Exploring our new home

Where did I leave off... ah yes... we arrived on the West coast of Florida.

The Okeechobee waterway ends in Ft. Myers. Since the cross state transit was not part of the original itinerary we arrived without cruising guides or plans. We anchored off of  Ft. Myers municipal marina, which provides dinghy dock, laundry and showers for $5 a day, with a friendly smile. Their store didn't have the cruising guides we were looking for so we placed an order with Armchair Sailor  for the West coast version of the two cruising guide/ chartbooks which were most helpful on the ICW: Skipper Bob's Cruising the Gulf coast, and Intracoastal waterway: Miami to Mobile. After some reading we decided to head up Pine Island Sound and spend a couple of days at Cayo Costa State Park.


View Ft. Myers to Port of the Islands in a larger map

After Cayo Costa we headed South and spent two nights on a Ft. Myers beach mooring. Ft. Myers beach is a great kitchy throwback beach - a little bit rough and dirty but accessible, not yet gentrified by the surrounding area. Best of all a large portion of the beach allows dogs on leash and provides trash cans and bags at regular intervals. The Ft. Myers beach mooring field is between the barrier island of Estero, which the beach is on, and San Carlos island, where the fishing boats tie up. We had a great cocktail hour at Bonita Bill's, where dogs are welcome, the beer comes in a pitcher with a bag of ice to keep it cold and the shrimp are right off the boat.

Thus ended our "vacation". We left Ft. Myers beach and had the best sail of the trip 15 knots of wind on the beam with all sails raised.  But the sail ended too soon. We headed back inshore At Gordon Pass and followed the old ICW behind Keewaydin Island and Marco Island exiting at Coon Key pass. On the way we spent a wonderful night behind Keewaydin in Rookery Bay. In the morning we took the dinghy to Keewaydin and followed a path across the island, and enjoyed our coffee alone on the barrier beach.



Finally after exiting Coon Key pass we motored across the shallows to Panther Key and the beginning of the Faka Union Canal, which would take us to our new Winter home at Port of the Islands Marina.

Kedge

Kedge (kej)
- verb (used with object)
1. To warp or pull (a ship) along by hauling on the cable of an anchor carried out from the ship and dropped.

We had our first true ICW day today. We hit bottom on two different occasions and the second time required the quick dispatch of Chronos and the bow anchor. (Going aground is a popular pass time and topic of conversation on the ICW due to various states of maintenance and rapid shoaling of the channel.)
How did we get into such a situation in the first place you ask? We have been using three navigational references on this trip. First, paper charts - for the ICW in a handy spiral bound reference. Second, the same government charts via a computer program called GPSNavX which plots your location on the chart as you go and provides lots of handy waypoint and route info. Third, an iPhone app called Navionics (which sources the screen shots I often add here). Early in the day as we happily motored through what both electronic charts showed as land, we decided this would be a day to depend on the buoys and our eyes.
As we looked ahead for a place to anchor for the night, protected from the SW and W winds which were expected to gust to 30 as a front passed over we noted a nice creek with charted depths of 15 and 16 feet. We noted that it was just before day marker "23".

The thick yellow line on the chart is our track.

So we turned into the phantom creek and felt our way along with the depth sounder. 6 feet, 4, 3 (we are aground at 2 on the depth sounder)... Then 2.1, then blank. So we turned away from the island thinking that perhaps we had left the channel between the wrong grass islands... Nope. Aground. We were able to back and retraced our route to the ICW proper. Okay. Let's anchor in that 6 ft spot we first saw. No. Promptly ran aground and backing wasn't doing the trick. We already knew the tide was outgoing so time was short. Enter the kedge. Anchor in dinghy. Row toward channel. Drop anchor. Pull boat to anchor. Just that easy. Kairos is designed with a wide shallow keel the full length of the boat, deeper aft. This design allows her to pivot on the deeper aft section as her bow finds deeper water and she can then drive off.

Photo of the offending water between marker "23" and land

What a story, we have been baptized by kedge and can now join the ICW cocktail chat. The best part of the day? It was in Florida!

ATF

So here's how it started. We left the Great Dismal Swamp canal visitor's center dock - and the boat didn't immediately engage in forward. Before we left Maine there was a question as to whether the reduction gear turned over a little rough or made a funny sound. But everyone asked denied it being a problem. So. It didn't improve. We proceeded down the ICW in search of diesel stopping in Belhaven (where Irene's full force was felt) and then in Oriental. We found fuel and filled our water tanks in Oriental and anchored above a 43' bridge away from others. In the morning we hauled the anchor heading for the bridge. The call was made to re- anchor. This was Monday morning, a holiday. The dear mechanic made an initial investigation and the decision was made to proceed to Beaufort (Bō-fort) 20 miles further where supplies were more readily available. We anchored amongst sunken boats in the Town Creek and went for a walk in search of ATF. (Automatic transmission fluid not alcohol or tobacco...not as easy to find as one would think.) After changing the oil there was a slight improvement but it slipped at high rpm. We went to bed with the plan to continue on in the morning and see how things went. We awoke to a dark rainy day with forecast for gusts to 40 and thunderstorms. Not set on our plan we postponed departure and made phone calls to the MA Universal dealer and a VA dealer.

With the forecast against us we made the decision to have a new reduction gear shipped overnight and to send the faulty one back for warranty inspection at a later date. We picked up the new gear the next morning after a 3 mile sunny humid walk to the laundromat and grocery store.

Making the noon bridge opening we were underway. How good it felt to leave the sunken boats behind.

The dear mechanic changed out the gear at a quiet anchorage tucked off the ICW that night and now two days and one ATF change later we are headed South!

Olde Towne

32 hrs Atlantic City to the hospital point anchorage, Norfolk VA. Despite having finally peed on the foredeck early in the AM Ballantine danced around in the cockpit as we set the anchor. The Skipper Bob cruising guide, which a kind friend had gifted to us, listed a free dinghy dock behind the Wisconsin. This required a ride across the choppy river and then tucking behind a warship. As the alternator had once again stopped working I was elected to don a lifejacket and brave the slop. With such obstacles to overcome it wasn't surprising that no such dock existed. But pee we would - so we tucked in behind the Wisconsin, scaled a wall and found some grass. Relief.
The refrigerator was looking bare and one of us was down to 2 clean shirts so today was clearly the day to adventure into the wilds of Virginia. The cruising guide suggested that the closest grocery was on the Portsmouth side of the river, but the only dinghy dock was at a marina. After googling for a laundromat we set out. $12.60 to tie up the dinghy turned into a deal when we discovered that instead of walking 4 miles with the laundry we could use the marina's washing machines. We returned the laundry to the dinghy and set out for the grocery store.
Based on the military industrial area we could see from the water we didn't expect a nice walk. But it turned out to be lovely. Portsmouth has an Olde Towne (love the Es) section which we wandered through on the way to the Food Lion. Large oaks, holly borders, Southern style facades and parks bordered the streets. We emerged into the expected fast food car dealer realm and found a well stocked grocery. As we were dividing the groceries for the walk back a gentleman asked if we were off a boat and offered a ride. What more could one ask for?
Now with the laundry washed and the groceries stowed we are ready to set out... but bridge opening schedules must be respected and so we will depart in the morning with the hope that chronos and kairos align and with them the bridge operators.

Proposed Route South

Here it is - the Google Maps edition of our planned trip South - subject to change pending weather and life. The general idea is offshore stretches of sailing from Maine to the Chesapeake. Then take the ICW inside from Norfolk to Cape Fear so we don't have to wait for a weather window to avoid Cape Hatteras. Finally we will sail outside until we arrive in the Miami area where we will create a new plan to enjoy any remaining days. The anchors mark locations we want to explore in Southern Florida. All of this planning might change because Ballantine is joining us - and she has yet to take a "walk" on the boat, so doggie bodily functions could change everything. Stay tuned!
View Proposed Route South in a larger map There is more information embedded in the map so click away!