Thursday, May 30, 2013

Back at the Dock for the Summer


May 30, 2013


Well we have returned to Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton after a 7 month cruise in the Bahamas.  We had a great trip and really enjoyed the areas of the Bahamas that we visited this year. 

Some statistics:
       Days
                  Anchored/Moored        168       81%
                  Docked                           40       19%
                          Total                     208

       Miles (nautical)                      1534

       Fuel (gals)                                232

       Water (gals)
                   Watermaker               1869       91%
                   Shore Sources              175         9%
                          Total                    2044

            9.8 Gal/Day (all uses - drinking, cooking, washing)

We crossed to Bimini in early December and fairly quickly transited to the northern Exumas.  We spent over 2 months in the Exumas and then traveled to several of the outer islands - Long Island, Cat Island, and Eleuthera before returning through Bimini after nearly 5 total months in the Bahamas.

We are often asked what were our favorite places.  We usually say that based on natural beauty, the Exuma Land and Sea Park, particularly Cambridge Cay was our favorite.  From a people perspective, we really enjoyed Black Point on Great Guana and Cat Island.

The Exumas are very nice, anchorages are generally relatively close, and you usually can sail in the relatively protected Bank side so it is easy to move around.  If the Exumas have a downside, it is that there are so many cruisers it often feels crowded.

The outer islands require a transit of Exuma Sound, are not as well protected, and anchorages are farther apart so there are significantly fewer cruisers.  The islands themselves are much more isolated and traditional.  We enjoyed the outer island very much, especially Cat Island and plan to spend more time there next year.

We had planned to return to the Abacos, where we were last year, but ran out of time - hopefully next year.

We often feel that trip mileage figure is fairly unimpressive to many, but a comparison that Joyce thought of puts it in a better perspective.  A car at highway speeds goes about 10 times faster than our boat.  Thus our 1534 miles is equivalent in time to a 15,340 mile car trip - quite a ways!

The boat performed great; we had two major repair items, both of which were discovered and resolved in the States.  Within a couple of weeks of leaving Bradenton, we discovered a leaking water heater, which was replaced at Rose Marina on Marco Island.  After returning to Miami, we discovered that our alternator output was very weak.  With our solar and wind generators we seldom use the alternator to simply charge, so the output probably had been falling for some time.  But a series of cloudy windless days prompted us to run to charge at Coconut Grove Sailing Club where we discovered the problem.  We were able to get a non exact replacement (something you
get used to on an 18 year old boat), but with a few minor mounting modifications I got it to fit well.

After a couple of weeks of hard work getting the boat ready for summer/hurricane season, the boat will go to Snead Island Boat Works for a bottom job and a few maintenance items.  We will travel to Syracuse for a whirlwind tour of friends, doctors, dentists and other professionals.  We no longer have a house in Syracuse, so the trip will be relatively brief and we plan to return to the boat in August.

A link to a map Google map of our trip follows this blog entry.

Following is a link to a blog entry about what we have learned about what works and what doesn't for a cruising boat. It is targeted primarily at cruisers or wanna-be cruisers.
Cruising - What Works and What Doesn't

Tom
Docked in Bradenton FL
Map Cruise 2012-13

Crusing - What Works and What Doesn't

May 30, 2013

What works and what doesn't (In no particular order).

Some statistics on our 2012-13 Cruise:

   Days
             Anchored/Moored       168        81%
             Docked                          40        19%
                   Total                      208

   Miles (nautical)                   1534

   Fuel (gals)                             232

   Water (gals)
            Watermaker              1869         91%
            Shore Sources             175           9%
                   Total                   2044

              9.8 Gal/Day (all uses - drinking, cooking, washing)

Following are some details on our boat and equipment. It contains numerous opinions about issues upon which reasonable sailors may disagree.  It is offered for your information - your results may vary.

Boat
We cruise in a 1994 Island Packet 40 - an ocean-capable cutter-rigged sailboat with a 50 HP Yanmar auxiliary engine.  We have been extremely pleased with the boat. She is wonderfully balanced under sail and the sail plan is very versatile; we can easily sail at 6.5+ knots with a moderate wind. She motors well; we can cruise at 6+ knots using about 0.7gal of fuel per hour.  She is big enough to be comfortable, but not so big in length or draft to constrain where we go.

Shortly after buying her, we had the chain plates and standing rigging (stays and shrouds) replaced.  This was not cheap, but it improves sleep when off shore.

I won't get into makes or models, but to wanna-be cruisers, make sure you get an ocean-capable boat. Off shore in any weather, you want a boat built to handle that type of sailing; many 'coastal' cruisers, just won't cut it.

We carry a significant amount of spares for the engine and other essential equipment.  When evaluating spares for a system, we ask - what would be the impact of a failure - could we work around it, or would it be significant loss of vital functionally. 

Communication
Our boat has two fixed VHF radios (one with a RAM mike at the helm station) and a handheld VHF for dinghy/liferaft use.  We carry an 406 EPIRB which can be used to send a satellite  'Mayday'.

Although I am a licensed amateur radio operator and was so sure we would have a SSB (HF) radio installed that I had a Dynaplate installed at our first haul out, we have settled on an Iridium 9555 satellite phone with an external antenna for our remote communication purposes.  It allows us to get email from our weather router, other weather information like GRIB files, and provides emergency communication.

Stateside we use a Verizon 'MiFi' for Internet access and we both have data phones.  International  roaming and especially international data is VERY expensive, so we suspend our Verizon service before we leave the States. This year we got a Bahamian data phone that could be used as an access point for our other devices which has worked very well. We did end up getting a post-paid (annual) contract for the most access per cost,  but it can be suspended just like our Verizon service, which we will do over the summer.

Emergency Equipment
We carry a Winslow 6-person offshore life raft. This year it has been stowed in a hanging locker in the aft cabin.  Accessibility there is not bad, but you still would have to carry it up the companionway to the cockpit in an emergency.  Our intent, and in many way the ideal, would be to lash it to the stern pulpit when on significant passages, but that never seems to happen.  We are looking into a Pelican case, which will be located on the cabin top; Winslow maintains that is not the best location for the raft, because you have to go forward to deploy, but it may be the best option from an accessibility and storage point of view.

We carry a significant inventory of medical supplies including prescription antibiotics, pain killers, blood thinners, etc for medical emergencies.

We have a ditch bag on the aft cabin wall near the companionway that contains our EPIRB, handheld VHF, portable GPS, flares, handheld compass, small first aid kit, and other emergency supplies.
We carry a 5-gallon Jerry jug of water on the port rail, which we would attempt to take on the life raft in an emergency.

Electrical
    Batteries - all Lifeline AGM
            House Bank                         3 Grp 27's and 1 8D for a total capacity of 550 amp-hours
            Dedicated Starting Bank     1 Grp 27

   Charger/Inverter   Magnum MS Series
           ME-BMK Battery Monitor
           ME-ARC Remote Control
    Solar        
           2 Kyocera 135 watt Panels
           Blue Sky Solar Boost 3024i Controller

     Wind
            Eclectic Energy D400 Generator & Diversion Controller

     Alternator
              Balmar 100 amp with ARS-5 regulator

Since we spend the bulk of our time away from the dock and off the energy grid, batteries and charging systems are critical.

We have been satisfied with the Lifeline AGM batteries.  They have some great positive attributes: no maintenance; low self discharge rate; high acceptance rates.  On the negative side, they are sensitive to charging voltages, so you have to make sure your regulators/controllers are appropriate and adjusted properly or you will have reduced service life.  In fact, we replaced a perfectly good charger with the Magnum, because the old unit lacked an appropriate AGM charging routine.

Contrary to some convention wisdom, we have found, and Lifeline recommends, that their AGMs be periodically equalized or conditioned under cruising conditions. This is required because while cruising, you rarely charge the batteries fully or at a high enough rate, so sulfation builds up; the equalization helps remove it.  We try to equalize every time we dock.  Also it is critical that your charging sources are temperature compensated  - Lifeline flatly states that this is mandatory.  This is required since optimal charging voltages are dependent on temperature.  All of our sources (except the wind generator) are temperature compensated.

We have been very happy with our solar panels.  They were the first alternate energy we installed and based on our initial experience (largely in May) we thought they would be enough to run the boat.  But even in the tropics, the days are shorter and the sun weaker in the winter and last year we found they were not providing enough power.

So this last summer we had a D400 wind generator installed.  It has been sweet!  It is exceptionally quiet and produces great power in 10+ knots of wind. There have been times when we have had to turn off the solar panels because we were fully charged.

We had to replace our Balmar 100 amp alternator this year and the new unit really puts out!  However, we rarely run the engine just to charge (probably only a handful of times all year).

We replaced our perfectly good Freedom Charger/Inverter with a Magnum because the previous unit did not have a good AGM charging program. Furthermore the Magnum  has a 'Battery Saver' mode that is great for maintaining batteries over the summer.  Once it has completed a full charging cycle, the charger goes into this mode where it does not charge at all (not even a float). If the voltage falls below a set level it will initiate another full cycle. 

However, we have had a few disappointments with the Magnum. I researched the unit extensively and bought the up-level monitor because it offered the option to 'rebulk' manually. This feature is relevant when the batteries have been in 'Battery Saver' mode for a while and are less than fully charged and you want to leave the dock fully charged.  The 'Rebulk' feature allows you to 'command' another charging cycle. After installing the unit and looking in vain for this option, I called the manufacturer and was told that it is a feature of the monitor, but not supported on my model of charger - I wish the manual made that clear!.  I have learned a work-around - just disconnect the shore power for a minute and then turn it back on - the unit will start another charging cycle.

The most important 'problem' has been that the unit 'qualifies' the available shore power before closing the transfer switch and allowing the power to flow to the boat.  This is intended for applications where the unit is used as an emergency power supply - if the grid power comes on, but is of unacceptable quality, the unit continues to invert to supply emergency power.  We had one marina (Highbourne Cay) where the unit refused to accept the power.  We had a friend with a Magnum unit that had the same problem at that same marina the previous year.  It has not reoccurred at any other marina.

We have not regretted our decision not to have a diesel or portable gas generator.  While it would be nice at times, we manage quite nicely on solar and wind. Diesel generators are expensive, take a lot of space,  and are high maintenance items; portable generators create gas storage and potential carbon dioxide issues.

Water
We have a 170 gallon water tank which I clean and sanitize annually.

We have a Seagull high efficiency water filter at our galley sink, which we use for all drinking water.

We have a Spectra 200T watermaker with an MPC-5000 controller.  It will produce a modest 7 gallons per hour with about a 12 amp DC draw. If there was one piece of equipment you would have to 'pry from our cold dead hands', so to speak, it would be our watermaker. We have cruised (not full time) for over 25 years and we have consistently found that fresh water is invariably your most scarce resource - the one that constrains your trip.

Our water usage has remained a modest 9-10 gallons per day over the years for ALL uses (drinking, cooking, washing) with or without the watermaker.  This is higher than some 'extreme' water conservors, but still relatively modest in our opinion.  It is an important point that this usage includes virtually all our drinking fluids.  We carry only trivial amounts of beer or soda and and use powdered drink mixes for 'flavorful' drinks.

Water is generally available in the Bahamas. Marinas sell it for around $0.50 per gallon, but that creates the need for additional docking and route planning.  'Free' water is also available at many locations, but you usually have to transport it in Jerry jugs.  Also in many places (Black Point on Great Guana for example),  the majority of the locals do NOT drink the water from the water system - they buy bottled water from Nassau, so is this the water you really want to be drinking? In remoter regions, safe water is often unavailable and you take your chances.

Ground Tackle
When cruising you spend a lot of time at anchor, so ground tackle is very important

Our primary anchor is a 45lb Delta with 225' of 3/8" HT chain; our secondary anchor is a 35lb Delta on 35' of 3/8" HT chain and 225' of 5/8" three strand nylon rode.  We also have a Danforth type kedge anchor. We inherited all of these anchors when we bought the boat.  We have had great performance from the primary and seldom use the secondary.

We replaced the relatively small vertical windlass that came on the boat with a Lighthouse 1500 horizontal windlass.  It has dual chain gypsies, a rope capstan, and 'pull stumps'.  Some people say that a strong windlass is one of the things that will easily distinguish a cruising boat a day/coastal sailboat. 

There always seems to be an must-have anchor 'du jour', but all anchors have strengths and weaknesses.  The Delta is great except in soft mud where it has a tendency to 'keep plowing';  however, it has great holding in sand (even 'muddy' sand) and good penetration in grass.  The primary weakness in our ground tackle configuration is that we have two of the same type - it would better to have a second anchor of a different type, probably one better in mud. For a snubber, we use a 'chain grabber' with a bridle of 5/8" 3-strand nylon rode; each leg of the bridle  has about 40' of line, so although we only normally use only about 10', we can let out more in storm conditions.  We find that the boat 'hangs' better on a bridle, than a single-line snubber.

In the end,  successful anchoring comes down to three factors: the anchor, the type and quantity of rode, and your anchoring technique (setting it properly); the anchor is at best a 1/3 of the equation.  All chain rode and plenty of it makes for better sleep.  We always set/test our anchor with around 2000 RPMs astern - if it holds that, it probably will hold any wind or current.

Refrigeration
We installed a Frigoboat keel-cooled refrigeration system soon after we bought the boat, replacing the relatively old air-cooled unit.  The beauty of this unit is that the only moving parts are the compressor itself.  No fan as in air-cooled and no pump as in water-cooled. The refrigerant is circulated through a heat exchanger mounted under the hull - the heat gets transferred directly into the water, not accumulating in a space where the compressor is mounted  It also has a system that runs the compressor at the most efficient speed for the conditions.

We installed a simple evaporator, as opposed to a divider with a spill-over fan to create a refrigerator/freezer system.  This gives us a very small 'freezer' - think of the 'ice box' on your grandmother's old Frigidaire. We do not carry a lot of frozen foods and are happy we have retained the larger refrigerator.

We did not add any insulation to the box and it clearly is under insulated.  We may add some someday, but I am concerned that it will reduce our capacity and make our shelves not fit properly.

Provisions
Bottom line, provisions are scarce and relatively expensive in the Bahamas, so you will want to take as much as possible.  Many people with ample freezers, take a collection of frozen meats; we have only a modest freezer, so meats are carried on board only when we can buy some locally. We do take a large quantity of canned and dried foods and personal care products.

Stores in many locations have limited selections.  Fruits and vegetables are available in limited quantities after the 'mailboat' comes in. On a sailboat, you must either have a memory 'like an elephant' or have some type of inventory control system or you will go 'crazy'.  We use an Access database, but spreadsheets or even notebooks will work.  In fact since we don't want to start up the computer every time we make an inventory change, we have a small notebook where we record changes and then periodically update the computer database.

Lighting
We replaced all the incandescent bulbs in the Main Cabin and Galley with Sensibulb LED lights. These units are nice in that you can retain the existing fixtures and just replace the old bulb with an LED unit.  We also replaced the incandescent anchor light with an LED Anchor/Tricolor with a photo sensor; we really enjoy the photo sensor - just turn on the switch when you anchor and it turns the light on and off as required - no forgetting.  The LEDs use about 1/10 the current that a comparable incandescent bulbs uses, but they also cost about 20 times as much.  We would like to replace more of the cabin lights, but it is hard to cost-justify for the lesser used lights.

Waste Management
We have a modest 30 gallon holding tank, so we had an Electro Scan Marine Sanitation Device (MSD) installed.  This is essentially a mini sewage treatment plant that treats your waste to EPA bacteria standards.  Our experience has been mixed, and we probably would not repeat the investment.  You cannot use them in 'No Discharge' areas like the Florida Keys. Additionally there are significant additional maintenance requirements.  You have clean it every 6 months with a Muratic Acid solution and periodically replace the electrodes, a job that I need to do this fall that I am NOT looking forward to.

Instrumentation
When we bought the boat it had a fairly new Raymarine E120 chart plotter/radar and a mixture of older Raymarine instruments (depth, wind, speed). It also had an older Autohelm (Raymarine) autopilot.  All of these systems have been somewhat problematic.  The chart plotter has experienced significant screen flicker, which our marine technician has said is somewhat typical of these units. It is somewhat heart stopping (especially offshore at night) when you fear that you will lose your instruments.  The autopilot 'failed' last year when it spontaneously went into a 'Permenant Watch Mode' where it beeped every 4 minutes until you hit a button. Raymarine refused to re-flash the firmware saying the unit was obsolete.

Overall our experience with Raymarine has been poor and we are moving to other manufacturers.  We replaced the autopilot with a Furuno NAVPilot 700 and it has been working like a pro.  We plan to replace the chartplotter, radar, and other instruments with Garmin units this summer.

In general radar is very helpful, especially when sailing off shore at night. 

We have not had an AIS (Automatic Identification System) to date but are installing one this year with the new instrumentation. When you encounter large ships at sea (and you will) it is virtually impossible to raise them by radio to discuss passing if you do not know their name - they simply don't respond to "Hey big ship about to run me over" :-).  AIS gives you their name. Their radio channels are taped, and they would get in trouble if a clear call went unanswered.

Charting
Do NOT go to the Bahamas without the Explorer Chartbooks/Crusing Guides - they are excellent!

In the Abacos, the Steve Dodge Crusing Guide is also excellent. The Pavlidis guides have a lot of information, but they are often less up to date and we find them harder to use, but they are pretty much the 'only game in town' for the Exumas and Far Bahamas.

Our Raymarine chart plotter uses Navinonics charts.  We have found them to be very accurate in the States and even found them good in the Abacos last year.  However, they are VERY poor in the southern Bahamas - they show shoals where there are none and vice versa. The Garmin chart plotter we are installing uses Blue Charts which include the excellent Explorer chart detail.

Dinghy
When you are cruising, your dinghy is your SUV - you use it for transportation, carrying groceries, laundry, fuel, water, etc.  It is a very important piece of equipment.

We inherited an 11' Achilles dinghy with a high pressure inflatable floor and an 8HP 2-stroke outboard and have used it with mixed results over the last 4 years.  It is light and easy to raise and lower and store, but lacks the stability, speed, and carrying capacity of a Rigid Inflatable boat (RIB).  While our 'Yugo' of dinghies has been faithful, we will probably upgrade to a RIB sometime in the future. 

Conclusion
People cruise in boats that range from simple small sailboats with little equipment to mega-yachts with every toy.  We fall somewhere in the lower middle of the spectrum with a boat that is reasonable sound and comfortable for long-term full-time cruising. 

The shorter your cruising window, you can live with, and afford, less equipment.  Also, in general, younger bodies can handle the stress and strains of smaller, lesser equipped boats than us 'vintage' folks.
 
We cruised for over 25 years on vacation-length trips on chartered boats before we ever bought our 'big' boat.  If you want to go cruising, our biggest advice is to just 'get out there'.  Take courses to learn skills; read everything you can about boats and cruising; crew on other peoples boats; charter boats and go on mini-cruises; get away from the dock and learn to live at anchor.

See you 'out there'!

Tom & Joyce
S/V Barefoot
Currently docked Bradenton, FL
 






Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Pelican Bay to Palmetto - Long Day

May 28, 2013

Today we are anchored at Emerson Point in the Manatee River after a LONG travel day from Pelican Bay yesterday. This trip is one of our longest daysails at 75 nautical miles and over 12 hours.

We weighed anchor in Pelican Bay at first light (barely) at 0615 and proceeded out of the Bay and then out Boca Grande channel on a slack current. We leave the channel through a break in the shoals just before the G"7" and R"8" buoys. Then it is off-coast for 57 miles to the SW Channel into Tampa Bay. 

The day started with a great beam reach with 15-18 knots of wind  - just beautiful average speed 6.8+.  But after 3 hours the wind died and we had to motor sail. We made good time until we started to approach Tampa Bay where we were met with a 1+ knot ebb current. On a trip this long, there is not much you can do about currents in channels on the ends of the trip except grin and bear it.

The only significant traffic we had was in crossing Tampa Bay over to the Manatee River,  where hordes of boats were completing their Memorial Day water fun.

A highlight of the trip was two dolphins swimming in our stern wake for over 5 minutes.  Dolphins will often come and swim in our bow wake, but they are hard to see there unless you go forward.  It is rarer to see them in the stern wake, but this pair kept swimming back and forth and turning their bellies to the wake on most passes.  Fun to watch!

We anchored at Emerson Point in the Manatee River about 4 miles from our home marina at about 1830 (6:30 PM).

Although this is a long trip, we like it because it gets you north in one long day, opposed to 2-3 days and umpteen bridges if you go inside on the Intracoastal Waterway.  Also sailing outside is so much more relaxing than driving the ICW!

Today we take the long :-) 4 mile trip up the river to Twin Dolphin Marina and the completion of our 2012-13 cruise.  We definitely have mixed emotions.  It will be nice to have 'unlimited' water and electricity, a vehicle, the safety of a marina, and to be able to catch up on boat maintenance. But we will miss the joys of 'being out there'.

Tom
Anchored Emerson Point
Manatee River
Palmetto, FL
Map Cruise 2012-13

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Pelican Bay - Cayo Costa Island

May 26, 2013

For the last few days we have been anchored in Pelican Bay on Cayo Costa Island, one of our favorite anchorages.  We try to spend some time here at the beginning and end of our winter cruise.  It is a very beautiful place.

That said, it is also very busy on Memorial Day weekend.  We usually try to avoid being here on holidays, but schedule and weather made it the best choice.

A couple of sunset and sunrise photos:


Red clouds at sunset

Sunrise over the anchorage


Hiking around the many trails, we saw and heard numerous raccoons.   All along the west coast of Florida is prime Loggerhead turtle nesting grounds.  Unfortunately, the raccoons love to raid the nests, so the rangers are currently trapping the raccoons to reduce their overpopulation.


Upside-down Raccoon




Rightside-up Raccoon


Tomorrow we sadly leave here at first light for a looong trip up the coast to Tampa.  We will exit the sound at Boca Grande and travel off-coast up to Tampa Bay and then hopefully into the Manatee River for our final anchor of the trip.

Tom
Anchored Pelican Bay
Cayo Costa Island, FL
Map Cruise 2012-13



Sunday, May 19, 2013

Horseshoe Bay - Sanibel Bayou

May 19, 2013

For the last few days we have been anchored in 'Horseshoe Bay' on Sanibel Island near the Ding Darling Preserve.

Typically we see a wide range of birds here, but this visit they seem somewhat scarce. 

We did dinghy into the Sanibel Bayou today and had a great 'drift' through a few miles.  You must go in at near high tide and when the wind and current are right, which they were today, you can turn off the outboard and just drift.  It is a great way to observe birds and other wildlife. 

We saw a number of ospreys hunting.  It is interesting to watch them as they line up on a fish at an altitude of 100-200 feet and then do a straight dive down.  They are successful most of the time and then fly off to a tree or return to the nest to eat. Ospreys will ONLY eat fish - they say that mice can have a nest at the base of a tree with an Osprey nest, and the birds will leave them alone.  This is not true of eagles, who will eat just about anything. 

When they are eating, they are somewhat easier to photograph because they do not want to carry the fish to another location.  The bird in the following picture had already moved once and presented what we call a 'butt shot', but his perch was precarious, so he was spreading his wings for balance - it makes the shot somewhat interesting.  If you look closely under the branch he is perched on, you can see the fish.




Probably our most interesting encounter was a group of 5-6 manatees that were hanging out in one area - probably eating some grass there.  We floated around them for some time and they kept come up around our boat.  They are hard to photograph because they are not on the surface for long and you do not know where they will next surface, but the following picture is decent.




The bayou, of course is comprised of mostly mangroves.  The yellow leaf in the following picture is a 'sacrificial' leaf.  The water here is brackish (part salt/part fresh) and most plants could not live here.  The red mangroves do absorb more salt than they can tolerate, but they concentrate excess salt in select leafs, and then drop those leaves- quite an ingenious system.

Yellow 'sacrificial' leaf


The following picture shows why red mangroves were called 'walking' trees by the native Americans in this area.




Tomorrow we plan to head a few miles north to Pelican Bay on Cayo Costa, one of our favorite anchorages on the west coast of Florida.


Tom
Anchored Horseshoe Bay
Sanibel Island, FL
Map Cruise 21012-13

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Marco - Smokehouse Bay

May 16, 2013

We are currently anchored in Smokehouse Bay on Marco Island.

First a little of how we ended up here.  Readers of our blog may know that we had planned to return to Bradenton via the Dry Tortugas. After leaving Miami we headed to Little Shark River to wait out a cold front before heading to the Tortugas.  Well it is true that the front lingered south of Little Shark delaying a run in that direction until the end of this week and we are running out of time to get back to Bradenton by 6/1.  But if truth be told, two weeks of 'civilization' in Miami after 4 1/2 month in the Bahamas made us crave some more.  So we are here in Marco, the land of high-priced condos, restaurants, and especially Starbucks (Tom's emphasis).


Marco 'fishing camp'


We were told about Smokehouse Bay by a friend from Boca Grande.  It is not mentioned in any cruising guides and it is a bit tricky to get to, but it is a nice well protected anchorage.

To get there you enter Marco from the Gulf via Capri Pass, exit the Marco River into Collier Bay, and follow the narrow, but well marked channel - in fact it is better marked than the charts would indicate.  It is very narrow and the key is to favor the seawall - that is where the water is usually the deepest.  I saw nothing less than 7 feet at high tide.  The Bay is generally 12 feet deep except for a 4' shoal on the westerly side, which we managed to find last night at midnight.  But it was a minor soft grounding, so no harm done.

The only negative is difficult shore access, which is typically the case in 'high-brow' locations.  The nearby Esplanade mall has a good restaurant and a Starbucks. After docking our dinghy there, I was given a rather stern OK by the Dockmaster with an admonishment to not leave the property.  We had lunch, coffee, and ice cream at Cold Stone, so I think we paid our 'rent' thank you. 

Esplanade - actually new construction, but quite nicely done to look like row-houses

We did break the rules by going across the street to Winn-Dixie, which we later found out has a dinghy dock.  There, after fielding a question about my Exuma t-shirt, we met a cruising couple who now live in Marco.  It turns out that the gentleman was one of the individuals who challenged the Marco anchoring restrictions back in 2007 and after taking the case all the way to the FL Supreme Court, ended up with a decision that made it clear that local FL municipalities can not restrict anchoring in 'navigable waters'.  All Florida boaters owe these gentleman a profound thanks!


Docking ladder near a hotel with private docking only. Are the wires unauthorized use shock-security? - just kidding.


Our current plan is to leave here tomorrow and head up to Pine Island Sound where we will spend the final weeks of our cruise before shooting up to Bradenton by 6/1.

Tom
Anchored Smokehouse Bay
Marco Island, FL
Map Cruise 2012-13

Monday, May 13, 2013

Little Shark River - Mangroves & Bugs

May 13, 2013

We remain anchored in the Little Shark River and today we took a 7 mile dinghy ride in the river and the mangrove forest.

The mangroves here are unique (at least in our experience) in that they are huge - 50+ feet. They also block out the sun from any shorter vegetation so there is very little undergrowth under the canopy. When you travel right into the forest via a little creek, it feels very primeval.

There are several places in the Bahamas where people talk about the mangrove forest. For example, on Shroud Cay in the Exuma Park, it is popular to time the tide and dinghy through the mangroves on the northern creek. There and anywhere else we saw them in the Bahamas, we have been underwhelmed by the mangroves. The soil there is so rocky and poor and the land is subject to periodic tropical storms, that everything grows sparse and short. Following are some pictures of Bahamian mangroves to showing a comparison to the Florida mangroves, particularly those at Little Shark.


Bahamian Mangroves at Shroud Cay



Little Shark Mangroves

During our ride we had a dolphin swim under our dinghy and bump the boat.  Dolphins, of course, seem to love to play in the bow wake of our sailboat and it happens all the time.  But this is the first time one tried to swim with our dinghy.  He headed under and turned belly up - next thing we knew we got a solid 'bump' on the bottom of the boat.  He then immediately doubled back and made another belly-up pass, not touching this time. We are not sure if he 'miscalculated' his first pass or if he just wanted a more vigorous belly rub.

Our 'neighbors' here so far have included turtles (Loggerheads we think), dolphins, manatees, and a variety of birds. In particular we have gotten some rather close views of several immature ibises; they are distinctive in that they have mottled grey and brown feathers, rather than the pure white of the mature birds.

This area is strikingly beautiful, but it is probably not to every one's taste. It is very desolate and wild. And then there are the insects! There is a bug for every temperature and the no-see-ums seem particularly bad this year (and we have been to this area in May several times before). Last night around 8PM we resorted to turning off all the lights inside the boat and listening to music in the dark until bedtime, something we have never had to do before. We have screens, but it is literally impossible to keep them out entirely.


Tom
Anchored Little Shark River
SW Florida
Via Satellite Phone

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Little Shark River & Turtles

May 11, 2013


We currently are anchored in Little Shark River on the far southwest coast of Florida. This is a desolate, but interesting area rich in wildlife. Upon anchoring we were greeted by a huge turtle - we don't know turtle species well enough to identify him. He circled the boat a couple of times as if checking out the new 'big turtle' in the neighborhood and saying "Hey dude, welcome to Little Shark".

Today completed our three day trip from Miami. Yesterday we transited from near Key Largo to Marathon, where we got some fuel and anchored outside of Boot Key Harbor channel. Today it was through the Moser Channel bridge into Florida Bay and up to Cape Sable and Little Shark. We had a delightful broad reach sail for most of the trip! Also noticeably absent were the mass quantities of stone crab traps that typically cover this area. The season is over in a couple of days, and we have heard it has not been a good season so many crabbers appear to have already pulled their traps.

We had planned to continue to the Dry Tortugas after a day of rest, but the weather is not encouraging with an approaching cold front. On the plus side, there is probably no better place to weather a cold front than Little Shark. Huge mangroves line the banks of the river completely blocking most wind.

Lastly, we will be without cell phone or Internet for at least a week or so. This seems particularly strange after our Bahamian data phone provided these services almost all the time we were in the Bahamas. This post is being sent by satellite phone.

Tom
Anchored Little Shark River
SW Florida
Via Satellite Phone

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Heading West from Miami

May 9, 2013

This morning, we left Miami after two weeks of 'civilization'. Civilization includes American food stores, coffee shops, book stores, restaurants with familiar food, and parks with beautiful flowers and trees.

We do not often rely on our alternator for battery charging because our solar and wind generators normally produce all the power we need. Late last week, after a lot of cloudy weather and little wind, we decided that we should run the engine a bit to top off the batteries. At that time, we found that our 100-amp alternator was only producing about 10 amps. Fortunately, this happened in the States, so Tom was able to buy a new alternator and install it, and we were ready to leave a couple days later. So, civilization also includes engine parts available the next day, and miraculously, it was not an exact replacement but it fit our 18-year-old boat.

This is the beginning of our trip west to Bradenton, where the boat will be docked for the summer. Tonight we are anchored near Key Largo. We are planning to go to Marathon tomorrow and then to Little Shark River on Saturday. When we arrive in Little Shark, we will be without Internet for up to two weeks. Since we had Internet for most of our time in the Bahamas, this will be a long time disconnected. Our current plan is to stay in Little Shark until Monday and sail overnight to the Dry Tortugas, provided weather cooperates.

Joyce
Anchored at Rodriguez Key
Key Largo, FL
Map Cruise 2012-13

Monday, May 6, 2013

Miami Adventures

May 6, 2013

We have been enjoying our time in Miami.  We were able to get a mooring ball at Coconut Grove Sailing Club, which is a very convenient and relatively inexpensive base to explore Miami.

Other than a car rental for a couple of days to accomplish provisioning, laundry, etc., we have been using the excellent Metro Dade Transit system to get around.  It starts with the Coconut Grove 'Circulator' (the 249 for us 'experienced' mass transit riders) which travels around the Grove and takes you to the Metrorail station.  At 25 cents it is quite a bargain.  The Metro Rail runs north and south through Miami. We have traveled south to South Miami (Paneras for the first time in months!)  and Dadeland Mall (for a new iPad for Joyce);  north we have traveled to Vizcaya and Bayfront.  Traveling by mass transit is an interesting experience!


MDT Day Pass - $5 ride all you want!
 
 
Downtown Miami from the MetroMover


Downtown Miami from the MetroMover
 
We visited Vizcaya for the second time. This beautiful mansion and gardens were built in the early 20th century by a rich industrialist. They are now maintained by the city as a 'museum'. One of the interesting facets of visiting Vizcaya, is that it is THE site for Quinceanera pictures. This is a 'coming of age' celebration for 15 year old Latin girls. The 'old fashion' dresses they wear are very ornate and beautiful; they also usually take other pictures in two or three other outfits (usually more contemporary). It is quite a show with the photographers, wardrobe carriers, and others in the entourage.
 
 







 



 





Tomorrow (Tuesday 5/7) we plan to leave Miami and head down the Hawk Channel and back towards Bradenton, hopefully via the Dry Tortugas.

Tom
Moored Coconut Grove
Miami, FL