Winter on the Water Ends for Us

February 29- March

Time to get ready to go back to North Carolina!  On the 29th we rented an Enterprise car and drove our car to Cocoa and left it at a friend's house.  We plan to rent again after we motor the boat to Jacksonville and go pick the car up, take it back to Jax, get the boat ready to leave at a new marina we've picked out, pack up the car and head home just in time for springtime in the Carolinas.

Our total for this last boat leg will be about 400 miles, Ft. Myers to Jacksonville, and should take 9-10 days.

March 1 - Ft. Myers to Franklin Lock

Wayne found that the Corps of Engineers maintains an RV park and docks at the Franklin Lock on the Caloosahatchee River   With our senior citizens discount we had dockage for $15.00 inclusive of water and electric.  Quite a deal with good showers and restrooms.  It was just a short hop from Ft. Myers but we've been thinking we want to check this out and were glad we did.

The lower route is the one we take to get around Lake Okeechobee.  We can cut at least an hour off our trip by taking a route
straight across the lake but it is shallow and often rough with unpredictable weather.  Remember, we're in no rush and are
only a little bit adventuresome..

RR bridge leaving Ft. Myers

Franklin Lock Park
Really nice

Looking over the waters from our dock at the Franklin Lock

Most marinas have a take one/leave one lending library.
Many of them are full of what I call "books that have come to die,"
terrible yellowed pages on aged paperbacks with ripped or missing covers.
Franklin Lock's was a standout composed of all hardbound books
in good shape.  You weren't allowed to just drop one off but
had to donate it through the front gate, I assume requiring approval
by the powers-that-be.

We took this shot of the water rushing through the Franklin Lock.
Lake O is very high due to heavy rains this winter and the Army
Corps of Engineers is dumping lake water in huge amounts.  Like 6 billion gallons per day.
In Fort Myers there were lots of complaints about the brown water
coming off the lake and discoloring the beautiful blue Gulf, adversely
 affecting the winter tourist industry.

March 2 - Franklin Lock to Lake Okeechobee Anchorage

We had a good day's travel and dropped our anchor in the same spot we've been in before, just before open water on the Lake O rim route.  Last month we were swarmed by little tan cockroaches here and they invaded the interior of the boat.  We've been fighting them for a month.  We were on the lookout for them this time but, whatever they were doing back then, they seem to have finished it and hopefully have not left eggs to hatch in our boat later.  Ugh!

Sunrise on the waterway

March 3 - Lake O to Ft. Pierce Anchorage

An easy day with great weather took us to a new anchorage, a little pocket of a lake just east of the bridge going to the beach in Ft. Pierce.  We'll definitely anchor in this spot again.  We enjoyed a beautiful, calm evening, just cool enough to make for great sleeping weather. We decided to stop over in Vero Beach tomorrow and contacted friends and Wayne's brother to see if we could get together.

Lake Okeechobee at its best....as we left our protected anchorage

And its worst.  The smoke is from burning off sugar cane stalks
during the cane harvest.  The ash from it floats onto our boat when the wind
blows toward us and makes a big mess.
The cranes are building new concrete spillways to try to control the lake water better.

We've never seen this process before but have heard of it.  There's a fixed railroad bridge just as you get to the eastern side of Lake O.  It's too low for most sailboats to maneuver under.  But, for a price a guy will come to your boat and load you up with big barrels that he fills with water to weigh you down on one side and tilt your mast just enough to slip under the bridge.  You can see the blue water barrels being loaded onto this sailboat.

Another RR bridge along the Okeechobee Waterway

Why are the RR bridges always closed when we get there?

The last lock, St Lucie Lock with Lk O at 16 feet above sea level

16 feet of water drop later and we were at Atlantic sea level and head east to Stuart, FL

March 4 - Ft. Pierce to Vero Beach City Marina

After serious discussion we decided to try for a dock space at the city marina.  After all, we've managed to keep our dockage rates to $15.00 for the last three nights.  Marina space generally goes for anywhere from $1.75/ft to $2.00/ft,  For us that's between seventy and eighty dollars.  Ridiculous considering that we supply our own linens and towels and soap and bed...and breakfast.  The marina gives us a docking space and water hookup.  Electricity is an additional charge!
Wayne's brother, Howard, came and took us to lunch and then we met friends Gil, Donna, and Rob for supper and fun conversation that night.  Tomorrow we'll make it to Cocoa for sure and maybe even Titusville.

You can't imagine how many goofy partial shots we got before we
managed this selfie
Gil, Rob, Donna, Colleen and Wayne
We're looking forward to meeting up with you again.

March 5 & 6 - Vero Beach to Titusville

We did make it to Titusville today - a whopping 73 miles which is an eight or nine hour trip for us.  We faced a cold, northerly wind most of the day and were wiped out when we arrived.  Another marina stay so we could avoid the rough weather.  I grabbed the opportunity to wash clothes and we were so happy to have Roger, Marcy, my friend Marla and her granddaughter, Mia, join us for supper at Cracker Jack's.  I think the food was good.  The three dollar margaritas were fantastic.
The next day 25 mph winds were forecast and we were having battery issues so prudence suggested another day in port.  Well spent - reading, napping, sewing.

Marker 63 on the ICW.
This was a family destination when our boys were little.
We never pass it without remembering our guys playing with hermit crabs, exploring
the island, fishing, swimming, and camping out.

Marla, Mia Wayne, Marcy, Roger

Marcy made me a pair of socks.
Aren't they cool?

March 7 - Titusville to Hammock Beach Marina

Sunrise over the NASA Causeway Bridge.  One of the many beautiful sunrises we see each year in Florida

Wow! Up on plane and running 18.4 mph!

......And things were going so well.  Our plan was to make it to the marina at Marineland, north of Daytona.  Early afternoon Wayne smelled diesel fuel and investigated and discovered fuel leaking under the motor on the port side of the boat.  We shut down the port engine (thank goodness for a boat with two engines) and we began looking for a backup plan.  We settled on calling a nearby marina at Hammock Beach near Palm Coast and they had space for us.  We've stayed here before and, in fact, have friends whose home is right at the marina.
So, when you've got lemons.........  We called Larry and Margaret and begged them to come over and help us clean out our refrigerator.  They graciously agreed and we had another fun evening with friends.  Thanks for being so flexible Larry and Margaret.  And...thanks for the wine and conversations.  Getting together with you was a pleasure.

Larry and Margaret

Repair Stories

Don't you all just look forward to this part of the blog?

We have had two issues on the trip to Jacksonville. One has been the short time that our battery bank is lasting.  The house bank of 4 deep discharge batteries is only lasting until early morning before auto-shutdown occurs.  The charge should last two days.  What we found was that the batteries were not being fully charged when we run on one engine half the travel time.  An eight hour travel day was only giving us 4 hours of charge.  Also we had turned off the 130 amp charger on our inverter - don't know why we did that.  Two simple cures, one - turn on the 130 amp charger for when we hook up at marinas and two - switch to "Both" on the battery selector switch when we are motoring and switch back to bank 1 when we stop.  Hope that we remember to do that.

The second problem was we had the FUEL LEAK on the port motor.  After we put in at the Hammock Beach Marina, Wayne started to look for the leak.  Immediately it was apparent that the smaller engine mounted fuel filter was leaking at a seam.  Wayne replaced the fuel filter but what a mess to clean up.  Wayne used all eight bilge diapers (these are 16 inch square oil absorbent pads) plus 6 more that the marina manager gave us to clean up the mess. There were probably 3 gallons of diesel fuel spread along eight feet of the ledge under the motor and it had spilled over into our bilge water and was spread throughout the boat.  The boat now has a pungent diesel smell that will take a lot of cleaning to remove.

We had a second scare today when it appeared that we still had a diesel leak.  We shut down the engine and reevaluated our options.  There was no way that we were going to make it to Jacksonville today.  The current at St Augustine had slowed us to 6 mph.  We decided to pull off and anchor in a creek that we had previously used to see if we could find and stop the leak.  After spending much time crawling all over the engine there appeared to be no further leak.  Wayne concluded that what looked like more leakage was merely pockets of puddled fuel spreading across the hull fiberglass and staining the bilge diapers.  Better to be safe than sorry later.

I know that there is fuel leaking here somewhere???????

We always enjoy seeing this tugboat sitting amongst beautiful homes on the ICW.
It appears to be inhabited.

One of the pretty bridges that we passed through

March 8 - Hammock Beach to Pine Island Anchorage

Our anchorage near Pine Island
The middle of nowhere

Wayne seems to be prepared to go back to North Carolina.  He says he's ready for more mundane problems than what he's faced over the past few days.


We received word today that Roger and Marcy picked up our car in Cocoa and drove it to our marina in Jacksonville.  What a huge favor.  Thank you both so much!

The Atlantic ocean viewed from the ICW at Matanzas Inlet

This leaning buoy gives you a good idea of the fast current at Matanzas Inlet
and all the way to St, Augustine and beyond.
   Three hours traveling at 6 mph against this!

The final sewing project is finished.
I'm thinking it will be a good gift for my good friend - me!

March 9 - Pine Island Anchorage to Jacksonville

Today was the last leg of our nine day journey from Ft. Myers to Jacksonville.

This is the scene that greeted us this morning as we left our Pine Island anchorage and pulled into the ICW.  So much a typical scene in the Florida wilds - palm trees, morning mist and beautiful waters beckoning us onward.

Such a great start to the day......and then Wayne went below to make sure the leak issue was completely resolved.  No such luck!  We still had a fuel leak.  With Colleen running the boat Wayne went down into the engine space with hearing protectors on and could finally see the leak this time. We shut down the port engine again and continued on to Jacksonville on one engine.  Now that we can actually see the source of the second leak we will be able to fix it.  The leak will have to be fixed at our new marina home, not on the water.

 Jacksonville is a huge port city with all of the cargo action right along the St. Johns River waterway that we travel too.  Here a twelve story crane is loading shipping containers, each of which is the size of a semi trailer.

Downtown Jacksonville is right on the water too.  In the distance
 you may be able to make out two of the four bridges that connect one side of the river to the other

Cool Change is comfortably settled in her berth at The Marina at Ortega Landing.  We'll spend a few days packing and cleaning and trying to conclusively resolve the fuel leak issue and then we'll be on our way back home just in time for tulips and daffodils, redbuds and Bradford pear trees

Thanks to all of you who have followed our travels this winter.  We so much enjoy hearing from you and always look forward to visits from many of you along the way.


                                                                   Boat friends
                                                By Colleen

Ships that pass

We’ve met you at pot luck get-togethers in marinas

In laundromats and shower rooms

Swinging on a nearby buoy in the Florida Keys

In marina Captain’s Lounges from Little River to Brunswick to Jacksonville

And points south and west

You pass our boat on a dock and see me quilting on the back deck

Or repairs in progress

Or you notice our lettuce garden in its bowl

And you stop to chat

We get together for cocktails or dinner or late-night hot fudge sundaes

Boaters exchange personal cards and read each other’s blogs

And they connect but usually in a most casual way

Because they know they will be moving on

And might not see each other ever again

                                    So for however long we had to know you,

                           Howard and Joanne, Dale and Mary, Rob and Donna

                                Gil and Charlene, Alan and Joyce, Paul and Sue

                               Terry and Christy, John and Kay, Benny and Lisa,

                             Indra and Nelson, George and Debra, Jann and Gary

                                                             It was a pleasure

Life in Ft. Myers

February. 2016

With this blog entry we'll try to catch you up with a busy month and the many activities that go on in Ft. Myers every February, as well as Colleen's newest sewing projects and Wayne's ever-present boating repair adventures.

Ft. Myers Entertainment 

During February the city celebrates Thomas Edison, its most famous winter resident.  We showed you the Artfest last blog.  There's also a Mutt Strutt dog show, a Children's Parade, a car show, a craft show and the culminating nighttime Edison Light Parade, held the last weekend of the month.  Over the years the city has worked hard and successfully to bring life into its downtown.

This fountain statue features Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone,
commemorating one of the many camping trips the friends made into
the wilds of Florida in the early 1900s.

Leif Lustig, dockmaster at the Ft. Myers City Docks.
Friendly, hardworking and willing to wear a pink chef.'s hat
for the Valentine cookout and potluck.
Leif, as always, thank you for a wonderful stay. 

Mutt Strutt Dog Show

The biggest

And the smallest.  They say it's a dog??????
  Notice the Great Dane's tail in the upper left.

For just a dollar, a "kiss" from a French Bulldog

We had fun watching the Hot Dog Races.
The owners, many of whom had outfits coordinating
with those of their weiner dogs, were as much fun
 to watch as the dogs.

The Children's Parade

The second Saturday in February is the Children's Parade.  It features kids and their parents and we wish we could show you more photos.  I think I like it better than the big nighttime parade at the end of the month.

The Junior Royalty for the Edison Festival of Light

What a wild idea!

We saw many bands and this particular one was a standout as
 its members danced and played their way down the street.

These children in their wagons are all being pulled by "dadpower,"
hitched up at the front

There were Budweiser horses and this.

The most elaborate float.  I hope it won a prize.

Car Show

One of the great events for Wayne during the Edison Festival month is the collector car show,  It draws all manner of car from the 1930s to today's models.

 We're in Florida, right?  So we shouldn't have been surprised to discover a band populated entirely by oldsters.  Not just a band but the whole nine yards - cheerleaders, majorettes and a flag corps too.  We understand that The Awesome Original Second Time Arounders Marching Band from St. Petersburg, FL is a famous group (see  www.secondtimearounders.com) that travels all around mostly Florida to play.  The group is the largest permanent adult marching band in the world.  Their website says that their members have marched in a high school, college or military marching band and have dreamed of doing it one more time.

The majorettes and cheerleaders were full of energy.

The band is so large we couldn't get a photo of the entire group.

The Edison Festival of Lights Parade

The month ends with an after-dark parade filled with lighted floats, bands, cars and fireworks over the river, all celebrating Thomas Edison, Ft. Myer's famous winter resident and the inventor of the electric light bulb.  

All the parade entries are decorated with electric lights.
What would Thomas E. think if he could see this display?

The parade crowd is entertained with a fireworks show
 before the parade starts.

World War II Vintage Airplane Display

These airplanes were on display one weekend at Page Field in Ft. Myers. For $12 each we were allowed to climb into a B24 and a B17 airplane and to view a P51 Mustang up close.  When I say "climb into" I mean just that.  It was very tight moving from the front of the planes through the bomb bays and toward the tail gunners position.  We were thoroughly impressed when we thought about a cousin's husband who was shot down over France in a B24 and later crash landed at the cliffs of Dover in a B17 and made it home from the war.

Looking into the cockpit

It's hard to imagine what the aircrews endured in the gunnery
 section of these planes.  We could see why there was
little chance for the tail gunner to bail out if a plane was shot down.

the B-17

And, Of Course We Have Repairs

How did this happen?   We found the top half of our port bow light laying on the deck one day .

Old light disassembled versus the new replacement.  Another $54

Oh yes.  This is the second time to reseal the drain in the master shower.
 This time all the caulking was dug out and replaced right down to the original installation seal.

Sometimes fingers get in the way!
 Note the hole that "Dr." Wayne drilled into the nail to relieve the pressure!

Trying to get the trumpet horns to sound off correctly.
  The volume of sound is about 20 % of what it should be.

Putting the horns back together after cleaning and testing.
 But...no go.  They still do not work very well.

Winding Down the Sewing Projects

I try hard every winter to run out of projects just as I run out of winter.  This has been a productive year.  I made many of our Christmas gifts and small gifts to give to boat friends we meet along the way.  I've completed three quilts and several purses and bags, some pillows, a bed runner, a Christmas wall hanging, a table runner and a quilt top.  A friend in Vero gave me an idea for a bag to hold the hands free wireless headsets we use on the boat.  I delivered four quilts I made last year to my sisters-in-law and also made Christmas ornaments for family members.

It ain't pretty but it does the job.  This bag holds the control box for
our wireless headset.  We tuck it inside our shirt
 and the neck strap keeps it from falling into the water.

This quilt top is for a friend.  It's too big for me to quilt
 on the boat so a professional long arm quilter will do that part of the job.

A big, full-of-inside-pockets purse

This is meant to carry quilting supplies.  Notice the
"newsrint" story below, goofy quilting stories.

Four of these together will make a tablerunner.  It should be finished soon.

The project I enjoyed doing most, though, was not a sewing project at all.  I wrote down a collection of family stories and paid Office Depot to bind them into hardback book form.  These were given to our granddaughters as Christmas gifts.  The stories were some I've told them over the years when they said, "Noodle, tell me a story" and some were family stories they hadn't heard yet - "Grandpa and the Gator" was a particular favorite.  It was so satisfying to get these tales down in black-and-white in a permanent form.  I hope it proves to be a treasured gift for my family for many years to come.

Quilt Shows and Shops

These two pieces were part of Cityscapes - A Slice of Ft. Myers, a show presented by Art Quilters Unlimited and featuring artists' renderings in fabric art of favorite sites in and around Ft. Myers.

These are not paintings.  Their colors are stitched
by hand or machine.

Probably my favorite piece from this year's Stitches in Time
Quilt show presented by the Naples Quilters Guild.
 Even among lots of tropical inspired quilts, this is a standout.

One of several good quilt shops close to our marina.  I love a store where I can walk in,
show a clerk a piece of fabric with which I want to coordinate and she instantly shows me what I'm looking for.

Life on Cool Change

After three months aboard, life has settled into a comfortable routine.

All the comforts of home - a princopy machine in the bedroom

Our lettuce garden has supplied us with salad greens all winter long.
We also have a basil plant and a Christmas poinsetta that persists
in blooming, more than two months after Christmas.

 Sometimes marinas supply nice laundry facilities and sometimes not.  There are never enough washers in the marina so we frequently look for a local laundromat so we can get our week's worth done faster.

Among the best laudromats we found, clean and well stocked
with rollaround baskets, folding tables, change and snack machines,
not-too-out-of-date magazines and good washers and dryers.

Jann and Gary Merrill are friends we made in 2010 in the Florida Keys.
Our paths seldom cross but we always have a good time when they do.

Jann and Gary's boat was named "Tie a Knot," as in "When you get to the end of your
rope, tie a knot and hang on".  Jann figured our boarding rope was probably designed
 with her and Gary in mind.

And another installment in the Weird Signs department

So...When do they open?  Read carefully.