My continuing cruise. Left Gulfport (near St Pete), crossed Tampa
Bay. Coast Guard Chopper kept flying around me but finally settled on
a power boat behind me a few hundred yards and hovered about 50' above
him till sherriff boat arrived and escorted him slowly past me. Dunno
what that was about. South of Cortez, ran aground AND got a rope from
somewhere fouled in my prop so had to sail across Sarasota Bay and
under Ringling causeway. Somehow it came loose enough to enable me to
motor into Marina Jacks.
I was seriously out of place there with the serious money boats.
There was a 120' yacht whose home port said "Marshall Islands" having
a party aboard with well dressed people while I wanderd past in my
bloodstained shirt and holey jeans. My money is as green as theirs so
I said hi to everyone and acted like I belonged and THEN dove under my
boat to clear my prop with my swiss army knife. This seemed to either
amuse or astonish onlookers, not sure which.
Only got to Englewood yesterday when about 12:30 pm fog started
closing in so I went into Royal Palm Marina to wait it out. Then
things got rough and wind really picked up. The marina is very
exposed so last night was serious rockin and rollin with what I
estimate as 40 kt winds that almost blew me offa the dock.
This morn, still too nasty to continue so I rented a car and came
home. Will continue next week.
On this leg, my 20 yr old auto-pilot finally broke so I was at the
tiller the whole time although I did manage to duct tape it together
just long enough to get my main up when the prop fouled. Brought it
home to make a new part for it.
The extreme fluorescent yellow paint has washed of my dinghy leaving
it whitish with fluorescent yellow spots, truly hideous.
Decided to have the yard at Royal Palm Marina Bottom paint her and
check the prop strut.