Flying Crab Trap Markers in the Gulf

3/1/2017 

Before going to bed last night Clark checked the weather and saw the potential for late afternoon thunder storms. That changed our “We’ll leave when we’re ready” plan to “We need to leave as early as possible”. For us that meant around 9:00. Clark canceled his plans to visit a nearby marina and focused on getting the ready-to-move tasks done so we could leave.

I ran down my leaving-port checklist and completed the various tasks shown there. Most of what I do relates to “battening down the hatches” – move items that might fall, lower the dining table to coffee table position, remove the sun shade in the stern, bring in the covers over the wood trim, remove covers in upper helm area, close doors, etc. After finishing, I told Clark I planned to visit Faith on Third Degree to say goodbye. “That could take an hour”, he said as I walked away. Hah – he should “talk”!

After telling Faith we planned to leave shortly, I walked around to see Jeanne and Jo Ann to let her know we had moved up our scheduled departure time.  Stopping by Jo Ann’s boat to collect Jim, I got to see their dog’s new trim, collar, and leash.

Sammy with fur trim and new outfit

Together we walked back to Sunset Delight with a brief stop at Morning Star II where Sammy begged for a biscuit.

Sammy begging for a biscuit

As we walked back to the boat, we collected more and more people who came to wave farewell.  Besides Namaste and Daybreak, folks from Third Degree, Daisy, Morning Star II, and Hour Plan came to wish us well and help with the lines. I joked that others around the marina would think we had gathered for early-morning docktails.

Folks milling around on the dock
A.C., Faith, Jim and Jeanne

Waiting while we get ready
Jim, Faith, Jo Ann, Jim, Jeanne, and Mel

I became choked up as I hugged my friends goodbye. After leaving them last year, I had no expectations of seeing them this year. I am very thankful that fate brought us together again. As we all spend large amounts of our time boating, I am hopeful that we will meet somewhere down the road yet again in the not-too-distant future.

Kenny helping Ev with lines

Send-off Committee
Jim and A.C - Hour Plan; Kenny and Jeanne - Daybreak;
Jim and Jo Ann - Namaste; Jim and Faith - Third Degree;
Mel - Morning Star II; Jim and Rita - Daisy

Yes, we had an incredible number of "Jims" at Faro Blanco this past month!

  

As we pulled out of the slip and traveled through the marina, Jo Ann snapped pictures of Sunset Delight as a thank you for the pictures took the year before of their boat leaving the marina.

Pulling out of slip

Moving through the marina

Waving goodbye

One last wave farewell

We had some “chop” on the water as we crossed the Gulf to our planned anchorage at Little Shark River in the Everglades.

Slight to moderate chop

As per usual, crossing the Gulf waters we encountered numerous crab traps. Clark came up with a continuous-loop algorithm as follows:

     Step 1: set AutoPilot to waypoint heading

     Step 2: spot crab trap and place AutoPilot in standby mode

     Step 3: manually steer until clear of traps

     Step 4: Resume AutoPilot

     Step 5: AutoPilot seeks next available crab trap

     Step 6: Repeat from step 2

We had a long drive with nothing to look at but clouds and crab traps. No other boats traveled north towards the Everglades as we did, so we were on our own. I found the trip monotonous after a very short time with several hours still to go to arrive at the anchorage. 

When not on crab trap duty, I studied the clouds and the shadows on the water made by the clouds. I mentioned the dark areas of the shadows to Clark, and he pointed out that they “… might be shadows, might be floating sea grass, or they might be rocks below the surface.”

Clouds over Gulf

If I didn’t have my “head in the clouds”, I had my eyes on the crab traps. Sometimes we would see large numbers clustered together and we would seek out the best way to traverse through them. Sometimes, when we got close enough a crab trap would fly away!

Flying crab trap?
No, a seagull that had been pretending to be a crab trap.

The seagulls floating among the crab traps look just like yet another crab trap marker. We had at least four instances where we thought we saw crab traps and instead found seagulls. Additionally, we had instances where black cormorants posed next to black trap markers. 

Crab trap buoys on the Gulf

It took four hours and forty minutes to cross the Gulf to the Little Shark River anchorage. We arrived at 2:15. Right after we got the anchor set in place, the bugs invited themselves onboard for a visit. We could tolerate the few that made their presence known until around 6:00 when the no-see-ums decided to eat Clark and me for dinner. After that Clark closed up the boat, cranked up the generator, and turned on the air conditioning. Unfortunately, more than a couple remained in the cabin after he closed all the doors and windows.

At sunset Clark remarked on the sun going down. I asked if he planned on getting a sunset picture. Referring to the gnats, he said laughingly, "I'm not going out there!"