Once again I woke to the sound of water running under the hull (I recognized the sound this time) and the AGLCA burgee madly flapping in the wind. I realized as I came awake that I had built the sound of the burgee into my dreams envisioned as a man riding a rocking horse as fast as he could make it go. I have to laugh at my dreams sometimes as they can be quite outrageous.
At 0930 hours we started to pull up anchor only to be stymied by the winch and anchor rode yet again. Clark had to use tools to open up the feed mechanism to untangle the mess twice. Grrr! We lost thirty minutes fighting with it. Here are some views, taken yesterday evening, of our anchorage at Little Shark River in the Everglades. Note it is much more popular than Russell Pass (also in the Everglades) where we anchored alone the night before. By the time we were ready to depart only one sailboat remained in the anchorage area.
 |
| Neighbors upstream from us |
 |
| Couple out sightseeing from their sailboat |
 |
| Neighbors across the water from us |
 |
| View from our stern |
As we headed out into the Gulf, we dealt with shallow water depths and unexpected crab traps. We thought the traps could not be set up within Everglades Park boundaries, so they took us by surprise. While Clark dealt with depths and traps, I had fun watching three dolphins that decided to follow our boat for some distance. Since they visited us for a decent amount of time, I got a few good pictures.
 |
| Dolphins playing by our boat |
As we followed the course out into the Gulf, we had the wind with us. That being the case, we had some gnats that tagged along for the ride. If we had had wind, it would have blown them away. I could not wait until we changed direction to get some relief.
The view today was much the same as the two previous days; however, the crab traps seemed to have multiplied ten-fold. I tried to escape and let Clark do the bulk of the steering / navigating today, but he had other ideas on that. First he wanted to check an issue in the engine room, so he left me at the helm. Then, later, he wanted to configure the chart plotter to show screen data that we find useful, so I had to take the helm again.
While Clark read the manual and set up the chart plotter, I steered through crab trap hell. Using AutoPilot was just about a lost cause. As soon as I turned on the AutoPilot, I would come upon another mine field that had to be steered through manually. With Clark manipulating the chart plotter directly in front of me, I had to reach over him to turn on/off the AutoPilot, look over and around him to maneuver through my mine fields, and maintain a close approximation of our course heading. With nothing better to aim for, I selected various cloud formations as my targets for my course. The clouds were nice and fluffy, so I found a pair of lips, a hairy eyebrow, a set of boobs, an open end wrench, and a pair of lobster claws to act as my targets.
By 1330 hours Clark had the display set up the way we find useful, so I handed over controls to him and went down below to make lunch. I gladly escaped the helm in exchange for galley duty. The crab traps just kept coming one after another the entire trip, but at least I got a reprieve from crab pot duty, and now it was Clark's headache to deal with.
We arrived at Faro Blanco marina in Marathon, Florida about 1445 hours, so almost a five-hour voyage. I was anxious to get docked and relax. Three members of the marina staff came out to help us dock. They are very efficient and had us secure in no time.
 |
| Faro Blanco Marina Lighthouse |
I stayed onboard while Clark took care of checking in at the main office. I was glad I had, when Faith from Third Degree stopped by to welcome me to the marina and tell me about the free beer, food and games setup by the pool area. I quickly locked the boat and followed Faith to the free beer!
I thought I would see Clark on the way there, but he must have still been in the office. As I sat talking to Faith by the pool, I wondered where Clark was. I texted him that I was sitting by the pool with Faith. He texted back that he was "at boat slaving in the heat". When I looked over that way, I could see him on the boat washing off the three-days of salt we had accumulated. I decided he did not need my help.
As 5:00 rolled around, Faith told me that docktails are held out at the lighthouse every night about this time. It felt like old times as we did the same thing last year when here. I met several AGLCA loopers there and heard that more are expected to arrive in the next few days. From the animated conversation we had this evening, I can tell that we will be in good company for the month of February. We collected several new boat cards!
When sunset rolled around, the cannon fired "kaboom" just like last year, and just like last year, I jumped out of my skin not expecting the sudden bang.
 |
| Sunset at Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon, FL |
The setting sun indicated that we needed to go our separate ways to find our dinners. Back onboard, I scraped together some leftovers to have a quick meal. After dinner Clark went off to work on boat projects, and I dove into blog writing. Since we do have a car here, he suggested a trip to the food store, but I could not get motivated to deal with that tonight. Tomorrow will be soon enough to restock.
No comments:
Post a Comment