Heading North Again!

Well folks, we're underway. We left the fuel dock in Naples at 7:05 and reached the outer markers at 7:40 a.m. today.

Naples was an OK place to wait on parts, if one were to have to wait on parts at all. We had a pretty little spot on a mooring and did not have to worry about dragging anchor on a grassy bottom! Everything at the city marina is impeccably maintained, so we trusted the mooring to have been as well.

The closest store for beer, cokes and eggs, is the 7-11, a half hour walk. But the West Marine is easy to get to by dinghy. You skip straight across the river from the city docks, go to where the big expensive boats are, hug the shore by the condos, and go under the bridge that has a 10' clearing at high tide. Hang right, go up the river, break out a beer because it will be a bit of a ride, but an enjoyable one, then you'll see signs for Brookside Marina.
As you close in on Brookside, the river winds a bit, and there are simple cracker style homes lining the banks. The people at the marina were very friendly and said "Sure, tie up anywhere. West Marine is on the front side of that building over there."

We picked up some hoses and pipe fittings, clamps, and carb cleaner. It's nice that we were able to get there by dinghy. There is a 7-11 in the area as well, but it's a bit of a hike as we found out. When someone is giving you directions, and they raise their arm up high and point, that's a clue that it's a ways away... We picked up beer, coke, bread and eggs, and were resigned to toting it all back, in 95 degree weather, but then...hey! While Arch was going back in for the forgotten eggs, I spotted an abandoned grocery store cart by their dumpster and talked Arch into liberating it and racing away. I must admit, we did feel a bit like street people as we wheeled our recent acquisitions up along Route 41!

There's a restaurant called Castaway's (Mike...they copied you!) between West Marine and Brookside Marina, and we were quite hot and thirsty from our hike, so we stopped there for a beer before loading the dinghy and heading back.
Arch started installing the parts...new hoses and fittings leading in and out of the sea strainer and the anticipated new raw water pump. ....Next page

While he was working on that, I looked around at the chaos below decks from the topsy turvey seas and started putting things back in their places.

The rain started coming down again...it's not finished with us yet...but oh heck, we needed all that salt washed off the decks anyway. We coulda gone out there with boat soap and a long-handled deck brush..but....naaa. the lightening was a deterrant, so instead we sat in the cockpit and watched it come down and had another beer.

We dined that night on some summer sausage I had squirreled away (it doesn't need refrigeration) and some yellow rice and another can of peas...I know I bought green beans...where are they? I'm getting tired of peas, peas, peas!

The next day Arch went back to West Marine, using the shortcut previously mentioned. It saves so much time, rather than going through Tin City. While Tin City does have it's quaint scenery, if anyone has taken that route, you can appreciate it. It takes you a good four beers to go through Tin City.

I stayed on the boat and worked finding and organizing pictures in the computer. I found the ones I took around Lignumvitae Key and Robbies and Bowlegs Cut. I am so happy I didn't lose them on the never lands of the computer. I put all the pictures I wanted to put on the blog in a special folder and went about trying to put captions on the photos. This proved to be quite a task. Only some of the pictures made it. Hopefully you'll understand.

Phew! Look at the time! I'm going to close. I hope that written words will suffice for now. Maybe someday you'll see some photos. We're pulling into Matanzas cut now and Arch needs me on the helm while he takes down the sails. There are still dredging barges out here and we have to keep a sharp lookout. Tomorrow I want to tell you about two kids we found, on a pool raft, out by marker one, in trouble, as we entered the cut for Matanzas.

Thanks for reading! Hugs, Gayle (oh, and Archman too!)