January 31, 2009

leaving Rod & Gun

We will be leaving the Rod & Gun today, (waiting on high tide) and going back out to anchor in the islands somewhere. Before we depart, Pam wants to find a laundry mat to wash some stuff. (I really don't know why.............I've only worn two pairs of underwear so far.)
Looks like the next few days will be cool, so we will probably stay down here in the Everglades. This is as far south as we plan to go. There are some places where we'd like to spend more time on the way back up, so the trip NOrth will be slower than the decent.
It appears the patches on the dinghy might be holding. I squeezed it this morning, and it still feels firm. (Pam says I shouldn't squeeze my dinghy in public.)
It's a big step down to the boat at low tide

And, low tide exposes some nasty barnacles along the seawall.

I rode my bicycle over to town to look for the laundry mat only to find that it was shut down and replaced by a tanning salon. Why would anyone need a tanning salon in the Everglades? The closest laundry is in Naples.
There is, however, a small grocery store, so we replenished a few supplies.
Later in the day, I'm disappointed to find my dinghy is no longer as firm as I thought. (you can insert your own comment here)
The leak has slowed, but not stopped.
I can steal wifi here from someone, but the only location I can access it is a fish cleaning station. So the bottom of my computer smells a little fishy. Every time I walk down there, the pelicans all come charging in because they think I'm cleaning fish.
I spoke again with the fellow on his way to South America. You can find more about him on his website
interesting chap
One good thing about being tied to the shore...............we've had three days in a row of showers--with hot water. Simple pleasures.

January 30, 2009

Even more Rod & Gun


More Rod & Gun Club............................
Most every endangered species of Florida is represented on the walls





More Rod & Gun

We decided to stay another night at the Rod & Gun club here in Everglades City.
We rode our bikes out towards Chokoloskee, and stopped at the ranger station for Everglades National Park. Then we rode on over to The Oyster House restaurant and ate lunch. We had to sit next to a a table with Purdue people.
A front came through today and dropped the temperature down to 65 degrees. Break out the polartec.
This afternoon, another boat came in. It's about 24', home made, and has a jet drive. The registration numbers start with "UT".
I talked with it's owner, and heard his interesting story. (I was sure he would say he was doing the loop--but no.)
He launched in Wyoming, came down the Missouri, up the Mississippi and Illinois to the great lakes, out the St. Lawrence Seaway, down the east coast, across the Okeechobee, and is on his way to South America. Stopped here to go through the Everglades, When he gets to South America, it is his plan to go up all their rivers.

The Rod & Gun Club is a very interesting place.

Built quite some time ago..............................

The inside is pretty much as it has been forever. Dark cypress wood and low lighting

Rod & Gun Club

We helped two boats tie up here yesterday. We recognized them as having been anchored behind Little Marco Island the same time we were there. (Four days ago.) They are flying AGLCA burgees (America's Great Loop Cruisers Assoc.) Everyone we meet claims to be "doing the loop." So from now on, we are "doing the loop" too. We're just doing small chunks at a time. I've already done the part from Chicago down the Illinois River, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee (a side trip up the Cumberland) the west coast of Florida, another side trip--half way across the Okeechobee, down to Key West, and some small parts of the east coast. All this time I've been "doing the loop" and didn't know it.
Once you get this far south, there's a few things that come with the territory.
When it this warm (mid 80's) there's bugs. Some so small you can't even see them (no-see-ums). They can go through screens, but have razor sharp 3" long teeth. When we were anchored in the everglades, some of the bugs were as big as small crows. I have no idea what they were, because I was afraid to look them in the eye. We could hear them hit the side of the boat with a thud. Now, tied up to the sea wall in front of the Rod and Gun Club, ants are showing up in the boat. They must smell food, and crawl across the dock lines.
I was opening the rear sliding door yesterday, and a nut fell off one of the machine screws holding on the handle. After further investigation, I found all of them had vibrated loose. That may not seem like a big thing, but Wayne and Priscilla will realize what that means. The slots on the flat head screws are no longer aligned ! I immediately straightened them, and checked every other screw on the boat.
I think we will stay here another night. However, the commercial fishing fleet left the river at 4 am this morning, throwing a 4' wake from each of their boats- slapping us broadside against the sea wall.
Fortunately, we have yet had to shovel any snow.

January 29, 2009

Small World

Everglades City is a long way from nowhere.
We're staying at the rod and Gun Club.

We rode our bikes through town, and found a hardware store that resembles a smaller version of "Paul's" in Somerset, KY.
I need some glue to repair the dinghy, a plumbing fitting for the boat's leaky water heater, some acetone, and some toothpaste. Ok, they didn't have the toothpaste, but they did know where the small grocery store was.
There's an Everglades museum, and lots of little restaurants. We were looking for a place to return later for dinner, when we ran into Bill Harrington from the Eagle Creek Sailing Club.

Bill came back to our boat and we chatted for a while.
Long way from nowhere indeed........................

Everglades City

Motored over to Everglades City this morning. Population of about 400.

There is an airport

And they have their own sailors gone bad


January 28, 2009

Everglades


Wednesday 1-28-09
A couple off one of the cruisers came over to say hi in their dinghy. They're from Connecticut. Said they were doing the great loop. Been at it a little over a year. I had hailed them on the VHF radio when they came in last night because they were heading for the cove we anchored in earlier. (Where it was only a foot deep at low tide.) They thanked us for warning them. He said he checked his tide tables, and found that we go from a -.7' to a plus 3.4' So it is a 4' tidal range. Their boat draws 4'. They are heading south. Next stop Shark River, then Marathon.
Everyone asks what our gas consumption is, so I finally looked back to check it. We burn just over 1 gallon an hour cruising at 7 mph. That may seem like a lot to you Prius (or Yaris) drivers, but some of the larger cruisers burn 30 gallons per hour.
I went fishing again, and caught about a hundert trout like this one.

In between tangles

The dinghy still leaks after several attempts to patch it. So I take the foot pump with me, and pump as I go. It also is leaking a lot of water in through the bottom somewhere, so I have to keep bailing it out. But it still beats shoveling snow. We only used SPF 30 today, and are suffering with sunburns. Clear skies and 82 degrees is dangerous weather.
The neighboring boats left this morning, so we are alone with the deafening silence and extreme darkness again tonight.
I've done a count, and discovered that they have a few extra billion stars down here.
We will be going into Everglades City tomorrow.

January 27, 2009

Dark Thirty




As I get older, I find it much easier spending birthdays someplace warm.

I didn't know what dark was really about until spending a night in the everglades. There was no moon last night.
If you liked the earlier "sky" photo, you should like "sky at night"

It is also very quiet here--no highway, no town, no nothing.
Today, three other boats came in and anchored within a half mile of us, so it won't be quite or so isolated tonight.
The tidal range here is about 3 feet. That 4' deep cove we anchored in last night was only about a foot deep this morning. The mud on the bottom was also a foot deep. We waited until high tide this afternoon, and moved the boat out into deeper water. Where we are now--out in the main channel, the current from the tide is 5 or 6 mph. Both out and in--we swing 180 degrees as it changes. Regardless of the wind direction.
Went fishing this morning. Caught 8 or 10 trout like this one. A couple of them will be joining us for dinner.

Pam stayed on the boat this afternoon, and I went out fishing by my self. I was going to find the trout hole from this morning, but the tide had come in full, and everything looked different. I kept searching behind more and more islands. Finally gave up looking for the same spot and started fishing where I was. I got too close to some oyster beds and did a "Chad." I punched a hole in one side of the dinghy. I figured I should head back to the mother ship for repairs, but when I looked around.....................I couldn't see which pass to take back. Again, the change in tides made everything look different. So, now not only am I lost, but I'm also sinking. As I mentioned, my GPS only works part time. I fired it up, and entered a "go to" where we were anchored. Fortunately, it worked long enough to acquire a signal, and give me a general direction back. I think I'll leave a trail of bread crumbs tomorrow.

January 26, 2009

Everglades






Monday 1-26-09
We got on a course with some other gulf cruisers. A good day to be out in the gulf again.







They call the area south of Marco the "10,000 islands" I think they underestimated.











We anchored in a cove in the mangroves. The water is only 4' deep at high tide. I hope the tidal range isn't 5'. We'll find out about 6 am at low tide.










Speaking of mangroves, they say once you go in them, you won't come out alive.
That could be bad news for us. My handheld gps has quit working. I had planned on taking it with us when we go fishing in the dinghy, so we can find our way back to the mother ship. Most everything around here looks the same. Hope we don't get lost.
Dawg, Google us here
N 25 degrees 50.370 minutes
W 081 degrees 26.235 minutes

January 25, 2009

Little Marco


We're spending the night anchored behind Little Marco island. We can see the condos on Marco in the distance to the south.
I imagine I'll be able to jump a wifi there tomorrow.







Here's our location, Dawg
N 25 degrees 59.766 minutes
W 081 degrees 45.082 minutes
We might go on down to the everglades tomorrow. We will certainly be away from wifi there for a while. I can hear your combined sighs of relief from here.

Tropical Depression





We passed the site of some of the country's most depressed real estate - Naples
For you who live in the Midwest, here's what depression looks like







Here's what single family depression looks like












Here's what depression looks like under construction

I get depressed just looking at it.

South from Ft Myers




We left Ft Myers Beach about 10, and cruised out the channel behind Estero Island.
I had walked down to the wifi spot, and got hung up with monkey mail
and untrue fish stories from my Kiera.


Here's where the shrimp fleet docks




Also the Key West Express













It turned out to be a great day to go outside.

We're cruising about a mile offshore, and I can still get wifi from the condos on Bonita Beach. So, this email comes to you from the Gulf of Mexico.

Ft Myers




If you've ever been to Ft Myers Beach, you'll recognize this desolate stretch of highway.











This place reminds me a lot of Key West.











We got some additional boat neighbors last night--including a casino

January 24, 2009

Ft Myers Beach



We un-packed our bicycles, and rode up and down Estero Blvd. (at great personal danger)
When we went over to the beach, we found it to be isolated...................NOT !











After dodging the traffic down the main road, we found a safer way back






The marina here does not have wifi, but a restaurant down the way does.
Tomorrow, we plan to go outside (in the gulf) down to Gordon Pass--between Naples and Marco.

Moss Marine


We left the anchorage at Cabbage Key this morning (1-24-09) and headed south to Ft Myers Beach.
Here's our slip at Moss Marine

January 23, 2009

Cabbage Key





We cleaned the frost off the dinghy this morning and took it into Cabbage Key for breakfast.
We were the only ones there, so we got our host / server / cook / cashier's full attention. (all the same guy)
He'd been on the island 11 days straight. He said he heard we had a new president.

I looked behind my chair, and almost fell out of it. Look who left dollar bills on the wall.
We exchanges stories with our server, and asked if he knew if the tunnel of luv was still there after the hurricane. He and some kayaker buddies of his had cleaned it out, and made it passable. He said while they were working in the mangroves they saw an 11' alligator. I think he said that just to keep the traffic down.


After breakfast, we climbed the water tower.












And walked through the nature path.

Tunnel of Luv





Later today, we went out in search of the tunnel of luv.
The tides here are very low, so even high tide is low.
Pam got stuck in the dinghy.

I walked up to the entrance to the tunnel of luv, but it was too shallow for us to get through. Maybe if we had a kayak we might have made it.

On the way back to the boat, I stopped to fish on the other side of Cabbage key. I hooked a couple of snooks. Managed to get a small one back to the boat, but the larger one got away.
I caught 6 snooks today. That's more than I caught all year in Indiana.






Later, we circumnavigated Useppa Island.
I'm going to take my computer in the dinghy, and get close to Useppa to see if I can jump on someone's wifi.
P.S. That didn't work. Several people have wifi--but they are all secured with passwords that I have been unable to guess. We'll probably head south tomorrow. We've only made about 4 miles south in the past 4 days.
Here's the sunset over Cabbage Key. That's the most clouds we've seen today.

January 22, 2009

Cabbage Key Anchorage


Left Burnt Store about 2 pm, and headed across Charlotte Harbor. Really like B.S. but time to move on.











We anchored about 4 pm between Useppa and Cabbage Key. Some of you have been to Cabbage Key with us.
We plan to go over to Cabbage Key for breakfast tomorrow, so I got the dinghy down off the roof this evening. I thought since it was already in the water, I would go over to Argay's secret redfish hole near Useppa. I could only go for a short time, so I didn't take my boca grip, my tackle box, or anything but my fishing pole. And Pam. When I casted into the secret redfish spot, wham! Fish on ! Screaming drag.................jumps, etc etc.
I got him back to the dinghy, and managed to grab him with my hand. A large SNOOK. I laid my paddle alongside him and made a mark on the paddle. When I measured later, it was a 27" snook. I hooked another one, but couldn't get him to the dinghy. Since I didn't take any extra stuff, I did not have the camera. But I did have Pam to testify. It's all true isn't it Pam?
Yes, it's all true, signed Pam.

Leaving Burnt Store




SAILORS GONE BAD
I already mentioned that the pirate Argay has gotten hooked on power boats.








Here's yet another sailor gone bad. John Hammond bought a Catalina 38' sailboat from us when we owned Sailboats Inc.
He named it "Delfina" and moved it to Burnt Store Marina a few years ago. We walked over to his slip, and found the new "Delfina."












We are in a transient slip in front of the restaurant. We're not the biggest boat in this photo.

We're leaving Burnt Store today, and heading out to anchor near Cabbage Key. We most likely will not have access to email soon.
Some of you a probably happy to hear that.

Burnt Store




We had a great dinner last night with Don and Michelle. Don was kind enough to bring us back to our boat in his suburban so we didn't have to ride our bikes back in the cool weather. As a matter of fact, it was quite cool last night--this is frost on our dinghy.






Today, Pam found her old pal Chico. We met Chico on our first visit to Burnt Store in 1997. He's the marina cat, and dock boys catch fish for him at the fuel dock, and Chico eats them as soon as they're off the hook. Fresh fish !







I'm including a photo especially for those of you who live in the "cloud belt." Down here they call this "Sky".
I know you haven't seen it up there lately, so if you'd like, you can enlarge this photo, and tape it over your windows.