Been a little while since our last post.
We have been very busy with all the things necessary to make the cruise move along as well as making the most of our shore time and time getting much needed sleep.
Our departure from Indiantown was not uneventful as it has a close quartered configuration and if an unexpected wind arises, there is no maneuvering room to counter it. Where were at our slip we were essentially in zero wind and as we went out forward maybe the length of our boat and turned right, we suddenly had a significant wind pushing us right up on the line of boats on the "far" side. Maybe a total distance of 50 feet from the end of the slip we departed from.
The day "at sea" was the rest of the St. Lucie Canal to the St. Lucie lock which dropped us 14 feet down to the level of the St. Lucie River. The St. Lucie River meanders around and eventually led us to the Atlantic Intracoastal waterway to head north.
At the intersection and as we turned north there was a wind surfer coming south toward us. As is the custom, when encountering other watercraft, I pointed the Salt Shaker to the direction I thought would clear and he would point the same way, ensuring a collision. So I would point the other way and so would he. My only option was to put us in neutral and force the wind surfer make all the decisions. After all we were more of less constrained by the channel and he was not. He went flying past us and cleared us by maybe 15 feet with a grumpy look on his face. I wonder what kind of hand gesture he would have given us, were it not for the fact that he had to keep both hands on the tiller to control it. Those things really fly if there is any wind at all and today there was lots.
We were able to make it to Vero Beach where Piper Aircraft had a plant so many years ago, the plant that made the airplane that my father had and enjoyed for many years. That was 1960, my word, 50 years ago.
Another bit of nostalgia at the Vero Beach Municipal Marina was right next door to our slip. It was a 1931 38 foot Mathews boat with a live aboard fellow, (reminded me of one of those so called "free spirit folks from the 60's now aged appropriately.) My folks had the sister boat to this one back in the late 40's. I remember all the Mahogany wood that was varnished to a shine and all the brightly colored greens and whites and the care my dad took of this boat. The one next to us was in good shape considering her age but was showing all the signs of the care being practical instead of being done to make her look good. Everything was covered with many layers of old white paint.
We made our way out of Vero Beach yesterday and traveled to Titusville, staying at their Municipal Marina which is very nice, as they all have been so far. My docking skills are improving. There was enough maneuvering room here to allow us to counter the fairly brisk cross wind to our "back in" slip. I am beginning to handle the throttles and shifters with more instinct and authority which is necessary under such conditions.
On the way up the Indian River we passed Cape Canaveral and got a good view of the "vehicle assembly" building. We went under the bridge that connects the mainland with the cape. This is the only bridge in the state of Florida that has hours of operation for boat openings. There are large blocks of time at the morning and the afternoon rush hours that they will not open the bridge to let tall boats thru. Our boat height, fortunately was low enough we could pass under, there quite a grouping of boats taller than us that were "patiently" waiting for the rush hour to pass.
I will post some pictures with the next entry.
Tony n Pat
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Day 6 April 10 @ Indiantown, FL
We left Port La Belle on Friday, April 9 not too early in the morning, around 10:00 and continued heading east. Followed the west canal and did three locks. The locks were the Ortona lock, 20 miles east of La Belle and the Moore Haven Lock at the town of Moore Haven, and finally the Port Mayaca Lock on the other side of Lake Okeechobee, right at the entrance to the St. Lucie Canal.
The day before we had to open the Fort Denaud swing bridge at Denaud which has a 9 foot clearance which we could not get under. It it carries the traffic across the river for the town. The lady bridge operator was very country and was very helpful and found the point in the traffic flow to give us an opening. Her controls are in the open at the center of the bridge and it was fun to see how things can be done without being complicated.
When you hit Moore Haven you encounter a T intersection where you can go to the right or the left but you must make a decision. There are signs at the intersection, just like traffic signs that says what is in each direction. We turned right because, among other things we knew, the sign said Clewiston to the right.
The crossing of Lake Okeechobee was a delight, the chop was a foot or less and we were able to set the boat up on plane and made it across the entire lake in just over an hour at 22 knots.
The St. Lucie Canal is much different than the Caloosahatchee. The Caloosahatchee has a high boating and jet ski and water sport population and in other areas there is a lot of agriculture while the St. Lucie reminded us of the River system in the movie, "The African Queen." No sign of development anywhere along and woods and brush right down to the banks. It had a slight meander personality that was different from the Caloosahatchee canal.
We were able to make our way to the Indiantown marina which is a neat place to hole up. It is a very large very full service marina with lots of boats with lots of boaters. Boats from all over the world are here, as far away as Australia. We met a looper who arrived today, two ladies running a Mainship 34 around the loop for the second time.
When we arrived, we were both exhausted so we decided to spend an extra day here. Great choice.
Tony n Pat
The day before we had to open the Fort Denaud swing bridge at Denaud which has a 9 foot clearance which we could not get under. It it carries the traffic across the river for the town. The lady bridge operator was very country and was very helpful and found the point in the traffic flow to give us an opening. Her controls are in the open at the center of the bridge and it was fun to see how things can be done without being complicated.
When you hit Moore Haven you encounter a T intersection where you can go to the right or the left but you must make a decision. There are signs at the intersection, just like traffic signs that says what is in each direction. We turned right because, among other things we knew, the sign said Clewiston to the right.
The crossing of Lake Okeechobee was a delight, the chop was a foot or less and we were able to set the boat up on plane and made it across the entire lake in just over an hour at 22 knots.
The St. Lucie Canal is much different than the Caloosahatchee. The Caloosahatchee has a high boating and jet ski and water sport population and in other areas there is a lot of agriculture while the St. Lucie reminded us of the River system in the movie, "The African Queen." No sign of development anywhere along and woods and brush right down to the banks. It had a slight meander personality that was different from the Caloosahatchee canal.
We were able to make our way to the Indiantown marina which is a neat place to hole up. It is a very large very full service marina with lots of boats with lots of boaters. Boats from all over the world are here, as far away as Australia. We met a looper who arrived today, two ladies running a Mainship 34 around the loop for the second time.
When we arrived, we were both exhausted so we decided to spend an extra day here. Great choice.
Tony n Pat
A few pics of Tarpon Point Marina to Port La Belle Marina 04/08/2010
Tarpon Point Marina
The Nina and the Pinta @ a Fort Meyers marina
A tourist river boat along the Caloosahatchee River
Franklin lock that will take us up all of two feet
The "admiral"
Bridge operator @ the Ft. Denaud swing bridge making the way clear for us.
Shore after a good day! The gas dock @ Port Labelle Marina
Gorgeous sunset @ La Belle
Alligator making his way across the Port La Belle harbor
What they think of Jet Skis in these parts!A bunch of photos fron Venice to Tarpon Point Marina 4/7/2010
The good and the BAD
Osprey feeding her young at her home on marker 39
a Porta-Bote in action
Palm Island fare
Being overtaken by a bunch of "fast" boats
The New Zealand couple who shared our marina at the Crow's NestThursday, April 8, 2010
Day 4 April 8, 2010
We are adapting to a life on the water.
Yesterday we traveled from the Crow's nest @ Venice FL to Tarpon Point Marina @ Cape Coral, a distance of about 57 miles. The entire travel was along the Intracoastal Water Way which is scenic all along the way and wide in places and narrow in others and deep in places and shallow in others. Lots of boats encountered going with us and going against us. The weather was as good as it gets as it was perfect.
We opened our first bridge that we could not pass beneath and we encountered one of the sail boats that had been docked at the Crows Nest with us, a couple from New Zealand. We discussed whether the couple sailed her across or whether they had her shipped over. My guess is that they sailed across. There are so many small boats, mostly sail, in the open ocean that are going from one foreign port to another.
We settled into Tarpon at about 4:30 in the afternoon, hooked the boat up to electric and water and then moseyed down to a tiki bar they had on site called the Naught Mermaid to celebrate. We came away with a 5 piece set of plastic ware for the boat with their logo which will be happily used from time to time aboard the Salt Shaker.
We met some nice folks there but could not stay long since we our intentions were to travel as far as we could go today east along the Okeechoobee water way toward the big lake.
Due to our late start, around 11:00 in the morning we only made 38 miles as opposed to 57 miles the day before. But we were able to nestle in at the gas dock at a really "in the country" marina called Port La Belle Marina at La Belle on the waterway. They were closed when we arrived but were available to discuss things with them and the kindly allowed us to remain at their gas dock until morning. Perfect because we are about 75 gallons short of a full load and I always feel good with full gas. From my days of flying small air planes I guess.
We did our first lock today. It was the Franklin Lock which lifted us all of about 2 feet for the next section of the waterway. We went thru the lock with 3 other boats, one of them a power boat and the other two were sail. It happened that we were assigned by the lockmaster to be the first boat in the string so we were less than perfect in our anticipations about what to do when but the boat behind gave us helpful hints over his radio and the lock master was super helpful and handled us like we were unsure which we were, unsure.
There are some boobs who have boats and we encountered one of them today along the waterway. He had what must have been a 50 footer, layed out like a trawler but with European styling and with a plaining hull. He passed us going about 30 knots making waves in this tiny 200 foot or so canal that we guessed to be about 4 feet. The waves went to the edges of the canal and slapped against the sea walls that were in this particular area and reflected back just as big as the originals. There were 3 people on a jet ski that encountered these waves and all 3 of them were launched off of the jet ski in 3 different directions. A boat ahead of us went over toward them just in case any assistance was needed but all three ex passengers were able to swim back to their waiting machine and climb back aboard. This boob with a boat is the one I blame for causing all my beer in my beer fridge to be tipped over. "Jerk!:
The trip so far has exceed all of our expectations by orders of magnitude. Pat said we will probably be in better physical shape when we return home that when we left. It is physical stuff.
I will post this first and then try to post some pics that we thought would be interesting. We are accumulating a camera full of stuff.
Tony n Pat
Yesterday we traveled from the Crow's nest @ Venice FL to Tarpon Point Marina @ Cape Coral, a distance of about 57 miles. The entire travel was along the Intracoastal Water Way which is scenic all along the way and wide in places and narrow in others and deep in places and shallow in others. Lots of boats encountered going with us and going against us. The weather was as good as it gets as it was perfect.
We opened our first bridge that we could not pass beneath and we encountered one of the sail boats that had been docked at the Crows Nest with us, a couple from New Zealand. We discussed whether the couple sailed her across or whether they had her shipped over. My guess is that they sailed across. There are so many small boats, mostly sail, in the open ocean that are going from one foreign port to another.
We settled into Tarpon at about 4:30 in the afternoon, hooked the boat up to electric and water and then moseyed down to a tiki bar they had on site called the Naught Mermaid to celebrate. We came away with a 5 piece set of plastic ware for the boat with their logo which will be happily used from time to time aboard the Salt Shaker.
We met some nice folks there but could not stay long since we our intentions were to travel as far as we could go today east along the Okeechoobee water way toward the big lake.
Due to our late start, around 11:00 in the morning we only made 38 miles as opposed to 57 miles the day before. But we were able to nestle in at the gas dock at a really "in the country" marina called Port La Belle Marina at La Belle on the waterway. They were closed when we arrived but were available to discuss things with them and the kindly allowed us to remain at their gas dock until morning. Perfect because we are about 75 gallons short of a full load and I always feel good with full gas. From my days of flying small air planes I guess.
We did our first lock today. It was the Franklin Lock which lifted us all of about 2 feet for the next section of the waterway. We went thru the lock with 3 other boats, one of them a power boat and the other two were sail. It happened that we were assigned by the lockmaster to be the first boat in the string so we were less than perfect in our anticipations about what to do when but the boat behind gave us helpful hints over his radio and the lock master was super helpful and handled us like we were unsure which we were, unsure.
There are some boobs who have boats and we encountered one of them today along the waterway. He had what must have been a 50 footer, layed out like a trawler but with European styling and with a plaining hull. He passed us going about 30 knots making waves in this tiny 200 foot or so canal that we guessed to be about 4 feet. The waves went to the edges of the canal and slapped against the sea walls that were in this particular area and reflected back just as big as the originals. There were 3 people on a jet ski that encountered these waves and all 3 of them were launched off of the jet ski in 3 different directions. A boat ahead of us went over toward them just in case any assistance was needed but all three ex passengers were able to swim back to their waiting machine and climb back aboard. This boob with a boat is the one I blame for causing all my beer in my beer fridge to be tipped over. "Jerk!:
The trip so far has exceed all of our expectations by orders of magnitude. Pat said we will probably be in better physical shape when we return home that when we left. It is physical stuff.
I will post this first and then try to post some pics that we thought would be interesting. We are accumulating a camera full of stuff.
Tony n Pat
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The photo's in the previous post were supposed to be part of this one. Finger fumbled and they posted before I was finished.
First photo is Dave diagnosing the problem
Second photo is your captain at work.
Third photo is of the beautiful weather and the beautiful views and one of the reasons we elected to stay the extra night.
Day one was yesterday 04/05/10
Our departure was fun, did a loop run up to the end of the canal, and then a 180 to allow us to pass our dock and give the 3 long and 2 short blast of the horn. That was one of those times I wish the boat had a good set of high quality air horns. That would have sounded beautiful.
First thing out of the box, still within sight of our dock, we get an engine alarm. Turned out we had a clogged water intake on the port engine and consequently we were in "overheat mode" on that engine. I shut it down and the alarm went away. Good news. We putted her over to my favorite repair marina and I must say, Dave Marsh jumped into the engine room and had the clog cleared and replaced the impeller which was destroyed by the overheat. He had us ready to go within an hour. My hat is off to these guys.
We were back on our way early enough to be able to get to our planned destination, Venice FL before the marina shut down for the evening. I do recommend where we are at right now. The Crow's Nest Marina and restaurant.
The winds were such that I could approach and get to the gas dock like I was an expert. Got topped off with gas, and other services and then went to our assigned slip, #16 where the winds and tidal currents were such that I had to actually be an expert to pull it off. After the 3rd attempt, we were able to make fast in slip 16.
Dinner, we went to the restaurant at the marina for dinner and had excellent fare. For those who like wine, their wine cellar has 16,000 bottles of wine on hand and the prices range from $32.00 to $900.00 for a bottle. I have the theory that if you purchase the cheapest bottle of wine in the category you like at a quality restaurant, it will not disappoint you and last night was no exception.
This is a first for me. About half the wine was still in the bottle when we were ready to call it a night, and the waitress asked if we would like a "wine doggy bag." This was really neat. They recorked the bottle, put a sales slip with it and put it all in a single use seal able bag and we were good to go. Just like a concealed carry permit. Check them out at www.winedoggybag.com .
The weather is so perfect that we decided to spend an extra night and organize the boat and do some bicycle riding around town.
Next destination will be somewhere along the Okeechobee canal system. Anywhere between Fort Meyers and More Haven will be just fine.
Tony n Pat
First photo is Dave diagnosing the problem
Second photo is your captain at work.
Third photo is of the beautiful weather and the beautiful views and one of the reasons we elected to stay the extra night.
Day one was yesterday 04/05/10
Our departure was fun, did a loop run up to the end of the canal, and then a 180 to allow us to pass our dock and give the 3 long and 2 short blast of the horn. That was one of those times I wish the boat had a good set of high quality air horns. That would have sounded beautiful.
First thing out of the box, still within sight of our dock, we get an engine alarm. Turned out we had a clogged water intake on the port engine and consequently we were in "overheat mode" on that engine. I shut it down and the alarm went away. Good news. We putted her over to my favorite repair marina and I must say, Dave Marsh jumped into the engine room and had the clog cleared and replaced the impeller which was destroyed by the overheat. He had us ready to go within an hour. My hat is off to these guys.
We were back on our way early enough to be able to get to our planned destination, Venice FL before the marina shut down for the evening. I do recommend where we are at right now. The Crow's Nest Marina and restaurant.
The winds were such that I could approach and get to the gas dock like I was an expert. Got topped off with gas, and other services and then went to our assigned slip, #16 where the winds and tidal currents were such that I had to actually be an expert to pull it off. After the 3rd attempt, we were able to make fast in slip 16.
Dinner, we went to the restaurant at the marina for dinner and had excellent fare. For those who like wine, their wine cellar has 16,000 bottles of wine on hand and the prices range from $32.00 to $900.00 for a bottle. I have the theory that if you purchase the cheapest bottle of wine in the category you like at a quality restaurant, it will not disappoint you and last night was no exception.
This is a first for me. About half the wine was still in the bottle when we were ready to call it a night, and the waitress asked if we would like a "wine doggy bag." This was really neat. They recorked the bottle, put a sales slip with it and put it all in a single use seal able bag and we were good to go. Just like a concealed carry permit. Check them out at www.winedoggybag.com .
The weather is so perfect that we decided to spend an extra night and organize the boat and do some bicycle riding around town.
Next destination will be somewhere along the Okeechobee canal system. Anywhere between Fort Meyers and More Haven will be just fine.
Tony n Pat
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