Wednesday, March 30th
We settled in on the boat in the evening. Our neighbors brought us to the boat after dinner and the adventure began.
Thursday, March 31st.
Winds of 15-20 knots prevented us from cruising to Ft. Myers. We took the time to install the screen windows, install a hook in a hanging closet, and make arrangements for the electronics person to fix the spreader lighting and radio cracking problems.
Friday, April lst
The electronics person came and we found out that the screw to hold the flag halyard on the mast cross piece had caused a short for the spreader lights. Off came the halyard and we have spreader lights again. It was recommended that we consider redoing the wiring at some point. Lesson learned: be careful where nails and screws are inserted.
We left Goodland about 10:50 am and travelled the Marco River to the Gulf of Mexico at Isle of Capri. It was blowing and the waves came quickly causing the boat to rock and surge. Sandwiches and strawberries (our lunch) flew to the floor of the flybridge. We turned back to the River and continued to Naples and attempted to go out again at Gordon’s Pass. It was still too rough. After looking at two possible anchorages in beautiful Port Royal, but with no dinghy access, we went to Naples. The City Docks has a small mooring field and for $10 you have access to the ball, the showers/washrooms, the dinghy dock, and a mandatory pumpout.
There must be a technique to hook up to a mooring ball. We had never done this before and it was challenging. The dock master suggested we hook up using the dinghy. We thought that was a good idea until we realized that only Rusty know how to pilot the boats. Lesson learned: Rusty and I decided that I need to learn to pilot the boat and dinghy.
A nice dinghy ride and then a walk over to 3rd Street in Naples completed the day. Gigi was terrific the entire day.
Saturday, April 2nd
We left the Naples City Docks rounding Gordon Pass by 8:10. We headed out to the Gulf and made good headway for Cape Coral . The seas were slightly choppy but not anything like yesterday. A few minutes after I brought up sandwiches and fruit for lunch, we encountered rollers. Things started to fly including lunch, deck chairs, etc. etc. We were on autopilot when this happened. This is what we learned today:
- Always have breakfast before leaving the dock or anchorage
- Always take the dog out for her business before leaving the dock or anchorage.
- When you encounter rollers on the beam, turn off the autopilot immediately and turn the boat.
We made it to a lovely anchorage at Glover Bight next to Tarpon Point Marina not far from Ft. Myers Beach. It cost $10 to land the dinghy for 24 hours which we had to do for Gigi. Our friends, Mike and Bev, picked us up in their boat and we had a nice dinner together.
We were ready to go to bed when Rusty mentioned that he heard something strange. Sure enough, there were crackling noises in the bottom part of the boat. Rusty went to the engine room – everything checked out. We popped the mattress and looked at the running gear and the water pipes – everything check out. We put our ears to the fiberglass hull at the stern, at the bow and in the middle – there were crackling noises. There were no pumps on or generators or main power. We were stumped.
An email that night to the previous owner (PO) resulted in this explanation: little fish eating stuff caked on the bottom of the boat. Someone else we met the next day confirmed the same thing. The bonus was that our depth finder gave readings again. We had been docked at a marina in Goodland that had fixed docks and we were regularly on the bottom at low tide. Things must have caked on the bottom of the boat and affected some of the instrumentation.
Sunday, April 3rd:
We had a tasty cheese omelet for breakfast and took a dinghy ride so that Gigi could do her business. We are learning. Unfortunately the area was devoid of any place to go to church. We started the day’s trip at 8:30. We discovered that it was easy to employ the autopilot even for short distances. It was so much more enjoyable this way compared to standing at the helm and steering manually as we did last November.
About noon we came to our first lock. There was a boat in front of us that happened to be the same make as ours. Monk36 don’t change much and so they are easy enough to spot once you know what to look for. Don and Wilma (Cassie Lea) had just purchased their boat and were taking it back to their home in the Carolinas.
Thanks to them, they knew of an anchorage that was not marked on the chart (but it was noted in Skipper Bob's boat which we did not have) and that is where we spent the night. It turned to be perfect – an old quarry. Protected. Clear water. Deep. We let out the chain anchor and after 100 feet out came the rode (rope). The rode had a hard time grabbing the cogs of the windlass as it was pulled up (not manually thank goodness). We decided we would rather not do that again.
Monday, April 4th:
We needed to cross Lake Okeechobee today or bad weather might force us to stay put for a few days if we delayed. A beautiful sunrise sent us off early. Along the way we were hailed by Bonnie Jean, captained by Tom. Tom is an inspector with the Naples Power Squadron and he was one of the inspectors for our boat a few weeks ago. Tom is returning up north on his trawler. We were grateful for the company going across the Lake. Cassie Lea also crossed.
This time we were prepared and everything was nicely lashed down with bungee cords. The Lake is 25 statute miles across and in the middle we were bouncing around a little. What made the trip so tolerable, and even enjoyable, was the autopilot. We set the autopilot on a course and were then free to sit back and enjoy the scenery much like going on a river cruise where some else does the piloting. One of use would keep the remote autopilot in our hands and make adjustments periodically. It was a bit like playing with a joy stick.
It’s good to note that when we were traveling together we were sometimes a few miles apart and would keep each other updated via the VHF radio. Channel 16 is the hailing channel (and the one we monitor) and then we would go up to Channel 17 to have our conversation.
We had called ahead and made a reservation at Indiantown Marina, about 15 miles west of Stuart, FL. The other two boats elected to anchor out in different locales. Indiantown Marina is an AGLCA sponsor. What a pleasant surprise to find out that they offer the first night free to all Loopers. It didn’t matter that we were planning to move on the next day or so we thought.
As an aside we ran into a number of Canadians who had come down to Indiantown to take their boats out of storage and were busily getting work done on them. Some of them go down to the Bahamas and others cruise back up north, and then they bring the boats back to Indiantown for storage after hurricane season.
A delicious stir fry dinner with red wine, some cheese, followed by homemade banana bread and coffee and we were ready to call it a night if it wasn’t for the laundry. $1.25 per load to wash and $.75 to dry and the machines did a great job.
Tuesday, April 5th
The weather was supposed to get nasty so we decided to stay an extra night in Indiantown. We took out the bikes for the first time and rode into town about one mile away. Both of us carried a satchel and we took it in to the supermarket. When both were full we stopped shopping and then could be sure that we could carry it all back to the boat. We discovered something that we knew but didn’t fully grasp. Stores are well stocked and we don’t have to stock up on the boat. The local IGA had ready to ribs and we couldn’t resist. It proved to be a delicious lunch while we waited out the storm.
We can’t seem to hook up to WIFI with our computers. It is proving to be a bit of an inconvenience. Actually it’s a bit of a pain. Something to do with a missing IP address. Thankfully we have our IPhones so we can keep in touch. We are almost resolved to getting an air card. I also can’t find my camera but Rusty brought his so we are covered.
We watched a movie that Rusty had downloaded on my computer previously. In the middle of the movie Rusty noticed that the wifi was working and I was able to do a cut and past from WORD to the blog. The marina personnel said that the server in Indiantown was at fault and that sometimes it worked great and other times not at all.
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