MIDORI ADVENTURES

In the company of Steve and Mary Ann on LIVING WELL, we departed the dock at Charlotte Harbour Boat Yard on December 26th and set the anchor in Pelican Bay at Caya Costa by 4:30 p.m. A northern front with strong winds and some rain was forecast and did move through on the following morning, so we stayed put. Wednesday, December 28th was a good day to make our way south to Fort Myers Beach on the gulf intracoastal waterway. It was a very pretty day with not too much traffic, but we saw lots and lots of dead fish floating on the surface as we made our way. The jib sail helped improve our speed somewhat.

When we stopped for gasoline at Moss's Marine, we learned that there was a "Red Tide" going on. It is some kind of algae bloom that affects the ability of the fish to breath. We also saw a few sick and/or dead birds. And, we found that we all had a bit of a "tickle" in our throats too. We picked up a mooring ball in the Mantanzas Pass, and Steve put his dinghy down so that we could go in and register.....and have a hot shower.....and supper ashore.

We departed Fort Myers Beach at first light (7:00 a.m.) and had our mainsail and jib up in short order. The winds were pleasant and out of the northwest as we made our way south passed Naples and Marco Island and Cape Romano. Although I had not wanted to do an overnight passage, we had decided earlier in the day that the weather and wind were too perfect to pass up.

Sometime in the early evening, after passing Cape Romano and during the Captain's watch, I was awakened by a loud BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG. Brian immediately put the engines in neutral and turned them off. He opened the engine hatches with flashlight in hand expecting to find a crab pot line wrapped around the prop, but he could find nothing.
He was able to start both engines again and we carried on. We don't know what it was - could have been the styrofoam float on the crab pot line that banged in between the hulls, or could have been a piece of flotsam or even a turtle!

A couple of hours later, again on the Captain's watch, Brian woke me up to say we were dragging something. No loud noises this time, just the boat speed being slowed right down. When he opened the starboard engine hatch, he could see a line floating in the water and then suddenly the styrofoam float popped up and was free!

It was almost dawn (6:30 a.m.) when we arrived at Red Bay Bank, West of the Seven Mile Bridge. We were watching for the channel marks to keep us off of the shoals, when the starboard engine stopped. This time, when Brian checked the prop, there definitely was a line wound around it and the six inch styrofoam ball was imbedded on one of the prop blades. We were anchored to the crab pot and it would not budge! After several frustrating attempts to get hold of the line with a boat hook Brian was able to cut it with our new tool - a tree pruner! As there was still some line wrapped around the prop, we limped into Boot Key Harbour on one engine 2 hours later. (Once moored, he was able to go underneath the bridge deck with the dinghy and cut the final two feet of line off.)

On Saturday, New Year's Eve, we took the bus to Key West in order to get our Permit to Proceed stamped by Customs and Border Protection. Upon our return to the marina, we bumped into Canadian friends Dave and Wendy on SAYES II who were assigned the mooring ball directly behind us! There was a pleasant happy hour gathering at the Tiki Hut and we were in bed by 9:00!

On New Year's Day, we were invited for a wonderful meal on GRATITUDE. We had met Van and Lauren at the Charlotte Harbour Boat Yard.

We returned to Key West this Tuesday to get our Permit to Exit in the company of Steve and Mary Ann, Dave and Wendy.

There appears to be a weather window to the Bahamas on Saturday. We plan to travel north for two days, anchoring out one night, to No Name Harbour on Key Biscayne and jump off from there to Bimini. We will be traveling with LIVING WELL and GRATITUDE and ISLAND GIRL.

Internet access will be sporadic, but I will do my best to keep up the blog.

First Mate Lynn