Unlooping - Days 16 - 20

The little kitten that Regina played with at City Marina is still here.

New Smyrna Beach is a bitter sweet stop.  It's been just over a month and a half since we were all here for Regina's Celebration of Life, but there was no way we could go by with seeing her cousin Laurie and her husband Woody.  Day 16 started early for me.  I got up to start reworking the trip plan to include all the changes that were made because of weather, maintenance and a too aggressive plan.  That took most of the morning and then Laurie came to pick up us.  We did a grocery run and then went over to her house to do laundry.  We had a fabulous dinner of salad, lasagna and a pistachio desert, all of which was just amazing!!  This was a good stop to catch up on things that are hard to do as we cruising.

NSB Yacht Club where we had Regina's Celebration

Day 17 started early so that we could go to a marina to get fuel.  When this was done we pulled out, circled back around the NSB harbor and continued on south.  The areas just below NSB have a lot of slow and no wake zones so the beginning of the trip was not too fast.  As we got further down Mosquito Lagoon, I was able to run faster and there very few other boats out today.  Sunday would normally be a pretty busy day on Florida waters, but the weather forecast wasn't too good for the afternoon.  Maybe all those other folks were smarter than me, but we've already lost a bunch of days and the forecast was for rain and scattered thunderstorms - nothing ominous!  Well, not so fast my friends, we hit the first rain storm at about noon and even though it was almost impossible to see, the storm didn't last all that long and it cleared up, the sun was back out and there were still no other boats out.  That lasted for about an hour.  The sky to the west had been getting darker when pretty quickly the bottom fell out.  Rain was so heavy that, in USAF terms, we were going IFR.  The radar was no help because it just showed the rain mass.  My iPad running Navionics had our course to follow.  That kept us in the channel, but now the lightening began big time.  There were strikes all around us and the thunder sometimes actually shook the boat.  When this all finally ended, we were only about 25 minutes from the Suntex Marina at Vero Beach.  Today's track and pics - https://www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1620838/

Rainbow after the day's storms.

Vero sunset

The next leg takes us on down to Stuart, Florida which is the entrance to the Okeechobee Waterway to cross the state to Fort Myers.  It's only about 50 miles down to the next marina to stage for an early morning departure on Tuesday.  I couldn't remember what this section of the waterway was like and it was a pleasant surprise with it being open allowing us to cruise without a lot of slow zones.  Getting back to Sunset Bay marina is a couple of "U" turns through some fairly shallow areas.  In fact, TowBoat US hangs out in the area just to be ready to drag boats off of the sand bars.  I knew about these areas so he didn't get any business from me!  We got to the marina and topped off the tanks to be ready for the run across the state.  As soon as that was done and we got into our slip, the rains came and lasted all afternoon.  At least we're not having to wash the boat!  Today's track and pics - https://www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1622214/

August 6 is Day 19 of the trip and it's Okeechobee crossing day.  I've heard lots of stories about how bad it can be going over the lake - it's rough, waves are huge, it's so shallow you will drag bottom, there are rocks on the bottom, etc.  Most of these things are true, at times, and others I think you would just have to use very bad judgement to experience.  I found the website where the lake levels are published daily and it also gives weather forecasts just for Lake Okeechobee.  This day had everything hoped for,  the lake is full, the weather is calm and the lake is smooth.  We left at first light and headed down the St Lucie Canal to the first of five locks and the entrance to the lake.  There were very few boats out today and we were able to go fast (18 mph) most of the way.  It was a long day and we reached Fort Myers at 5:15 just in time to get hit with non-stop rain for the rest of the evening.  Today's track and pics - https://www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1623473/

St Lucie lock

Lake Okeechobee looks a little like the ocean

Approaching Fort Myers

Before we could leave Ft Myers, we had to put fuel in the boat.  It was raining when we arrived so doing fueling in the rain is a no go.  It takes time and water is not a good thing for diesels.  The marina opened at 8 AM and we were waiting on them so we could get under way to go to Sarasota.  The trip will take us down the Caloosahatchee River (just try to say it, doesn't have to be fast) to San Carlos Bay and then Big Pine Sound from there we go out Boca Grand Pass into the Gulf.  Just before going into the Gulf, I had this thought that I should check with the marina about Big Sarasota Pass where I planned to go back into the ICW.  Good thing I did because they told me all the markers had been removed and this was not a good place to use so we quickly re-planned to go into Venice Inlet and up the ICW to Sarasota instead.  The Gulf was supposed to be flat today but the forecast was a bit off as it was more like 1 - 2 feet.  The ride up was a bit rough and the entry at Venice could have been an attraction at the county fair!  There were boats fighting the breakers to get out as I was trying to come in and the pass was not all that wide.  The rollers grew to about 3 feet and we rocked and rolled our way in, then just as quickly, the water smoothed out behind the break water and it was done.

It's a Ft Myers morning.

From Venice up to Sarasota was just a short 17 mile run.  There was some traffic but really not too bad.  My old friend, and fraternity brother, Allen was waiting there to relieve Rob after his three weeks on-board.  I am so glad Rob was able to do this trip with me and I believe the Army man actually enjoyed being a sailor - not that there is any portion of that to say he now could tolerate Navy!  He became quite proficient at his duties as first mate so now Allen has to get up to speed quickly.  Rob's friends Mike and Mary came to pick him up at the marina and visit the boat.  Mary brought us about 4 dozen cookies and a bottle of wine!  We are set for several days!!  After touring the boat (about a 5 minute show), we all went to Columbia Restaurant for dinner.  This is an old Tampa,Ybor City, favorite and our Spanish themed dinner was excellent.  After dinner, Rob handed over his stripes to Allen and the change of duty was completed.  Blue Ayes is now going north and the Gulf crossing is coming.  Today's track and pics - https://www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1624394/

Crew change!