hanging out at Gasparilla Marina

There is something very special about sunset at a marina. The sky is light blue with pink above the western horizon. The ospreys perch high on sailboat masts and the corners of building tops while the egrets and herons stand frozen in time on the floating docks and rip rap. All hoping for that last fish catch before night fall. A dolphin cruises the marina fairway looking to corner a mullet against the concrete bulkhead. A manatee family lounges between the boats in slips to avoid the traffic of the center console fishing boats that come and go. The fuel dock attendant and mechanics have gone home. The last of the fishing guides have dropped off their day charters who in boisterous voices confirm the old adage about fishermen returning home from the sea. It’s so quiet we unconsciously whisper to each other as we talk about our day exploring by dinghy the islands nearby and the unexpected discovery of 6 roseate spoonbills and the hidden canoe trail tunneling into the overhanging mangroves.When I last posted a note on the blog we had just pulled into a marina at the north end of Charlotte Harbor; east side of the ICW just south of the swing bridge. We had discovered fuel in our engine oil that day – not a good thing. Monday, the 26th a mechanic give us the bad news. A high pressure fuel pump was leaking and this caused fuel to be mixed with the lubricating oil which created a risk of severe and expensive engine damage. We’ve been at Gasparilla Marina for over a week now waiting to have the pump rebuilt. We certainly can’t say we’ve been “stuck” here. For starters, our marina neighbor is a nice couple from Houston; immigrants 10 years ago from Argentina. A fun loving couple a full of energy and anxious to get back to Houston to their grandchildren. Before their departure on 5/3 they cooked a steak dinner for us complete with white table cloth. It was a reward for my lucky guess in fixing their marine radio. We also enjoyed a weekend of hospitality from our neighbors at home who own a beach house on Gasparilla Island which is only a few minutes from our marina. We spent 3 lovely days with them walking the beach, helping with the inevitable second home projects and touring the island. Paul and Erma are the most generous of friends. We have also taken dinghy trips to the beach and explored some of the small islands near the marina. Shelling for Diane has been a success. There are several bags of her precious cargo now stored on board. I should also mention the little restaurant/bar on the marina property which has been a source of entertainment; some of it from the musicians. We have also spent some of our time reading and doing low priority maintenance projects that always seem to fall to the bottom of “the list”. Tomorrow, Friday 5/7 we will rent a car and decide what to do for the next few days. If the mechanic gods appear favorable we will just spend the weekend exploring the area by car. If we have doubts about prompt return of our fuel pump, we may drive home to get are car and return to the marina with expectations of spending much more time here than planned. I am attaching some photos that I hope you enjoy.
Oops - it looks like the internet connection won't allow too many photo uploads at once, so I will try to send my photos in 2 or 3 posts that will preceed this one.

Photo 1 - a sign at Widdens Marina (I hope I spelled that right, but somehow I don't think they would really care)

Photo 2 - different sign, same place. Would you believe the G. Bush family vacations here

Photo 3 - our dear friends Paul and Erma at the Boca Grande light house. A pastel painting of this lighthouse is on the main bulkhead of Sea Breeze.

Photo 4 - manatees in our marina at Gasparilla Marina

Dialog to follow

We thought you would enjoy these photos. So far we have enjoyed a great 10 days in the Boca Grande area. Beautiful beaches and good restaurants plus hooking up with old friends from NY and making new friends from Argentina. Top photo is a collection of Diane's shell search at the north end of Gasparilla Island. Second photo - Osprae nest at our dock in Apollo Beach. Claudia takes such good care of the newborns. Third photo is taken from the water tower at Cabbage Key. Our boat is just to the right out of site behind the palms. Bottom photo is a Gopher Turtle on Cabbage Key. Diane had some great success finding shells on Gasparilla Island. Crab-w0man has morphed into 'shell woman'.

We left Apollo Beach (home for us, a suburb of Tampa) on April 15th. After fueling in St. Petersburg we anchored for the night in the Manatee River. On the 16th we sailed in the Gulf of Mexico to the Venice Inlet. From there we motor sailed down the ICW to an anchorage near Inglewood. From the 17th to today (25th) we have day sailed to several marinas and anchorages in the Boca Grande area. It's the Florida version of the Chesapeake Bay.

Naples to Tampa Bay

Tonight we are anchored next to the mooring field at the south Apollo Beach Basin in Tampa Bay; about 200 yards from our soon to be permanent dock for Sea Breeze. Last night anchored on "the hook". Our trip is over. Mixed emotions. Happy to be home and sad to be ending our adventure. We have talked long and late into the evenings about what to do next. No decisions yet, but lots of ideas and plenty of options to explore. The trip home from the Keys was a few days shorter than we planned due to the possible arrival of TS or hurricane Ida and the strong northerly winds produced by the squeeze beteeen her low pressure zone off Nicaragua to the west and the high over the southeast US. We felt we needed to beat any potential hurricane home. That's an ironic twist.......no storms at all during our travels down the east coast during prime hurricane season then a possible hurricane threat this late in the season now that we are home. The water between the Keys and Sarasota is so clear - emerald green to blue in deeper water, white in shallow. In some of our anchorages it seemed like we were anchored on emerald glass. Its easy to read the water depth in the inlets and channels by looking at water color. We could see star fish and spounges in the sand bottom in 10+ feet of water in the Keys; sharks, turtles and tarpon in 15'+ in the Gulf; turtles (not babies but big guys 3' diameter shells with grapefruit size heads). Flying fish and shrimp skipping along like flat rocks skipped on a calm pond. It isn't as clear as the water in the Bahamas or other Carib islands but it's a treat to us after the cloudy water north of Miami on the east coast. We loved the east coast, especially NC and the Chesapeake, but the water clarity of the FL Keys and west coast gets your attention. Sea Breeze is covered with salt today as we anchored in Apollo Beach. The past two days have produced strong northery winds that kicked up short and steep waves in Tampa Bay that we had to drive in to. We were often stopped dead in our tracks by waves that put Sea Breeze's nose pointing skyward then drove her into the next wave trough. Lots of spray. When we anchored tonight Sea Breeze, Diane and I looked like we were covered in talcum powder; actually it was salt. These past two days were probably our roughest weather of the trip but only because we had to head into the wind/waves. We experienced wind and waves this rough in NC and MD but there we had the option of just turing around and going down wind for a comfortable day long sail. Twenty to twenty five knots of wind and 3-4 foot short steep waves feel a whole lot different when you are going down wind instead of up wind. I guess the weather gods were telling us we should have turned around and returned to the Keys. Later. When I look back on the trip, no doubt the visiting of small out of the way towns and remote anchorages was the highlight of the trip. Of equal importance were the new friends we made along the way. Latest MAP.

Photo 1 - a little dark but this was our dockside neighbor in Venice

Photo 2 - our neighbor at anchor next so Sanibel Is.

The Keys and the African Queen

Sitting in the cockpit at sundown in the Keys is one of the most relaxing experiences. The air feels like silk on skin. I watched a ketch sail across our horizon a couple of miles to our SW. As it crossed the sun's decending path I couldn't get the song "Wooden Ships" by CS & N out of my head. An old and somewhat depressing lyrics but a nice melody. We are certainly not depressed. How could anyone be other than joyous at this view........and I forgot to take a photo. We've been getting lazy lately and not taking many pictures. We'll have to do better. It took the ketch the better part of an hour to pass through an arc of about 20 degrees on the horizon before it vanished behind one of the smaller unnamed keys. Three nights were not enough of the Keys so we will be coming back again soon for a longer visit. Two nights ago we anchored in the Little Shark River. It's part of the Everglades and a very remote and wild place. Lots of animal life all around us as we sailed to an anchorage an hour before sunset. It was feeding time in the jungle. At sunset the animal life changed from birds, fish and turtles to no-see-ums. Diane and I quickly dove into the boat and put in all the screens. We felt like Charles and Rosie in the movie African Queen. We promised ourselves air conditioning next night so we made a long and fast dash to Naples. We've decided to stay a second night and enjoy the wonderous invention of Willis Carrier a little longer. We are sort of on the home stretch. The waters north of us are familiar to us and we've sailed them from time to time over the years. We plan to linger a little in some spots we have visited in the past but were never able to stay long enough because of work committments. I'll close this with a link to the MAP. We are going to walk to the Naples pier and watch the sunset from shore; something we've done many times in the past with our children when they were small and with my parents when dad was alive and mom was in better health. It will be a moment of very mixed emotions.

Jensen Bch to Miami

We've been slowly hopping down the ICW this past week gawking at the huge houses and yachts along the South Florida waterfront. We've spent nights at anchor or in marinas and met Canadian and American boats on their way to the Keys or Bahamas for the winter. One boat we shared an anchorage with on two different occasions is from Holland. Tonight will be our second night in this Biscayne Bay anchorage. To our north a couple of miles is the beautiful Miami skyline. We are sitting here waiting for a tropical wave to meet a weak cold front moving down from North FL. The collision is bringing lots of clouds, some rain and thankfully light and variable winds. This weather train wreck should clear out tomorrow, so we will be off to the Keys. We are thinking of spending 2-4 nights at anchor at various spots in the Keys before making the turn north toward Tampa. We may be out of cell phone and internet coverage for a few days beginning about mid-week since the area between the Keys and Marco Island (s. of Naples) is either Gulf water or the Everglades. Not many cell phone towers there. This week will mark the 4,000 nautical mile mark for our travels. We will probably pour some white wine (small amount) over the bow of Sea Breeze to celebrate the occasion. In looking at theMAP you can see how close the Bahamas are to us today. With a few little enhancements to Sea Breeze, we hope to be back here in Biscayne Bay sometime within the next 12 months waiting for a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream for a visit there.

Photo 1 - entering Port of Miami with the city in the background

Photo 2 - Ft. Lauderdale from the ICW

Photo 3 - Miami Beach from offshore

Jacksonville to Jensen Beach

After leaving Jacksonville if felt like we sailed (motored actually) into a sauna. Early October seemed more like early August. We broke from our usual routine of anchoring out each night. We motored through windless molasses with our electrical umbilical cord reaching out for the next marina so we could plug in and dive below into the comfort of a cabin being cooled and dehumidified by our new best friend – the air conditioner. All of Sea Breeze’s electrical needs are provided by battery power except the AC, so when the crew wants to sleep in cool comfort, we head for marinas……preferably marinas with swimming pools attached. St. Augustine provided an interesting one night stop. Long ago it was our frequent weekend destination when we were young and living in Fernandina Beach. We remembered bicycling through deserted streets one Christmas day when we woke to discover our early morning flights to visit family up north had been cancelled. Next day after St. Augustine we discovered a little gem of a hotel built in the 1880’s. Located in New Smyrna Beach, it met all our requirements – shore power for the boat and its AC unit, a pool, and 5 short blocks from the beach. The Riverview Hotel and Marina could accommodate one boat (us). It is a beautiful pink hotel with white trim, 3 stories, and a big wrap around front porch with rocking chairs. All this peeking out from under a huge ancient live oak tree. Hidden in back a walled subtropical garden was our main reason for stopping here………the pool. We giggled as we swam in this secret place that few seemed to know existed. The beach was a short 5 blocks away with shops lining both sides of the street. The shops were mostly tourist traps – tee shirt shops, shell shops, a couple of beach funky bars selling cheap domestic’s – 5 for $10. And yes, count’em – 3 ice cream shops! We’ve also spent nights in the Melbourne area, meeting friends for dinner out, and in north Ft. Pierce. Last night we anchored at Jensen Beach and waited for the approaching cold front to wash over us. This morning we woke to temps in the 70’s. Glorious. A break from the record setting heat. Somehow I can just feel the sympathy from those of you who are experiencing frost or even snow right now. We are going to stay at anchor here for a day or two and take advantage of the cooler weather to do some much needed cosmetic maintenance. First on the list is to clean the “mustache” from the hull. Most of the ICW waterway from Norfolk to Ft. Pierce contains some level of tea colored water which leaves a stain along the water line. Now that we are back in clear water again it’s time to get out the cleaning tools. We should be in the Miami area in 3-4 days and the Keys by next weekend. Then we turn the corner and start north toward home. Our internet service is not the greatest or fastest here in Jensen Beach so I’m not going to try to download any photos today. I did update the MAP so you can see where we are and where we’ve been lately.

Jacksonville

We spent the past week at a beautiful marina on the Ortega River and visited Mark, Christi and grandson Owen. A nice break from the boat and a chance to catch up on some boat maintenance (oil change, fuel filter change, etc). Now it's on to St. Augustine, Daytona and points south. The map traces our progress since leaving NC.

Photo 1 - Diane and Owen fishing on Sea Breeze

Photo 2 - Mark, Christi & Owen out day sailing on the St. Johns River