We're under way. I dropped the lines at 0900 Tuesday morning with our friend Bob on board to help me get the boat to Delegal Creek Marina, at the south end of Skidaway Island near Savannah.
We'll be in delivery mode for the next 9 days, needing to average 65 miles per day to get to Sarasota by Friday, December 19 so we can pick up the Johanson clan at the Tampa airport Saturday morning, December 20.
Wednesday we continued south to an anchorage just north of St. Simons, GA. Uneventful day.
Thursday we went into Brunswick to fuel up at $2.65 per gallon, including tax. Spent the night at the free dock at Jim King Park on Sisters Creek just north of where the ICW crosses the St. Johns River. This is a new dock with room for 4 to 6 boats depending on size. Four boats were on the dock Thursday night.
Friday we got to Marineland Marina, south of St. Augustine, one of our favorite stops, across highway A1A from Marineland Dolphin Park. We were invited to join Looper friends Jim and Pam on Silver Boots for a wonderful dinner. Here is a picture of ODYSSEE against the setting sun.
We've been on a roll since my last post. After leaving Marineland, we traveled 81 miles to an anchorage just north of Titusville. In the morning the sun rose over the VAB at Complex 39 at Cape Canaveral.
On Sunday we put in another pretty good day and got to one of our favorite anchorages north of Vero Beach. On Monday, one of our missions was to find a Post Office to mail 100+ Christmas cards and a package. On our way through Stuart we went into Frazer Creek to a public park with a day dock. Both Skipper Bob and our Florida Cruising guide suggested you anchor your boat and take a dingy into this park, but ODYSSEE doesn't draw much water, why not just take ODYSSEE into this day dock, postings on Active Captain suggested it's possible. and it was. At least 6.5' of water all the way in and a channel that is 60'wide, wide enough to turn a 48' OAL length boat around! The Post Office was about a 5 block walk. Back on the boat we went another 8 miles up the St. Lucie River to the St. Lucie Lock, locked through, and anchored for the night just above the lock at 6:50 PM.
Today, Tuesday December 16, we continued on the Okeechobee Waterway
and are at Moore Haven, tied to the canal wall. We met two other boaters here, and after some sundowners, decided to go to the only restaurant in town, a Mexican place. Well, after a 5 block walk into town, the restaurant was closed, so back tom the boats and pot luck on ODYSSEE, the only boat with a table large enough to seat 6 people.
Wednesday we were up and off the dock by 7:35, anticipating a long day to get west of Ft. Myers. We had two locks to go through and experience has taught us that that doesn't always go so smooth. As we approached the Ortona Lock, I called the lockmaster on the radio when we were 20 minutes out to let him know we were approaching west bound. Saw this Eagle pair along the canal.
We'd been listening to the locking activity on the radio and all was going smooth. We announced our arrival to the lockmaster and were told the lock was down for a gearbox repair at it may be a two hour wait. We put the anchor down and waited, using this time to call down river and shop for a good fuel price, realizing that this delay would shorten our day and jeopardize how far we would get. Good news, after a half hour wait, things were fixed and we locked through. No problems at the Franklin Lock, breezed through. When shopping for a good fuel price we found some for $3.04 per gallon at The Marina at Cape Harbour at the far west end of Cape Coral. Made arrangements to go in and spend the night and fuel up Thursday morning. We arrived as the sun was going down, and had to lock through a small water control lock, 65' X 19', to get into the marina. Never a dull moment!
The marina opened at 7:30, and we wanted to get fueled as soon as possible so we could get to Sarasota. Called the marina office at 7:30, no answer, again at 7:35, no answer, finally at 7:40 the dock master answered. "Where is your fuel dock" I asked, "on the outside of the lock" he replied.
So, back through the water control lock, and finally, 252 gallons of fuel. We lost an hour in this process! Finally underway at 8:40, we had 79 miles to go to get to Sarasota, and with all the "slow, NO WAKE zones" it was going to be tough to do before dark. And in fact we didn't, came into Marina Jack at about 6:15 and went into our assigned slip bow first in the dark. After we were in, realized the finger pier was too short to get off the boat, so backed out, turned around, and backed in, without hitting anything, in the dark! We were finally tied up at 6:35.
Spent Friday doing some laundry, provisioning, and getting things ready for our Michigan family to arrive. Saturday morning Chuck drove a rented mini-van to the Tampa airport to pick everybody up. They were a little late, and then there were two accidents that held us up on the way back, so it was almost 1:00 when we got back to the boat. These overdressed visitors were ready to change into shorts!
ODYSSEE is poised to head out tomorrow for a planned stop at Stump Pass State Park Sunday night, then a night at Boca Grande, arriving in Ft. Myers Beach on Tuesday.
Sunday morning we were pumped out, watered up, and under way by 11:00. It didn't take the Michigan women to find a comfortable place on the bow seat and give the sunshine a thumbs up!
We stopped at POP's for lunch in Venice, and then continued on to Stump Pass to anchor for the night.
Monday morning the sun was out, and so were the pelicans, both white and gray, looking for breakfast.
Mary and Elisabeth decided to take a kayak ride to the south where we would meet them and pick them up with ODYSSEE. Peter took the dingy to make sure nobody got in any trouble
Our planned destination was Boca Grande and an afternoon on the beach. Nobody was having any fun!
We cast off at 11:00 this morning for a 36 mile run to Ft. Myers Beach. It was another nice day, a little breezy, but we ran inside down Pine Island Sound, so waves were not a problem.
Three generations enjoying the ride,
Captain Pete at the helm.
We've arrived at Ft. Myers Beach and will be here at least two nights. Claria is making her traditional Christmas Eve dinner, Swedish Meat Balls with all the fixings. We will have 12 for dinner and then go the Chapel by the Sea, a lovely Presbyterian Church on the beach.
Spent Christmas morning opening all the presents Santa had left on the boat. It's amazing how he knows where we are each Christmas Eve! A short walk on the Ft. Myers Beach beach, and then off to Tween Waters Resort and Marina on Captiva. It was another nice day in the mid seventy's. Once ODYSSEE was safely tied to the dock the troops
walked over to the Captiva beach and stayed to see the sunset.
From Tween Waters we moved to the Edison Ford Marina. This was the former Royal Palm Yacht Club in Fort Myers, and it was bought by the Pinchers Restaurant group and is now a marina open to the public. They aren't quite functioning up to par yet, but they are working on it. It was our intent to rent a car and go down to Naples on Sunday and then deliver the Johanson bunch to the airport early Monday morning. There were no cars to rent on Saturday afternoon, except from Expedia, Priceline, or one of these discount outlets, and they all wanted $250.00 per day. I called three rental companies directly at the airport and they confirmed I would not get a car if I came to the airport, they were all reserved. For those of you who rent cars, you know you don't pay for them until you pick them up, and the rental companies don't even take a credit card number when you make your reservation, so it's easy to walk away from a reservation. So, I think when supply gets low, the discount outlets reserve what is left and then try to get exorbitant prices for them, and if they don't rent them, just cancel them. What do you want to bet there were several cars unused at the airport! So, in desperation I call a good boating friend up in Illinois who keeps a car in Florida. Walla, his car was in Fort Myers in storage and the key for his storage unit available at the storage office, with the car key in the car. He bailed me out, THANKS PHIL!
It's now Monday morning, the kids are on an airplane heading home, and we are cleaning up the boat. Our washer/dryer decided to quit, so we will be making a trip to a Laundromat. We also have a box of stuff to ship north so a UPS Store is also on our list.
It's New Years Eve and we have everything fixed, so we are heading south tomorrow towards Everglades National Park. We will be on the hook and in the wilderness up the Little Shark River for the next 4 days or so, getting into Flamingo about next Tuesday. We should find internet somewhere in the park so can update on our trip up the Little Shark River and add some pictures of the wilderness. You can only do the Little Shark in a boat, ODYSSEE may be considered a little big for the upper end of the river, we'll see how far we get.
I have created a separate POST for Everglades National Park.
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