Captain's Blog

Captain's Blog: 8-6-16

To quote John Lennon (and my father-in-law), "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans". This sentiment could be NO TRUER of boating. The schedule is, what it is, and forever will be. We will get there when we get there - now sit back, shut up, and enjoy the ride..... I decided to start this blog as a fun way to log our boating trips - more for friends and family who want to follow our adventures beyond snipets on facebook. I figured it would be boring and have little content with just a few random pics here and there of what we did. But this trip has really given me something to write about. I truly hope that from here on out the blog/trip is somewhat uneventful and take a turn to the dull side. It has been a blast - but a week here in the keys and a return ~250 are still on our horizon. To coin a phrase, his trip has truly been a once in a lifetime experience. To that, let me be clear, I hope to make this trip MANY more times in my future, I truly do - but nothing will ever surpass the humility and elation of making this FIRST BIG TRIP....

Nothing says marina driveway like a pair of nav lights on pillars. Score a big win for Sanibel Marina!

....muffins and a newspaper delivered to the boat at 0730 - AWESOME JOB Sanibel Marina! We should have told them there were 6 of us aboard instead of two....

At about 9am we finished our fuel up and pulled out of Sanibel Island onto Naples for a quick top-off before the crossing (better to be safe than sorry on fuel). As we were approaching Naples a looming squall finally opened up on our position. The seas remained 2-3' with 12 sec interval so we kept her on plane at about 22mph. As we prepared to make the turn and enter Gordon Pass to enter Naples, I noticed on the radar that the squall had moved inland and was now pissing all over Naples, yet was clearing out in the gulf. So I pulled a Captain's Prerogative and redirected us to Marco Island for the top-off.

Marco Island - now there is an interesting story.... nothing like two days ago interesting, but still interesting none the less. Pulling into Big Marco Pass is an idle speed zone...not minimum wake, but IDLE....the ENTIRE WAY - ugh! We find a marina on the charts and motor our way to it, through some sort of channel - marked (I suppose you would call it marked)..... 1 marker (red coming in and green on the other side heading out) in between some mangroves - figured out the secret, HUG the marker. :) We make our way to the marina, only to find out they have fuel but are a high and dry and don't have the proper licensing to fuel on the water - well crap - back into the inlet and across to the south side to find a different marina. We stop off at Rose Marina, which after our top off gave us a temp slip so we could go to the restaurant next door and get some food before the run. During our transit though, we come across this little gem of a house...... quite an eclectic collection of McDonald's memorabilia.....

It is now noon - weather reports are showing that the seas are 1-2' with 10mph winds, calming to 0' seas with 5mph winds in he afternoon. With a bit of weather getting ready to roll in, perfect timing to take a break and "wait it out". We find a little marina restaurant next door to Rose Marina with a fantastic fried Grouper basket. We also ordered up conch fritters which I think were pretty darn good too!

After lunch, we collect our vessel and motor out of Big Marco Pass - "Make your heading one-eight-zero degrees for the Keys!". We begin our run and quickly find that our required heading takes us right into the waves, approx 2-3' seas with 5 sec intervals. Jonathan happens to be at the helm as we are exiting the inlet (his first time piloting my boat). We left the inlet, brought her up on plane and as he was handling her just fine and was enjoying himself, he stayed in command. I expected him to handle her well, which he did. But with a bit of a learning curve - V-drives don't maneuver quite as quickly out drives. Our intended bearing was approx 160deg, but he had to constantly tack between 130deg and 220deg to keep us from getting pounded. The occasional rogue wave would build up right in front of us, and Jonathan would attempt a quick response maneuver, to which my big girl would gradually follow... he quickly learned that patience is the key when maneuvering bigger boats!

About 20 miles out of Marco, the seas layed down. We picked up our true bearing. Ran her at 4000RPM's, getting 22-25mph at 36-38gph all the way into Marathon.

With all that said, WE MADE IT!!! About 1730 we cleared Bullard Bank, onwards to John Sawyer Bank and into Faro Blanco. Pulled into port about 1830. With a beer in the hand, we celebrate.