LaBelle to Venice

A lovely sunset at River Forest

Our last few days at River Forest went well. We had a fabulous time on Friday when our friends Larissa, Ender and Benjamin came to visit. We hadn’t seen them in a few years and we loved catching up and getting to know Benjamin who is an amazing boy and who was thoroughly enthralled with Blossom J

A very happy little captain!

On Saturday we returned the rental car and Rick & Michelle graciously offered to give us a lift back to Blossom. They know these waters well so they gave us some tips and advice on our upcoming trip north. With their info and our past track from a year ago (St. Pete’s to Ft. Myers and through Lake Okeechobee) we hope to have no trouble navigating the skinny waters up to St. Pete’s.

Blossom on the Caloosahatchee River, February 2015 (photo from Gary & Diane)

On Sunday we had a visit with Gary & Diane who introduced themselves while we were at River Forest. They’ve been reading our blog for a while now (found through our friends, Sean & Louise’s blog). We were happy to meet them and give them a tour of Blossom. They’re a really nice couple and they’re looking to get a boat to keep in Florida. We hope we’ll meet up again on the water one day!

We had planned a four day itinerary to get us back into the groove and use most of our systems on our way to St. Pete's. We’d start at Calusa Jacks, then anchor off St. James Island, a new anchorage for us. From there we’d head to Cabbage Key to anchor where we did back almost a year ago. Then a new stop, at the Crow’s Nest Marina in Venice for our fourth night, and hoped to arrive in Sarasota on Friday where we’ll be staying at Longboat Key Club Moorings.

Blossom en route to Calusa Jacks 2016 (photo thanks to Gary & Diane)

Monday morning we were ready to head out. The weather has turned cold again (by Florida standards) so it was a chilly departure. We took the opportunity to pump out and headed west. It’s a relatively short run of about 32 miles including 2 locks and 3 bridges. We figured that would be a good first day out after our 4-month break.  It was a great cruise and everything ran smoothly. We had lots of people watching us as we passed through the two locks. It made me happy we’d done it a few times before so I looked like I knew what I was doing J The only unfortunate turn was that one of our wireless headsets (aka “marriage savers”) has died. We managed to exit the marina, pass through 2 locks and dock without them and without yelling at each other – how cool is that?! Upon further inspection it looks like one of them is transmitting but not receiving. So we can use them, Martin talking when we anchor (he’s at the bow calling the shots while I drive) and me talking when we dock (giving him details on the boats position, etc.) We’ll order new headsets in Sarasota.

We arrived around 2, settled in and chatted with Joe, the owner. Later in the afternoon the sun actually came out (yay!) and we walked into town to the Winn Dixie. (Though Martin’s eye has healed up, he now has a cough so we needed to get some Dayquil, he can’t seem to catch a break!) Joe is the nicest guy and he gave us a dozen fresh eggs - awesome!  We also enjoyed meeting his new goat, Johnny John, what a cutie! Note to mariners, they’ll have goat milk soap for sale in the near future J

Joe & Johnny John

Sunset at Calusa Jacks

They kept the holiday lights on for us J

Tuesday we had a leisurely morning and left the dock around 10:30. The trip through Ft. Myers and the “miserable mile” was uneventful. I’m happy we went through on a cold week day, it was much less crazy than it would have been on a sunny Saturday. We had our first (of several) dolphin sightings and one manatee sighting. We anchored on the south side of Pine Island, an anchorage that Rick & Michelle told us about). It was a great anchorage, well protected from the north wind. There were lots of crab pots so we stayed out a bit and were very comfortable. There’s a lot of traffic passing by – we’d put our floppers out if we were staying for any length of time.

Sun downers on the fly bridge off St. James (wearing our snoozies, it was cold!)

Wednesday was Martin’s birthday! And so begins another 10 months when I can call him old man, til I catch up with him again. It was a short day with a quick hop north to anchor off Cabbage Key. We anchored right where we had a couple of years ago.  We had 3 dolphins playing on our bow for about 10 minutes at one point. It was awesome! I clap and talk to them, hoping to keep them there longer. I’m going to say it works… You can see them turn sideways and look at you so they certainly know you’re there. (Whether or not they stay longer to see me perform like a circus animal we’ll never know.)

Thursday we had to keep to a schedule. We’d read that there could be strong current at Crow’s Nest so we planned to arrive close to slack in the afternoon.  We calculated that it would be about a 5-6 hour day. We consulted with Rick & Michelle who are a day ahead of us and docked at Crow’s Nest last night. We figured we’d also run on the outside. This way, we’d have pretty much tested everything on our way up – shallows, outside, anchoring, docking. (And we avoided 5 bridges – nice!) The first part of our season is going to be fairly sedentary as we enjoy exploring Sarasota and St. Pete’s so we want to exercise her when we have the chance. The second half, we’ll be on the move in the Bahamas and East Coast.

We had an uneventful trip up to Venice. It was a little lumpy at first but calmed down as we got closer to land and the winds clocked to the east. Venice is a happening inlet with people walking the pier, fishing, dolphin’s playing and a coast guard boat pulling people over! We tied up close to a sailboat and I put out 3 spring lines. There’s a gale warning out for tonight and tomorrow and I don’t want us to smoosh them between us and the rock jetty behind them!

This evening we’re going to eat at the restaurant at Crow’s Nest to formally celebrate Martin’s birthday. Martin’s friend Arturo, another ex-Googler, happened to be in Florida this week and was close by (another serendipitous rendezvous!) so he’s coming up to join us for dinner.

Our original plan was to go straight on to Sarasota and arrive on Friday. But we changed our minds today. We’re expecting a bruiser of a storm to come through tonight and tomorrow with gale force wind warnings. Pleasure boating does not mean intentionally heading out into to 30+ knot winds, torrential rain and lightning while navigating a skinny, shallow channel – all when we’re not on a schedule. We’ll sit warm and cozy at Crow’s Nest and head out on Saturday when the winds are down and the sun decides to make a (brief) visit. When I called the marina to tell them we’d be a day late the woman I spoke with sounded relieved. I don’t think they want boats coming in and trying to dock in that wind!

It feels great to be settled back on Blossom. We’re slowing adjusting back to our boat routine. That means meeting lots of interesting people, exploring new places, enjoying amazing views, troubleshooting various noises, beeps and bumps in the night, cocktails on the fly bridge, limited and/or slow internet, doing a lot of cleaning and for me, cooking. I don’t know why I like to cook more when we’re on the boat but I’ve been having fun. This week I’ve made Thai Basil Chicken, Hoisin Pork and Lemongrass Tofu for Martin’s birthday. (I have a thing for Thai/Asian food, obviously.) If I can figure out how to post a link to recipes I’ll do that!

Boat Business: First a shout out for some of the service providers we encountered.

• River Forest, Moorehead, FL. What a top notch facility. We can’t say enough about how pleased we were with our experience. The facility and the folks who run and work it are amazing. We will leave Blossom there again if we leave her back in FL in the future. The owner of the yard came by on his new (and lovely) boat so we were pleased to be able to tell him personally of our experience.
• April Beaver. April lives nearby and takes care of the interiors of several boats at the yard. April’s a “doer”, I don’t think she ever rests. We highly recommend her if you’d like someone to help clean your boat, prep it for storage or keep an eye on the interior while you’re away.
• Scottie’s Canvas. Based out of Ft. Myers, these guys did a great job on our cockpit canvas. I’ll take better pics when we’ve washed the bugs off (damn those love bugs). We gave a general idea of what we wanted and they designed a great looking, highly functional canvas. Again, highly recommend.
• Our overall experience at River Forest, Moorehead City was fantastic in every way.

Maintenance and work done:

• We had the guys at RF put sling markers on Blossom.
• More systems checked out including windlass, electronics a/c and the 20k gen.
• To address:
• I noticed a small hydraulic leak coming from the port stabilizer on Wednesday. My nose knows when a leak is to be found! It looks minor and we have already planned for Steve, from ABT, to come out and perform a service while we’re in St. Pete’s so we’ll add that to the service order.
• 9k Gen. This little genny had given us a hard time from the get go and it's still being a pita. We got an overheat error after running it for about 45 minutes at anchor. We're calling in the big guns to take a look at it next. We need to have it working as it should before we head east to the Bahamas this spring.