roweboatadventures: September 2015

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE / September 10, 2015

Our first trip without another Captain. The purpose was for me to get more experience driving and docking. So we took a quick trip to Long Boat Key Club in Sarasota.

Another gorgeous day on the water. The dolphins love our boat, they love to surf our wake. I drove pretty much the whole way, we left Thursday September 10th at 1 and arrived at 4. But I did not dock, we felt the slip was just to narrow for me to maneuver.

Long Boat Key Marina is kind of expensive, but you get what you pay for. It has a very nice restaurant, ship store, bath house, laundry and pool on premises. You also have access to the resort which you can get to buy a shuttle that runs anytime you need it.

The first night, Mike had pizza and I had stuffed mushrooms at the marina restaurant, which were both very good.

On Friday we took the shuttle to St. Armand's Circle shopping district. We bought some cruising clothes and some yummy nuts. Had lunch at a French restaurant. We waded in the pool for a couple of hours and met a couple from Palm Harbor on a weekend trip in their 34 foot Sea Ray. We had leftover pasta for dinner on the boat, watched a little football and went to bed.

Saturday we took the shuttle to the Ringling Museum. It was more interesting than I thought it would be. He loved Italian art and culture, their house looks like an Italian Villa. They have quite the art collection, huge banyan trees and a lovely rose garden. We learned he bought and started St. Armand's Circle so his wife would not have to go far to shop. He even had a boat in the Gasparilla parade in the 1930's.

I did not know that John Ringling was nearly broke when he died. But he did have the foresight to bequeath the entire 66 acre property to the state of Florida, so now we all can learn and enjoy the history of the circus in America.

We left Sunday around 9, the weather was a little iffy, we had hoped what we saw on the radar would have moved on by the time we got back home. No such luck. But it was probably a good lesson on how the boat handles rough seas. She fared pretty well. And it was the first time we drove from the Pilot House so that was fun as well. We did get blown out of the channel a little and ran aground. But luckily the wind and waves pushed us back and we were going pretty slow so we don't think we did any damage to the props. We will find out pretty soon, when we haul it out to be repainted.

We did make it home safe and sound in about 3 hours. On the way home was when I made the decision that Mike is going to dock us 99% of the time. If there is an emergency I think I can dock us bow first, but it's the backing in I don't think I'll ever learn. I think I'll just handle the lines from now on.

This model circus was huge and very intricate.

THE MAINTENANCE / September 17, 2015

"It's a boat..." That's Mike's favorite saying whenever I complain about something breaking or the cost of a repair.

So I'm sure you can imagine there are a lot of things that can go wrong and will go wrong on a house floating in the water. But we are trying to get as much fixed as possible by professionals, so hopefully we won't have as much to fix on the water somewhere ourselves.

So far we've replaced 2 out of 4 air conditioners. Replaced a small refrigerator with a 2 drawer combo frig/freezer. Had the teak railing refinished. Bought a new anchor, not a cheap one by any means, but better to be safe than sorry. Had satellite TV/Radio installed, but hey, it works using Bluetooth, oh boy! Mike's selling point, haha. Let's see, new strainers, plumbing fixes, electrical fixes and plenty more I'm not aware of I'm sure. Because ..."it's a boat...."

Luckily the previous owners left the sheets, tons of charts and maps (which can get costly, so that was nice). I had a lot of towels, cleaning items, dishes and kitchen utensils since we had 2 houses for a while. That does not to include the tons of little things that crop up. But I guess we are more prepared than we were 3 months ago. I'm sure this will be an ongoing post, remember..."it's a boat..."

THE SHAKE OUT RUN / September 17, 2015

I decided I needed to do another post to keep you all interested. This blogging thing takes time and I need a little more practice.

So I'm backing up a little here. We actually did the shake down run before The Training Post. We went to Key West June 16-23 with my old friend from high school and college, Bonnee Brooks Jones and her husband Casey, who happens to be a captain, a big reason why we wanted to do this shake down run. We figured we would rather be safe than sorry on this first trip, so having another captain on board would be a good idea!
I had not had my training lesson yet, so Mike and Casey did all the driving and docking. I did learn a little about tying lines at the docks though.

We took the Inner Coastal to our first stop, Little Gasparilla Island Marina. The seas were perfect, winds kept us cool up on the flybridge and we even had dolphins swimming along side the boat. We arrived around 5 pm. Not one of the better marina's we've been too, no cleats and no help. But we managed, had a quick dinner, watched a little TV and called it a day. A long day in the sun and gently rocking, made for a sound first night sleep. This was the first time we had slept on the boat and found the bed pretty darn comfortable, even tho it is a queen and we are used to a king.

After a couple cups of coffee we untied and headed to Rose Marina on Marco Island. The people at the marina were very helpful, had great docks and ship store. Bathrooms were small but clean. Dinner at a local bar was fair, but the walk there and back was nice and relaxing. On our way to Marco, we passed by sister's condo. I texted her to look out her window to see if she could see us. It was so funny, she saw us, or our boat I should say, and I took a picture of her condo.

On the 18th, Mike decided we would be in for a long day because there was not really any place else to stop before Key West. So he wanted to see how much time we could make up by increasing our speed. Normally we travel around 8-10 knots (about 9.5-11.5 miles an hour). But he pumped it up to around 14-15 knots. We made great time, 6 hours, but burned 3 times as much fuel! Lesson learned...But good to know in an emergency we have that option. Off in the distance we saw the Key West Express a ferry that runs from Ft. Myers to Key West in 4 hours! Now that's burning some fuel. But for $100 a person it's a pretty quick and easy way to get there.

We arrived at Galleon Marina around 3pm. Nice floating docks but kind of narrow. After tying up we headed for the pool for a nice relaxing cool swim. NOT! If you like bath water. So disappointing after a long hot 90 degree day on the water. Shower facilities were OK but I've seen better laundry facilities that's for sure.

We cooked on board two nights and went to the Raw Bar at A & B Marina the last night. It was very good and we had a seat in the corner where both windows were open so had a nice view of the marina, people watch and saw a couple of rolling tarpon.

The next day we went on the famous "Conch Tour Train". Kind of hokey but was a way to cool off with the breeze blowing, it was pretty darn hot while we were there. Our last day on Key West we basically hung out. The guys did some maintenance and Bonnee and I did a little laundry. After dinner we had to go to Mallory Square. Which is always entertaining, you can't go to Key West and not go and watch the sunset. We saw the obligatory mimes, fire thrower, dogs dressed in costumes and just overall weird people. But it would not be Key West if not for those sights.

We left early the next morning heading back to Rose Marina on Marco Island, finished off the leftovers and hit the hay for the long run to Captiva Island the next day. We stayed at South Seas Plantation Marina. Nice dockage and great shower facilities. They even provided towels and hair dryers. My sister Suzy and her husband Larry live in Ft. Myers, so they came to see the boat, then the 6 of us had dinner at Doc Ford's at South Seas Plantation.

The last day home was uneventful. We got back to the Yacht Club, thanked Bonnee and Casey for their help and got our land legs back. All and all, pretty smooth sailing and I for one was glad to have Captain Casey on board, you never know....