So long Florida! I stayed last night at the Jacksonville Landing dock in downtown Jacksonville. Wandered around and had mediocre pub food. Today I was underway for 11 hours, down the St John’s River and left at the ICW.
Lots of current here. It’s a giant saltwater estuary. Interesting. The tidal range is something like 6 feet and water rushes in and out the inlets. I installed a tide/current app and am going to play with it tonight.
Tonight I’m anchored here. It’s like being in the middle of a cornfield. Just flat marsh in all directions. It’s pretty empty – I didn’t see too many boats today.
There were some shallow passes at dead low tide. I was muddying the water even further at times.
Not much else of note. Pleasant weather, boat’s purring along.
The next Sprint begins. I left Sanford this morning, stopped in Welacka for dinner, then anchored here. Nice calm evening. Nobody around.
I arrived back in Sanford Saturday night, but wasn’t in a big rush to leave. My fresh water had gone foul before I left the boat, and I flushed it out and ran some bleach through. All good now.
My plan is to head north on the ICW at moderate speed. I need to find a spot to leave the boat for a few months starting May 5. Probably best to get it hauled. I’d like to get to the Hudson River. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m going to switch gears a bit in this blog pretty soon. Here’s a teaser.
Here’s what’s on my camera from the last few days. Gators, of course, hanging around the marina. Given the state of the docks and the insobriety of some of the liveaboards their patience may be rewarded 🙂
I finally got a good look at a manatee today. They’re huge and weird. Not t sure how they can coexist with the gators.
That’s all the photos I’ve taken. Will try to do better. But I’m basically retracing my path back to Jacksonville, so no new sights until I get back on the ICW.
I was just reviewing my fuel log, which I update at each fill-up. My first entry was August 2, shortly after I launched, and the most recent was March 2. Close enough to call an even 7 months 🙂
So, some numbers.
Distance traveled: 3,999 nautical miles, 7400 km, 4,600 statute miles.
Motor hours: 617
Generator hours: 248
Fuel used: 898 gal(us), 3725 l
I’m quite happy with that. Getting good diesel heat is becoming important to me and is on my short list of upgrades. Most of to those generator hours were for heat and I want to have a good cold-weather system.
I’m in Sanford, near Orlando. Had a nice trip up the St John’s River. All good. I haven’t been writing lately as I really didn’t have much to say, and Florida is Florida…
After crossing Lake O I stopped at Ft Pierce for a few days at a Trawler Forum gathering. Then headed north on the ICW to Jacksonville and then south on the river.
I’ve parked the boat and am heading home for a visit. I decided not to race in the Laser regattas. I didn’t want to stay in the area for three weeks with Mazurka, and wasn’t that excited about racing.
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to head north.
Some highlights of the river. It’s the nicest part of Florida I’ve seen.
I’m anchored in South Bay, on the edge of Lake O. Here. Nobody around but me, I have the anchorage to myself. Most bigger boats go across the middle of the lake but I chose the longer rim route.
I really enjoyed today’s travels. Slow cruising up the Caloosahatchee river, through a couple of locks, and on to the lake. So far it’s been a canal, with a dike on the left and marshlands on the right.
I finally saw live gators. Lots of them.
I left from LaBelle, where I’d been for a couple of days. Nice stop.
Today was fun. I’m anchored here, up the river from Punta Gorda. Very quiet and peaceful here, mangrove swamp all around.
Yesterday I was up and underway early. Followed the ICW south. When I got to the mouth of Charlotte Harbor I turned in. Anchored here last night. Nothing remarkable about the day, except for ongoing spectacular weather.
Today I went into the creek to have a look around, then skirted mud flats to go around to Punta Gorda.
I anchored just off Fisherman’s Village and was thinking of going ashore for lunch, but then saw some boats racing in the bay, and got curious. Went over to watch them. Harbor 20 class, looks like a fun boat for older sailors.
Then I headed up the Peace River. Went as far as I could before running out of water, about five miles upstream of where I am now.
I really like following rivers. Tomorrow I’m going to head up the Myakka River on the other side of the bay. I read in one of my cruising guides that it’s navigable a long way up. We’ll see.
Here’s my depth Sounder in the middle of the bay today. I start bumping bottom at about 0.8 feet :-). The water’s pretty skinny around here.
I left Tarpon Springs yesterday just after lunch time and headed south on the ICW. Weather has been perfect, mid 70s, sunny and light winds.
There really isn’t much to report. Mostly cruising by big houses or following the channel closely across more open water.
That last picture is the bridge across the mouth of Tampa Harbour. I remember seeing the predecessor bridge in early 1981 not long after a bunch of people had died after a ship took out part of the span. Read here. Pretty horrific accident.
I’m anchored here. Am sitting on the flybridge enjoying the sunset now that the sun is down. I stopped here around 4 and went inside to hide from the sun.
Nice spot apart from the odd wake – I lost another coffee cup here :-(. But that’ll die down at dark I think.
Last night I anchored off the channel here. Today I went up into Bradenton to fill up with fuel, and had lunch at the marina there.
Fuel usage report: 4.1 mpg since Gulfport MS, including a day at 9 knots across the Gulf and a high speed run up to Bradenton.
Motor is running perfectly. I did oil changes on both before leaving Tarpon Springs. My maintenance and repair list is well under control.
I left my car and Laser in Tarpon Springs, in Mike’s back yard. Mike is one of the guys who runs the municipal marina. It’s safe there until I get back to retrieve it.
There isn’t much between here and Fort Myers that interests me. Will keep chugging south tomorrow. Looks like more of the same weather for the next few days. Pretty nice when I’m hearing of nasty weather winter in SW Ontario.
I flew back to Louisiana Thursday to retrieve my car and dinghy, then drove 11 hours to get back to Mazurka. Had help from Eric and Rosalie getting my flight out of Tampa and Ronney met me in New Orleans to drive me back to my car at his place in Houma. Smooth sailing thanks to their help.
On the theme of boating adventures, I have two dinghies that I race, a Laser and a Snipe. Brought my Laser down to race in a couple of regattas on the east coast of Florida.
I’m off for a week of road cycling in Central Florida with Samantha and Sarah later today. Then back to the boat, and I have to three weeks to cruise over to Ft Pierce for a weekend gathering of Trawler Forum folks, then about ten days of racing in West Palm Beach and Jensen Beach.
I still need to juggle car and boats… Somewhere along the line I need to get everything in the same place again in West Palm Beach. Likely I’ll try to leave my car there before I leave Tarpon Springs on Feb 4.
It’s kind of fun to retrace my boat path by land. The drive across the panhandle confirmed my impression that the area is pretty empty of people this time of year.
I last posted on Wednesday while crossing from Carabelle to Steinhatchee. That was day one of a lovely three day voyage across the Big Bend.
Wednesday started out grey and a little choppy, but by early afternoon the sun was out and the wind calm. It stayed like that through the entire trip.
This is approaching Steinhatchee
The boats I was travelling with stopped at the marinas inside the channel. I went exploring up the river through the town for a few miles, and ended up stopping at a pizza joint with a dock. I ended up staying there overnight with permission.
Thursday morning I left at dawn, ahead of the boats I had traveled with Wednesday.
They caught up with and passed me a couple of hours later.
I went through Cedar Key, but didn’t see any place to tie up.
The day was calm and sunny. Beautiful.
I had one dolphin swimming alongside for about 20 minutes, and had lots of encounters with Dolphins and Porpoises through the day
Chrystal River seemed like a nice spot. I got there around dusk, and went up the river to the town.
This area has manatees. Haven’t seen one yet.
I anchored and took the RIB exploring. Had a fabulous feed of blackened grouper on shore.
I thought about staying there, but the forecast was for nasty weather over the weekend, so I left at dawn Friday and had a relaxed cruise down the coast to Tarpon Springs.
The only noteworthy event on Friday was that I got tangled up with a crab pot. They’re everywhere out here. I was about ten miles offshore in about 12 feet of water. Calm and sunny but cool.
I was cruising along at about 7 knots and wasn’t paying close attention. I heard a clunk as I hit the buoy, immediately shifted into neutral, and looked for the buoy behind me. Nothing popped up. So I got back underway. A minute later I looked back and there was a crab pot being dragged in my wake.
I stopped the boat and turned off the motor. No other boats in sight. As the boat drifted I could see the line, and retrieved it with a boathook. The buoy end was caught under the boat, and I was afraid of wrapping my prop. I cut the line, leaving a jug attached. Tried tugging the line from both sides of the boat but it seemed to be really caught. So I anchored, then got ready to dive under to have a look.
It wasn’t warm – I’d been wearing three layers – but I stripped and got my mask and snorkel. Then stood on my swim platform. Eventually I decided that I really didn’t want to go in the water.
After deliberating for a while and putting on my clothes, I tied the line off in my cockpit, started the motor, and gingerly put it in gear, reverse and forward. Pieces of the styrofoam buoy floated up, but the line was still caught.
I got underway and continued on with the line attached. Got into Steinhatchee and it was still tangled. I figured I’d hire a diver or go out to a sandbar on a nice day and try to clear it myself. But Saturday I got up and the line was floating free – I guess it was caught in the rudder and the alternating current here somehow washed it free. I found the end with the plastic fitting that had been marked by my prop.
I’ll keep a closer watch in the future. I’m lucky it didn’t wrap the prop.
I arrived at the municipal docks in Tarpon Springs Friday afternoon. This will be home for Mazurka until Feb 3 or so.
That’s Eric, Ruth, me and Jimmie. Rosalie was the photographer. They came for a visit yesterday. I don’t see them often as they live in NS. We had a nice meal in one of the great Greek restaurants nearby.
I like this place. There are tourists and locals wandering by, and a busy area with sponge stores and Greek restaurants.
Thursday I will fly to New Orleans from Tampa to retrieve my car and Laser. Then Saturday off for a week of road cycling with Samantha and Sarah in Central Florida. Then back to the boat and underway across the state to Stuart.
It’s been fun getting to know some of the Loopers. Had a meal out with them Friday and ‘docktails’ yesterday. It was good traveling with them from Carabelle. There are Loopers here from Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, and BC. It’s nice to join that community.
This area has manatees. Haven’t seen one yet.
