Tying up loose ends

Where did the last 10 days go? It’s April 2nd! We’ve been in a whirlwind of family visits along the waterway. We invited Dad and some of his closest N. Ft. Myers friends to join us for an hour’s cruise up the Caloosahatchee Rr. starting just above the Franklin Lock. We picnicked aboard Summertime upon our return. We all had a great adventure! Word arrived from our Capt. Chris and his Admiral Karen that they were moving their Fisher 25 motor/sailer from the East Coast to the West Coast and would arrive at the Franklin Lock that evening. We dined together in the salon and caught up on our news. As our instructor from the November yachting classes, Capt. Chris was duly impressed with our progress as captains and new boat owners! As soon as we completed the West to East crossing of Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway, we visited Stuart, then settled for 3 days into the Ft. Pierce City Marina where my sister and her husband keep their boat from November to April. Val and Rick had family members from Arizona visiting that week and we also had a reunion with friends from Deer Isle who winter nearby. Whew! Each day we all enjoyed daily walks around the downtown. We have now made our way north on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway to Vero Beach. It was here that we realized that we are exactly across from Largo where our PT Cruiser has been parked at Wally’s mother’s condo since February 2nd. She has always been a sweet ride, but a car does not fit into the life of boatsmen! Erin and Brett suggested selling it at CarMax and then we could stop fretting about how to get it to Maine...and sell it we did. A three-hour trip in a rental car got us to the West Coast and within an hour and a half the PT was sold. We got to relax at the condo for one day...hot tub...ahh! and great neighbors having us for dinner...then back we came. We now have one less piece of rolling stock to register and insure and store. Tomorrow we head for Melbourne.

Newbie......

Being a new boat owner must be like being a newborn. Every day a new experience presents itself. Cap’t Chris did his best to teach and make us aware of what was coming, but doing it is the only way to make it sink in. How do you get off a side tie with the wind blowing you on to the dock? How do you back into a slip when your prop always walks to starboard in reverse? How do you prepare yourself and your boat for clearing a series of locks? It’s always a good idea to turn to Chapman’s. It’s the bible of seamanship and piloting. Watching others accomplish the task provides the input for the visual learner in each of us and helps build confidence. But nothing quite equals doing it yourself. If the moment is free of wind and current and an audience, so much the better! Our price-sensitive nature keeps us looking for safe anchorages and mooring fields, but every 10 days or so we choose a marina to take care of power, water, waste and trash disposal needs. The grime of waterway travel creates a continuous washdown chore for the boat owners. Most marinas make a special effort to make the boatsmen and boatswomen feel like they have come home.

Nature around us....

The world of nature seems to interact with us on the waterways more than it ever did on the roadways. Birds stand out most of all. Whether we are making our way along the ICW, walking on a beach or tied up for a rest, unfamiliar birds appear and my curiosity gets the better of me. Fortunately, I included two of my favorite guide books on the boat, so out they come. Brown pelicans, like seagulls in Maine, crowd around fishing boats, waiting for scraps, but unlike the seagull, they seldom make a sound. Some of the mangrove barrier islands are clustered with the white plumage of great egrets, their wispy tail feathers fanned out in the breeze. A black-headed laughing gull adopted us in Pelican Bay. Every time we looked off our “back porch”, he/she would be standing on our dinghy motor coasting back and forth with the tide and the current. We offered lots of chit-chat, but nary a crumb! In St. Petersburg City Harbor we watched two osprey for several hours as they devoured fish, balancing themselves on the tip-top of two sailboat masts. Today as we cleared the Franklin Lock in the Okeechobee Waterway and entered the Corps of Engineers Marina, Wally asked, What’s that sound? It’s like a baby crying.” Come to find out, we are tied off next to a limpkin rookery. These members of the crane and rail family make that carrying krr-oww call day and night. Maybe that’s more information than we wanted to know!

Manatee

Love those manatees....

Cruising these western S.W Florida waters means watching out for Manatees. Often termed as "sea cows" they are big,10-12 feet long and weighing up to 1000 lb coastal mammals. Since they are mammals the are always looking for a spot to be warm....I think I know someone like that! In Pelican Bay there is a natural salt water pool tucked into the mangroves. We love to dinghy in and just sit and observe the manatee activity. Curious by nature it doesn't take long for them to poke their nose up and see who is there. Last night was extra special. We had been watching TV with the generator running. Wally went outside to put the anchor light on. There was something different about the sound of the generators exhaust. It usually burbles away spouting exhaust and cooling water warmed by the engine. He took his flashlight and looked over the rail...the sight was almost surreal. We had a HUGE manatee joyfully luxuriating in the warm water of the exhaust. He/she was much larger than our 9' inflatable dinghy. I'm sure she would have stayed as long as we ran the generator. Concerned over her breathing the exhaust fumes we shut the generator down. She lingered for about 10 minutes and moved on to another warm spot...It truly is a gift to be where we are.

Welcome to Gasparilla Island!

Ever since we read "Seven Miles an Hour", the journaling of Don and Gillian Wallace on their Pilgrim 40 called “Jazz”, we’ve been hankering to try anchoring in the bayou of Boca Grande on the south end of the island. Well, “the prettiest little town” on Florida’s West Coast, is indeed worth experiencing. Best of all, perhaps, was our negotiating the narrow channel leading in and then tying off our stern to the mangroves after setting the anchor. With “Summertime” held in place, we left room for other hardy souls to share the limited anchorage and the fancy folks to reach the dock space next to the famous Pink Elephant Restaurant ... endearingly known as The Pink. We were a bit dismayed to discover that our favorite diversion in high-priced neighborhoods is part of the local language... conelicker. You guessed it. An ice cream cone was about all we could afford in Boca Grande Village, named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Our collection of fossilized shark’s teeth that began on the beach at Don Pedro State Park at Cape Haze continued on the beach at Gasparilla Island State Park. Beachcombing is a price-sensitive activity that we can enjoy in swim suits and bare feet and, of course, we tote our home-packed lunch!

Our first anniversary is at hand

One month has passed since we pushed off the dock into the foggy morning aboard “Summertime”. It’s been quite a ride! We have enjoyed chronicling the remarkable places we found along the waterway. What we didn’t say, however, is “Life goes on”. Daily routines and chores fill up much of our days and nights on the water: keeping a supply of food, making meals, doing laundry, emptying filled “black water” tanks, filling empty fresh water tanks, taking on fuel, changing oil, running the generator to recharge the batteries, checking the anchor or the mooring ball lines or the fenders on the dock, refreshening the boat’s interior, scrubbing the salt and grime of travel off the boat’s exterior, charting our route on the next leg of the journey and carrying out that cruise. Keeping “Summertime” ship-shape and safe is a full-time job! Learning to run our errands with no vehicle has been a big adjustment. Getting ourselves to the market, the hardware store, the laundromat, the post office, etc. adds another dimension to the process of everyday living. Walking with a purpose has become a big part of our time on shore. Adjusting our purchases so they fit in the fabric bags we are able to carry is another part of the planning. We are very grateful for friends living in the locality who have driven us to Wal-Mart and then to their home for a meal. What a treat!

All anchorages are not created equally

For the past three days we have been enjoying the Historic Village of Longbeach: 1885-1955. (Apparently life here hasn’t changed much in 59 years.) It’s situated along the ICW on Longboat Key at the northern tip of a 10 mile-long barrier island mid-way between Tampa Bay and Sarasota. When we lunched under the spreading buttonwood trees at the Mar Vista Restaurant, exuding Old Florida charm, we saw “Please don’t feed the peacocks” notices. It wasn’t until we took a longer hike around the neighborhood that we discovered just how large the peacock population was... perched on roof tops, poised on verandas, parading across streets and lawns... oh my! Another surprising find was the Ringling College of Art and Design located on the campus of the Longboat Key Center for the Arts, a 5-minute walk from our anchorage. Darcy joined the 3-hour Learning Lab for Painting and Materials yesterday afternoon and returned with a canvas of exuberant sunflowers in a blue vase. The teachers were juniors at the college and they were both talented and encouraging. What a gift! Wally used that time to set up his own learning lab on the aft deck of Summertime and created drink coasters by coiling sisal rope and stitching it pine needle basket-style. Every boat should have some.