Month: November 2009

Oct 28 – Nov 1

We both fell asleep for about an hour, me in the cockpit and Mike below, waiting for enough light to see the unlit channel markers to the ICW.   I woke to the sounds of 4 large power boats approaching.   I woke Mike and we hauled anchor and made our way through the channel to the ICW and on up to Charlotte Harbor.   We entered the Harbor along with another Sailboat and put out our headsail to Motor-sail the rest of the way across the Harbor.  Up ahead of us Sailing was another Catamaran.   Mike got out his Binoculars and said “Crystal, that catamaran in front of us is a Victory like ours.”  What are the odds?     A few minutes later the other Victory called DUET hailed us on the VHF and we had a great conversation with Bob and Sherry.   Bob just retired 4 weeks ago and so they have been enjoying many new excursions on their Victory which they love.   We exchanged contact information and planned to meet up with them in the coming weeks to see if we can plan a get together.   There were numerous Dolphin around us as we crossed the Harbor and because Bob and Sherry were not running there engine, they had a great encounter with the dolphins coming up to their boat and swimming between their hulls.   I am looking forward to getting closer myself, but for now I was just happy to be on the final leg of our 28 hour passage back to Mike’s Folks house.    As we entered the canals near the house,  Mike talked me through the Docking procedure.   I thought I understood but when it came down to getting the boat next to the dock and tying her off, I got his directions backwards and was unable to jump from the boat down to the dock.  (me and my poor depth perception)  The boat drifted just past the dock and ended up kissing the seawall with the starboard hull before Mike was able to jump to the rescue and tie her off properly.   I was in tears and told him “I feel horrible about scratching his Pride and Joy.   He just held me and told me that “I was his Pride and Joy”.  Can someone tell me what I was thinking marrying this guy!  So our Maiden Voyage has come to its conclusion and now it is time to make over Dancing Dolphin into our home.   We have been scrubbing furiously and making upgrades to bring her up to our standards.   We have to send to England for a new prop and attachments so we will be ordering a 2^nd set as well as additional parts for our sonic outdrive in the event of breakdown in the middle of nowhere again.    Mike found a beautiful Teak Folding Table for the Salon that he refinished and placed into our new home   We are slowly checking off our ToDo List and preparing for our extended cruising.

Oct 26 -27

We took Mighty Mouse back into the Marina.  Plan for the day, Mike will meet up with the Ranger Maintenance Crew and the Tour Boat Crew to Scrounge Parts and Crystal will Ride with Capn’ Carl’s Boss, Capn’ Frank into Homestead with the Old Spare Prop to hopefully find pieces to attach it or a New Prop and Hardware.    It felt strange to have my feet on solid ground again for an extended period of time.   I was still moving.   Capn’ Frank and I had a nice conversation on our way to Homestead but unfortunately none of the Marine Parts Stores could help us with parts to attach the prop or a new prop and they all wanted me to leave the old prop to have someone else look at it to determine if they could find a replacement.   I told them I couldn’t leave it as it was the only prop we had and If Mike could locate parts to attach it, I dare not return without it.  I stopped by the bank and picked up some groceries while in Homestead.   Capn’ Frank and I returned to Flamingo with hopes that Mike was able to find something that would work.   Mike came back into the Marina to pick me up and told me he thought he almost had enough parts to attach the old prop.  He just needed some washers for spacers that he thought he might be able to get from the rangers maintenance dept. in the morning.    I’m sure glad I went with my gut on not leaving the prop behind at any of the parts shops.   On Tuesday morning we rode back to the Marina early and walked through Mosquito Alley a 1/4 mile walk through the mangroves over to the Ranger Maintenance building.   They were able to provide Mike with some washers but he had to modify them by drilling out the center hole to make it larger.  Thank goodness he brought his tools.  Mechanic Mike attached the prop with the bits and pieces he had gathered and we left Flamingo about 11:00am.  Mike asked me if I was up for an overnighter to make up lost time.  I told him I was barring any more unforeseen problems.  The wind this day was directly on our tail, also not Dancing Dolphins favorite point of sail.   We attempted to raise the Main Sail with our electric winch and blew a breaker.   For a time we were without any of our Navigation or Instrumentation.  Needless to say at this point I was near tears again but not with joy.    Electrician Mike was able to get us back up and running once again.   We continued throughout the day and into the night.   We discovered that the chip that is in our Garmin does not have detail for the West Coast of Florida and so we had to navigate with our charts and some basic Waypoints.     We took turns piloting the boat and sleeping and arrived just south of Ft Myers Beach at about 4:00am.   We began to take the outside route west of Sanibel Island but with the change in route the 4 ft waves began to hit us broadside again and the ride was getting a bit rough.  We opted to head on into the bay and follow the lit markers to the ICW and on up to Charlotte Harbor.  We followed the lit markers as far as we could.  It was still early and when we ran out of lit markers we anchored and waited for it to get a bit lighter before continuing on our journey home.

Oct 24 – 25th

After our not so restful night we pressed on toward the western coast of south Florida.  The winds were still not in our favor and we ended up motoring with the wind directly on our nose for the entire day.   We anchored just south of Middle Cape in the Everglades National Park.  Michael turned in early and I stayed awake long enough to watch the sunset and beautiful rainbow that came down off the stern of the boat.   The winds and waves were calming and we enjoyed a restful night sleep.   The phrase “the calm before the storm” comes to mind.  In the morning we started the engine an attempted to put the boat in gear to pull up the anchor.  The boat didn’t budge.  We tried reverse, still nothing.  We pulled up our Sonic Drive and Michael leaned over the back to take a look at it.   !@#$%^&*!   There was no propeller.   The only thing we could figure is it had come off when we backed down on the anchor the night before.    We hadn’t moved, other than a slight change in position due to swing on the anchor rode.    We both got into our snorkel gear and spent the better part of the next hour diving in 8 feet of water trying to find the prop and nuts to hold it on but to no avail.  The Everglades as you know is the end point for the marshlands and the place where all the water comes out into the ocean along with plenty of silt and other debris.  It was like diving in pea soup.  We couldn’t see but about a foot in front of us and as soon as you touched bottom a cloud of silt would surround you.   We found a really old spare prop that was left on the boat but we had nothing to attach it with.    Plan B.  We looked on our charts and the closest civilization was behind us at a place called Flamingo.  Leave it to us to get stuck in one of the most remote locations on the west coast of Florida.  We decided the best course of action would be to lower our dingy off of the davits and strap her to the side of Dancing Dolphin and use her as a tug to push us the 14 miles to Flamingo.  Our Dingy and her 25 HP Tohatsu motor did a great job and pushed us back to Flamingo.  Enroute we looked up to see wood storks flying in a long straight line of 95 birds,  an amazing sight.    On the way I suggested we name our dingy “Mighty Mouse” as I sang “Here I come to Save the Daaaaaay!”  as she pushed us along at about 3 mph on a sea of glass with absolutely no wind.    Now we have a Cat and a Mouse.  We anchored at the entrance to the channel, not knowing what sort of amenities the marina offered, and took Mighty Mouse into the Small Marina.    We went to the Ranger Station in Flamingo and began to plead our case looking for any help they may be able to provide.    Unfortunately it was Sunday and their Maintenance personnel were not due in until the next day.   We began walking over to the small Marina Store.  On our way I spotted a couple of what appeared to be some “Ole Salts”.   We walked up and introduced ourselves to Capn’ Carl.  He is currently running the tour boats for the tourists that come to Flamingo.   He had traveled to Flamingo in his Trawler, Red Red Wine, with his Cat Baryshnikov , a beautiful long haired Siamese and a rescued bird.    We told him of our predicament and he told us that when they returned from their last tour of the day they would look to see if they had any spare parts that might work to attach our old spare prop.  If they couldn’t find what we needed that his boss would be traveling to Homestead the next day,  48 miles away to get parts for the tour boats.   We could possibly catch a ride with him.   We rode back to the boat and settled in for the evening, thankful we had our home intact and the possibility of a plan to resolve our situation.    The evening was quiet and the beauty of the Everglades surrounded us.   Watching the Roseate Spoonbills, Wood storks, & Osprey’s, and looking out on another incredible sunset,  we couldn’t help but think that if one must be stuck, why not be stuck in such a beautiful place.

Oct 23rd

We enjoyed a restful night on calm waters at Pumpkin Key and I woke early and made the coffee and sat up on our forward deck to enjoy the sunrise.    It was another beautiful day and I thought to myself ,”the only thing that could make this any more perfect  would be for a pod of dolphin to swim by.”  As if on queue, there they were.  Backlit by the morning sunrise, I was close to tears of joy for the second time in as many days.    We hauled anchor and proceeded on our journey south.   We had good wind and sailed for much of the day and then wove our way through mangroves.  The boat continued to perform beautifully.   We pulled around to what would normally be the lee side of Legnumvitae Key part of the Florida parks system.  It is a botanical Park.  There were complimentary Mooring Balls and Mike was able to grab one of them with our gaff as we did not have a boat hook on board.    I refer to the mooring as normally being on the lee side of the island but as there were still winds coming from the North east.  There was quite a bit wave action where there would normally be calm.  We spent a not so quiet night as the boat drifted broadside to the waves causing them to slam into the hull where we were trying to sleep.   I didn’t realize boats could be so loud.   The previous owner told us about rigging the boat with a bridle so that it won’t swing on anchor or mooring.  We will have to figure out how to do that.   While on the mooring, Mike donned his snorkel gear and checked on the strength of our mooring and then got his first personal look at the underside of the hulls.    We will probably be having her hauled and bottom painted before we leave for the Bahamas.     The water temp was great and we enjoyed a dip and a sun shower off the back transom before dinner.