1/28/2017
We departed Fort Myers / Legacy Harbour at 0930. Looking at the weather and sea-heights reports in conjunction with marina availability, we decided on staying in Naples, Florida tonight. We arrived at Old Naples Seaport marina in Naples, Florida at 1445.
Clark steered the boat and I had look-for-the-marker duty until we left the Caloosahatche River. After we arrived at the last marker, Clark set a waypoint on the chart plotter to take us to Naples. He wanted to check the engine room and do a couple of tasks, so he handed the piloting over to me.
We never had AutoPilot on Sea Moss, so it is a new experience to have a boat that has one. It is nice not to have to use the compass to stay on course. Instead of trying to find something to aim for on the right course heading, I spent my time watching for crab-pot mine fields. They crab-pot buoys are small black balls floating wherever the owner felt like putting them. All would be clear sailing and then suddenly we would travel through a patch of them. Mostly we had to take the boat off auto and switch to manual pilot to navigate around them. Sometimes I got lucky and the boat would pass between them without having to change course.
Staring at the water looking for crab pots or other obstacles (we saw quite a few coconuts float by today) on the rocking boat, nearly sent me into a coma. After what felt like an eternity, I asked Clark to take over the helm and laid down on the bench seat behind him. We only had 5 nm to go to get to the Naples inlet, but I was done. As soon as my body got into a vertical position, I zonked out and slept until the engine slowed coming into Naples. It was not a long nap, but it was a much-appreciated one!
After docking in Naples, Clark washed the salt off the boat while I did some canvas repair. Sewing boat canvas by hand can be rather difficult and painful. After almost three hours of sewing, my fingers rebelled against doing any more today. Velcro closures had become worn out with age, so not only was I sewing through canvas, I was sewing through Velcro. Ouch! All I can say is, "Thank goodness for thimbles!"
Clark offered to take me out tonight for my belated birthday dinner. I jumped at the opportunity to avoid spending the night in the galley. We went to the Wharf Tavern Restaurant and Clam Bar that is located right next to the marina. The food came out of the kitchen in record time, and better yet, the crab and shrimp cakes that I ordered tasted delicious.
I hoped to sit back and relax for the remainder of the night, but Clark had other ideas. First, he had me help him look into a problem with the Cablemaster unit that brings the boat's power cord into the boat and stores the heavy cable below decks. Clark did not like the fact that the cable landed all over the bilge instead of in its designated place. He got down below and watched as I ran the mechanism to wind it in. It behaved itself, of course, because he was watching. We did discover that one of the remote controls for the unit failed to operate due to corroded contacts (a separate issue), which he addressed.
From there he dragged me forward to investigate a banging-pipe sound that occurs when the hot water is turned off. He puzzled over that one for quite a while crawling around the bilge with me turning water off and on to make the rather-loud bang. He could not identify the source of the noise. He did, however, find another problem for his punch list. We have another leaky sink - this time in the guest head.
After our two mostly-failed missions, Clark excused me from duty, so I could write up today's blog entry. Time, and a reasonable WiFi connection, allowing, I now plan to watch at least one episode of Lethal Weapon over the internet! I am three episodes behind and that is totally unacceptable!
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