of wood.

After a couple of hours we had everything I thought we needed courtesy of Napa, Goodyear Parker Store and Home Depot.

We then headed out to Sanibel and the Ding Darling nature reserve.  However, it reminded us of when we took my parents there in May/June.  All the birds have migrated, except for this guy.
 

Maybe he just likes it there year round.
 
Tuesday 27th April
A day of laundry for Carol and a day of installing a fuel pump for me.  Unfortunately it didn’t fix anything but with the help of Roger (I never did find out the name of his Prout catamaran) we diagnosed that when the engine runs badly one of the injector pumps is not doing its thing.

Wednesday 28th April
I started construction on a mount for our outboard on the transom of Incognita.  After one day I produced Mark I which didn’t work.

Fort Myers has a beautiful historic restored downtown

with art galleries.

Yes, the following is an art gallery even though it’s right on the water (the white thing to the left is a faux paddle steamer for tourists).

There are theatres.

But most of the buildings seem to house lawyers.

The problem is that all this beautiful and original architecture

is kind of wasted because the place is dead as a doornail.  The place seems empty even during the day.
Apart from the odd restaurant there is really nothing to attract people.  Maybe it’s just the recession.

Thursday 29th April
Another day on the motor mount produces Mark II

After a little more sawing and hacking it works and we’re ready for off.

Friday 30th April
We waited until 10:30 for low tide so we wouldn’t have to fight the current and then after a less than glorious exit (skipper’s fault) we headed out on the main engine with the outboard just idling.

We lasted about an hour before the engine started to play up but we found that by running the outboard a little and taking some strain from the main engine all was OK.

This worked less well when going through the first lock at Franklin but we made it to a peaceful little anchorage just beyond the lock and when we backed down on the anchor the engine was perfect.
This was one pretty anchorage right adjacent to an RV park with a dinghy dock and free washrooms.
 

Saturday 1st May
Our final outboard motor configuration looked like this.

And it works not badly at all which is just as well because after an hour of travel the diesel quit completely again.  If there were no wind (not an option at the moment) it can push the boat along at about 4knots and the boat steering still works reasonably well.  Stopping and going backwards is an issue though.

The trip along the Okeechobee Waterway is very pleasant with grassy banks and not as much development as the Florida Intracoastal.

There are strange sights too, such as this collection of animals.

The light brown animal in the centre is a camel with a lama, plus horses, cattle and at least one  donkey.
The biggest problem with the outboard is gas consumption.  Unlike the diesel which sips half a gallon an hour, the outboard is guzzling over a gallon and hour and with a tank one quarter the size of the main boat tank, refueling is an issue.

We hoped to have stopped at Labelle which has lots of free docks but they were all full so we carried on to the Port Labelle Marina but when we got there we found they were closed on weekends and there didn’t appear to be a soul around.  This left us with a bit of a dilemma as it was too far to the next place suitable for staying overnight.

However, as we passed the eastern of the two bays we saw a sail on a boat so we knew someone would be around.  Sure enough we got someone’s attention and they helped us into a slip.

We got an immediate offer from Nick (aboard Tovake a Wharram catamaran he had just spent his first winter of retirement on with his family, travelling from Devon in the UK – not on the boat) to go and get gas in his rental car.  So after lunch I went the few miles into Labelle and we had fuel.

We spent the rest of the day meeting other boaters in this rather remote but very friendly place and after finding out that it only costs $3/ft per month to leave your boat here in the summer we started to think that maybe we should leave Incognita in the water here.  It’s very protected, the docks are new and substantial, the water isn’t salt and because of the locks there is no storm surge with a hurricane which is the thing that does the most damage to boats.

It’s getting very warm too.

This was the temperature down below, Buddy is not happy.  However, we met someone with clippers and tomorrow we’ll have a go.

Sunday 2nd May
Looks like another hot one so we take Buddy for an early walk and set up an appointment for Buddy to get his hair clipped.

Moving on to something new

Monday 29th March
The batteries are getting down a bit so it’s a day for staying aboard, running the generator and using ‘unlimited’ power.

Tuesday 30th March
A trip to the chiro and then after Steve and Kathy (Kit) have run us to Radio Shack to pickup our repaired camera.  We have that super value $5 lunch at Hurricane.

In the afternoon it’s time to up stakes and move to the Marathon Boat Yard for our fuel polishing.  Unfortunately, the boat yard insists we stay a night at $2/ft – ouch!  Here we are tucked in for the night awaiting the process in the morning.

Wednesday 31st March
The fuel polishing went ahead without incident, don’t know whether it did any good or not, it doesn’t seem the fuel was that dirty or filled with water.

We headed back to our mooring to find that Kismet and Grey Hound had returned from the Dry Tortugas the night before.

Thursday 1st April
Joined Steve and Kathy for a trip to Publix and Winn Dixie and then in the afternoon dinghied to Lazy Days  for Happy Hour with (clockwise round the table) Kendall (Try-Oomph),  Anne & Dick (Grey Hound) Jim & Laurie (Kismet) and Judy (Try-Oomph).  As might be guessed Try-Oomph is a tri-maran.
 

Friday 2nd April
Grey Hound left for the west coast and we had Jim and Laurie over for Happy Hour aboard Incognita to say goodbye, as it’s likely to be a while before we see them again.  They very kindly lent us a chartbook for the west coast of  Florida.

Saturday 3rd April
Movie day in Marathon, so off we went with our movie going buddies Steve and Kathy to see "Clash of the Titans". Not exactly one of those movies we’ve been planning for but with one screen a week there’s not too much choice.

We finished the day with supper on board Kit, a game of cards and "The Men Who Stare at Goats" on the computer – bizarre!

Sunday 4th April
A day planned for a sail on Kit, so after meeting up with Linda and Greg (who by the way sail their McGregor in the Chesapeake in summer) we head out of the harbor with Capt Steve (he really has a captain’s license because of their charter business) at the helm.
 

The intent was to sail out to Sombrero Reef, tie up to one of the mooring balls and maybe go snorkeling.  However, although it doesn’t look like it from this pic

once we were out there it was clearly a little too rough for any of that.  In fact after a couple of hours out on the water both Carol and I confessed to feeling a little woozy.

We returned for supper on Kit and another of those really great days on the water comes to an end.

Monday 5th April
A day onshore doing laundry and hanging round the marina.  Oh yes, I seemed to be heading toward some kind of dental problem, so after a few phone calls I secured an appointment at a local dentist and Linda (who we’d met on Kit the night before) kindly gave me a ride there.  $90 later I had a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to get one of my root canals re-rooted whenever I’m in one place for a while.

Tuesday 6th April
Carol has wanted to visit Crane Point in Marathon since last year.  It’s a wild life rescue operation, some denizens of which we have seen at their booth at the seafood festival like this little one-winged hawk.

It turns out that Linda works there as a volunteer and she invited Carol to come visit which she did and got a full tour.  Here are the pelicans with their paddling pool.  Note the rubber floating rings which they love to play with.

There’s interesting flora as well as fauna like this shaving brush tree.

Here’s a bird you wouldn’t expect to see here, it’s a loon.

It can’t leave because a loon needs a lake a quarter of a mile long to take off and this pond isn’t.

After the tour Linda and Carol came back to pick me up and we had lunch in the yard at their place.

 They're on a canal in a bay off the ocean and they have this lovely deck on top of their house with cool breezes and a view.

They share the place with Greg's brother who owns this strange vehicle.

For those who remember it's a Volkswagen "Thing".  Greg offered me a ride but I refused when I saw the seating arrangements.

Wednesday 7th April
Steve and Kathy have two daughters, one who lives in Oregon and the other is currently working in Hong Kong and the day before, mum and dad picked them up from the airport in Fort Lauderdale.  We, along with Linda and Greg were invited over to Kit to meet them and have supper together.  We had a great supper out on the back of Kit with another inventive meal from Kathy.  We ended the night with a game of cards, since Bunkey taught Carol ‘Golf’ now she teaches it all we come across.

Thursday 8th April
It was getting time for us to leave so I thought it would be a good idea to clean the dinghy bottom.  Rather than go over to Sombrero Beach and try and pull it ashore and then manhandle the motor on to the sand, I copied what I’d seen someone else do which is flip it upside down and then clamber on top.  Flipping it wasn’t quite as easy as I thought but the with the help of a hoisting halyard over it went and spent a lovely couple of hours clambering around on it and scraping the amazing amount of green hairy growth off it.  Very few barnacles though.

Friday 9th April
Some last minute shopping at Publix after lunch at Hurricane with Divia and Chris from Maggie M who we first spoke to on the Cape Fear River on the way down south so long ago.

Saturday 10th April
Last day before leaving so all the preparations for leaving like putting the speed sensor back in place.  Failure to take it out while we were in Marathon last year gummed it up good with barnacles etc.

Dolphins put on quite a goodbye show for us circling round the anchorage.

Kit invited us over for the last supper and more cards with their daughters as they were driving them back to Fort Lauderdale the next day.

Sunday 11th April
The weather’s good so off we go after filling up with water and diesel on the way out of Marathon Harbour.  Our plan is to sail directly north across Florida Bay to go up the west coast.

And sail we did, with enough wind to send us at a fair clip with no engine.   It was also a first for us in that we've never sailed out of sight of land before.  Of course the fact that the water’s not much more than 8’ deep kind of reduces the fear factor.

First landfall on the southern tip of Florida is Cape Sable which as the name suggests is sandy.  We planned to anchor off the beach so Buddy could go ashore.  As we were told and later confirmed ourselves, further north there is no land, it’s all mangroves.

As we reached almost the furthest point north of sandy beach we were hit with a thunderstorm and just had time to drop the hook before we got blasted with wind.   Once the storm had passed though it was OK to take Buddy ashore.  However, the east winds that we had waited for got overridden by the north wind kicked up by the storm and we spent a rolly night.

Monday 12th April
It was a beautiful wild and uninhabited spot but quite exposed so we moved on and although we had been told there was no land we decided to give Little Shark River anchorage a try.

It was not far up the coast before we could turn it into a beautiful mangrove lined inlet and we anchored.  Apart from the bugs at sunset this was one beautiful idyllic spot, though not totally silent, as down below there was the constant snap crackle pop of snapping shrimp on the outside of the hull. (http://stilton.tnw.utwente.nl/shrimp/).
 
However, there really was no land but according to our charts there were camping areas a few miles away.  So, after loading on the dinghy motor and taking Buddy aboard I zipped off in search of terra firma.
 

Well after consulting with some guys fishing in a boat I found the ‘campsite’ I was looking for and here it is.

Buddy was not impressed and even though I walked him round the quite substantial platform for 15 mins he refused to perform.

There are many of these camping platforms around the Everglades intended for canoeists and kayakers.

Tuesday 13 April
It’s now 24 hrs since poor old Buddy has had any relief so we must move on.

We motored sailed with just the genoa in strong north east winds up the coast to Indian Key which according the cruising guides promises an anchorage next to an island with a beach.  When we get there we find it totally exposed to the north east wind which is howling down to the proposed anchorage with miles of fetch.  We headed up away from the coast and tucked in behind a couple of islands not too far from the island with the beach.

The best part of the spot was that right behind us was a little sandy island that although submerged when we got there was exposed at low tide.  And as luck would have it low tide, for the time we were there, coincided with Buddy’s needed trips ashore.  Naturally we instantly named it Buddy’s Island as it didn’t seem to have a name on the chart.
  

What we weren’t so lucky with is that as we came to anchor our engine problem from way back at the start of the season came back to haunt us.

Wednesday 14th April
We decided to stay put for a couple of days, mostly because of the strong north east winds and also to take a look at the engine problem.  I changed the primary filter restarted the engine and all seemed O.K.
Here’s a pic from Buddy’s Island.

Thursday 15th April
It’s another beautiful day in uninhabited southern Florida but the winds are still too strong to brave the gulf.

We have dolphins around us all the time and we know when they show up because Buddy barks at them.
This is a really pleasant spot and it’s a shame to leave but we must press on.

Friday 16th April
We set off sailing with a good wind that’s forecast for all day but of course it peters out and we must put on the engine which does its bad thing again.  We do discover that if we just keep going at lower power, after about 10 mins. it ‘fixes’ itself.

Fortunately as we battle the outgoing tide and head winds into the Marco Island anchorage it performs perfectly.

Saturday 17th April
The weather forecast is again bad for several days so we decide to stay put.  We took the short walk ashore to Publix and we got to see a manatee for the first time.  Well we didn’t exactly see the whole thing, just its nose which looks like a big rubber flower on the surface as it swims around.

Sunday 18th April
Overcast with threatening rain and the batteries are getting down so we spend most of the day below on the computers (lots of free Internet here) and the generator running.

Monday 19 April
It’s another gloomy day, overcast with winds all over the place but I do get to see a burrowing owl.
 

They live in holes in the ground as might be expected and (in Marco) the local citizenry have made small fenced off rectangles around their burrows with little crossbars for them to perch on.  This fellow preferred the ground though.

Tuesday 20th April
The weather has turned good again so time to move on.  The original plan had been to just go up the coast a little to Naples but once we were out there, the engine running well (not much wind) we decided to go all the way to Fort Myers Beach.

The engine misbehaved a couple of times and for the first time we got boarded by the US Coastguard.  They came alongside with a big powerful inflatable and two guys jumped aboard us and while one took down our particulars the other guy checked around downstairs, for flare dates, fire extinguishers and other stuff.  They were quite polite and after about 15 minutes the inflatable came back alongside and off they went leaving us with a copy of the form to simplify future boardings..

We got a mooring at Fort Myers Beach and went ashore to check in and take Buddy a walk.  Fort Myers Beach is very different from Marco Island which is expensive and dead as a doornail.  Fort Myers Beach is much tackier but swarming with people and much like the Florida one expects.  We stopped for an ice-cream in the sun.

This kitchy display is a little reminiscent of Key West – and it’s a restaurant not a marine store.

Round the marina is there is a huge hotel complex that spans several streets that is nicely done

Wednesday 21st April
After we get back to the boat from taking Buddy ashore Buddy barks at something in the water and Carol calls out (I’m below making breakfast) “Manatee!”.

Finally we actually get to see the whole (well major parts anyway) of a manatee.  There are actually two of them rolling around in the water.

I get the dinghy out and row across to them.  At first when I get close to them they dive but being curious animals they surface for a look.

Now, imagine you were a sailor in the old days of sailing ships and you’d been at sea for months without sight of land or the fairer sex.  Now wouldn’t you just fall in love with this mermaid in moment?