THE GULF COAST AND THE BEGINNING OF THE END

It's been more than two years since my last post on Manana. A lot has happened since then. I want my friends and the wonderful people we met along the way to know why it ended so abruptly, what I have been doing and what I plan to do in the future. The following is what I wrote and had planned to post after getting the pictures from Denise and before leaving for home to take care of my business. I never got the pictures from Denise. It was more than two years ago, I had no idea what was going to happen next. Once we got into the leisurely cruising mode and taking our time at every anchorage, there just didn't seem to be a lot to talk about. Looking back, we were just having too much fun visiting all those places and had a hard time deciding what was the most important thing to tell you about. I took enough time to update our map. If you click on "view larger map", you will be able to see the entire trip and all our stops. You can also move your mouse around the map and follow our trip. Things were also changing in my business. Ill talk more about that later, but let's start up where we left off. It was finally time to leave Fort Myers Beach. Our friends Ed & Benia were leaving to go back North and we wanted to get closer to the Tampa area to find a protected spot for hurricane season. With North winds blowing, We decided to take the first leg of the trip on the intercoastal to the Charlotte Harbor area and maybe beyond. Where we stopped would depend on how far we could go in a day. The closest stop would be Burnt Store Marina in Charlotte Harbor and the furthest would be Venice. As we wove our way through the intercoastal, it looked like Burnt Store would be our next stop. It was interesting seeing areas we had viewed from the shore and our car. It turned out to be a nice day for a ride and by the time we got across Charlotte Harbor we were ready to stop for the night. The entrance into Burnt Harbor was narrow and so shallow on each side that fishermen were wading out to go fishing and birds were resting on dry sand bars. Burnt Store is a marina built around a planned community of homes and condominiums. The marina has a few stores and a nice restaurant and bar. The rest is residential and you need a car to go anywhere of interest. One of the reasons we stopped here was to try to catch up with our friends on BREOthat we had first met on the Erie Canal and ran into months later in Daytona Beach. We caught up with them the next day and had fun sharing our experiences and future plans. Our next stop would be Venice, Florida. We decided to go out into the Gulf for this trip and it resulted in a beautiful sail all the way up the coast. The winds were good, the seas were small and the shoreline was beautiful with bright white beaches, beautiful homes and condos all along the coast. It was an effortless sail and we arrived at the Crow's Nest Marina just inside the inlet by mid afternoon. Venice is a beautiful, touristy and somewhat "artsy" town with many interesting restaurants and shops. Apparently, the most popular restaurant happened to be The Crow's Nest at our marina. The marina had free loaner bikes and we made good use of them touring the town and getting lots of exercise. The following morning, we were planning on heading North to Tampa Bay and the Twin Dolphins Marina in Bradenton Florida. Once again the forecast was for strong North Winds and we decided we would leave early in the morning and head up the intercoastal. Our friend Sam Rodgers, from Bradenton, had told us that there were boats having trouble getting through an area just South of Tampa Bay on the intercoastal near Long Boat Key and we should reconsider going that way. We talked to some boats that had just come through that area and, although there was some dredging going on, they did not have a problem. One person did say that they heard there were problems and went outside through Long Boat Pass to avoid it, which is a very shallow and tricky inlet on the North side of Long Boat Key. We decided that we would try it, and continued our plans. We were up early and ready to go. The wind was blowing 15 to 20 knots on our beam, however, and was pushing us up against the dock. There was also an incoming tide that was rushing in that would also make make it difficult to get turned North, since our bow was pointing into it. We could back up and try to turn into the a little basin behind us, but if the wind and current caught us, we may have difficulty staying off the other docks and boats in such a small area. We tried to call the marina to see if someone was available to help us, but there was nobody there. There were no other boats on the dock in front of us for about 5 boat links. One of our neighbors offered to help and we thought we would give it a try going forward and push the bow out into the current to help us get turned and off the dock. We thought we had it but the stern would not clear the pylons on the dock as the wind pushed it sideways. Unfortunately, our outboard motor hooked on one of the pylons and was torn off it's mounting block and promptly dropped into about 12 feet of salt water next to the dock. Not the best start for our journey! We tied up and tried to call around to find a diver to retrieve our outboard. Salt water is extremely corrosive and, if we didn't get the motor out of the water quickly and clean it out, it would become a useless hunk of metal. After many calls with no results, a diver walked up and asked if we needed help. Someone at the Venice Yacht Club had picked up our voice mail and the diver happened to be just a block away. In less than a half hour, he was suited up, dived down, tied a line to the motor and we had it hauled up on the dock. For a very reasonable fee of $30.00, we just saved ourselves a thousand or so on a new motor! We rinsed off the motor, removed the spark plug and kept cranking it until all the water was out of the cylinder. We replaced the plug and a few cranks later it started! We remounted it and, after taking a few deep breaths, decided to try and leave again. This time, we got lots of help. The marina dock hands were able to hold on to the bow line long enough for us to pivot the stern into the current and make a complete turn and get on our way. After about an hour and two draw bridges successfully negotiated, we received a phone call from Sam. He had been talking to a Tow Boat US operator who said they had over a dozen calls from boats that were stuck at Long Boat Key. He gave us his number and we called him to confirm it, and he advised to not try to make the passage or we would be stuck and paying him to tow us out. We thought about going to Sarasota, but we would still have to go back to Venice to get out in the Gulf. So, we turned around and headed back to Venice. We had a relaxing evening after a stressful day with the promise of a good forecast for tomorrow. The forecast was correct! The winds had clocked around and were coming from the East and we had a beautiful, and uneventful sail up the coast. Once again, we had perfect winds and minimal waves and a beautiful view of all the barrier islands and their sparkling white beaches. As we approached Tampa Bay we decided to take the Southwest Channel on the South end of Egmont Key. It would save us from going through Passage Key with a questionable depth on the North Side of Amelia Island and avoid the main shipping Egmont Channel on the North side of Egmont that would require us to go further out in the Gulf to enter. Once inside the Bay, we set a South East course for the entrance to Manitee River. The Bay is larger than it looks on the charts and it took us about an hour or more to get across. As we approached the markers for the River entrance, Sam called us again. He was watching from shore and wanted to warn us that the channel entrance was shoaling and we needed to go to starboard of the Number 4 red channel marker. This is like driving off the road and into a ditch, or worse! Fortunately, there was another sail boat entering in front of us, so I told him of my friends warning and told him I would follow. Obviously, if he got stuck, I wouldn't follow my friends advice. The depths were adequate, however, and we both made it through without any problems. Twin Dolphins is as far as most sailboats can go up the river since there is a low bridge right next to it upriver. We were met by Sam and his girlfriend at his slip he had offered us. We had some difficulty getting in and tying up to a short fixed dock. It wasn't long until we found out that, although Sam had already paid for the dock, he was not allowed to sublet it. We thought this would be the case. Although his slip was close to the pool and other facilities, we decided we would rather be on a longer floating dock that would be easier to get on and off the boat and moved to the other side of the marina the next day. Twin Dolphins is a very nice marina with a swimming pool, excellent air conditioned facilities, a 1st class restaurant and bar at the end of it's pier and across the street from the county library, City Hall, museums, bars restaurants and more...all within walking distance. Since I knew I had more things to take care of in my business, we signed a 6 months lease and began to settle in. We also wanted to explore some of the interesting parks, museums and other attractions in the area. There are so many things to see around the area and we have only touched the surface. One of our field trips was to visit the Catalina Boat Yard to see how our boat was made. It was a fantastic tour and were treated very well and got answers to almost all of our questions. One of them concerned our packing gland that never seemed to be adjusted right. They suggested that it could be the shaft alignment and should have a mechanic look at it as soon as possible. We tried calling several mechanics they suggested but none of them would respond or could not schedule a time to come out. Our friend Sam came through again with the number of a mechanic he had used. We called him in the morning and he was out by noon! When he opened the engine cover, all he said was "Oh Shit!". I looked down and saw that the engine was twisted at a weird angle. We had not looked at it since we had left Fort Myers other than to check the packing gland. There had been no symptoms of any kind, no noticeable vibrations, and everything (except the packing gland) appeared to be working just fine. Somewhere, somehow, three of our four engine mounts had sheared off and the shaft would not turn because the engine had twisted and bound it inside the coupling. Wow! We were extremely lucky! It had to have happened as we were docking it in the slip. If it would have happened when we had it in gear and running at high RPMs it could have been disastrous, especially offshore. We could have lost our shaft and water would have been pouring in the boat from the hole where the shaft was. Needless to say, we scheduled him to repair it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it was time for me to head back home to take care of some business. I flew home while Denise stayed on the boat to prepare it and wait for the mechanic to work on the motor. She also scheduled a lot of other things to be done with the help of some of the dock mates and then came to Indiana. I was making some changes to be able continue cruising as much as possible. As usual, things don't always work out as smoothly as you hope and I wound up having to stick around longer than I had planned. Denise had gone back to the boat in Bradenton and I stayed in Indiana. I was able to go down for her birthday in February. I had also made arrangements to help Steve Janett sail his boat from Tampa to Corpus Christi Texas. That trip and some future trips, are recorded at http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=340003 I had planned on spending a little more time at the marina but Steve's weather router insisted he had to leave that day to avoid bad weather. Well, we hit bad weather a day later and it didn't stop until we got close to Texas 9 days later. After that, it was back to the office to help get a responsible manager in place so I could leave. Once again, harder than expected. Denise decided that she wanted to end our 14 year relationship for reasons I could not comprehend. I began working and saving money to buy another boat. I planned to make a purchase before spring of 2016. In the meantime, the trips across the Gulf with Steve and my friends at the marina have kept me in the sailing mode. So that was the end of this Sailing Manana Story. My new story has already began with the Gulf crossings and will continue when I purchase the next boat. This time it will be cruising ready when I buy it and I can start right away.