Are We There Yet? - Days 199 & 200

March 30 & 31, 2016
Days 199 & 200

We stayed an extra day at Daytona Beach to meet Dr. Lee Stuart, a veterinarian colleague of our son Michael's.  We had gotten to know him a little through Facebook, but thought since he lives close by it would be nice to meet him face to face.  He drove to the marina and we went to the nearby world famous "The Original Stavro's Pizza House" for lunch.  I had read in our cruising guide that people stop at our marina just to go to this pizza house, and Dr. Stuart suggested it as well so we figured it must be good.  It was.  We had Greek salads (a small one is enough for two) and a pizza and it was worth the trip.  Both Dr. Stuart and we forgot to take any pictures until we had gone our separate ways, so no pictures.  We did enjoy meeting and talking to him.

We left Daytona Beach this morning after topping off our fuel since the best price we are likely to see until Georgia was at the Halifax Harbor Marina where we stayed.  Kimi continued her dolphin and manatee hunting from the flybridge and stayed engaged even though we did not see near as many of either as we had the previous few of days.  Below Kimi is hunting and Jake is saying, "Are we there yet?"

Finally St. Augustine came into view but since we had spent a week here at the municipal marina in November we decided to bypass the downtown area and continue on past the inlet to Camachee Cove Marina for the night.  We enjoyed seeing the familiar sights as we passed the St. Augustine skyline, the Bridge of Lions, the Castillio de San Marcos, and the cross marking the site of the first Catholic Mass in the New World.

The view out of the St Augustine Inlet into the ocean.

Manatee and Dolphin Hunting - Day 198

March 29, 2016
Day 198

Today we left Titusville after taking the dogs to the dog park next to the marina so we got a late start.  We had a short mileage day to our next stop at Daytona Beach so we figured a late start would not hurt.  However, there were a number of manatee zones along the way where we could only run at no wake speeds so the trip was slower and took more time than we thought.  The upside is that we finally were able to see dozens of manatees up close and even get a few pictures.  The Haulover Canal between the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon was particularly dense with manatees.

Kimi has discovered a new hobby.  She "hunts" manatees and dolphins from the flybridge.  She has gotten very good at finding them, often even sensing their presence before we even know they are there.  Perhaps she smells them or hears them.  When she finds them she runs along the railing barking and whining and giving her characteristic scream that she reserves for things she sees as prey. Jake follows along barking and then says, "Wait, what are we barking at?"  This hunting seems to have cured Kimi's anxiety during the boat rides, something for which we have had to medicate her in the past.  Even though winds were higher than expected today and the ride was somewhat choppy, conditions that normally would drive her crazy, she was content as long as she could be on the flybridge "hunting".

Eventually, the Daytona Beach skyline appeared and after finding one last pod of dolphins we pulled into Halifax Harbour Marina in Daytona Beach where we will stay for at least a couple of nights.

Not a great picture, but the dolphins are just above Jake's head on the far right of the photo.  Kimi sees them, Jake does not.

We Begin Our Trek Back North - Day 193-197

March 24-28, 2016
Days 193-197

We spent two nights at the Quality Inn in Stuart while Building Our Wings was hauled out at Stuart Yacht.  The boat got new bottom paint and new zincs while we had the luxury of a couple of nights in a hotel!  The job was done quickly and the boat was back in the water on Friday afternoon.  The other two PDQs that we saw in Fort Myers were not as fortunate as we were.  Rising Tide was at Stuart Yacht when we arrived instead of Abbotsford III as we expected.  We found out that Abbotsford III had gotten a hanging lock lines caught in one of their propellers when exiting the Moore Haven lock.  They were planning to have the boat hauled and stored for the summer after having some maintenance done at Stuart Yacht.  Instead, they went directly to the storage facility and will deal with the entanglement problem when they relaunch the boat next fall.  Rising Tide had a vibration that needed to be tracked down and then had an issue with water in their fuel, so were waiting for a fuel polisher to come and clean their fuel.

We spent Friday night on the boat and the first thing Saturday we headed off to Vero Beach.  The passage was uneventful and we arrived at the Vero Beach City Marina on Saturday afternoon.  We cleaned the boat and called it a day.

Sunday we went to Easter Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church and then walked downtown to a beachfront restaurant for lunch.  We walked back to the marina and then took the dogs for a run in the nearby dog park.

Monday morning we fueled up in Vero Beach and then headed out for what we expected to be a long 75-mile day to Titusville, FL.  We made much better time than I expected in spite of running into and out of rain showers several times, and in spite of passing numerous other northbound boats. I think the snowbird migration has begun! We arrived at Titusville Municipal Marina in just 5 hours, logging our best average speed of the trip so far.  That gave us time to take the dogs to the dog park next door, walk to a nearby grocery store for a few provisions and some Easter candy that the Easter Bunny forgot to deliver, take care of a couple of chores, and call it a day.

Back Across Lake Okeechobee - Day 192

March 23, 2016
Day 192

Last night there was an American Tug 41 on the Moore Haven dock behind us.  We had first seen it earlier in the day when we passed through a lock with it.  The owner is single handing for this portion of the loop and is from Canada.  He told me that he was going straight across the lake in the morning on his way to Stuart.  We heard him leave about 7:00am before we were ready to get up.  We finally got away from the dock a few minutes after 9:00am and immediately locked through the Moore Haven Lock and onto Lake Okeechobee.  As soon as we passed through the lock we saw a number of manatees feeding right around the lock canal but were unable to get any pictures of them.

Since the lake was still windy we decided to take the "rim route" around the southern and eastern edges of the lake rather than going straight across.  While the rim route is about 10 miles longer than going straight across, it is much less exposed to today's east winds and the resulting waves.  The rim route looks like a canal most of the way.

We saw several alligators at a distance from the boat and I was finally able to get this so-so picture of one.

There were many fishing boats out and we also saw this air boat.

I took this picture for a doubter we met in Fort Myers.  When I told him our boat speed would be 17 to 18 mph at 3000 rpm on the engines he didn't believe me.  Here is proof, you can see my GPS speed at 18.5 mph and see the tachometer pegged right at 3000 rpm.  This was while we were on the way around the rim of Lake Okeechobee so current is not a factor.  During that trip, our speed varied from 17.5 to 18.5 mph at 3000 rpm. In knots, that's 15 to 16.

We had one bridge on the rim route that had to be opened for us to pass.  I had never before seen a manually operated bridge.  The bridge tender rode his bicycle from one end after manually closing a gate to stop traffic.  Then he rode to the other end of the bridge and closed the traffic gate there.  Then he went back to the center of the swing span and inserted a long lever into the opening mechanism and then began to walk the lever around in a large circle.  As he walked around the circle the bridge slowly pivoted around the center until it had moved 90 degrees, allowing our boat to pass.  Then the process was repeated in reverse to close the bridge again for car traffic.

The lake water level was still high so the Port Mayaca lock was wide open when we arrived saving us from having to lock through into the St. Lucie Canal.

Amazingly, the worst wind and wave combination we encountered today was in the St. Lucie Canal.  With winds from the east and the water flowing down from the west from the lake, the waves were very choppy even though the canal is only a couple of hundred yards wide.

When we arrived at the St. Lucie lock (almost to Stuart) we found Red Dolphin sitting there waiting to lock through.  We locked through together so in spite of leaving two hours earlier and going straight across the lake we arrived at the same place at the same time.

After locking down from the St. Lucie Canel we proceeded another 2 or 3 miles to Stuart Yacht Harbor where the boat will spend the next couple of days having it's bottom painted, zincs changed, and some other minor repairs.  We will have the luxury of a hotel for a couple of days while the boat is being maintained.

Heading Back Across Florida - Day 191

March 22, 2016
Day 191

We were planning to leave Fort Myers on Sunday and cross Lake Okeechobee eastbound on Monday, but the weather said it would not be a good day to cross on Monday, so we decided to stay an extra day.  We spent the day going to Palm Sunday Mass and getting the boat ready to travel.  We used Uber for the first time to go to Mass since the free city trolley does not run on Sunday.  It went smoothly, so we'll use Uber again.

When we arrived at Fort Myers several days ago we were given a slip at the marina that was right on the main dock near the fuel dock.  Consequently, we had a steady stream of visitors knocking on our hull to introduce themselves.  Most had seen our AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers Association) flag and stopped by to introduce themselves as "Loopers", pet Jake and Kimi, and ask about our Loop so far.   They offered their experiences and tips for our journey.  Since we will "cross our wake" (come full circle) near Fort Myers to complete our Loop, I had to tell everyone we just technically just started our loop when we moved the boat from Fort Myers Beach to Fort Myers on March 17th, even though we have already traveled over 1200 miles.  If you need a refresher on what the Great Loop is, here is a link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Loop

Over the weekend, two more PDQ 34s, "Rising Tide" and "Abbotsford III", stopped at the marina.  They were heading across Lake Okeechobee as well, so we will have companions on our trip back across to the east coast of Florida.

Update to above:
We were planning to go up the Caloosahatchee River from Fort Myers to Lake Okeechobee on Monday and cross the lake on Tuesday, but we awoke to much higher winds than originally predicted. In addition, the updated forecast did not encourage a Tuesday lake crossing, so we decided to hang out in Fort Myers for another day.  A woman on a nearby boat told me that if NOAA was her boyfriend she would have kicked him to the curb long ago for lying to her!   Rising Tide left here Sunday and Abbotsford III left Monday in spite of the wind, hoping to go around the rim of the lake instead of straight across on Tuesday, but we thought the ride up the river would be too uncomfortable and we would still not be able to cross on Tuesday anyway, so we stayed put.   Our reward for waiting a day was this sunset at the marina, so someone apparently approved of our new plan.

We finally left Fort Myers in our wake this morning (Tuesday).  Temperatures were in the 50's and we were running 15 knots into a 15-knot wind, so we were bundled up as it was quite chilly on the flybridge.  It was a little choppy at first but smoothed out as we got further up the river where it was not as wide.

We went through two locks, this one went up 8 feet and got a little rough in the lock as the gates opened.

Finally, we got to Moore Haven just outside of Lake Okeechobee and tied up at the City Dock.

When I checked our batteries this morning, the generator start battery showed completely dead, which I thought was strange as I had just started the generator to recharge the battery a little over a week ago.  After we tied up I pulled everything out of the generator compartment and checked breakers, fuses, connections, etc., but everything seemed fine.  I tested the battery with a multimeter and it was stone cold dead, zero voltage.  I pulled it out of the compartment and discovered that the battery was marked March of 2006, making it the original battery for the generator.  Amazing,  Since we had no ground transportation I called the local NAPA auto parts store and told them what I needed, and they were kind enough to deliver a new battery to the boat at the city dock.  After a brief install, the generator started right up and we let it run for a half hour to top up the new battery.

After the generator battery replacement, it was time for dinner.  Earlier, Doug from Abbotsford III called to let me know the status of one of the locks ahead of us that we thought was on a limited opening schedule.  It actually was not so that was good news.  Doug told us that they had stayed at Moore Haven last night and had walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Since he said it was worth the walk we decided to walk there for dinner.

Imagine our disappointment when we arrived at Antojitos Mexican Restaurant around 6:15pm to be met with a "closed" sign and a locked door.  As we were walking away trying to decide where to go from there, we heard a knocking on the window behind us and saw a woman inside motioning us back.  We went back and a young man unlocked the door for us.  He asked if we were boaters and we said we were, so he said, "Come on in, Mama says she will feed you even though we normally close at 3:00pm on Tuesdays."  Well, we were the only people in the restaurant and the son Eric served and his mother cooked.



They have an extensive menu of Mexican specialities and even though they were opening the kitchen just for us, nothing was off limits as far as the menu was concerned.  I had shrimp fajitas and all of the ingredients were fresh and cooked perfectly.  I had 10 huge shrimp in the fajitas, a small side salad, and yellow rice and black beans.  Saron had two Pastor tacos with Mexican rice and black beans.  She loved hers as well, confirming what Doug had said earlier, it was worth the walk.  I have to admit, I've never had a restaurant opened for me as a stranger before, it was an unexpected surprise.  Eric was personable and gave us outstanding service, and his mom's food was fresh and wonderful.  We will definitely go back when we pass this way again.  When I told Eric I would write about our experience on this blog he said to make sure to let everyone know that they close at 3:00pm on Tuesdays, so you have been warned!

Sitting all alone in a restaurant opened just for us!

A Visit From Relatives - Day 181-189

March 12-20, 2016
Day 181-189


On March 12 my brother Dave and his wife Terri joined us at Fort Myers Beach for a week on the boat and to visit the area.  We spent a few days watching the sunsets, enjoying the beach and seeing some of the area attractions.  That is Dave and Terri below with the sun setting between them.

One evening we joined a boating neighbor at our marina at Bonita Bills Waterfront Cafe for dinner and live music.  This is a bar with great prices on food and live music every night.  Sharon and I had a pound of the steamed pink gulf shrimp and fried onion rings.  We also had a pitcher of beer which was served with a baggie of ice meant to be dropped in the pitcher to keep the beer cold after pouring the first couple of glasses.  That's the first time I have seen that, but it worked!

In the below photograph from Bonita Bills is our boating neighbor Scott in the center, Sharon on the left, and Dave and Terri on the right.  Scott is a very interesting guy.  He bought his boat just a few months ago and is living aboard.  He has never been a boater and is still learning the ropes, but he and his wife had dreamed of living on a boat before she was taken by ALS, so now Scott is doing it alone.  Scott is a writer and has credits on TV shows and movies from the 70's and 80s including" M.A.S.H" and "Beretta."  He got involved with political writing in Missouri to pay the bills after that but has recently begun submitting scripts again for TV shows.  He has had scripts accepted this year for "The Big Bang Theory", "Blue Bloods", and "NCIS New Orleans" all of which should be produced in the next season of the shows.   He told us that he based the bar in his script for "NCIS New Orleans" on Bonita Bills in Fort Myers Beach where we had dinner with him.

We visited "Times Square" in Fort Myers Beach several times.

One night we went to the Pinchers Tiki Bar near our marina and drank "two for one" Margaritas and played dominoes for hours.

On the 17th of March, Dave and I moved the boat from Fort Myers Beach to Fort Myers.  Sharon and Terri drove the car to Fort Myers, visiting local shopping attractions along the way.  The City of Fort Meyers was apparently so glad to see us that they threw a huge street festival.  Strangely everyone there was wearing green clothes and costumes and drinking green beer.   Many people also kept talking about someone named Patrick.  I never did get to meet Patrick.  I did have some green beer and corned beef and cabbage for dinner.

Around downtown Fort Myers there are a number of sculptures, this one is of a dog and a man peeing on the same lamp post.  OK.

Sharon got to meet and talk to Jesus.

Sharon insisted that I take a picture of this guy.  I probably should have taken it from the rear as many of the women seemed very interested in the tights he was wearing.

Sharon also insisted that I take this picture of a typical Irish lassie.

The city brought in a number of bands which were scattered around the downtown area to celebrate our arrival.  As if the first night was not enough, on the second night we were there the city threw another block party with various bands scattered around the city.  There were not nearly as many green clothes or green beer, but it was still fun.  It was quite a welcome!

Various Sights From Around Fort Myers Beach

February 19-March 7, 2016

Random pictures from around Fort Myers Beach in no particular order.  We have been relaxing and touring some of the area attractions.

A Wood Stork, the first time I had seen one in the wild

Feeding the gulls on the beach before sunset over the Gulf of Mexico

An egret stalking a lizard.

Random photos from the Edison-Ford Winter Estates.

A haul one day from some charter boats at our marina.

While out fishing one day, I caught this Gag grouper.  Unfortunately, the season was closed for that species and it had to be released.

Pelicans everywhere.

We ran across this "panther crossing" sign while exploring one day.