Change In Plans

We have been watching for a good weather window to Stock Island Marina from Marco Island and don't see one long enough coming up anytime soon; we need about 4 days of good weather, three for traveling and one for good measure. Therefore, we have canceled our reservations at Stock Island and will be staying at Fort Myers Yacht Basin in the downtown area. Our friends aboard Kharma will continue on to Stock Island and we will meet up with them again along the way we hope; they are capable of much faster speeds. Today and tomorrow are not good travel days so we will hang around here until Tuesday morning (1/31/17).

Burnt Store Marina to Sanibel Island to Marco Island

Kim’s Korner:
We set out for a Sanibel Island anchorage after all the wind finally died down. It was a beautiful anchorage as well as a beautiful sunset which we thoroughly enjoyed and never tire of. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge resides on Sanibel Island and we have heard wonderful things about this place. Unfortunately, weather again was going to interfere with our plans and force us to move on the following day. Since the ICW ends near Fort Meyers, we took to the Gulf, traveling 3-8 miles offshore and were bounced around enough to wear our life jackets while we were moving from the pilothouse to the cabin. We passed Naples and after about 7 hours, we arrived at our destination, Marco Island Marina. Upon approaching our marina, there was this huge yacht that looked entirely out of place in this canal – we later learned that this ship was 125’ long and the owner had bought two properties initially just to have a place to dock it and later bought two more adjoining properties because the property owners complained they couldn’t see anything… ok - REALLY??? I cannot fathom that kind of money!!! Anyway – back to reality - Marco Island has turned out to be a beautiful town that we are thoroughly enjoying - shops, restaurants, homes, beaches and canals have kept us busy exploring.
We rode our bikes to Tigertail Beach which was amazing! On one end is a lagoon that has kayak and chair rentals surrounded by mangroves with very shallow water. If you continue along the sand walkway around the lagoon, you come upon this HUGE expanse of beach! I’ve never seen anything like it before. We walked and walked and finally reached the shoreline which had tons of shells along it. I continue to be amazed by the different beaches we’ve seen so far – they’ve all been different and had a personality of their own. I never realized…

Pictures

Cape Haze to Burnt Store Marina

Kim's Korner:
Our repairs complete, we headed out to meet our friends anchored in Pelican Bay near Cayo Costa State Park. I must say, Palm Harbour Marina in Cape Haze was a very nice place to be stuck. 😊 A large heated pool, hot tub, and lots of nice people! In Pelican Bay, we tied up to Kharma and guess what? Another Kady Krogen Manatee, Lila Blue, was anchored not too far away! Pelican Bay was a beautiful anchorage and we shared the bay with maybe 20-25 other boats. We dinghy-ed over to Cayo Costa and hiked over to the beach. On the way back, we saw a very long Bushwacker snake cross the path in front of us.
As high winds were headed our way, we headed into Burnt Store Marina which is across the Charlotte Harbor. As we approached our slip in the marina, what do we see but a Kady Krogen Manatee named Darwin’s Theory being towed by BoatUS. Evidently, the transmission went out and they were having it towed somewhere for repairs. This was the fourth Manatee we’ve seen in a week – we are amazed!
We saw our first alligator! We learned it was a “she”, about 7 ft long and had 4 babies not long ago. She would carry the babies on her snout. Unfortunately, we never did see any of the babies – supposedly, they were about 1 ½ feet long.
Sunday and Monday, the winds were howling! It was kind of spooky - the noise of the water and trees as well as a high-pitched howl from sailboat cables. We are learning that the wind can do weird things with the tides. While in Tarpon Springs, we experienced a high tide where the water level was lower than any we’d seen at low tide – the day after high winds. Sunday night, the low tide was almost over the docks and the water did eventually raise above the docks during the night. There is a photo but kind of hard to tell as it is dark out.

Pictures  (note: that's not Overtime being towed)

On The Lean

It's my understanding that sailors enjoy being “on the lean” because that means they've got a real good wind pushing them along at a relatively fast pace. When we awoke this morning we were on a lean while tied to the dock, hum. The first thing I did was to check the dock lines, all had slack, hum. The only other thing it could be is that the water tanks are out of balance. Overtime has two 150 gallon water tanks, one on each side of the boat, when one is full and the other is nearing empty we will lean; however we've never leaned as severe as now. Okay, so I pull out the hose and start filling the port side tank, however, ten minutes later we are still leaning just as severe. So now I'm scratching my head and pulling hatches looking for any clue as to what's wrong but everything looks good. I decided to recheck the lines and as I stepped off the boat I noticed there was no motion, usually, the boat reacts by moving slightly. It was still dark out and as I shined my flashlight along the waterline I discovered the problem. The posts along the dock have slatted half-inch wood strips running vertically to help protect the post or maybe just for looks, but they don't go all the way down to the water. During the night the lip on the side of Overtime slipped under the slats on one of the posts, then as the tide rose we began to lean. We are at high tide now so we'll just wait a little while and maybe ask some folks to stand on the side so we can get her free. Luckily there's very little tide swing at this location.
Pictures

The Shower Drain

We pulled into Palm Harbor Marina a couple of days ago (1/17/2017) and discovered that our air-conditioner is no longer cooling. I think I've explained before how water is drawn in from outside to transfer heat so I won't go into that again. Well, the pump seems to be having trouble, I suspect the strainer is stopped up; I'm embarrassed to say that it has never occurred to me to check the strainer for that pump. So, here I go back down into the bilge I so detest in order to see if the strainer is the problem, however, I can't get the lid unscrewed. After examining it and tugging on it and staring at it I ask Bob (Kharma) to take a look. He doesn't hate the bilge as much as I do so he hopped right down there and started looking around and noticed water dripping from a hose. I poked my head down and determined it was the drain line from the shower, no big deal, just some water remained in the hose and is dripping. But Bob said the through-hull appears to be below water level, so I went outside and realized it was indeed below the waterline, this is when I realized that the only thing standing between Overtime floating and sinking was a leaking shower drain hose, there's no shutoff valve on this through-hull. We quickly found a stopper to plug the hole from the outside, this slowed the drip rate but did not completely stop it. The service department was closed but I was over there as soon as they opened the next morning. The service manager, Matt, sent a fellow over to take a look and he determined we'd need to be hauled out in order to safely replace the hose as well as a new through-hull with a shutoff valve. They are not able to get us on the lift until later today (1/19/2017) so I'll fill you in later as to how the story ends. I find it extremely interesting to think about the events that led to the discovery. The a/c quit cooling which led me to the strainer, had the cap come off I would have cleaned it and never noticed the leak, however it didn't so I called Bob over and he noticed the leak and that it was below the waterline. We owe the faulty a/c water pump, the stuck strainer cap and most of all Bob a huge thanks!
Pictures

Sarasota to Cape Haze

Kim’s Korner:
I was never so glad to leave a place as Marina Jack's mooring field! Let me clarify - I loved Sarasota, liked Marina Jacks, hated where we were located in the mooring field. Like I said before - lessons learned :)
We saw many more dolphins on our way to Cape Haze. I’ve included two videos of two dolphins riding our bow – one of them kept turning and looking up at me – so neat! I’ve also included pictures our friends took of one riding their wake who was jumping and having a great time – Flipper!
I’ve given up taking pictures of the big beautiful houses – they are a dime a dozen. I’ve come to know a totally different Florida. I’ve always gone to a beach or to Disney World for vacation in Florida. This trip has shown me the islands, bays, mangroves, and different wildlife. One thing that I think is cool is to see the Gulf across a thin stretch of land that we are riding next to.
We passed another boat like ours today – Kozy Kady! And to top that off, one pulled into the marina while we were there – Mango Mamma - see photo. Mango Mamma is beautiful – she looks brand new. Ninety-nine of these Manatee trawlers were made from 1984-1991 so it’s really exciting to see another one!
Pictures

North Redington Beach to Sarasota

Kim’s Korner: (North Redington Beach)
So there was this pelican who came in and was just begging for a photo op.  And of course I obliged, she circled our entire boat and would just tilt her head and look at me like she was saying – do I look better from this angle or this one?  
Pictures

Kim’s Korner: (Sarasota)
The ride to Sarasota was interesting – one I don’t really wish to repeat anytime soon.  It was a Saturday and the crazy boaters were out in full force!  We got waked several times by big boats extremely hard – one time, I was in the cabin and thought the whole boat was going to come crashing in. Each time, I would check to see what else had been broken or fallen – actually, not much really which surprised me. The smaller fishing boats just whiz by you every which way.  No one slows down for SLOW SPEED or MINIMUM WAKE signs.  Needless to say, I was glad when we arrived.
Then we had to tie up to a mooring ball.  This was our first time and was a real challenge.  The wind had picked up and I got the ball hooked with my pole but the wind grabbed the boat.  I couldn’t hang on and couldn’t unhook it because of the wind so I ended up dropping the pole which upset me because it was gone.  So now what?  I had no pole to hook it with.  David – being very calm about the whole thing -  ended up backing to it which worked much better – I was able to lasso it and actually reach it to attach the rope – then handed David the rope up top and he walked it to the front.  Of course, he did something (don’t know what) and skinned his arm up pretty good so he’s bleeding.  I have two fingers which are now killing me – I don’t know what I did either but it happened when I was trying to hang onto the pole for dear life.  But… we are attached to the mooring ball – yay!  Our friends got in their dinghy and actually retrieved our pole – it floated but was quite a ways from us by then.  But we had it – yay!
Then came the fun of bandaging David up while my two fingers continued to swell and turn black and blue.  Luckily I was able to bend them so they weren’t broken.  Ok – so we learned some lessons - the hard way.  The other lesson we learned after our third night of swaying and rocking was not to stay on a mooring ball that is near the channel to the marina – did I mention earlier that boats do not slow down here? 
Sunday, we went to the Ringling Brothers Museum Complex in Sarasota.  The complex not only contains the history and artifacts of the circus, but also Ca' d'Zan which was the home of John and Mabel Ringling, a huge art museum containing the art collection of John Ringling, and beautiful gardens all over the grounds.  Our favorite was a huge miniature replica of the circus that Howard Tibbals has spent many years creating.  It was very interesting and well worth the visit.  I would highly recommend visiting if you are in Sarasota.  It seemed ironic that the day we went was the day they announced that the circus was shutting down. 
Pictures

Caladesi to Clearwater Beach

We rejoined Kharma at anchorage (Thursday 1/12/17) in Clearwater Beach (27.979628, -82.823815) after leaving Caladesi State Park, it was about an hour and thirty-minute trip. We rafted up with Kharma then hopped in the dinghy and went ashore to watch another sunset, this time from Pier 60. The pier and Pier 60 Park were crawling with tourists and street performers were taking turns attracting crowds. We watched a magician entertain then explain that this was his livelihood, “so please give,” we didn't. We started watching a tumbling act but grew bored and wandered on out to the pier. Hawkers lined both sides with tables displaying their treasures and hoping we'd buy, we didn't. Young girls strolled along wearing their thongs hoping we'd look, I did.

The sunset was beautiful as usual, afterward, we found ourselves at the Spotted Donkey Cantina for dinner. Kim and I both got the special, Red Snapper with all kinds of good stuff piled atop; we both took home leftovers for the next day's meal.

Kim's Korner:

$$$$$ Money, money, money! Big homes with big boats! And lots of them!

Pictures!

Tarpon Springs to Caladesi State Park

We pulled out of Turtle Cove Marina at 8:30 Tuesday morning (1/10/17) and headed over to Caladesi State Park's marina, a 2 ½ hour trip in good weather and a rising tide. Turtle Cove is located just off the Anclote River which lead us to the ICW, we were the only boat in sight for most of the trip with choppy waves and narrow channels at times. We had 10 to 12 feet of water under us in the ICW, the depths dropped to about six feet when we turned into the channel leading to the marina; Overtime's draft is just over 3 feet. This smaller channel was eventually enclosed by mangroves on both sides with a few turns and twists that had us isolated from the world for a few minutes, soon however a big opening appeared revealing a totally empty marina, there were a lot of slips but no other boats to be seen. Most of their slips are only 12 feet wide but they had a very few which would handle Overtime's 13 foot beam. Since she's under 40 feet we were allowed to use one at $1.00/ft/night. Boats over 40 feet must use the T-docks at $2.00/ft/night; a T-dock is equivalent to an end-cap in a grocery store isle. We arrived at 11:00 am, paid our fees, and headed over to the beach for a long walk.

Even though the marina was empty there were people present due to a ferry shuttling them back and forth from the mainland. However, at 5:30 the last shuttle left, the rangers left, the maintenance workers left and the place was empty. Kim and I looked at each other, smiled and realized we had our very own state park for the next 15 hours or so.... woohoo. I'm not going into any detail about what we did, but we discovered that we still have quite a few teenage brain cells rattling around in our heads, who knew. We had a beach, nature trails and plenty of alcohol to go around. As Forrest Gump says “That's all I'm going to say about that!”

We slept-in a little later than usual the next day (surprise, surprise) then started the day off with a 7 mile hike down to Clearwater Beach and back followed by a 3 mile kayak trip after lunch. The nature trail runs through forests of oak, pine and palm trees, we managed to reach the furthest point heading south then found our way over to the beach and continued down to Clearwater Beach before turning around. The kayak trail is extremely cool, it's a 15 foot wide 3 mile long tunnel cut through a forest of mangroves. As we returned from the kayak adventure we noticed another boat had pulled in for the night, darn. They were nice folks though and invited us over for docktails then we all mosied over to the beach and watched the sunset. This morning Kim and I went for another nature walk then loaded up the kayaks and cranked up the beast, time to get moving again. Our friends on Kharma had stayed at Tarpon Springs an extra day for some work on their generator but are now anchored at the backside of Clearwater Beach where we will join them.

Kim’s Korner:

Before we left Tarpon Springs, I had to visit the manatees one last time. We’d been to the park several times and I quickly noticed some huge rocks had been added near the edge just under the water. Wondering why they had been put there and how, I did a double take when a snout came up for air and suddenly realized they weren’t rocks but manatees! There were about 4 and a baby under some shade trees right near the edge – so neat! Several had scars on their backs where I assume they had tangled with some boat prop during their life.

So we left for Caladesi Island State Park which was about a 2.5 hour trip and can only be reached by water. We were the only boat in the marina – unbelievable! We quickly went exploring – a beautiful beach and a 3 mile nature walk in the park – just beware of rattlesnakes – yikes! The Good Year blimp was also making its rounds – I assume from Tampa Bay where Alabama and Clemson had fought out the National Championship the night before. When the ferry that shuttles visitors over from the mainland stopped about 5:30 and the park rangers went home, we had the entire state park to ourselves – seriously - unbelievable again! We grilled hamburgers and went back to the beach for the sunset – oh my gosh – it was beautiful! And to make it even better, a full moon guided us back to our boat. Life just doesn’t get any better than this!

Pictures!

The Pump

Our fresh water pump has been acting up for a few months now, doesn't shut off when it should. Unlike our land-based homes where water is pressurized by gravity pulling water from elevated water tanks, our system is pressurized by a pump. Anytime we turn on a faucet the pressure in the lines will decrease causing a pressure switch to engage the pump motor, when we turn the water faucet off the pressure in the system increases thereby causing the pressure switch to turn the pump off. Our pump started running in short spurts occasionally which had me thinking we had a leak in the lines somewhere, but we couldn't find one. As time went on the short spurts grew longer and longer until we were controlling the pump by turning the breaker on when needed and off when not needed. This constant breaker flipping prompted steady encouragement for corrective action from by beautiful wife; since the pump on this boat is pretty old, I decided to replace it. The pump is located in the dark cramped recesses of Overtime's bilge, a place I do not like to enter. However, the steady encouragement of my beautiful wife drove me to purchase a new pump and slither so gently into the confines of my childhood nightmares. Being in the tight corners of this unholy bilge reminds me of the days my brother and I would be wrestling in the backseat while Daddy was driving us to Grandma's house. Ever so often Curtis would manage to get on top of me while I was laying in the floorboard, I couldn't move my arms or legs and breathing was a struggle, each desperate breath would enable another scream for Daddy to make him get off of me. Okay, so here I am in the floorboard, I mean bilge, and all I have to do is clip two wires and unscrew two hoses to pull the old pump out, easily done. Now to install the new pump, simply crimp two wires together and screw on two hoses, not so easily done. I kept messing the crimps up because I was in such a twisted position, my trifocal glasses won't focus in the right spot, my hand is holding the wires but also blocks my view, the flashlight doesn't shine in the right spot and I'm laying on a support which is about to crack a rib. After calling out to God to condemn these wires to eternal damnation I was finally able to steady my right hand in a good position with the little bastards, focus my vision in the right spot and compress the crimper with my left hand; and remember, since there are two wires, I had to do this twice. So there you have it, once again the simplest of jobs takes twice as long as it should have. The good news is that we have a water pump that's working correctly, but most important is the happiness I see in my beautiful wife's eyes and the pride she has in her husband's ability to replace a pump.

Kim's Korner:
Shells, horseshoe crabs, sand dollars, and deserted beaches - what more can I say? We have definitely enjoyed Tarpon Springs - and I am thoroughly enjoying our new water pump which my wonderful husband was so eager to install for me 😊 Check out these pictures!

Tarpon Springs

We have had a good week here in the Greek capital of Florida; highest percentage of Greek Americans of any U.S. City. Dodecanese Blvd has several Greek restaurants, shops and markets and is crowded with tourists. We enjoyed a meal at Hella's with friends the other night where Kim and I enjoyed stuffed grouper, mainly because we couldn't pronounce and didn't know what the other dishes on the menu were. We have walked, rode bikes, kayaked and dinghy-ed all around the place and have yet to see all the sights, but we have thoroughly enjoyed the places and sights we have encountered. As you all know we are living on a boat, so guess what... something always needs fixing on a boat. We had the davit worked on at Aqua Yacht Harbor back in November, in fact it's one of the main reasons we stopped in there. Well we haven't had an opportunity to use the davit since, except for a small test run, but have now run into problems. A few days ago Kim turned on the breaker but it tripped before I applied power, she reset and turned it on again and everything went fine, we were able to hoist the dinghy off and back aboard Overtime. The next day we attempted to use the davit again but the breaker would not stay set, Bob, from Kharma, and I thought the troubled was in the controller wiring so we resolved that issue and the davit worked fine for our test runs. Next day the breaker would not stay set. Upon further inspection we discovered that the technician doing the repairs at Aqua had pinched the power cable under the swivel area where the davit sits on the standpipe. Apparently the rotation of the davit back and forth was causing the breaker to trip intermittently, the davit would work for a time then short out other times until the back and forth action finally wore through the cable enough that it would not work at all. Luckily I had enough spare cable to make repairs and we got it working again. I'll be writing a letter to Aqua informing the service manager of the problem. We also resolved another problem, I had intended to use my anchor light as an all around white light thereby replacing the previously existing forward facing mast light. I didn't realize at the time that the anchor light turns off whenever the running lights are turned on, therefore I could use the anchor light when at anchor but when the running lights were turned on the anchor light would go out, not what I wanted to happen. Anyway, I obtained a new LED mast light-fixture and we, my buddy Bob and I, created an “L” bracket to make installation at the top of the mast possible, inspected the wiring to determine which wires we needed to attach too, drilled holes, found screws and nuts that fit, lowered and raised the mast then wallah, I had a forward facing mast light that worked as designed. My next project was to replace the impeller in the dinghy motor, a 9.9 Honda 4-stroke engine. After watching several YouTube video's I was able to complete that project without causing any damage. Next issue I tackled was the loose steering, Aqua had also worked on this problem, they discovered the actuator seals were no good, fluid was leaking out of the system. They had the seals replaced and I expected the steering to work much better, however it was about the same. The good news is I don't see any evidence that it's leaking now but I don't think they properly filled the reservoir. From what I've learned you are supposed to work the wheel the full rotation back and forth to remove air bubbles from the lines while adding fluid, while I didn't notice any bubbles I was able to add about an ounce of fluid, hopefully this will reduce the play in my steering; I won't know for sure until I take her out again. Speaking of taking her out again, we were planning to head over to Caladesi State Park Saturday morning but looks like the weather will delay that trip until Monday or Tuesday of next week. After spending a few days at the park we will work our way down the coast to Stock Island Marina near Key West where we have reservations for the entire month of February.

Kim's Korner:

Where to start? Tarpon Springs is the sponge capital of the world and the biggest Greek community in the U.S. Have you ever tried to see how many Greek restaurants you can fit into a few blocks? Tarpon Springs has and they have succeeded - really good food! One of my photos tells more if you are interested. So we kind of stumbled into a big deal here - Epiphany! We had walked to Craig Park which was really pretty and asked about these row boats that were tied together by rope and these kids were trying to get them in place. People were everywhere. So we learned that Epiphany takes place on Jan 6 and celebrates the baptism of Christ. Tarpon Springs has this huge ceremony and this year 48 boys between the ages of 16 and 18 will be diving into this bayou (where manatees come this time of year because it is warm) to find the cross that a bishop has thrown into the water. Anyway - very cool stuff and again - I have a photo explaining more of the details. We plan to watch the procession from the Greek Orthodox church to this bayou and hope to see something. From the photos I've seen from previous years, this place is packed! But I feel honored that I have gotten to experience the preparation and learning of such a neat celebration. Did I mention manatees? Two of the days we have been here, the manatees were there - awesome! There were over 10 one day but you can't see much. A snout or belly or back - I did see a tail but it was so quick that I didn't get a picture. So when you see my photos of what looks like water - look just a little closer - it's a manatee! And you know our boat is a Kady Krogen Manatee :) We've biked some of the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail, kayaked, dinghy-ed, and had the best gumbo at Rusty Bellies that I've ever had in my life! And we've been having fun experimenting with grilling and cooking grouper, grouper throats (yes - grouper throats - very, very good!) and crab cakes. It looks like weather is going to keep us here a bit longer so we plan to rent a car (Enterprise has awesome 3 day weekend deals) and go to Clearwater and St. Petersburg by car and trolley. Stay tuned!

Click here for pictures.