Capt Steve
01/27/2012

Well.....after 20 months at the dock and some work on the boat we have finally been able to get out for the New Years Weekend at one of our favorite anchorages, Ybel Light on the inside of lower Sanibel Island.

More blogging during March when we take a (hopefully) 3 week cruise up and down the west coast of Florida.

Comments [0]

Capt Steve
04/18/2010, Ft Myers Shores, Fla.

Well, as some of you know when we arrived 'at home' the pilings we had contracted were not layed out right.

Monday morning I called up and after an immediate visit by Wyman Stokes of Stokes Marine, (he was just across the way) and after many phones calls back and forth with him on his drawing and my idea all along, he agreed that there was a problem. They changed their schedule around and came back on Wednesday to lift them all out and moved to the correct placement. In the mean time I applied for my permit and received it the next morning to build the dock part of the 'marina'.

After 3 days of 12 and 13 hour days we had ourselves a dock the way I invisioned and it turned out pretty damn good. You have have to come see it!!!!

More adventures to come so keep checking back.

Steve and JoLinn

Comments [1]

Capt Steve
04/11/2010, Florida Home

We made it THE REST OF THE WAY!

We had a good rest in Moore Haven, a nice place to stop off for the night. Free ice, free bathroom, free dock and a nearby restaurant with the money saved!

We shoved off at 7:30 after everyone had a chance to visit the 'head' and have some coffee....Steve & Henry got to have that morning coffee.

This was our second day with a cloudy start. The WX "computer voice" predicted mild thunder storms coming from the Gulf of Mexico most of the day and it was not wrong. It started sprinkling about 45 minutes into our trip.

There is not much to see along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River put it gets more populated as you move west. It was a peaceful ride all the way.

I was very anxious as we approached our canal entrance, we had not actually been able to go out in the canal or the river to measure the depths and took everyone's word that it was 9 feet or so. We it was just right, the depth sound never went below 7 feet, which meant we had 10+ feet all the way down the canal. We docked at our neighbor's dock, which is an empty lot.
JoLinn was waiting with one of our other neighbors, Diane, a County Sheriff who works at the county jail. JoLinn had champagne waiting and we all enjoyed a toast and pictures by Diane.

It was an EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, like Marine boot camp......"a million dollar experience", but once is enough the way we did it......in record time, 12 and 14 hours days none stop, except for all the things I've explained.

Henry was an enormous help, we could not have done it with him or done the entire trip from Rochester without our and one of my best friends James Kelly.

Look for more adventures in the future.....Henry and I have been discussing Belize and the Mexican east coast or Texas and around the Gulf coast back to Florida, who knows.........stayed tuned.

Comments [1]

Capt Steve
04/11/2010, Okeechobee Waterway

Our morning in Stuart was one not to remember......aground again!!

I took the boat to wrong way just outside of the marina channel not knowing that the marker to our right was actually for us. We were HARD aground for more than an hour trying this way and that to get off. The bottom was pretty hard (sand) which didn't help at all. So after many frustrating turns this way and that and pushing the engine as much as possible I decided to call for help, TowBoatUS. The answered; 6:40 AM on Saturday morning and said they would be out in about 45 minutes. We continued to try to turn the boat into the area we knew was back where we came from, since we knew the tide was rising (only up ¾ of a foot at high). With the passing of the 2nd boat (motor/fishing boats going out to fish in the Atlantic, 35 footers speeding) we go a bump from his wake and finally got out into enough water to get back in the channel and go the correct way around green marker number 23A. Yes, I think that will stick in my mind for a while.

The rest of the day was uneventful, down the long canal toward Lake Okeechobee, on the waterway with the same name.

We went under a couple of bridges and through a couple of locks to bring us up the level of the lake and the waterway which is about 6 to 8 feet high than sea level.

Our big event of the day was getting under the 49 foot railroad bridge just before the lake. We finally met up with Capt Billy of Okeechobee Limbo fame for our "tilting" of the boat to the exact angle to get the 51 and a half foot mast under the bridge. Dillon captured the whole event with the camera as Capt Billy and his crew put the 55 gallon barrels on our boat, filled them with river water until the boat was at the right angle to move under the bridge. The operation went without mishap and we were soon on our way to the next lock and out into the lake for the 27 mile stretch through a long channel to the other side.

On the other side we turned right into the rim canal of the lake and made our way to Moore Haven, made it just in time to get into the Moore Haven lock and docked at the town docks for free. After putting everything away (very quickly) we found a place for a couple of pizzas and everyone retired after another long but beautiful day on the water.

Tomorrow we will head 50 miles due west to Santiago Ave.

Comments [0]

Capt Steve
04/10/2010, Okachobee Waterway

We were on the waterway early (again....Henry is beginning to think we do this all the time!!!).

We took off very early in the morning (dark thirty; 5:00 AM), knowing that another straight line lay ahead of us and slightly deeper water (7/8 feet) lay on either side of the waterway which gives us a little edge on straying off course.

This was another great day to be on the water. Although there was still wind out of the southeast and a lot more, the surface was relatively smooth with only a light chop. This means that the boat can move through the water with less resistance and make good time.....6.0 to 6.5 + knots an hours.

We passed the Vero Beach area and the homes got more expensive and the wind came around from the west more so we tried sailing with the jib and motoring at the same time, pushed our speed up the 7 and 8 sometimes.

As we passed under a bridge I saw another Morgan 38 and waved and to my surprise it was my Morgan Owner friend from Floral Park, NY, Jim & Bonnie Cleary and their s/v Dana. They had just finished a cruise in the Bahamas and were on the way back north. Since I was on the wheel, JoLinn chatted with him a while of the VHF and he pointed out that there was someone else around the next corner also with a Morgan 38. We tried hailing them but they must have been doing something important below!

While Henry and I were sailing a gust of wind came from nowhere and pushed the boat over so much that the coaming or rail went into the water....AND the inside of the boat was rearranged as you can see in one of the pictures in the gallery.

We finished up this leg with no other problems and stopped for the night at the Harborage Marina across the St Lucie River from Stuart. Nice folks and great marina, little pricey though.

Dillon and Carrie met us here from Orlando and JoLinn took their car and their dog Daughne and drove hope. She had had enough of "cruising" and took the opportunity to abandon ship. We had the second 3 portions of chicken cordon bleu I had fixed before leaving Rochester....(Yes, they had been in the freezer all this time). Had a great dinner, made ready for another EARLY start in the morning.

Comments [0]

Capt Steve
04/10/2010

We were on the waterway early (again). The morning did not bring any significant wind. But it had been predicted to increase (again) during the day....out of the southeast.
Our ride to Melbourne was pretty much uneventful. We passed Oak Hill, FL where my mother and dad used to shrimp in the middle of the night with their friends the Lavenders. They did love to go over there and shrimp and do some fishing also.

It is pretty much a straight shot from New Smyrna to Mosquito Lagoon and then the turn west down Haulover Canal to the Indian River and Titusville. We made this with no problem and continued to see more and more boats (sail and motor...large and small) ply the waterway north for the summer. We are almost alone in our quest for the west coast of Florida!

As we passed Cocoa on the west and Merritt Island on the east it brought back memories of my teenage years (I lived in Cape Canaveral and Cocoa in 8th through 10th grades) and then later even fonder memories of our Powell family trips to the beaches and cruises in the 22' sailboat which we docked on Merritt Island for about a year.

We made it as far south as possible to an anchorage north of the Hwy 193 causeway and anchored 30 or so yards from a Marine Trader trawler in about 7/8 feet of water for the night. The only issue was that where decided to anchor there was a crab trap about 15 feet or so to our starboard (right). The fisherman never came around and the trap was still there in the morning.

Stuart is our next big hurdle, trying to make it there in one day.

Comments [1]

Capt Steve
04/07/2010, New Smyrna Beach

Groundings 2 and High Life 0

We rose early and got underway. Winds still are coming out of the southwest at around 10 to 15 gusting to 20.

8:10 AM; We were only an hour or so down the way from the anchorage when we ran aground (no names mentioned here!!!). Looking into the morning sun and the reflection on the water didn't help seeing the markers and the alignment of them and the channel. We backed off 3 times and finally got back into the channel and on our way.

9:02 AM; Around a curve and being where we thought we should be we ran into 5 feet of water (we need 5 and a half! So we were skidding along the bottom (hard sand) trying to get off, but there was no finding a deeper area. We worked at this for 10 or 15 minutes with some help from a passing couple of fisherman who were reading the depths for us and telling us where we could go.

So while we were doing all this a sailboat was coming up from the south like there was no tomorrow. Evidently not looking ahead or watching what was going on in front of them. They ran aground about 40 feet or so from us. So now we're all sitting there in the ICW trying to get off.

We tried and tried and finally managed to get out into 7+ feet that the fisherman had found over near the shore unexpectedly near the shore. We were on our way south again and notified a couple of the north bound sailboats of our experience and where they should go to avoid the shallow water.

The rest of our trip was uneventful except for the continued 20+ knot winds on the bow all the way to New Smyrna Beach. We stopped at a marina right near downtown.

We'll be at it in the morning try to make it as far as possible, hopefully getting near as possible to Ft Pierce.

Comments [0]

Capt Steve
04/06/2010, Fernandina Beach, FL

We are heading out of the inlet right now (8:45 AM, Tuesday) and heading to Ft Pierce. Had a great rest, changed the oil, fixed an issue with the coolant overflow bottle (with duct tape!!!) and had a great dinner of pork chops.
Happy Birthday to Terry, may you have many more, you missed the 'ultimate' adventure!!!!

We made it out of the inlet okay and turned south toward the St Augustine inlet light. Everything was working fine and the winds were 5 to 10 or so out of the southeast (as we had heard predicted by NOAA WX station on the VHF). It is about 25 miles or so to St Augustine.

During the day the winds kept increasing steadily all the time. I tried running toward shore to use the wind and get some miles under our keel to the south. That went well for about 2 hours plus. Then it was back to motoring but only making 4.7, 8 and 9 knots.

I finished my turn at the wheel and Henry came on. After a couple of hours he suggested we go back to the jib up and try to make better time. By this time the wind seemed to blowing harder and harder, and of course from where we needed to go! Again, we tried this for an hour or more to no avail. After a long discussion and figuring on what the day had brought us in wind (the sky was clear, no clouds) and with the prediction for the same over the next 4 days we decided to go into St Augustine, anchor out there and do the rest of the trip in the ICW, Intercoastal Waterway. This would definitely take long but slogging south with the wind on the bow again (Chesapeake Bay!!!) was not how we wanted the trip to end.

The only problem with this plan is that St Augustine is not one of the inlets that the government takes care of like St Mary's (it has a Navy submarine base) and Jacksonville. So it is kind of like 'you're on your own'. I even call the Coast Guard (cell) and talked to someone, he was just like that..."there is a sand bar there and you're pretty much on your own"! So Henry suggested that we put out a call on the VHF requesting for local information from anyone monitoring and we got someone. He responded and told us to shoot straight into the inlet from the safe harbor or sea buoy.

As we got closer and could see the inlet, there were the 8 small "can" markers, greens on the left and reds on the right (no lights) that made up a channel, thank god. We motored right down the middle of the channel and the shallowest section was 15 feet.

We made a call to the bridge tender of the Bridge of Lions for an opening and to the anchorage south of with no problems. After a troublesome day with the southeast winds we were finally anchored secure and ready to get some rest.

Comments [3]

Capt Steve
04/05/2010, Still out of Brunswick, GA 12 + miles

Second day and now the THIRD day at sea....wow! Living the life....the "High Life". Capt Henry came up with that!

JoLinn took the helm this morning (Sunday) while Henry and I ate our cereal and bananas. After that I did my usual checks of all the systems, bilge pumps, bilges, bilge hoses, etc, etc, etc.....everything seems to be "working per customer requirements"!

JoLinn and I listened intently for several hours as a wife of a 61 year old communicated with the Coast Guard about her husband. They were out in their boat somewhere around north Florida or Georgia (we didn't exactly understand where) and he evidently has some kind of serious heart "occurrence". We listened as the Coast Guard went through the entire process of evaluating his condition with her (seemed like a little too much!), calling out SeaTow to pull the boat and the people into a location suitable for medivac and then finally getting the USCG helicopter on station (this was all broadcast over channel 16 of the VHF system, pilots, SeaTow and everyone......oh except the wife we could hear her because the boat radio was not strong enough for us to hear), them meeting the SeaTow guys somewhere convenient for the helicopter and picking him up in the basket and whisking him away to a Savannah hospital. All live and in person much better than "LOST", Ryan!!!!!!

We had a great night of sailing Sunday, we were making 6 or so knots in the late afternoon and the wind built up just right and at the right angle for us to make 6.9, 7.0 and up to 7.3 for around 4 or 5 hours until early in the morning.

At about 3:00 AM we passed the Tybee Island or Savannah, GA harbor light and changed our direction a small amount to run south to Florida. Motor and all systems running smoothing.

At 6:00 AM Henry and JoLinn saw something REALLY strange in the Eastern sky like a space shuttle or something. We are going to check with Mr. Google or Bing to see if we can find out (see the picture in the photo gallery).

Off the coast near St Simon's Island, GA is the Northern Right Whale Critical Habitat. We had heard of sights on the VHF on Saturday and were hoping to see some of them. But we have just finished passing through their area and did not see a one, just birds. They must be out for lunch.

JoLinn did more magic in the "galley" fixing up High Life egg muffins, ham and cheese. A great breakfast was enjoyed by the crew.

We are not about 20 or so miles from St Mary's Inlet and I have lost internet with the phone again. I will post this as soon as possible.

When we get into Fernandina Beach we will be getting ready for out last let, from there to Ft Pierce and then on into the Okeechobee Waterway to the house. More later!

Comments [2]

Capt Steve
04/05/2010, Off the coast, at Brunswick, GA

Monday (12 Noon) and finally back from the black hole of no communicaton except listening to channel 16 on the VHF; which is story for the next blog.

No internet or cell phone service since yesterday afternoon (Saturday). Hope everyone has been patient and hasn't called the Coast Guard.....at least if so, they haven't called us!!!!

After I did get the last update to everyone yesterday afternoon I caught 2 big King Mackerel, one right after the other (JAMES!). Yes my trusty little rod and reel did the job and we had some of them for dinner last night as you see.

JoLinn prepared another superb meal with our bounty and some asparagus with prosciutto and some rice pilaf. I am so glad she came along; even though there are some complaints I do believe she is enjoying the trip. She has done an outstanding job with cooking at 16 degree heal.

I was at the helm this morning at 4:30 AM when we passed Myrtle Beach, SC (Bruce), sorry we won't be able to see you there during your visit. We are paralleling the coast but about 15 to 20 miles out to sea depending on the contour. We are coming up on the Charleston light, which is the last light in the line which leads into the harbor. Another reason for not going in here is that it would take about 5 hours just to get into the harbor proper and with time short we'll have to make it here sometime in the future.

It is Sunday afternoon now (as I write) and we are still motoring along, now with the jib up since about 2 hours ago. Of course this happens when Capt Henry is on watch! We are only making about 6.1 today since the wind is not exactly where it is supposed to be.

The weather continues to be as forecast, BEAUTIFUL and the seas are calm but not like yesterday. We just got an update from WX; NOAA weather on the VHF and the outlook for the coast of North and South Carolina is the same for the next 4 days.

We have decided (which you will only find out about after this is uploaded) to not stop in Charleston but to trudge on the St Mary's Inlet (GA) and turn left there to go to Fernandina Beach, FLORIDA. There is a marina there and we will restock goods and diesel for the outside trip down the coast of FLORIDA to Ft Pierce.

JoLinn made sandwiches for lunch today with some of the fish we cooked last night and a cucumber, tomato and feta salad with olive oil.....EXCELLENT!!!!

The weather is expected to cooperate and we will see if that is true and update this writing at that time.

We have everything we need onboard, even fuel but it's nice to set foot on solid ground at least sometime.

Comments [0]