BoatBanter.com - Weather stopped me

On Feb 26, 2:18*am, wrote:
On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:17:04 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch

wrote:
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.

Once you get past Boca Grande Pass, right down the coast from you I
imagine you will be inside the rest of the way. Pine Island sound will
be a nice ride and everyone on the east shore of Boca Grande and the
west shore on the other side of the pass is going to be filthy rich
until you get past Sanibel but more so in the first two islands (the
Captivas). You might even see the Bushes on Boca Grande. They were
down here last week., *
The Green Flash is a pretty good place to have lunch on captiva. It is
near #38, back in that nook. Once you get to Ft Myers Beach there are
several restaurants inside Matanzas Pass. Doc Fords is OK but I think
the food is better at Snug Harbor. They have music at Doc's tho. That
is all right near the anchorage.
You will have to double back a little to get up the river. if you are
just going for it. I am not sure how available docking will be up
around Ft Myers. Wayne knows more about that than me. There are
several marinas but I bet they are pretty full this time of year.
Once you start across the state you will find places to stop along the
way but again I am not sure about how full they will be. The
restaurant at Port Labelle used to be pretty good but I haven't been
there for a while. Flora and Ella's moved up on 80 from their spot
near the water or I would say to stop and get a piece of pie. The pie
is good but that is a hike now.
It might be worth a call to see how the locks are doing. It has been
fairly wet but when it is dry I think they limit how often they will
lock you through. If there is a problem with the locks you are stuck.

I appreciate the local knowledge.
My perspective on this cruise has evolved because I had thought I
could predict going about 50 miles a day and up to 65 because I have
done this before. However, the last two legs have been around 36
miles/day which may be more realistic taking into account weather and
other problems. I am going to back off to estimate 40 miles/day now.
Enterprise car rental has become very useful because they will pick
you up at the marina and drop you off too.
My boat is by far the oldest cruising boat I see except for a few well
maintained wood classics. After awhile you get so used to being
aboard that on land you start missing your boating stuff. While
driving back to St. Pete from Englewood, I found myself in a
neighborhood and did not know which way to the water and instinctively
looked down to my compass that was not there.
Lack of auto-pilot on this leg was a pain in the neck being alone. If
you need something below you have to make sure no other vessels are
anywhere nearby, put engine in neutral and are headed into the wind,
dash below and find what you need and come back out all in 30
seconds. Thank God I have roller furling headsail.