Author: tim.june.sndr@hotmail.com

We are anchored in Lake Worth ready for the crossing tomorrow.  The float plan has been filed with Customs, we have the Bahamian customs papers filled out and ready, Maggie has had a potty and run on the beach at Peanut Island and I have a glass of wine at my side.  I think we’re ready.

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Ive said it before and it still holds so very true.  Damn, it’s a small world.  I mentioned last post that we were going to have a buddy boat.  These are folks who posted on the AGLCA site about wanting someone to cross with.  We responded but then had all the “issues” crop up.  Well weather wasn’t in their favor so they didn’t cross.  Now we’re ready and so are they.  We met up today in Lake Worth.  We put the dinghy in for the potty run to Peanut and stopped by their boat to introduce ourselves.  I knew immediately that we had met somewhere, but couldn’t figure out where.  As we walk around the island, Tim and I kept thinking back to where we could have met them.  Key West- no, Sarasota- maybe, Fort Myers- no.  We stopped back by after the run to chat some more.  As soon as we did I knew- Carrabelle!!!  We met them during our 2 week layover in Carrabelle.  They were docked further down the marina from us and he, Long, has since grown a beard.  They took their dinghy out for the Carrabelle Christmas boat parade and won 1st prize in their class.  (They were the only boat in their class.).  So, our new buddies are Long and Day on a Monk 36 from Massachusetts.

We finally left  River Forest Saturday afternoon and continued our trip down the Okeechobee Water Way.  Tim set a timer and checked the temperatures of the new shafts couplings every 30 min.  We knew they would run a little hotter than normal until the packing was worn in.  It seems that the work we had done has fixed our vibration, but Tim will continue to monitor it closely.  Here’s another “small world” event.  As we were cruising toward Clewiston, we were overtaken by a Grand Banks.  As Tim and I looked closely we realized that we knew the boat.  It was Inheritance Theif, a boat that had just been sold by our Seabrook Marina friend, Ray.  Tim spent a couple weeks on Inheritance Theif helping Ray take it to Dog River, Mobile Bay.  Ray had hoped to go to Cuba when we went last summer, but had crew issues and only made it to Bradenton.  Anyway, as luck would have it, Inheritance Theif was also docking at Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston.  We enjoyed meeting Tom, the new owner, and his crew- Keith, a fellow De Feverite (he has a Grand Alaskan) and Richard who were taking the boat to her new home in Miami.

Sunday we crossed the great Lake Okeechobee, 2nd largest fresh water lake in the 48 contiguous states.  Lake Michigan is the largest and the other Great Lakes don’t count because they are partly in Canada.  We were a little apprehensive about crossing Okeechobee because we had heard that it could get really rough if the winds kicked up.  It’s very shallow, we saw depths from 7′ to 8″ in areas.  If the wind is strong out of the north, there’s a long fetch to get it cranked up as the channel used for crossing is more southerly.  If it weren’t for the alligators and the nasty water, we could have waterskied across.  Speaking of gators- OMG there were some biggies out there.

It was a really interesting trip down the ICW from Stuart.  As expected, there were some really beautiful, mega homes along sections of the trip.  The amazing thing was sometimes right next to them would be older, small, cute cottages, holdouts from the past.  Cruising along we also had a ring side seat to watch some of the mega yachts that had been in the Palm Beach Boat Show parading by.  The show just ended Sunday and today many of them were being delivered back to their home ports.

We had 2 nights in a slip at Marina Jack and now we were ready to head out again.  We weren’t sure when we left where we would end up.  We had a few places in mind and decided to just check them out and see what looked good.  The first site we went to was Longboat Key.  I’d heard a lot of talk about this area and how pretty the beaches are, but we’d also read that it could get crazy on the weekends and some anchorages had their share of derelict boats.  As we slowly cruised through the area checking out its potential, we had to agree with all of the reviews.  It was CRAZY!  Here on a beautiful weekend were dozens of boats zipping around.  Others were beached on a sandbar chillin in their beach chairs while kids and dogs frolicked in the shallows.  People were fishin, drinking, partying and having a great time.  Cool.  But we weren’t going to beach Subject to Change on a sandbar.  That’s something we try to avoid. Right?  So looking at the anchorages where big boys like us go, we did see a number of boats that looked like their anchors had not felt the sea air in many, many moons.  Some were obviously lived on and others looked like they had been abandoned.  As we crossed the Longboat Key inlet, we found a great looking cove by the Sheriff’s office.  Active Captain labeled it Coquina Cove.  We decided to keep going to an area a bit quieter and decided to come back here on a week day.  So we continued north up the ICW to Tampa Bay and then turned southeast into the Manatee River.  About a mile in we dropped the anchor by the DeSoto National Monument.

We took Maggie to shore to investigate the area.  The park told the story of Hernandez DeSoto who first attempted to colonize the area in 1539.  There were a lot of people fishing the cove from the beach, from docks and from boats.  We figured there had to be some good fishing in that cove.  A local told us where to find live bait and we took the dink into Bradenton in the morning to buy some live shrimp.

As usual we saw some interesting boats anchored.

We took the dink out near the ICW channel hoping to get on the ledge where the current would be flowing more.  It didn’t take too long before I got a hit.  The fish grabbed the hook and danced in the air.  I don’t think I’ve ever caught a fish that jumped and danced like this one did.  It was a fun one to catch.  Now all we had to do was figure out what it was.  Tim started making phone calls and texting a pic of the fish – Cousin Andy, Capt. Don, fishing fanatic Greg.  Meanwhile, Tim caught another.  We had to know if this was an eating fish, or just a fun catching fish.  Was it dinner?  The decision was we had caught Lady Fish.  Not dinner.  We were told the meat was very oily and good as bait, but not good eating.  We kept the two we had and later cut them up for bait.  The meat is in the freezer for a later outing.

After 2 nights at DeSoto, we headed back toward Longboat Key.  It was now Monday and we hoped the area would be a bit quieter.  Sure enough, there was hardly a sole there.  No boats were in the cove we picked out a few days earlier.  We slowly slid in over a sandbar and dropped the hook for the night.

The original plan was to stay here for 2 nights, but watching the forecasts, we saw predictions of 20+ winds coming our way.  A quick call to Marina Jack got us an extension on our reservation for a mooring ball.  Instead of coming in Wednesday  as planned, we were going to head in on Tuesday.  We wanted to be settled in before the winds picked up.

Thinking of mooring balls, for those of you who aren’t familiar, I’ll try to explain.  As you drive the boat forward toward the ball, one person (me) hangs over the side with a long boat hook and has to hook the nasty line that is often floating in the water.  You pull the line up and run one of your dock lines through the eye at the end.  You attach the ends of your dock line to cleats on both sides of the bow.  It is best to have at least 2 dock lines through the eye for safety.

I know posts are have not been very regular in coming.  There is a way you can get an email every time I post.  Then you don’t have to check periodically to see if I’ve added anything.  Scroll down to the very bottom of this post.  You’ll see a place to check if you want to be notified of a post.

Click there and you should get an email every time I update.  Thanks for reading.  Oh.. I love getting comments. 🙂

On Feb. 7 we were finally off the dock in Ft Myers after about a month there.  While we really enjoyed our time at Edison Ford, it was so good to be back moving again.  Our dockmaster, Carly, Maggie’s new best friend, was great and she and the guys made our stay so enjoyable.   Where to? North.  I’m ready to spend some time at anchor, enjoy the sunset and stars and wake up to the sun rising.

Before I move on, I have to say we are always amazed by what a small world it is.  A few days before we left, a steel boat came in to the Marina at Edison Ford.  We chatted with the owners briefly, but one morning as they were heading out, Tim was helping them with their lines and learned they were from St Paul, Mn.  It turns out they live just down the street from Tim’s  Uncle Ray and Aunt Sheila and Aunt Elayne.  Paul and Laurie Olson joined us a couple nights later for cocktails.  What fun.

So, we were off and heading north.  We heard a lot about Cabbage Key, only about 3 hours north, so we chose that for our first anchorage.  We pulled into an area just off the ICW that already had about 7 boats anchored.  

Once settled,  we dropped the dingy in and took Mags for a cruise to Cabbage Key.  Cabbage Key is a small private island with guest cottages and a restaurant.  The restaurant is known for its burgers and one dollar bills posted on the walls and ceiling.  We just let Maggie stop for a potty break and decided we’d go back for lunch the next day (dogs are not allowed).  But, as things happen with a boat, plans change.  The next morning, Tim realized that our fridge/freezer unit was not working.  This is not a good thing.  In fact, it can be a BAD thing.  It should run off the 12 v batteries when we are at anchor, but for some reason, they were not.  A call to the manufacturer told us that they have upgraded a diode for our unit and they’d be happy to send us the upgrade.  Why they can’t notify owners that they goofed and made a fix before we find out is beyond me.  What if this had happened while in the Bahamas?  Not good.  It meant we had to get to shore power to keep our unit working until the upgrade arrived.  No more chillin at anchor for now.  We decided to have the part sent to Marina Jack in Sarasota. We knew that marina and figured we could get a slip there to do the fix.  By this time it was too late to get to Sarasota, besides they were full for the next two nights.  A quick call found us a slip at Palm Harbor Marina in Rum Cove/Lemon Bay, only a few hours away.

Palm Harbor turned out to be a great spot.  The neighbors were unbelievably friendly, chatty and just plain nice.  There was a good sized group of Ranger Tugs rendezvousing there and we were given a tour of a 27′.  Wow!!!!  A very nice, well thought out interior, but quite tiny compared to what we have become used to on Subject to Change.  Basically it is the size of a large van.  Hmmm that might be too tight for Tim and I.  Love the guy, but we need more space than that.  While at Palm Harbor, we took the dink across the ICW to Don Pedro Island, a barrier island.  We were allowed into the private resort since we were staying at Palm Harbor.  We strolled the beautiful beach and lounged watching dolphin play in the surf.  Mags got her fill of chasing sea birds before we headed up to the restaurant for lunch.  

Soon after we returned to the boat, one of our neighbors called out to me that a manatee was swimming right behind or boat.  Just loved watching it slowly glide by, surfacing for air a couple of times before heading into the channel.

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We left Palm Harbor on 2/9  after the fog lifted in the morning and began our 5 hour trip up the ICW to Sarasota.  Great trip.  Lots of amazing homes, plenty of dolphins, and a bunch of bridges.  Our fridge/freezer diode was waiting for us at Marina Jack.  Also ran into a couple we first met at Houma City Marina back in November.  Again, its a small word.  Boating makes it even smaller.  Rock and Louisa along with their westie, Maggie, are on a mooring ball here in Sarasota.  Our mutual love of dogs named Maggie made a mark in our memory banks.  They stopped by for a beer while the Maggies had a romp.

So, now it is today, 2/10 and we have pulled out the fridge/freezer and installed the “fix”.  Cross our fingers.  Soon we’ll walk the mile or so to Publix for a few supplies and then figure out where we’ll head tomorrow.  We have booked a mooring ball back here at Marina Jack on for the 15t through 21st.  Then we’ll be back in a slip for the rendezvous.

An update on our cruising buddies- Steve, Deidra and Trouble, on Osprey, are in Marathon looking for a window on Tuesday to cross over to the Exumas.  Wayne and Elda took Aloha to Isla Mujures and will be there until ????

Other pics taken just because.