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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Cabbage Key to St. Petersburg

Saturday, October 22, 2011

There were several bad days since the time we left Cabbage Key until now.  After waiting for the last front to pass, we were back to moving the Elixir once more. 

Tom was home, but only for 2 days.  He would have to return to California today to resume his training.  We asked three of our friends to complete our cruise.

The five of us began our day before first light and made our way back down to Bokelia to catch the Island Girl water taxi back to our boat.

We were making great time until we arrived to the town of Bokelia.  Road construction caused us to miss the first water taxi by five minutes!!!  Miss Island Girl keeps a very dependable schedule so we missed the boat!  She was kind enough to set up a private charter to take us back to Cabbage Key.  If Tom did not have to be back to catch a flight, we would have waited the two hours for the next shuttle, but we couldn't.





Finally, back to our boat!  We had just enough time to give the skippers a tour of our boat and order some of those famous cheeseburgers!


The Elixir was now in the hands of these great captains! From what I understand, they set sail around 11:30am and sailed all night.  They arrived at our slip in St. Pete at 11:30 am the next day! 

Great job guys!!!

While they were busy sailing the boat, Tom and I were busy making our way back to Orlando so he could catch his flight!  Back on the water taxi we went.  By the time I dropped Tom off and made it back home, it was 6:30pm!  What a day!

Marco Island to Cabbage Key

Wednesday, October, 12, 2011


While Tom has taken a new job with Virgin America, I am back on the water to move the Elixir to her new home in St. Petersburg.  Tom's dad offered to help bring the boat around with me.  Oh does he know what he is getting into?  ;-)


We arrived at the boat around 1pm, 1.5 hours behind schedule (it took a little longer to stage the vehicles and of course there was the morning rush hour traffic)!  After quickly loading the boat, and changing the 12Volt battery we began our journey.  Our friend Sam advised us to leave as soon as possible to avoid the low tide.  This area has some extremely shallow areas and we could definitely see that the tide was going out!


As we made our way back to the gulf, my mind flashed back to our voyage into this harbor in the wee hours of the morning not more than one month ago.  How different the harbor looked in the daylight!  The only thing that did not seem to be much different was the condition of the channel.  The winds and waves were still prevalent, but this time with only 1-2 foot waves.   I believe that this area never has calm seas!

Once out in the Gulf, we only had a few hours of day light left and so decided that we should only go as far as Naples.  I called ahead to the Naples City Marina and we made our way per the dock masters instructions, or so I thought!

The Naples channel provided some delightful views.  As we made our way through the curvy channel, we admired some aarchitecturally beautiful homes!

After almost one hour, we came upon our channel marker that would lead us to our slip.  Per the dock master, we were to look for the flag pole with one American flag and one white flag on the north side, then we could choose any slip numbered 59-62 located on the south side of the harbor.  


We docked the boat, got the grill ready then headed for the showers just as the sun set.   We arrived at the showers and that's when we discovered that we were definitely in the wrong place.  By now it was getting late and not knowing the waters and given the extra low tides due to the new moon, we decided to stay put.

 


How ironic that the "south side' vacant slip numbers, and the flag descriptions were EXACTLY the same!


So that is how we spent the night at the Naples Yacht Club! 


Here in the photo to the right you can see the moon behind a mast raised on land.








Thursday, October 13, 2011

We woke the next day only to find that the tide was extremely low,  as expected (high tide was at 1:00am)!.  Since we had to wait until 10am before we had any chance of leaving, Pop and I decided to stroll around and see what was near. 

We found a the marine store located at the marina where we should have spent our night!  We could clearly see the boat from the dock!

 
Finally, we were back on our way.  Next stop Fort Myers! 

We had a beautiful day on the water.  Once we were out in the gulf, the winds picked up and the waves a light chop.  Time to raise the sails and maybe gain some time!  We might have been able to do it had the main halyard not gotten wrapped around the steaming light.  It was too choppy for me to try and untangle the halyard so we motored to Ft. Myers.










The channel for Fort Myers is very long!  We entered the channel, called Salty Sam's marina for directions.






Boulders lined the channel on either side and quickly curved around to what appeared to be a dead end.  As we progressed towards the bridge the scenery changed from lovely homes to . . .




 
Bubba Gumps!!!!!!   After we passed through the Mantazas Bridge the scenery suddenly changed.  There were shrimp boats everywhere! 
 













We had to stay very close to the shrimp boats as this channel is very narrow and many shoals to our right! 





Once there we were pleasantly surprised!!  They had a tasty Caribbean Grill Restaurant, live music and a gift shop. 


After a delicious dinner, we went back to the boat for a night cap.  All was still, waters calm, when we heard a small splash.  on the other side of the dock we spotted a dolphin.  Before long, it had made it's way to the stern of the boat where it crested the water.  The dolphin, only two feet away from the boat, looked black in the inky water.

Shortly after, we were being chased down below by millions of mosquitoes.   It was a very hot night on the boat.  While we have A/C, the dock where we were assigned had the incorrect hook ups!    UGH!  We were roughing in tonight!



Friday, October 14, 2011

We had our first experience getting stuck in the muck!  Before leaving, we wanted to top off our fuel tank.   Moving ever so slowly towards the docks, we nervously watched as the depth gauge declined in feet.  Before we knew it we were stuck!  Fortunate for us, the dock hand was able to tow us back out to deeper waters.   Guess that is one way to clean those barnacles off of the bottom of the boat!

The current was strong and after several attempts to tie up at the end dock, we decided that we didn't need gas that bad!   We left Salty Sam's and as we headed back out to sea, made a random stop at a fueling dock which was obviously designed for shrimp boats.  I had to climb at least three feet up to the dock in order to tie us off, but it was worth it. . . cheapest gas ever!!!

Finally we were on our way!!!  Next stop, Cabbage Key!


The day was delightful and the seas very calm.  We cruised along the coast of Sanibel and Captivia Islands.  If you expand this photo you will be able to see the bridge between the two islands.

At one point, I thought that I saw land in front of us.  This, however, could not be, not according to the maps and GPS.  None the less, I had to check it out.  I grabbed the binoculars.  The waters were so calm that it gave the appearance of land.  How amazing!

And of course the day would not be complete without at least one dolphin sighting. 

As we approached the channel to Port Charlotte, we noticed several dead fish.  At first we thought that they were left over bait, but as we continued into the channel, the fish became more abundant.  It was red tide. 


The extremely short and narrow channel into Cabbage Key lead up to a quaint little harbor and again we were pleasantly surprised!  This is truly one of Florida's hidden treasures that I can not wait to revisit someday and explore the island!
This remote hideaway is old Florida, with mangroves instead of white sand beaches, and is reachable only by boat or helicopter.

This is the main house, now the Cabbage Key Inn and Restaurant.  The building sits atop an Indian shell mound and the view is extraordinary!  It was built in the 1930's by the family of playwright and novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart in 1938, but today is a restaurant crowded every day with people enjoying the famous cheeseburgers. It is said that Jimmy Buffet was inspired to write "Cheeseburger in Paradise" here. Their cheeseburgers were very good!

The grounds are surrounded by nature, in fact there are no TV's or phones in the eight cottages on the island.  There are lots of hiking trails to enjoy all of the nature found on this small island. 


Pop and I enjoyed a delicious dinner in one of the most uniquely decorated restaurant I have seen.  Over 70,000 autographed one dollar bills that cover every square inch of the walls and ceilings of the bar and dining room, including those signed by Kevin Costner, Julia Roberts, and supposedly John F. Kennedy. We were not able to find them though. 


This tradition was reportedly started by a local fisherman who taped up a dollar bill in the bar to be sure he'd have enough for a beer when he returned, and it continues today.


So of course, we had to keep up the tradition and add our own to the wall of many!


There was a fishing tournament here this weekend and so the restaurant and inn was hopping!
We noticed another boat docked beside us that was a sailing instruction boat.  I wandered over and spoke with the captain about our tangled halyard.  He said that the same thing just happened to them and that he would be happy to show me how to remedy that situation.  Sure enough, he did.  How wonderful!  We may be sailing tomorrow!


Saturday, October 15, 2011

We woke to a beautiful sunrise this morning!


We decided to take advantage of the early hour and move on.  The winds were pretty strong out of the north.  This would make leaving more than challenging.  The dock master had to hold our spring line while we backed out.  The idea was to swing the boat around enough so that when I went forward, it would clear the dock.    We did it!!!!  We were now on our way!

As we mad our way back out the channel in which we arrived, the waves progressively worsened.  I wondered, if it was this choppy and rough in the bay, what would it be like out in the gulf.  I decided to turn back and wait for better conditions.  We headed back to Cabbage Key.
At this point, I was running out of time.  I needed to be back home.  So now we had yet another issue to figure out.  How were we going to get back home?  We were out in the middle of, well, no where!

Our dear friend and neighbor came to our rescue, and on football Saturday at that!   Pop and I gathered up our belongings and hopped on the next water taxi off the island.

The Island Girl Charter runs from the mainland (Pineland) to North Captiva then to Cabbage Key.  Much to our surprise, this service frequented by locals who live on these islands.  This is their main transportation to stores.  There were many with bags of groceries (at least a week's worth), plants and shrubs, you name it!



The trip back to Pineland Marina in Bokelia took about an hour.  Along the way, we enjoyed the nature and other wonderful sites.
House boat near North Captiva Island

One lonely home on the very tip of an island.  Pelicans enjoy the sandbar just in front of this home.

Ah.  We made it to Pineland Marina in Bokelia.  Just waiting for our ride!  Thanks to Joe who drove all the way down here, we made it home!   We will have to make another attempt in the next few days!