The events of the yesterday were unspectacular. No spectacular sunrise or sunset and certainly an unspectacular sail from Ft. Myers Beach to Marco Island. We were in Ft. Myers too long but Bear was over the grunge, for the most part, so we left the mooring balls for points south. We got underway just after 0800 and headed down the Mantanzas river past Freddy Freddy, under the bridge where Bonita Bill's served us several meals and around the headland to sea. It was hazy, partly cloudy and windy. Windy so it must be a sailing day in the making. Not to be. Winds SSE at 18 knots. That was the direction to Marco Island. Even five miles offshore, the waters seldom exceed 25 feet in depth. Like Corpus Christi Bay, whose depth is about 13 feet, these waters form ugly waves over about 15 knots of wind. The difference was that along the rhumb line (straight line between where we started and where we were going) the fetch was about 150 miles or so. The seas first greeting us were two to three feet. By the time we made our sea waypoint and started to Marco Island, they were two to three and square. Later they became three to five and breaking right on the nose.
What would have been a five hour run turned into a seven and one half hour run. We did not enjoy the ride at all and no matter what I did to improve it, little helped. The dodger was working perfectly and by the time we made the channel to Marco, we could barely see through it for all the dried salt. I experimented with angles to the waves. The head on approach not only diminished our speed when we "buried the bow" but the boat pouded some. A slight alteration either side of the head on angle and the ride improved some. The again, the salt spray would sneak around the dodger and spritz the helmsman's face from time to time. That would be me. Bear was tucked in the beanbag neatly behind the dodger, her proper place.
I noticed a sailing vessel astern about three miles when we hit our first sea waypoint. They were under a staysail and main but were motoring. The angle on our boat made sailing impossible as the Windex had the angle dead on the bow. During the day, that boat steadily closed the gap. How could this be? WK is a fast boat and sometimes well sailed, even I do say so. Emphasis on the word sometimes. Just as we were making the final approach to the channel at Marco Island, that boat was past us and in the channel. I hailed them and learned they were SV Grendl of Marco Island. The captain gave us some local knowledge and then mentioned he was watching us all day. BS, thinks I. We were competing and he handily wupped us. He said he spent years in the Bahamas and that he found a staysail/mainsail combination allows a much closer approach to the wind than traditional headsail/mainsail arrangements. He was at fifteen degrees whereas we could not begin to sail that close. Methinks I will investigate a staysail for WK.
The channel into the Marco Island area is one that requires attention. It is shallow, crooked and full of shoals where the charts show deep water. The hurricanes of the past and the normal tides shift the shoals around. Top that with an intersection where four channels all intersect at the same place (reds and greens all over the place in abundance along with a bi-forcation buoy and one would be unwise to try this at night. I watched a sport fishing boat on a plane so a spectacular S turn which was in the channel. It did not look like the channel but as we approached it, it became aparent. Thanks SFB.
The directions to the Marco Island Marina was to approach the center span of the fifty foot bridge and just as you clear the power lines (shown on the charts to be 65 feet which gave us only seven feet to spare) turn to port and call us. Wow, go boldly under a low high power cable then before hitting the low clearance bridge, trust us, you will see the marina to starboard. I remember just enough about electricity to know that on a wet day, seven feet may not be outside the arc zone. I also remember seeing a photo of a boat that drifted down on such a line and struck it. Anyway, the capacitance gods were asleep and we made the approach to a beautiful marina. Bear, as usual, was a bit jittery as we slid into the slip. The fellow on dock took our lines and we hit nothing. Yupee, we can use the boat again without repairs. But wait,
something does need repair.
The absolute worst piece of equipment aboard a boat, any boat, given all the systems, is the plumbing system, specifically the head. WK has two one of which is our storage locker thus unuseable. The one we use, decided to jump ship. The good news is that I think I have a repair kit aboard. If not, and if I cannot get such a kit at the local West Marine, then I will rip that sucker out and drop it in the dumpster. We will have no lazy, good for nothing, head aboard this boat. So, Bear goes to the pool and hot tub to read today and Bligh is in the business of Joe the Plumber.
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