Plan B

Up at the crack of dawn, we were ready to backtrack north to cut across Florida. We had a bit of an issue getting off the mooring as Louise had some trouble getting the ropes off the mooring. We had used some old ropes that came with the boat. I don't like them as they are kind of "sticky", but I kept them for use as mooring bridals. Well, they "stuck" to each other on the mooring ball and Louise could not pull the ropes out of the ring. I managed to free the first rope, which meant Louise could easily remove the second, and so then we were good to go. 

Dinner in Naples.

Coming through Fort Meyers we saw some boats that had been blown onto the land. When we see wrecks here, they are almost always sailboats. We have seen lots of sunken or beached sailboats, but only the occasional powerboat seems to meet this fate. 

A word about tying to mooring balls. We used two ropes, one on each bow cleat. Each rope is tied to a cleat, then goes through the ring, then back to the same cleat. We do this with both bow cleats. Doing it this way prevents your rope from being abraded. Some boaters run a rope from one bow cleat, through the ring and then to the other bow cleat. However, this method can damage your line. As the boat wiggles back and forth the rope gets pulled back and forth through the ring, cutting it like a saw.

The trip north in the Gulf was nice and easy. The waves were larger than our previous trip south to Naples, but they were from a good direction on the bow and did not bother us. We passed a couple of go-fast looper boats headed south to the keys. They had the speed to make the crossing in one day during daylight, so were going for it. We were meeting another slow boat - Stulie - going north to avoid the worst of the winds. Stulie joined us around Fort Meyers Beach, and we entered into the inlet leading to Fort Meyers. We passed through some heavy boat traffic here - lots of boats heading out to enjoy the bay before the weather closes it. We arrived at a really nice anchorage at Halgrim Landing and rafted up with Jewel and Stulie. Since we had the most experience rafting, we set our anchor then rafted the other boats to us, one on each side. Jewel had been rafting a lot with us since Tennesee, but this was the first time the crew of Stulie had ever rafted overnight.

Triple-raft anchorage.

Conditions were great, and Louise went swimming to cool off. The rest of us ran generators and air-conditioning. We visited with Chris and Julie of Stulie and Rich and Melanie on Jewel for a while, then everyone turned in for the night.

Louise cooling off with a swim. We use this large knotted rope as a safety line when we swim from the stern. Helps in re-boarding the boat, and gives you something to hold onto if there is a current.

Eevee supervised when Louise went swimming. We like that she explores the boat, but we have to keep an eye on her so she doesn't go for a swim. 

Anytime we put something new on the deck Eevee sits on it - cat owners will understand. This time she picked a comfy jacket.

The next morning started out really nice. Took a bit to haul up our anchor, it was sucked into the mud pretty good and we had to use the boat to pull it out. This takes time, as you have to be careful not to strain the windlass. Basically you take the slack out of the chain, then wait for the tension to pull up the anchor a bit from the mud. After a few moments, you take some more slack, and wait again. Sometimes, we bump the engine forward a bit to put a bit more pull on the chain. This process is slow, but it puts the least strain on our ground tackle and pulpit, since you are using the boat's buoyancy to free the anchor, not the windlass. Louise had to hose off the chain quite a bit as everything was covered in thick black mud. Nice. I really like seeing this, as it tells us we were well-set and secure on our anchor. Louise doesn't like all the mud because it usually ends up on her and all over the front of the boat. She washes it down with the raw water hose we have up front.

Hurricane damage. Some places suffered lots of damage, while others looked fine. This place was damaged several years ago, but local politics have been preventing the re-build.

Any time the ride is a bit rocky I drive standing up. This gives a lot better control and is easier on your back. If the water is calm, I am usually sitting and letting Auto drive the boat, but any kind of following or beam sea and it is best to drive standing.

Eevee sharing some smoked salmon with Louise for breakfast.

Our first adventure of the day was a lockage. The lock was pretty large, and only had a lift of a couple of feet. They used a special way of filling the lock. After all the boats got tied up, they opened the front doors and bit and let the water spill in. Kind of turbulent, but it worked. We set off again for our next barrier, a swing bridge. Approaching the bridge, we heard them communicating with a couple of other boats. The bridge hydraulics were not operating so they had to manually open it and were having trouble. We ended up having to wait for about 45 minutes at the approach. Normally this would not be a big deal, but it was now really windy and hard to hold station. We solved the problem by running a race-track pattern while we were waiting. Finally they got the bridge fixed and we were able to continue.

Stulie needed fuel, so they scooted ahead to a marina that had diesel. This canal was not a good place to be low on fuel, as not many places were open, or had diesel. But, they found a place and went ahead to get filled up. Jewel and iFloat passed the marina as they were getting fuel. We went slow to let them catch us after they topped up.

We then had to pass through another lock. This lock chamber was much smaller than the last one, so the lock master told us to come in one at a time. Bit of a pain, as the wind made it hard to hold position. To make matters worse, a local boat was now with us and was crowding us, making maneuvering tricky. Once we got into the lock, and they opened the door to lift us, we saw a wall of water. It was a 6 foot lift, coming right through the doors! Lots of turbulence coupled with their crappy line system made it tough to hold the boats. Louise and I used our big lock trick of holding the lines on the outboard side of the boat. This reduced our workload, but we still had to pay close attention.

In this lockage was our group of three plus two local go-fast boats. When it was time to leave, Jewel got on the radio to ask the go fast boats to go first. One of them did, but the other guy wanted Jewel to go first. He then went followed by iFloat and Stulie. Coming out of the lock, we went through a no-wake zone near a marina. Well, the boat in front of us decided to pass Jewel here, blasting through the no-wake zone as he did so. Nice guy. If he was in that much of a hurry, why not go when Jewel asked him to?

As we got close to our destination for the day, we were passed by a couple of go-fast boats. Rich was a bit concerned that the dock would not have space for all of us, so Jewel went on plane to go ahead and grab some dock space. We could not reserve at this dock, it was a town dock and first-come-first-served. Luckily, the three go-fast boats passed through heading to another marina down the line. Jewel got set on the dock, then guided Stulie and iFloat in to get tied up.

iFloat arriving at the Moore Haven marina. Photo courtesy of Helen.

We had some special guests to help us catch our lines. Tom and Helen from RYC had driven down from Estero to meet us. Once we got set on the dock, we invited them onboard for a visit and a tour of the boat. Then we went with them and the crew of Jewel for pizza. Really nice to see Helen and Tom again, it has been several years since we last visited with them, back at RYC.

Helen and Tom stopped in for a visit. They spend winters at a place near Fort Meyers (Estero) , and drove to Moore Haven to meet with us. They helped us get tied up, spent some time on our boat, then we went for pizza with them and Rich and Melanie.

The next morning, we got together with the crews of Stulie and Jewel to plan the next leg of the voyage. Things were not looking good. The weather on the east coast was terrible, and the forecast was for strong north and east winds for the next week. Our next leg would involve crossing lake Okeechobee, which is a large lake similar in shape to lake Simcoe. Given the wind strength and the fetch on the lake, we were looking at impossible conditions for crossing over. Indeed, the coast guard put out a small craft warning for the lake that afternoon. 

Lunch with Julie and Chris from Stulie, and Melanie and Rich from Jewel. The town dock was beside a park with lots of picnic areas. We are all in sweaters as it was super-windy. Lunch was super-cheap and super-tasty take-out from a Mexican grocery store.  Down here Mexican food is by far the best value for the money. It is always the least expensive and is very good.

There was an alternate route we could take which involved a small canal that went around the south edge of the lake called Rim Canal. Initially we thought that this could be our way out, but Rich talked to a local Sea Tow operator who told us that the canal had a lot of weed mats, and that with the north wind pushing everything south we might run the risk of getting stuck. So this route was out. Luckily, we were in a nice place, and inexpensive too, but the forecast for the next week was not looking good. So, we decided to just stay where we were for a few days to see if the winds would lay down.

The Santa express arriving in town. A working steam engine!

Louise tried to used the bathroom at the marina and found that the plumbing was not fully connected. Pumpout Blues!

Since we had some time, I decided to get caught up on some maintenance. I inspected the engine, and all looked OK, but when I inspected the generator, I noticed that the anode plug was green. These plugs are made of bronze, as can turn green when exposed to salt water, but how did it get exposed? Last time I checked it a month or so ago, it was not green. I decided to inspect the anode, and when I removed it I found that it was pretty depleted. As well, the bronze plug holding it in was cracked. This crack was the source of the green corrosion, there was a pinhole leak allowing salt water to cover and corrode the plug. I replaced both the anode and the plug, then decided to inspect the anodes on the engine just in case. Most of these were in good shape, but I ended up replacing a couple of those as well. Any time I find something that doesn't look right I check it out. A lot of times it is just dirt, but in this case a little green helped me find a small problem before it became a big one.

The scooters have really opened up our experience at the various places we stay. gives us a range of about 5 km from the boat, provided there are sidewalks. We do not use bike-lanes, with the drivers in Florida these are suicide-lanes.

That night, the town was hosting a Christmas festival in the nearby park, so the three boat crews went to check it out. Louise got some deep fried Oreos, and Rich and Melanie managed to find some BBQ ribs. The festival was being run by the local high-school, that was also using this as a fundraiser. We walked around and checked out the Christmas decorations.

Louise and Melanie got a picture with Santa and the Grinch, plus a couple of helpers.

The tree-lighting ceremony was pretty different from the last one we saw. At one point they just turned on the lights, no speeches no bands no Santa no nothing.

We have dry food for Eevee, but every once in a while we give her some tuna. She instantly knows when we do this, I don't know how she knows the difference between opening a tuna can and opening any other kind of can, but she does, and somehow is right under my feet when I open the can.

We set up some Christmas lights we got at a dollar store.

The next morning, the wind died out and the water on the canal was flat calm. We were watching all our weather apps, and found that the winds over the lake did not build until about 10 am, which could leave us a window to escape in the early morning. We got some more intel from a couple of go-fast boats that crossed from the other direction. They confirmed good conditions in the morning, changing to horrible in the afternoon. So, we decided to give it a try in the early morning the next day.

That night we went for dinner at the Fraternal Order of Eagles. This is a private club that was offering a special prime rib dinner for a low price. We went with the crews of Jewel, Stulie and Last Mango, a sailboat that was also heading east to get to the Bahamas. The dinner was really tasty, and everyone was nice, but as a private club there were some surprises. First, we had to sign in in order to get served alcohol. Second, they allowed smoking. None of us had been in a smoking establishment since the 1990's, so this was a kind of new experience for us. Pretty sure everyone changed clothes when we got back to our boats.

After supper, we walked to the local park with the crews of Jewel and Stulie to watch a rocket launch that was scheduled for that night. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed, but it was a nice walk. When the rocket did not appear on time, Rich checked his phone and discovered the scrub. Back on the boats, we went to bed early expecting an early morning start. 

At 6:00 am Rich, Chris and I got together to compare notes. Everyone had their favourite weather app, and each one showed a forecast identical to the previous day, lighter winds in the morning, building as the day went on. We each decided to go for it. We had to wait to get started however, since the nearby lock would not open until 7, but at 6:55 we all started engines and untied then made our way towards the lock. 

At the lock, it turned out that there was a tow waiting to come through westbound and he had priority. Luckily there was no wind, and we were able to hover in the approach way waiting for the lock. Once we had locked through, we were about 40 minutes behind schedule, not a big delay but enough given the expected winds to make us a bit nervous. 

Some fishermen getting ready to head out in their airboats. This part of the lake was a giant swamp, about 2 feet deep and covered in weeds.

The first part of the journey was through a protected canal, so for the first hour we had easy going. But, once we entered the lake things changed. We were east-bound across a 30 km wide lake heading into a building wind from the east. The long fetch would give us big waves eventually, but these would take time to form, which was why we were able to cross. At the half-way point the waves were 2 feet high with the occasional 3 or 4 footer, but we were going directly into the waves so the ride was not too bad. Still, we had to be careful, walking around was not easy.

Arriving at the other end of the lake we first had to go through a lock. Luckily the drop was only about a foot and the lockage went quickly. When we exited the lock, our first plan was to tie to a set of dolphins at the lock approach. Dolphins are pilings that barges use to tie up to. These were big wooden piles with cleats on them. Jewel managed to tie to one, but the winds were so strong that the boat was swinging too much and they were in danger of getting damaged by hitting the dolphin. Time for plan C. There was an approach channel to the lock that we could anchor in. It was narrow, but aligned with the wind. Louise and I set our anchor, but had to re-set as we were too close to the channel. When we went to haul up the anchor, we had some difficulty as it was in thick mud. NICE! This would be a good anchoring spot! We got set again and then Jewel rafted onto us. We swung quite a bit in the wind, but held steady and never moved all afternoon.

Louise made some pizzas for dinner. She uses naan-bread for pizza shells, and cooks them in the air-fryer. Each one takes only a few minutes. Since the naan-bread is already cooked, she just has to melt the cheese and roast the pepperoni a bit. Toppings included: kalamata olives, pepperoni, chorizo sausage, can mushrooms. Cover with mozzarella to keep the toppings from blowing around in the air fryer.

It was really windy that afternoon and evening, Rich and I kept a close watch on the anchor and chart plotter. Eventually the winds calmed down to a more breeze-like state. Overnight it rained several times quite heavily. Each rain squall brought heavy winds, so I was up several times during the night to check on our status.

Leaving the anchorage we had to pass under a railroad bridge. Jewel got this shot of iFloat as we passed under. We had anchored in the wide area on the right, you can see a sailboat there that is hauling his anchor. Last Mango anchored behind us at the end of the day.

New interstate bridge under construction.

Next morning we travelled to Stuart Florida. This is a big boating area. The dealers for Fleming and Kadey-Krogen are here. When we passed the Fleming dealer, their harbour was chock-full of brand-new yachts. We made it to our destination for the day, the Stuart Corinthian Yacht club. This is a small club that offers owners slips to transients when the owners are away.

Approaching Stuart, we saw an eagle catch what looked like a snake or eel. Not a great photo, but you can see the long body trailing behind the bird.

We spent two days at this club. The place was recently renovated, and we had a nice visit with their commodore, who happened to be at the bar the same time we were. The club has over 100 members, but only 24 slips. We had to move slips the second day as the owner of the one we were in was returning that day. The slip we were sent too was too big for our boat, so it took a little wiggling to get the boat set. We first went in bow-first, as we felt this would be the easiest way to get off the boat, but the pilings were not spaced well for this. So, we turned around and backed in. We fit this way, but it took some clever rope work to get us set. To add to the fun, it was pretty windy when we came in. At one point I broke one of my cardinal rules, which is never to listen to the know-it-all-old-farts on the dock. One of the local spectators suggested I use one of the slip owners lines, which I should not have done but did. This held the boat, but we ended up pulling a cleat from the pile and damaging a wire to a small solar panel.

Fixing the cleat was easy, but it took a bit of acrobatics to fix the wire. I had to do it standing on the gunnel. The owner had glued the solar panel to the pile, so I could not bring the fixture in to fix, so Rich and I had to do it while it was on top of the pole. We got it fixed and working, but it was not pretty. The visit to Stuart was not very relaxing. We spent hours trying to find our next stop since so many marinas were full already.

In the morning, we set off at the crack of dawn to take advantage of the lighter winds. Travel to Vero Beach was pretty straightforward, except for a complete jackass-idiot who made a really dangerous pass. We were heading towards a bridge, with three boats on-coming in a narrow channel (about 75 feet wide). the three on-coming boats went to the left side of the channel, while Jewel and iFloat favoured the right side. As we were about to pass the first boat (with a bout 50 feet between us) this complete idiot in a large go-fast boat cut in-between trying to pass us. I did not see him until the last second, as he was coming from behind, and he did not make any radio call. I throttled down to idle to let the idiot pass, and he did so pretty fast making a huge wake and almost hitting the oncoming boat. One of the other boats got on the VHF to tell him he was an idiot, but the blue boat captain was probably too stupid to have his radio on. This was one of the dumbest and most dangerous maneuvers I have seen on the entire loop (which is saying something - lots of stupid out there).

Along the way to Vero beach we went in and out of lots of small squalls. You could see these small clouds everywhere, bringing short burst of rain followed by rainbows.

Our next obstacle was a lift bridge. We were small enough to get under without an opening, but there were several sail boats waiting for a bridge opening when we arrived. Just as we approached the bridge, the operator got on the radio to say that the bridge was opening and that all boats should stay clear until the bridge was fully opened. I throttled to idle, but the tidal current was very strong and pushing us towards the bridge. It was impossible to stop in time, so we had no choice but to go under the bridge while it was opening. Not the best, but the safest option given the heavy current. 

We arrived at Vero Beach and got set in our slip. It was a really tight fit, and we had to abort our first approach and go out to re-set. We got in on our second try. The marina here was fully booked, and it turns out we will have to move to another slip in a couple of days, but this is the way.

The marina here is park of a city park. During the day, the parking lot is full of lizards sunbathing. Lots of shade trees complete with moss in the park itself. This oak tree is massive and very old.

Vero beach is known in the cruising community as "Velcro Beach" because once you get here it is hard to leave. We were expecting something really nice, but what we found was something cheap. The marina needs some work, and some of the boats on the dock here look pretty rough. Lots of DIY sailboats with plastic taped over the hatches and window-type air conditioners MacGyvered onto the hulls. They have a large mooring field here in which they double and triple-moor boats. If you go to a mooring ball, you can expect to raft up with a stranger, and hope they are nice. The anchorage is super-protected which is why they can do this. We decided to stay for a week here, since it is difficult to find dock space right now and this will give us time to find arrangements. We have to leave on Christmas Eve, and likely will head north again since there are no weather windows for a Bahamas crossing in the next two weeks.

Boat name of the day: Land Escaper