Delilah's Meanderings

The second season of meandering aboard Delilah has finally begun. It has been a long time since our last post, so this post is a bit lengthy.

We came down to Florida for 3 weeks in the fall to do some maintenance and project work (e.g. rebuilding the head/toilet) on Delilah while she was "on the hard" in the boat yard. During the off season Delilah is out of the water on blocks high and dry at the Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage. During that time the boaters in the yard organized a Halloween pitch in party in the hut. Not having costumes we wore masks and snorkel, real scary, ha ha! You can see a group picture in the photo albums.

Christmas day afternoon after putting all the Christmas decorations away, we headed south toward Delilah. We made it to Chattanooga, TN and then drove the rest of the way the next day.

The ever social boaters in the yard, many of which have been friends for years, organized a New Year’s Eve party in the hut with a dress up your favorite decade theme. As usual we were not prepared, so we ran out and bought leggings for Kim and a mop head for me. We went as 80's Olivia Newton-John and Fabio. We sang Auld Lang Si at 8:30pm, sailor's mid-night. The food was excellent, we had Korean Bi Bop Bim which seems to translate to a bowl of rice and whatever you want to add on top. Kim made a desert, lemon freeze.

We had 8 days to get Delilah ready to be launched. She was back in the water on January 3rd. While Mark was helping with the launch, Kim drove to the airport to pick our daughter Deanne and our son-in-law Matt who would be cruising with us the next 10 days. This is the first time we have had guests aboard for longer than one night, hope they don't mind being guinea pigs! :)

We decided to stay at the boat yard dock the first night, to take advantage of the showers. While still having access to our car, we drove to Englewood and shared a pepperoni pizza at Flatbread Pizza. We store the car in the boatyard while sailing.

After breakfast (bowl of cheerios) on the boat we motored away at 9am with friends in the hut banging the gong and yelling well wishes and "see you on the water". The "hut" is a screened in building on the canal next to the dock with a kitchen, tables and chairs, two full bathrooms, coin washer and drier, ice machine, and 50 cent coke machine. We went through the small self-serve lock into Charlotte Harbor at 11am and motored south towards our first anchorage in Cayo Costa. Unfortunately the wind was one the nose so we didn't do much sailing. We dropped anchor at 4pm. While the boat was put back in order, Kim was in the galley fixing chicken nachos for supper ... yum yum! We were in our berths by sailor's midnight ... zzzzzzzz.

We woke up ate breakfast and dinghy to the Cayo Cost State park dock. This was the first time we had four adults in our little dinghy. It seemed to be fine, but didn't go very fast. What can you expect with a 2.5 HP outboard? We caught the shuttle (pickup pulling a trailer with seating) to the beach so avoided the walk. While Matt took a work conference call, the rest of us enjoyed walking on the beach. The weather was beautiful! This is what it is all about. :) We were lucky and caught the shuttle back to other side of the island and soon we were back on the boat.

Next on the sail plan was to eat lunch at the Cabbage Key Inn, which is just a little south of where we were anchored. So up went the anchor and after a short motor about 1 hour (short in sailboat terms, if you want to go fast you don't buy a sailboat) we dropped anchor next to Useppa Island which is across the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) from Cabbage Key. There was not enough room to tie up at the dinghy beach, so the men folk picked up the dinghy above their heads and carried it over the other dinghy's and sat it on the beach. There are some advantages to having a light cheap dinghy. :) We grabbed an outside table and everyone enjoyed what they ordered. Matt tried to take a selfie with one of the gopher tortoise, but it was too fast. No wonder they are named after the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

There was no time to relax once back at the boat, so up went the anchor and we motored south to Tween Waters Marina on Captiva Island where they are running a 5 nights for the cost of 3 special. We knew some weather was headed our way and this is a great place to wait it out.

The last few days we have really enjoyed ourselves taking advantage of the Tween Waterwaters amenities, beach and local restaurants. We have eaten at the Crow’s Nest, Captiva Cantina, Green Flash, Bubble Room, and Key Lime Bistro. Last night we stayed in for dinner and had spaghetti with Kim’s chicken sauce. One night we had fun time playing scrabble, instead of everyone on their electronic devices.

The cold front came through yesterday starting with thunder storm which was fun to watch from the deck until the rain started. After that came the wind. Thankfully prior to the wind we turned the boat around on the dock so we would face it head on. Last night was noisy and the boat bounced around on the dock. We were up several times resetting the fender board. Some modifications are needed there. This was the first time it has really been tested. A picture of it will be posted.

This morning the sun is out and the wind is howling. It is starting to warm up, especially in the boat. After looking at the temps up north, I know better than to complain. ;-) The plan right now is to wait for the wind to settle down and head south to the Fort Myers Beach mooring field Tuesday.

Life is good aboard Delilah ... we are looking forward to another wonderful season!