The last post left us in Naples, FL. From there we traveled up to Cape Coral and spent some time with our friends Rick and Candice who we had met 4 years ago in Deltaville, VA. We had a great time with them, as always, and then decided that we needed to get moving up the west coast of FL
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Rick and Candice on Wings
Pelican Bay anchorage on Cayo Costa Island is a very popular spot with the local boaters. You will always find a good number of boats anchored there. It is one of the most protected anchorages on the west coast of Florida. We stayed there for just one night and then proceeded up to Sarasota. What a great city to visit. Everything is conveniently located near the waterfront, so from a boater’s outlook it’s great. Some very dear friends from our days in California (Dave and Nancy) were visiting his father who lives in Sarasota. We were able to spend some great quality time with them and reminisced a lot about the good ole days in Ventura, CA. We hadn’t seen them for a couple of years so we really enjoyed our visit. We stayed in Sarasota for about 5 or 6 days waiting out some windy conditions.
Pelican Bay on Caya Costa Island
Finally we were off to Tarpon Springs where we were going to leave the boat and travel by car up and around the Big Bend of Florida to Mobile Bay, Alabama. We got lined up with a marina, tied up Diamond Girl so we could leave her for a week, and rented a car for our journey. We had decided that taking the boat around the Big Bend just wasn’t practical for what we needed to do. As you might recall from our last posting, we are now working for Dozier’s Waterway Guide as cruising editors and part of our territory is the Big Bend area of FL. It starts around Tarpon Springs and continues along the “Big Bend” over to the Alabama border. Most of the water in the area is too shallow for our 4-foot draft on the boat. We couldn’t travel by boat into some of the areas anyway, so doing it by car seemed more practical. What we found was a very “down home” atmosphere. A lot of back woods type area. Very small marinas, some with limited facilities, some that catered to small boats only, some that were well maintained and some that were horribly maintained. All in all, it was a fun trip. We did a lot of updating for the Waterway Guide and saw a large portion of the country that we had never seen before.
Tarpon Springs...Sponge Capital of the World
When we got back to the boat, we decided to stay in Tarpon Springs for a couple of extra day in order to do some sightseeing. It is a small town that is advertised as the Sponge Capital of the World. It’s mainly a Greek population. The Sponge Docks are the one and only attraction and they are interesting. We did what is expected of tourists; we window shopped in all of the little souvenir stores, ate some delicious Greek food, and actually had a good time. We don’t know that we’ll go back again, but it was certainly worth seeing at least once.
Another work boat in Tarpon Springs
At this point we were interested in starting back down the west coast and heading across the Okeechobee Waterway to the east coast of Florida. We made stops in Bradenton, Pelican Bay again, and to Bimini Basin which is a really neat anchorage in the middle of Cape Coral. We spent a couple of days in Bimini Basin with outboard motor problems. Rowing our dinghy around isn’t exactly fun so we had a mechanic come to rebuild the carburetor and get us going again. Fortunately, it wasn’t a major repair and didn’t take very long because we wanted to get going again.
Crossing Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway is one of our favorite trips. It takes you right through old Florida. Most of the little towns were originally founded either for the sugarcane industry or the railroads. Some of them haven’t changed much and still have the old flavor to them. Unfortunately, some are slowly dying away because the young people move away seeking jobs that just aren’t available to them there. But for people like us, that like to explore around, they make for a great stop.
On the way up the Caloosahatchee River you have to transit three locks before you get to Lake Okeechobee. At the first lock, which is Franklin Lock, the Army Corps of Engineers while building the lock also built a campground and an eight-slip marina. You can stay in the marina for only 48 hours, and it is only $24 a night. If you have a Golden Passport card that is for seniors, you can stay for $12 a night. So... being old has some advantages. We stayed 2 nights! The next stop was a little town named Moore Haven. There isn’t much there, but it is a good spot to get an early start in the morning for crossing the lake.
Franklin Lock in Florida
Crossing Lake Okeechobee is pretty straightforward. It’s 25 miles across and extremely shallow. In the middle of the crossing you will find 12 or 13 feet of water in the marked channel, but if you stray out of that channel you might be aground before you know it. There is a very well marked channel, and if you stay in it there will be no problem. Once you’ve crossed the lake, there is another lock to transit and then you are in the St. Lucie River. Indiantown is just a short distance down the river and an interesting stop. It is one of the popular places to keep a boat for the hurricane season. They have a huge storage yard, and they strap the boats down with four-inch nylon straps.
Coming into Indiantown
We left Indiantown and took a straight shot for Vero Beach. It was a long day, but we were ready to get someplace to stay for a little while. It turned out to be a week. We’ve written about Vero Beach before. It’s a very boater-friendly town. All of the services are convenient to the marina for everything you might possibly need. Next we were off to Palm Coast. It’s a two-day run up the east coast to get there. We have some very good friends there (Dave and Elaine) who allow us to use the dock behind their house. We always have a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again.
St. Augustine was our next stop. We belong to an organization called the MTOA. It stands for Marine Trawler Owner’s Association. Well, they were having a rendezvous in St. Augustine and we wanted to attend. There were seminars, some workshops, and a lot of camaraderie. The group is made up of trawler owners who are very active with their boats. A lot of the members are just like us and cruise full time year around. These gatherings are a lot of fun, and we always look forward to attending. This particular event had about 50 or 60 boats and somewhere near 200 people.
After the rendezvous, Dave and Elaine MacDonald traveled north on their boat with us for a few days. When they left us to return home to Palm Coast, we began our trip north to the Chesapeake Bay once again. We have now done 4 roundtrips from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay since we came back here, and we’re starting our 5th. From Palm Coast, it is 800 miles up to the Chesapeake Bay which takes us about 3 to 4 weeks to complete (depending on weather). We enjoy stopping in all of the little towns along the way, and there are numerous anchorages that we like to stay in for a day or more. All in all, it’s a great time! Believe it or not, we still look forward to the trip every year.
One of the towns that we always look forward to visiting is Savannah, GA. We don’t stop right in Savannah but just outside of the city in a town called Thunderbolt. The marina is a really friendly place and quite convenient to the bus system if you need to go anywhere. But that isn’t why we stop there now. The real reason is because the timing of our arrival almost always coincides with our wedding anniversary, and there is a little restaurant that has almost become a tradition for us. It’s called Tubby’s Tank House. This year some new friends (Dick and Elle) just happened to be there too, and they joined us for dinner. It was a great evening! Tubby’s is not a fancy place; it’s just a very down-home style restaurant with a lot of southern hospitality and some great rocking chairs out on the front porch. We’ll do again next year! Also, every morning at 7 a.m. the marina places a newspaper plus a box of 6 warm Krispy Kream donuts on your deck. What more do you need in life…right?
Tubby's Tank House
Dick and Elle on Summer Wind
Right now, we are in the Alligator River Marina waiting out some windy weather conditions. Tomorrow we’ll leave and go across the Albemarle Sound which is one of the worst bodies of water that we need to cross on the entire ICW. You want to pick the weather very carefully as we have learned from past experience. The trip north is just about to end as far as getting up to the Chesapeake Bay. We should be there within a couple of days. This year, though, we have decided to continue through The Bay and head up to explore the Long Island Sound to Block Island. The people at the Waterway Guide want us to cover that area for them which will give us a purpose to travel farther north. It should be fun as well as interesting, and we are really looking forward to a new adventure. If you want to get more information about the Waterway Guide, go to www.waterwayguide.com. It’s a great publication, and we feel privileged to be working with them.
The end of another day in Paradise
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47 Great years together
Bud and Elaine
