Second Wind on the Great Loop and Beyond

Thursday and Friday, January 25-26. We left Boca Grande around noon on Thursday. The weather had gone downhill. Steady rain and reduced visibility weren't the greatest cruising conditions, but at least the seas weren't bad. The crazy Florida boaters were worse by far than the weather. We had heard about the phenomenon of speedboats who blast by, leaving huge wakes behind them. We have now seen it firsthand. Getting bounced around by those careless folks have caused us to break a pair of binoculars and a ceramic mug. I think we'll just have to get used to it. We will be in Florida for a while!

The channels to Ft. Meyers are well marked because the water around here is pretty shallow. Several calls went out over the radio for the rescue services of Sea Tow and Boat U.S. We watched the markers and our charts like hawks, and we made it to Ft. Meyers just fine. (With the exception of being pounded by wakes several times.) We docked at Legacy Marina, did some laundry, then ate dinner with Jim, Martha, and Peggy, Martha's stepmom. On Friday morning we retraced our steps, errrrr, that is, our wake to Sanibel Island, where Jim and Martha have joined us for several days as we make our way south to Marathon. We will explore Sanibel and Captiva Islands for the next couple of days and look forward to being joined by other cousins. Fun times coming up!

I've got photos, but not enough time right now to post them.

The map shows our route since we returned from the holidays.

Wednesday, January 24. We spent the morning trying to make reservations at marinas for the upcoming weekend. As it turns out, LOTS of people are enjoying the mid-60 degree weather and want to go boating this weekend, so everything is pretty full. Finally we headed out on the ICW toward Gasparilla Island, with Boca Grande Marina as our destination. The run from Venice to Boca Grande was pleasant. I especially loved an area called Lemon Bay, but I’ll bet insurance is out of sight for anywhere so susceptible to hurricanes. We finally saw a lot of dolphins frolicking in the bay around the boat.

We had a 20-minute wait for the Gasparilla Causeway bridge to open, but by 2:30 we arrived at Boca Grande Marina. The wind had picked up, and the helpful dock staff wanted us to go into the dock stern first. Big challenge! We did it, but we had to take off the dinghy to make it work. After that we rented a golf cart and explored the Gasparilla Island. Multi-millionaires abound here. The houses are gorgeous but tasteful, and we enjoyed seeing all the flowers in their beautifully landscaped yards. This is another place we could live happily! The weather has taken a turn for the worse, and the boat is rocking. Hope we don’t get seasick tonight.

Tuesday, January 23. Ahhhhhhh! We finally had a relaxing day. However, it started off with a worry. Bob and I both could heard water trickling. Bob looked at every valve and every nook and cranny where water could gather, but couldn't find a thing wrong. The sound appeared to be coming from every pary of the boat, so we couldn't even pin down a location. He finally called the PDQ Technical Support staff. They said he had done all the troubleshooting they could advise and suggested that the sound might not even be coming from our boat. It seems that hulls even pick up sounds from other boats. Hummmmm. They said not to worry, so we headed out. They must have been right, because we no longer heard the Mysterious Trickling Sound.

We only had to cruise 48 miles through the easy Intercoastal Waterway. We passed by the large houses and the dense condos of Clearwater, then St. Petersburg. Miles and miles of expensive property, punctuated by numerous bridges describes today’s journey. By mid-afternoon we arrived at the Crow’s Nest Marina in Venice, FL. This is a beautiful area. Bob said, “I could live here.” The water has now turned turquoise, reminding us of Caribbean waters.

The marina had complimentary bicycles, so we took a quick ride around the area. We walked out on a jetty to watch to look at the Venice Inlet from the ocean. As the sun went down, we sat on the back deck bench and watched the dolphins. Later we realized we could have tied up for free at a town dock, but then we wouldn’t have had the bicycle ride. Maybe next time. Altogether a good day!

Monday, January 22. We headed out of Tarpon Springs a day earlier than we would have liked, but our non-schedule "Plan" is keeping us moving. Duffy and Russ of Work of Art helped us cast off. Hope we see them later along the Loop.

Fun things to do and great people to see, so we're heading south. As we cruised down the protected Intercoastal Waterway, we experienced a new phenomenon: bridges with limited heights. We had to figure out how to ensure we could fit under them. Then it was neat to go under SEVERAL bridges, with traffic passing overhead. We also ended up talking on the radio to a local cruiser, who gave us his interpretation of the plentiful “Slow Speed, Minimum Wake” signs. He had it on great authority that as long as your wake didn’t curl, you were all right. Somehow we don’t believe that would hold up in a court of law. That much wake could do some damage.

At first the Intercoastal Waterway was comfortable, but then we hit Tampa Bay. Whoa! All of a sudden, Wham! Bam! Wham! Bam! There were some healthy waves in that large bay! For the second time ever, we went below to drive from the downstairs pilot station. After we crossed the Bay, the water calmed down again, and we headed to our destination, Bradenton. We stayed at a highly recommended marina and took a short walk downtown. It started raining, and we realized we were exhausted from all that pounding, so we called it a night early.

Hundreds of strings of fish pots can be found right beside and across the channel and even way out into the Gulf. The floats are small, come in red, yellow, or white and can sure be hard to spot in the choppy water, especially when the sun is shining. We love eating seafood, so we can't really complain. They are set mostly by commercial fishermen. We guess they use GPS to locate them. But we sure don't want to get tangled up in one. That would spoil a person's day, for sure.




Friday, January 18. Think beautiful day, narrow channel coming out from Crystal River, low tide, running aground (but no damage -- WHEW), fish pots everywhere, and you have our crossing from Crystal River to Tarpon Springs. We left Pete's Pier on Crystal River Friday morning around 8:30 a.m. and arrived at The Landing Marina in Tarpon Springs by 2:30 that afternoon. Again we were lucky to have good weather for the crossing. Weather will no longer be as big a concern as it was further up the Bend and the Panhandle. The Gulf Crossing is behind us! That's a huge milestone. Welcome to the Greek flavors of Tarpon Springs!

We were happy to meet up with more Loopers , although they are staying at another marina across the river. Bob and I joined Bruce & Jeanne on Inevitable Too, Roger & Erika on Tumbleweeds 1 (another PDQ), as well as Walt & Barbara from Cream Puff, for drinks on Inevitable Too, then for dinner at Dodecanese, a Greek restaurant that served the largest red snapper I believe I've ever seen. Five pounds -- and it was on MY plated. The sides included a Greek salad, a seafood salad, turnip greens (yes), bread, and then Baklava for dessert. We had a delightful time hearing Bruce's tales of previous boat chartering experiences and comparing PDQ notes with Roger and Erika. We are looking forward to experiencing all this area has to offer.

With the murky water, spotting the gentle giants wasn't easy. All of a sudden they would appear right beside or under us, wanting to be petted. Awesome to be swimming with wild creatures!

This dive boat below carried us to several locations looking for manatees. They really knew what they were doing. Sorry, no photos of the manatees yet.

Monday, January 15. After almost 10 hours of seeing nothing much but water and more water, we finally arrived at Pete’s Pier Marina in lovely Crystal River. As Bob said when we entered the river channel, “Now THIS looks like Florida – palm trees, turquoise water, and people buzzing around in short sleeves and Bermuda shorts. We had a reservation, but no one was at the marina when we arrived at 4:45, so we just tied up to the gas dock.

Crystal River, fed by 30 natural streams, is Florida’s winter sanctuary for manatees. The clear water here stays at 72 degrees year-round, which is an attraction to manatees and people who want to mingle with them. Also called Sea Cows, manatees are considered gentle giants. They can grow as large as 13 feet and weigh as much as 3,000 pounds. Manatees are endangered so there were signs everywhere to watch for them. At certain times of the year, people are allowed to swim with manatees. We hope to check out the manatee tours tomorrow with Loopers on Cream Puff and Work of Art.

Sunday, January 14, 2007: Tonight we are resting safely at a marina named Sea Hag in the old Florida fishing town of Steinhatchee. Crossing the upper part of the Gulf today was memorable in every way. Four boats, Inevitable Too, Superior Dream, Grand Finale, and Second Wind heeded Buddy’s advice and off we went at 6:00 a.m. – winding down the curvy, shallow Carrabelle River – in the dark! Somehow Bob and I got behind from the get-go, so let’s just say that although it ended well, this was not my favorite morning. It was a day of firsts: first time to navigate in unfamiliar waters in the dark, first time to have only a foot of water under us in the dark, first time to drive the boat from the lower pilot station, first time for Second Wind to be away from sight of land, first time to hear the Coast Guard issue a general Pon Pon alert because a fishing boat was found drifting in Mobile Bay with no one aboard (turned out to be a false alarm). We were glad to be with our buddy boats in that open water.

After the rocky beginning, though, the day turned out fine. Three of the boats decided to head straight on down to Tarpon Springs, driving on through tonight. The Staggs had had enough dark to last a lifetime, so we peeled off at Steinhatchee, which was the original plan for the whole group. Interestingly enough, Steinhatchee is located off Deadman Bay, a name which hardly inspired confidence. It is truly a fisherman’s paradise, and most of them were out on the Steinhatchee River this Sunday afternoon. Oh, did I mention the hundreds and hundreds of fishing pots that we had to avoid even out in the ocean? Yep, that too. Later we found out that two other boats, Work of Art and Cream Puff left Carrabelle at 7:00 a.m. in daylight this morning, and their crossing was uneventful. They had heard our tense conversations on the radio and were mighty glad they waited ‘til daybreak to start out. We do feel incredibly lucky, though; the Gulf was calmer today than it has been in a month or so. Also we joined fellow Loopers on Work of Art to eat ribs and flounder at a nice restaurant. The restaurant actually sent a car to the marina to pick us up, then brought us back afterward.

So now we’ve made it around the Bend and have finished the most daunting part of the Gulf crossing. We hope the weather holds a few more days so we can get all the way down to Tarpon Springs. After that we shouldn’t have so many winter weather issues. Things to do and people to see!

Saturday, January 13. It’s great to be back on Second Wind. Brother Jim drove us in our car back down to the Florida panhandle on Friday. We are grateful! We met up with Loopers Bruce and Jeanne Elder, who are also staying at the Moorings Marina on their boat Inevitable Too. All of us ordered Apalachee Bay fresh oysters-on-the-half shell at a local restaurant. Yum! Bob and I scarfed down two dozen each.

As delicious as the food was, the weather forecast was dreadful. It appeared that we would be staying in Carrabelle for 5 or 6 days waiting for a weather window. So this morning I went with the Bruce and Jeanne to Tallahassee to rent a car for the week. We took our time returning to the marina, stopping off at a fruit stand and an antique store in the tiny but charming town of Sopchoppy. This whole area is delightful with none of the over-development that you see elsewhere. Meanwhile Bob had some maintenance work done on the boat. Late in the afternoon the weather shifted for the better, and Moorings weather guru Buddy left a dinner date to tell us Loopers that we should depart at 6:00 a.m. Sunday to avoid the fog that would likely arrive with the sun. Not wanting to miss this opportunity to head around the Bend, we decided to go for it. Now the challenge was to get the car back to Tallahassee and try to get ready for the morning! Bruce offered to take the car, and again we were grateful for the generosity of others.