We have moved from Key West. The winds died down, we said good bye to our friends Bill and Helen and on Thursday, 2/4/2021, we moved on.
After days of strong winds we now had no wind. We motored up the Gulf side of the keys and anchored for the night at Big Spanish Key. We only stayed for the night and continued on, motoring again, to the Little Shark River. We had been warned about how bad the bugs could be so we chose to anchor off shore since it was calm. The water-maker had quit making water the previous day so I had to dig into that. Following a well thought out troubleshooting guide I found the problem. The pre-filter had become clogged with very fine silt. After replacing the filter it was making water again. Happy that it was that simple. It seems that running it when I pull the anchor it will suck in the silt and mud that is pulled up with the anchor. A good thing to know for the future. The next morning we were off to Panther Key in the Ten Thousand Islands area trying several times to sail but still not enough wind for even the spinnaker. We dinghied around to several of the beaches but were disappointed with the shelling. Most of the islands have mangroves growing along the shores. It looked like rain all day and in the evening we finally got some rain. We next motored, still light winds, around Cape Romaine Shoals and anchored by Kice Island within sight of Marco Island when the fog was not too thick. Cori took the kayak to shore to check out the shelling and came back with several containers full. She finally made it to a good beach. The next morning we took the dinghy out exploring and checked out several beaches. What looks like a white sand beach is really layers upon layers of bleached shells of all kinds. After several hours of collecting we headed back to the boat by midafternoon. Since it was still early we pulled anchor and moved up to Marco Island and anchored in Factory Bay.
We have a couple of radio nets that we check in with regularly. We have met a number of other boaters this way. One that has been very helpful with advice this year, Jim and Laurie on Kismet, were also anchored here and we dinghied over to introduce ourselves. Later in the day we went ashore with them to access some WiFi. We also made use of the opportunity to schedule a haul-out and marine surveyor. In the morning Kismet left to continue south while we continued north to Fort Myers Beach. We contacted the mooring field operators but they were full so we anchored for the night. The next day, Friday, we spent on the boat watching the boats coming and going.
Saturday morning we pulled anchor and moved up to Fort Myers. Not a real good idea. Once out of the harbor the fog moved in and we couldn't see a thing. As we continued on the fog lifted and it was a beautiful day. Unfortunately it was also a Saturday and the boat traffic was terrible with everyone throwing as big of a wake as they could. We had planned to stop for the night in Fort Myers anchorage but after stopping to top off the fuel and water we continued up the Caloosahatchee River to an anchorage by the power plant. Supposedly you can see a lot of manatees in the warm water but we didn't see any. In the morning we continued up the river to LaBelle, going through several bridges that had to be opened for us and up one lock.. The cruising guide said that they have several free docks at the city park. We pulled in and tied up and were pleasantly surprised. Not sure what to expect we found very well built docks with free power and water. We met our new neighbors, John and Petti on Rumbo. They are from Wisconsin, run a distillery and gave us samples of their products while we were visiting. Monday we had a short day ahead of us so we took the opportunity to check out a BBQ place for lunch.
After lunch we headed on. We had one more lock to go through and when we approached it we had to maneuver around waiting for it to open for us. Suddenly we had a problem. As we maneuvered I was shifting the transmission in and out of gear. Suddenly the shifter had no resistance and would not go into gear. I quickly jumped below and moved the engine cover out of he way to access the transmission. I was able to shift it in and out of gear at the transmission by hand. We maneuvered slowly over to a piling to tie up to while I looked for a solution. After removing the compass to access the cable I found the the cable had broken where it connects to the shifter. There was still enough thread to reattach the bracket and connect to the shift lever. Problem solved for now. We contacted the lock to let them know we were ready and he opened up for us. After locking up it was a short ride to Glades Boat Storage where we had scheduled a haul out for Tuesday morning. We spent the night in the slip and in the morning we were hauled out and placed in stands for what we hoped would be a couple of days.
Why would we go halfway across Florida to be hauled out you are probably wondering. We needed to renew our insurance and the company required an out of the water survey. Once the paperwork was completed the surveyor arrived and started his inspection. I won't go into what all he looked at but we came through with flying colors and had only a couple of minor things to take care of. We also wanted to have the two packing glands that keep water out of the boat where the propeller shaft and the rudder post go through the hull repacked. The rudder post gland is situated where I can't get good enough access to work on it so I figured I would pay someone to do it for me. Since they were doing that one it made sense to do the prop shaft also. It was also suggested that we replace what is called the "cutlass bearing" which supports the prop shaft just ahead of the propeller. We had ordered one to be delivered to the yard while we were there. Of course there are always problems, it took much longer to remove the old bearing than expected and they ran out of the packing used for the glands and wouldn't get any until Monday. We were now committed to being here over the weekend. We got another big surprise. When we were hauled out in Maine to clean the bottom everything looked good. It still looked good when we came out this time and got power washed. When the bottom paint dried it was a different story. The paint started to peel off. In Trinidad we had all of the old bottom paint removed, two coats of barrier paint and two coats of bottom paint applied. Evidently something went wrong with the bond between the paint and the barrier coat and it was random peeling, one side more then the other. It was time to redo the bottom paint. Adding to the problem was the fact that the paint we had put on in Trinidad had tin in it. Tin is not allowed in the US. We would have to completely remove the old paint or find a way to seal it. I found a primer that was designed for that and was able to order it and have it delivered the next day. We also had to decide what paint to use. Bottom paint is specially designed to inhibit the growth of underwater organisms like barnacles and is expensive. We looked at paint ranging from $100/gal to $400/gal. and decided to take the local advice and went with some paint available locally for $110/gal. and bought three gallons. Once the bottom was scraped, sanded and cleaned we were ready to paint. I put on a coat of primer and the first coat of paint on Wednesday and the second coat on Thursday. Painting the bottom is very low on my list of things I like to do, Very low. While all of this was going on Cori was waxing and polishing the hull, first by going over it by hand then following up with a power polisher. It took three days. It was now Thursday and we were scheduled to be launched after lunch Friday. The crew showed up early to move the stands so I could paint under them and paint the bottom of the keel where it had been sitting on blocks. After giving the paint a little time to dry we were dropped into the water. The mechanics showed up to make sure there part of the job was not leaking and we headed off. So much for a "couple of days", it turned into more than a week and a half.
One of the highlights of the time in the yard was our neighbors. Morgan and Jennifer were working on their "new to them" Pearson 424. It's the same boat as ours except they have one mast rather then our two. We were able to share knowledge, tools, an extra pair of hands and tips with each other. Since we were out in the country they were nice enough to pick up whatever we needed from town. We even had the opportunity to stop work one day for mid-day margaritas. We are looking forward to following their adventures as they go sailing with their three kids.
Once out of the yard we moved back down the river to LaBelle to take advantage of their free docks. We were a little worried that they may be full because it is the weekend of their Swamp Cabbage Festival. Fortunately there was room. The swamp palm is the state tree of Florida and grows in swamps. Heart of Palm is derived from it. Every year they have their festival and it is your typical small town celebration. It has all of the junk food you can eat, the vendors trying to sell you anything you don't know you need and constant music entertainment. Unfortunately, the parade was cancelled. The highlight for me was the Rotary Clubs armadillo races. About every fifteen minutes they announce the next race, the crowd assembles, bets are placed and the armadillos are released to see which makes it to the finish line first. I was fortunate to have bet my three dollars on number three and won either a tee shirt of a stuffed armadillo. We will now be traveling with an armadillo along with our two bears and pink flamingo. Sunday, Cori's second cousin, Charlette and her husband Mike who live in the area came down to see us. It was nice to visit and get caught up on family.
We will be moving down the river to Fort Myers next and will spend a couple of days there next.
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