Tampa to Marathon, Florida
Ananda
Ron Welch
Mon 28 Feb 2011 17:27
"what day is this?".......Ron looks at the calendar and shouts back up to the cockpit......it's Monday, February 28th...last day of the month....sitting up here drinking a cup of coffee in the steady southeasterly breeze, sun not too warm yet...it's 9am....and one of our new morning routines is unfolding...we have Chris Parker, a "weather guru" tunned in on the ssb. Seems whatever life style one chooses there is someone around who can tell you how to do it safely....I suppose we are all ultimately looking for security....or is that freedom...can they co-exist?...now there's a journey my mind could "wonder" around in for some time......well, for some time now we have been on a mooring among about two hundred and fifty other boats of all shapes, sizes, and styles at BootKey Harbor City Marina in the Florida Keys. Initially we had not expected to spend any time at all here, since we had discovered it was possible with Ananda's draft of only four and a half feet to make it up the inside channel to Angel Fish Pass, where we could cut across to the Bahamas. Turns out "expected", is "a plan" dressed in disguise.........Ananda and her crew of two left Twin Dolphins Marina in Bradenton on the west coast of Florida at about 4:30pm on Februruary 18th. After hugs and email exchanges along with filling the jerry jugs and new fuel bladders with an additional 50 gallons of diesel we set off under sunny skies for the hour long motor down the Manatee River to Desoto Point, to spend the night and stage an early departure the following morning to Venice; some thirty five nautical miles south down the coast line. Pretty much at about the moment we were having the discussion regarding the incredible blessing and opportunity this adventure was, .....beep came the sound from the auto pilot......."compass fail".......stand by.......remote.....beep......stand by.....no auto pilot. This was the first indication of safety or freedom.....hmmmmm, do we continue on without the auto pilot, or do we call Jim and Todd, the absolutely remarkable guys of Friendship Marine who had helped us with the outfitting of Ananda in Bradenton? In this instance we opted for the safety......considering the distance we intent to travel with a crew of two, having the auto pilot is like having another crew member......reduces the mental and physical exhaustion that can arise on long passages.....
We dropped the hook at about five thirty, made the call and arrangements for them to drive the few miles down to the bay in the morning, and we would pick them Up in the dingy to come aboard and "have a look see". We settled in for the evening with cocktails in the cockpit and an easy dinner, since there was cooking to be done for the passage from Venice to Marathon. Saftey shows it's face again....being prepared with meals ready in advance is helpful if seas become rough, it is difficult and uncomfortable down below when trying to do anything, let alone cook on a propane oven. Lovely evening and early to bed, because Jim and Todd would be there bright and early........four am ish...slosh, slosh the "water music" that serenades us all night had shifted........and there was no wind to speak of...... Saftey said..."you better check this out"......holy --------- i think that's a boat....doesn't sound unusual to see a boat out the port light....unless it's just about four feet away!....oh no! Quick dress, run up on deck....yes, the anchor had dragged.......we pulled her up and motored around the bay a short while looking for a place....with the tide out we could see just how shoally the bay was. Little bit of early morning excitement, but the anchor held this time and after a few more hours of sleep, Jim and Todd arrived and adjusted a fuse that appeared to be the problem; as well as addressed the other "problem" that had shown up during the evening.....bilge pump switch had failed and there was two or three more inches of water in the bilge than usual....no question around safety there...that needs to be replaced, but we would have to deal with it in Venice, our next stop. At about 10am we turned out of the bay and Into the mouth of the Manatee River on Tampa bay.
Winds still were not with us, so we motored through the pass between Anna Marie Island and Egmont Key out into the gulf. Beautiful day, sparking aquamarine waters felt like freedom settling in....when wow! And I mean an OH NO! Sort of wow!....auto pilot was engaged and we were headed in tight circles to port........reset the thing......short period of smooth going...then...ahhh and were off spinning in the ocean to port again.......tried again....but this time the old gal gave it up....she simply quit working....No auto pilot....not even an option it seems.....with this on the table, we decided to pull into Crows nest marina to see if those marine angels Jim and Todd could help over the phone.....and actually we weren't sure what to do. One of the repeating mantras has been "let's take care of these things while we are in the states and we have people (ie. Friendship Marine) we know are reliable, and can do the work well"......sounds like safety talking to me. Ron did a superb job of docking Ananda in a ripping outgoing current, and all too soon we found ourselves once again safely secured to a dock. Safely secured, but with yet another sailing electrical problem...the "charge lamp" alert was on on the engine panel....what is that? Well ...... another amazing marine angel, Rick from RNR in Bradenton came down to Venice to have look at it,....no solution...., and reading everything we can find in the Island Packet manual,....no information......, and much discussion regarding the solar panel additions and the inverter, ....were still, sitting here in Boot Key Harbor, don't have a clue what it is about....we would like to err on the side of safety, but freedom seems to be calling......"hey guys...remember me?". So, put another mark in the freedom column. We have surrendered that. There certainly is plenty of help showing up to support it. Another "work-cation for jim and his family, brought them to Venice Beach on Sunday. Venice is a beautiful place. We went out to watch the sunset with about a couple of hundred other Folsom loaning the peninsular at the inlet.......wonderful experience....all those different people in silence and awe for the setting, and then there was this spontaneous applause from the crowd...still makes my heart smile to remember it. This trip to look at the auto pilot brought a definite....she's a gonna from the experts point of view. So necessary investments were arranged to secure her replacement. Jim and his wife, Cat, would pick up "frank" the new Furuno auto helm and deliver and it install it in Marathon over the up coming weekend. After two nights of "free lunch" (marina lingo for having electrical hook up to shore power) we took off at first light down the ICW towards Fort Myers Beach. We could travel easily down the water way without auto pilot and in addition avoid all the crab pots, yes we went with safety again. On this occasion safety offered beautiful scenery as a companion. Blue skies, dolphins playing on the bow wave of Ananda, white pelicans, friendly and helpful bridge operators, pink trees...yes pink trees, and easy motoring...except for one very shallow spot on Charlottes Harbor, and a bit of concern about the height of the power lines before "Hells Mile", a narrow trench in the channel, it's important to stay in the middle of because it's shallow on either side. By 5pm though we were crossing under the bridge at Fort Myers and entering the West side Moorings of Mantanzas Inn. We made a phone call and discovered the moorings were first come, first serve, so we began our survey through the rows of boats looking for a free mooring....."hey, look those boats are just anchored over there, perhaps we should just anchor"......perhaps not! We headed over in the direction of freedom and of the ten to twelve boats that were anchored, some looked about the same size as Ananda, so it would seem safe, ha!..... it's all in how one gets there......they must have come in from the side channel....because as we were on our way, we all of a sudden, which is how it always seems to happen, we were not on our way, we were aground....some------later and some reverse and forward, and reverse and forward motion of the engine....luckily we were on our way again out of the two foot of water separating the freedom of anchoring and the safety of mooring. We saw Mooring number 63 right on the outside end corner of the field. Ron at the helm, keeping the ball to starboard, I launched the "yippie ki yah" lasoo hoops I had learned at sailing school from Capt. willy, who coincidently was from Fort Myers Beach, and harnessed the mooring, once cleated off, we could later secure it with a bridle to the bow beneath the anchor roller. All settled in, sunsetting beer in hand, we began the process of getting the dingy down from the davits and running in to pay for the night......being safe and taking care of business, so we could have the freedom to take off when we wanted for Marathon.......seems there were some gremlins messing around with the outboard motor while we were messing around with auto pilots, bilges, charge lights and so forth. The outboard motor on the dingy was playing up and the trip to the office was a long one to row, so we gave it up for the freedom of a wonderful evening and a goodnights sleep. We left fort myers without paying..........freedom, no, we called and safely explained the problem with the dingy, and they safely explained how to mail in a check from our next destination...our next destination, Marathon, lay about 65 miles south beyond the crab pot mined ocean. Considering the potential of having one of those thousands of lines dangling out there, wrapped around our propellor shaft and at the very least stopping our engine, we had heard horror stories of them entangling and burning out entire engine systems; we opted to go off shore about twenty or thirty miles to where the waters were more than forty feet.( the bay of Florida and off the southern west coast is pretty shallow.). This would give us the freedom not to worry about too many crab pots since we were going to be sailing for twenty four hours to cover the distance and arrive in the the thick of the crab pots during light hours, not to mention, we would be hand steering the whole way......break out the Christopher Columbus Compass. We had set up a schedule of three, four, four, three......Ron, Sharon, Ron, Sharon, beginning at five pm........the seas were........silk! Absolutely flat.....small bit of fun and strangeness passing a motor boat about five miles offshore as we headed out...saw him looking through the binoculars at us, and as we passed by we could see him air boxing, in a boat, five miles off shore on a Tuesday afternoon.....you see the strangest things out here....who knows what he was seeing?......the strangest experience yet was looming on the horizon.....Fog! It moved in, or we started moving into it, right as the sun was setting. By the time the sun had set it was so dense we could not see through the dodger to the bow of the boat, and there was no moon. Pitch black, no sight beyond the cockpit, staring at the Christopher Columbus compass we sailed in to the nothing.....nothing we could do about it......nothing we could see......we simply had to surrender and let it be...being safe was not panicking, was resting when we could, was being comfortable that Ananda was built to be out in blue water in all conditions,was being supportive of each other, was trusting in something we could not see.......there was nothing we could do except be free enough to have the experience......how surreal it was to sail into a still and almost silent wet black hole..........but Wow! Look at where we came out.......yes there was still the mine field of crab pots to obstacle course around through Florida Bay once it became light enough to see...we will never know how many we motored right over in the darkness, and somehow this made it not as worry some as we did the best we could getting around them on our way into Boot Key Harbor at Marathon.......the phone rang about thirty minutes before we were to go under the seven mile bridge and turn into the harbor...it was Tuck and Cathy, fun loving, many years into the game of crusing, friends we had slipped next to at Twin Dolphins.....they were coming out to met us in their dingy and show us the way in.......safely. We lucked out again...snagging the last available mooring.......many of the terrific folks from Bradenton are here for the winter months...they come every year.......tuck and Cathy took us out into the mangroves at Sisters Creek, saw a few rays, no sign of the salt water crocodile there is talk of up at the marina complex. They took us to the beach, and showed us the short cut by water to publix. Where ever one goes, who one knows, makes all the difference......this difference being, we know the guys who are slipped next to the ladder that we can use to get out of the channel and remove three fourths of a mile from the walk to the stores.........strange benefits in strange times.....freedom has moved into the safety of stopping here while, enjoying the people we meet. Actually remet a delightful woman who we first met at a SSCA luncheon in Tampa. Danielle is from quebeque in Canada, and has just finished crewing on a Scouts program Schooner trip around the Keys. She is a fellow artist and lover of life.....i know we will get to play some while we are here waiting for a weather window to cross the gulf stream to the Bahamas.........safely.