Marina Jacks

April 6, 2009
The marina we find is called "Marina Jacks." It is beautiful. Not just because it has docks for our injured boat, but because it is beautiful. We got up this morning to the greatest group of dockmasters and workers. They help us, discuss the channel with us, and help us get ready for the trip to Snead Island Boat Works. Marty dives on the boat and tells us the rudder is only slightly bent.
Both 346-SAIL and our boat broker gave me the number for Sneads and I call for Sue who is not there. Gary answers and provides directions to their boatyard and promises a lead in to the river I have to go down. It seems to take forever to leave Marina Jacks but we refuel, pump the holding tanks (for Linda), and off we go. Linda’s tired and sleeps. I head down the Intracoastal Waterway to Sneads.
Ibuprofen has become my friend. It seems that my 54 year old body gets a little sore when I stand at the helm all day. I’m stiff. I take a couple of Ibuprofen and in about a half hour, I’m fine.
When I finally make it to Tampa Bay, I’m supposed to turn to marker 2. I remember marker 2 but the ICW marker is not anywhere near 2. I head for this big bridge. There is darkness ahead. That darkness indicates a rain squall and I don’t like it. The winds are picking up. I turn on the radar and it shows a big rain mass moving ahead of me. I don’t want any more excitement. I turn around and start heading back. Then, a squall moves in on that side. The winds are picking up. The original squall has moved on so I turn back around. The winds are increasing and I don’t like where we are. I call Sneads and speak with Gary. He helps me find marker 2 and I start heading in. He comes out to meet us and leads us in the rest of the way.
We head straight to the lift out dock. They bring over the crane and lift the boat. The rudder is clearly bent but they think they can fix is by bending it back. They do, it works, they tighten the steering and we splash the boat.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.

Cabbage Key to Saratosa

April 5, 2009
Every day has an event. We woke this morning in Cabbage Key. We ate breakfast in the dollar bill restaurant. It would be embarrassing to tell you what we ate, but it was good.
I woke thinking about the macerator. I don’t know of any less exciting thought. I dug out my Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual and learned about a boat’s plumbing system, including the "sanitary waste system." Great reading and it worked. I got the macerators running. We didn’t have to go to Uncle Henry’s. Linda was happy. I was ecstatic.
The winds were light. We motored through the Intracoastal Waterway to the channel. Raised the main and headed out to sea. The day was so calm and uneventful that there is nothing else to say. I wrote blogs. The problem was, after writing a blog, I looked up and right in front of me was a sailboat! That boat appeared out of the blue. That was so weird. Regardless, this was a lesson and I learned it well. I have radar on this boat and it should be set to warn me of any vessel within 2 miles. Even that does not allow a person at the helm to get engrossed in anything other than sailing.
Linda called her Mom. They were visiting as we were just o ff Sarasota. There was this brown patch in the water. I thought it was a weed patch, but it wasn’t. It was a turtle. I realize this when it raised its softball size head out of the water to look at us. I hollered to Linda who went through the same series of thoughts as me until she saw the head. We did not get a picture though. It all happened too fast.
We arrived at Sarasota about 4:30 pm. I radioed Sea Tow to gain local knowledge of the channel from the Gulf. Sea Tow is to boats like AAA is for cars. They provide a local knowledge service. You radio them and they give you information about the area. I asked about the channel. "Let me call the Captain," the female voice said. "He said fine so long as you stay in the channel," the female Sea Tow voice said. "He said it’s low tide." I thanked her and pulled up the tide tables on my instruments. We were at low tide and it was a low tide but not the lowest. There are four tides in a typical day, two low and two high. One of the lows is lower than the other . One of the highs is higher than the other. We were at the higher low, if that makes sense. I decide to wait a while. We were having a great time anyway so there is no immediate need to go in.
I radioed a couple of boats going in the channel and none responded.
There is a buoy system on channels. There are red buoys on one side and green on the other. If you are headed out to sea, the green buoys are on the right (starboard). If you are returning to port, the red buoys are supposed to be to starboard. Green going, red right returning. Remember that, and all is fine. Unless you are entering Sarasota channel.
I sailed along the coast, with binoculars, watching boats come in and out of the channel in Sarasota. One large yacht and another boat went in with the red marker on the port (left) side. "Green going, red right returning," I thought. "They are familiar with the area around the channel and know where it is safe to get out of it." I continued. But my draft is too deep. I have to stay in the channel.
I didn’t feel good though. I just did not feel good about this channel. We stayed offshore an hour and a half, and let the tide go up a foot. If Sea Tow says I’m fine at low tide, I must be fine a foot higher.
"Okay, we are going to go in this channel. I don’t trust something. Sea Tow says it’s fine." The problem was we had hung around to go in at Sarasota. The winds were about to pick up. We needed to be inshore. I felt comfortable that the Sea Tow guy was doing his job.
I still worried. "If we hit bottom, here is what we are going to do," I told Linda so she would know what was going to happen. I explained we would try to head out to sea and get back in deep water.
"Okay. We are going in." I said after the tide had come up a about a foot. Frankly, I was worried. We stayed in the channel. "Green going, red right returning." We were returning to port. Red on starboard.
The depth meter beeped but it had done that before. In fact, Mark had taken us in shallow water to see the actual depth meter reading when the keel hits bottom. Three and one half feet. That’s because the transducer is on the bottom of the boat below the waterline.
So as I came in the Sarasota channel I knew I needed the depth meter to stay above 3.5 feet. The depth meter went to 4.8. Bump! We hit something with the keel. I’m heading inshore. If we bump here, if I get closer, we will have a big problem. I turn hard to port to get us away from that red marker. Into deeper water. Boom. We hit again. Bump, the stern hits. The steering is stiff. (Expletive)! The motor digs in though and pushes us off. We are in deep water but it’s really hard to steer.
"Sea Tow, this is the sailing vessel Royal Crescent on Channel 11," I fume. They answer. "Would you call me on my cell?" The cell rings. Okay, this guy tries to tell me that if I stay in the channel I’ll be fine. Surely I went out of the channel. Try it again. I explain no, I am not trying it again. I am not going to another port. It is almost dark. He cleared me and advised me how to enter channel. "I want a lead in. I’m a member of Sea Tow and I request a lead in. I don’t know if my vessel is safe. I do not feel secure in going to another port." "All our boats are busy. They won’t be available for at least an hour and a half." He stalls. "It won’t be dark until an hour and forty five minutes. I’ll wait. Please get a lead in out here." Linda and I sail. And we sail.
Finally, a boat comes through the channel. It is not Sea tow but it comes out a little way then turns around to ease back in. I radio. No response. I ask Linda to pull out the horn. I honk it. They hear. They radio. I explain. They agree to lead us in.
They go in about 100 yards ahead of us, to the right of the red marker! What happened to red right returning? "The marker moved and hasn’t been replaced," I’m told. It apparently has been that way for two months.
After we are safely in, I radio Sea Tow to tell them the error. They simply say I should call the Coast Guard and report the buoy. How useless. The rudder is hard to turn. Interestingly, as we are coming in a Coast Guard boat with emergency lights flashing heads out to the Gulf. Coincidence?
I need to make two things clear. Sea Tow is a good organization. It has successfully helped many, many boaters. Even they make mistakes. Second, this is my vessel and I am responsible for everything that happens on it. I had a bad feeling about going into that channel. I should have not hesitated to contact as many people as often as necessary to get in. That said, the marker should not have been out of place.
I have to admit, it is after dark and I’ve had enough problems. I radio a sailboat we pass. They have a sign 346-SAIL. I call the number. They are helpful, courteous and they lead us in to dock. Thanks. They also refer me to Snead Boat Yard.
We get docked. (I’m leaving some details out). We tie up. We eat. We go to bed. We are tired. I don’t sleep well.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.

Marco Island to Cabbage Key

April 4, 2009
"Be sure the toilet works," Linda would tell me repeatedly. Both did. The heads can either flush overboard or into a tank. The tank can either be drained by a pump on the boat called a macerator or at a pump station on a dock. One of the toilets (head in boat lingo) has an electric flush that sounds like a small chain saw. The other has a hand pump. There are a myriad of pipes running here and there. I didn’t understand them when we left on this voyage. I asked several people who gave me ideas on how the head plumbing worked but even they didn’t know. I felt comfortable that I could dump the tanks at sea or get them pumped at a dock. Linda was happy. Off we went.
When we left Marco Island both of us thought about pumping out the tank, neither said or did anything about it. Our sail out of Marco Island was nice. Following seas and current similar to the trip from Shark River. However, there was much less wind and no white caps, just lazy waves and a nice breeze. The breeze wasn’t enough to push the boat as fast as we needed to go so we motor sailed. That means we had the sails up and motor running at about 1,500 rpm. It was a nice sail. We were tired though from the activity the previous day and took turns sleeping.
Sanibel Island is a barrier island protecting several other islands nestled in a bay called Pine Island Sound. Pine Island Sound branches out the much larger Charlotte Harbor. Punta Gorda sits on the south east edge of Charlotte Harbor. My friend Chris on the 35 foot Catalina left with others and a Captain and sailed straight through by sea to Galveston Bay. He probably left the same day we left Key Largo and is probably reaching Kemah today or tomorrow. My guess is they are tired.
All of the Sanibel Island area is a high dollar vacation spot with beautiful blue water and stark white sandy beaches. It is stunningly beautiful. As we sail along about three miles offshore we can sea the buildings and beaches. Any other time, they would be a great topic for discussion, but not this time.
Just before Sanibel Island, the aft (back) head (toilet) stopped up. In fact, it wasn’t stopped up, the holding tank was full. So, I switched on the macerator. Nothing happened. I pumped on the toilet. Nothing happened. Linda heated up. I twisted and turned, pushed and pulled but nothing, nothing made the tank dump. I could hear the macerator running but nothing happened. Linda heated up a little more. Her only request was to get the toilet running. I couldn’t.
Okay, but that’s not so bad. We are almost into port and we can have it pumped out. That didn’t cool her down but there was nothing to do. So, out came the waterway guide. This high dollar vacation spot has plenty of marinas. Only a couple have pump outs. So, we call South Seas Island Resort because it lists it has a pump station. "Oh yes, we have a pumping station" the nice lady on the phone said. "What is the best way to get there?" I ask. "Come in Redfish Pass, follow the channel, stay away from the seawall, turn right as soon as you get in. A five foot draft is not problem" Cool. We were only about 4 miles from Redfish Pass so that is where we decided to turn in.
I call Bill, our west coast of Florida local knowledge guy as well as our mentor. "I don’t know about Redfish Pass. I think you should go on down to Boca Granda and enter there. You may have to back track a few miles but it’s a good deep inlet." Bill left wiggle room though. "Of course, you could contact Sea Tow and get local information. Maybe they can tell you if Redfish Pass is okay."
I dig out my wallet and the Sea Tow card. Call Sea Tow and am routed to a local Sea Tow location that assures me it is fine to come into Redfish Pass but to stay along the sea wall. "That’s good to know, I said. The girl at South Seas said to stay away from it," I said. "No, stay near it," he emphasized.
We head to Redfish Pass. The GPS (Chartplotter in boat language) says there are red and green bouys to mark the way in. Usually you can see the buoys about a half mile out. Not at Redfish Pass. The buoys were barely visible a hundred yards out. I found them by watching other boats going in. "I don’t see any sailboats going in," Linda said with that cautious tone. But, the Sea Tow locals had assured me we would be fine. So, in we went at the slowest possible safe speed. Boats were piling up behind us, even a very large motor yacht. But, they waited patiently probably thinking they wished I would get out of the way.
After considerable concern and fear, we made it through the pass easily. In fact, the pass was about 20 feet deep. Nothing to worry about. Now, we head to South Seas Marina. South Seas is a luxury condominium, timeshare or something or other. It has a very narrow harbor and I ease in carefully and dock. No one comes to help me dock despite the fact that I requested assistance at least three times. A guy getting out of his boat helped though and we were soon snug to the dock. Linda wasn’t a bit cooler.
We go in the marina office and this cutesy blond girl is busy working the radio and phone and helping give directions. "Hi, I’m on the Royal Crescent and we need to pump out," I say relieved that I will finally get Linda to cool down. "Oh, are you the boat that called me. We only pump out at 10:00 AM and you cannot stay here until then because we don’t allow nonmembers to stay here. I didn’t realize you meant you were coming in now." I could feel the heat coming from the side Linda was standing on. All sorts of conversations and calls were unsuccessful in finding a pumping station that would take us or that could take a boat our size and draft.
We ask about anchorages but no one knows of any. Are these people brain dead? They live here! Anyway we made our way out of that narrow harbor without hitting anything, cut across the bay to the intracoastal waterway and head toward Cabbage Key, a place Bill said was excellent. We called ahead...actually I called ahead because Linda would have melted the phone. We got reservations to dock and headed there. I thought we should dock because we could use the air conditioning to cool Linda down.
Cabbage Key turned out to be a great place. It had a bar and a restaurant and a few little cottages. It is a private island that boasts a 38 foot elevation, the highest in the area. It has a great little restaurant that I think was built in 1944 and has been really popular ever since. The walls of the restaurant are papered in one dollar bills, thousands of them. They invite people write a message on dollar bills and tape them to the walls. Periodically, they collect them all and donate them to a charity. I think it was a muscular dystrophy charity but I’m not certain. Of course we pasted a bill with "Royal Crescnet http://www.bringroyalcrescenthome.blogspot.com/ on it. I actually had to use two bills. I taped them in the most conspicuous place possible but I doubt anyone will see it or be able to read the URL but it would be fun if someone did.
We were extremely tired when we went to bed. The air conditioning was nice and Linda was even cool enough by now to sleep next to.
Our plan was to leave the next morning and head north up the intracoastal waterway about an hour or so to Uncle Henry’s marina. He had a pumping station and was willing to help us out. He was very nice and I even thought about calling him to see if he could have someone fix our system while we were there. The problem with this was we would be faced with the choice of backtracking an hour to get into the Gulf to turn back and head north or just head up the intracoastal waterway. Since Linda was cool enough to sleep next to, I though it might be best to let this rest until tomorrow..
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.

Not so good a day in paradise

Before anyone gets this blown out of proportion, we ran aground and damaged the rudder. The channel marker was on the wrong side of the channel. Anyway, we are very safe in Sarasota and I could whine about the rudder but I won't. We are taking it to a boat yard tomorrow. I'll give a full explanation when I'm not tired.

BTW, I'm trying to figure out how to post pictures. I did it once but am too tired to figure it out tonight. We saw a really cool turtle with about a three foot diameter shell but didn't get a photo. Sarasota is beautiful from offshore. Despite the "issues" we are having a good time..
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.

Shark River to Marco Island

April 3, 2009
We’re gonna try to get current on my blogs but not tonight. We’re tired. We left Shark River at about 8:00 A.M. I know that’s late but we sleep really well and we don’t get up till about seven. We swung on anchor in Shark River. When we anchored, our boat faced out toward the Gulf. I woke to check it in the middle of the night and we had swung 180 degrees to face into the river. The next morning, we were facing back toward the Gulf. The ebb and flow of the current controlled the direction of our boat, as opposed to wind when we are anchored in a bay.
As we headed out, we could hear the surf. That was a pretty clear indication to us that we needed to reef the main. As we were leaving, a man in a trawler visited with us. They were headed the same direction we were but a trawler doesn’t do well in beam seas. He assured me that a sailboat would. We headed out. I put one reef in the main and off we went, main only and motor running. The seas were choppy near shore and more rolling offshore. We never felt in danger. We spent the day sailing downwind, down current and with winds between 16 and 23 knots and seas of 3 to 4.5 feet with absolutely no problem. It was a tiring sail but the boat was very comfortable.
In order to plan safely, we decided to just go a short distance to Everglades City but the boat did so well we continued on to Marco Island which meant we went about 55 miles. That’s a long way in those seas but with wind and current in our favor we were making about 8 knots over ground.
When we got to the Marco Island inlet, we started rolling in the jib. The roller furling was tangled. So, I went to the bow to untangle it. I felt a little like Captain Dan in Forest Gump. I’m referring to the scene where he rode on the mast in a storm, except I was on the bow. Maybe it is a blend of Captain Dan and Titanic. Anyway, I got up there and straddled my legs on either side of the bow as the boat sailed in four foot seas. I couldn’t get it untangled. I went back to the cockpit and tried to force it a little but that did not work either so, back to the bow Captain Dan style. I realized I needed to furl the sail as far as I could then lock the drum with the roller furling line slack until I could untangle the line. So, back to the cockpit for a screwdriver (phillips, not vodka) and back to the bow where I succeeded in untangling the line. The sail rolled in nicely.
We docked at a really nice marina and took a shower on shore. That was nice. The rest of the night was pretty boring so I’ll stop for tonight.
Everyone is interested in how Linda is handling all this. She’s a trooper. She kinda gets fed up every once in a while but she sailed the boat while I was on the bow and didn’t drown me so I know she is okay.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.
PS. I posted some new pictures.

Shark River

April 2, 2009
Okay. We are sitting on a river in the Everglades. Shark River. Bill, our mentor, and Mark, another mentor, have helped us all day by cell phone. Tonight, we are out of cell phone range so we will be on our own.
Our itinerary was to travel to Channel 5, cut through the Keys, head north, then jog around to either Flamingo or Shark River to anchor overnight.
We left Tavernier Key at 8:00 AM. We motored across Hawk’s Channel and set the sails for Channel 5. It was great sailing, if you were headed in any direction other than the direction we were going. So, we motored. It was a pretty day, the breeze was nice and we wanted to let the wind blow through the boat so we opened a couple of the forward hatches. "What a comfortable breez through the boat," we thought. Wrong. We were beating into the wind, spray blowing over the bow, and all that spray blew into the boat, which we didn’t discovery for an hour or so. Okay, a wet floor and a few wet things. We’ll remember next time.
We made Channel Five around midday. I called Mark to get through the Channel. He had described it to me on our checkout sail. I confirmed what I thought he previously told me and headed through just fine. It was a little weird to see our mast so close to the underside of the bridge. It seemed to almost touch. Thank goodness it didn’t.
We then zig zagged by motor, through the craziest series of channels, to start heading north. The eerie thing was that we have a 4'10" draft and we were sailing in six to eight feet of water with occasional shallow spots. I just knew that at any time I would run aground. In fact we softly bumped once. Oh, and the crab traps. Crabtraps were everywhere and we were motoring. I could just see the lines from a trap wrapping around our prop. So, we spent the midday dodging crab traps.
As if that wasn’t enough, there was a hum in the boat. It hummed because the propeller was spinning under water. It spins in forward or neutral; however, don't shift to reverse. The reason is, if you put the transmission in reverse while it is spinning from sailing, it stops the spinning but jams the transmission. No one told me that. So, I shove it in reverse. The noise stopped but we could not shift it back into neutral or forward. That meant we could not start the motor. So, out came the repair manuals and in about an hour I had it fixed. Linda was at the helm, sailing the boat in that skinny water. She did great. While I was down there, I changed fuel filters for the first time too.
We thought about stopping at Flamingo, FL but when we read the waterway guide it said if your draft is over 4 feet, don’t go. So on we went to Shark River. Bill, told us about Shark River, a secluded but deep river in the Everglades. We made it just before sunset and dropped anchor. Shark River is in the middle of the Everglades. It was beautiful but we were so tired, we ate Dirty Rice with nothing else and went to bed.
Kudos to Joan and Ed who sold us our boat. We were laying at anchor in Shark River and the wind was still. The boat was hot and stuffy until I found the DC fans that they left on the boat. We had a great breeze from the fans all night.
Post again tomorrow.
Royal Crescent

Living the Dream

April 1, 2009

Okay, we are at anchor. The skies have little fluffy clouds in the distance. Off the back of the boat are houses lined along the water, like in Galveston. They are probably three quarters of a mile away. The water is turquoise blue. We’re tucked in behind a small island called Tavernier Key. The sun is setting. There are these gentle waves lapping around our boat. Two other sailboats have chosen to anchor here. We’re in about eight feet of water at mean low tide. We draw 4'10", so say 5 feet. I snorkeled around the boat for a minute or so just to see it under water. It was weird to see my keel only about 3 feet over the ground but, it was low tide and I know that is the lowest the water will get until 6 pm tomorrow.
Now, if you look at a map–it’s called a chart in boat lingo–you will see we only made about six miles and that’s really an exaggeration. At today’s speed we will not get back until 2011! So, tomorrow we pick it up a little.
We’ve crammed about two weeks worth of work into four days. We are both exhausted. We have added a second anchor and roller, a motor lift, a grill, a motor for the dinghy, the dinghy which we have not blown up, and hundreds, okay, thousands, actually millions of things. You cannot believe what all we have done. But, it’s done. We completed almost every task, which is cool.
Tomorrow, we will try to get to Channel Five in the Keys. That will cut us across the Keys and into the Gulf, heading north. We are going to try to make it to Shark River. If we get there, we will anchor in a bend in the river. It’s in the edge of the Everglades.
Okay, I will post more tomorrow. BTW, we did not leave till 2:20 pm Eastern and anchored at around 6:00 pm.
One last thing. We met Felicia and Dan. They were a few boats away from us. They are the official first couple we met on a cruise and hung out with. They took us to a great restaurant and we shot pool. Their boat, the Rare Ruby, stays in Key Largo Harbor till they want to move back home to North Carolina. They leave their boat here and they visited it forty five days this year. Tough life!
Post again tomorrow.
Royal Crescent