Bye-Bye Fort Meyers Beach

 

Sunrise at Fort Meyers Beach

At it again – arriving at Fort Meyers Beach on Sunday, we anchored near the beach. We went to shore for a quick walk before the bugs came out. Monday morning we went back to the beach to collect sea shells. The tide was out by over a foot giving me an extra hundred feet of sand to search through; sand that would normally be under water. I’m happy with my finds.

Just before lunch we motored in to the mooring fields. The mooring fields were full up due to the bad weather we’ve been getting. We got lucky though – two boats left leaving two balls open for us to snatch up; one for Sanibel and one for Windygo.

The Fort Meyers Beach area on Old San Carlos Island is a nice place. It’s a little touristy, but still nice. There are lots of great eats. Bob treated Jimi and me to dinner at the Yukon Beach Stand and then we walked the pier before returning to our vessels for the night.

Paying for a mooring ball gives us access to showers (which we took full use of), laundry, water and Wi-Fi. The down side with their Wi-Fi is there really isn’t a place to use it.

My flowers are doing great. We set them outside during the day and bring them inside at night.

This is one happy bee at sea.

The lymph node on the right side of Jimi’s face has been swollen and he generally hasn’t felt good since November. He finally went to a walk-in clinic to see a Doctor. He found out he has a sinus infection and now has a prescription and on his way back to being in tip top shape.

Under the bridge to Fort Meyers Beach.

A quick and final lunch before leaving the island.

Now that's a chair.

After three nights on the mooring ball, we left the field anchoring by the beach again. Upon anchoring whenever Sanibel would swing around the helm wheel would turn. In addition we could hear some sort of banging on the hull. Jimi determined there was something on the ocean floor knocking in to our rudder. He promptly pulled anchor and moved. We’re hoping there’s no damage to the rudder; there’s no way to tell right now, as visibility would be an issue if he dived down to take a look. Keeping our fingers crossed.

He may look grumpy, but he's not - he's a sailor.

Jimi pulled anchor promptly at 7am for, roughly, a seven hour sail to Marco Island, Florida. At first the seas were calm and we were smoothly sailing along at 6 knots. Then later we were getting wind gusts, which were fine, but made things a little rougher. 

We arrived and anchored at Marco Island about 2 pm.

Bob picked us up in his dinghy and we went to shore for a preliminary look around, an afternoon snack and a cup of coffee.

A Valentine Treat

Snack Time - A triscut, salami, cheese, avocado and jalapeno. 

Three days shy of a month of being back in Charlotte Harbor.  I find it interesting that we started out here on these exact dates three years ago. For me time has flown by, but for others they say “is that all it’s been?”

When we first arrived we spent time with friends, Judy and Gary on s/v Cool Runnings, until their departure on January 31^st. Judy gave us a Mexican Train domino set. Thank you Judy! We will get good use out of it. We’re hoping to meet back up with them in Key West in the coming days.

Sunset as we left s/v Cool Runnings in Fisherman's Village Marina.

The sunsets on Florida's seas are beautiful.

The weather hasn’t really been in our favor. We’ve gotten quite a lot of rain, for days on end even. The first set of rain storms confirmed that somewhere in my bed quarters I had a leak. I knew about the leak and hoped it would miraculously fix itself, but it hadn’t; how disappointing especially when I woke in the morning to find myself lying on soggy sheets, blankets, and etc.  It’s difficult to identify where the leaks are coming from with headliners and when countless nooks and cranny's are involved. Furthermore, Jimi couldn’t begin to fix the leaks until it stopped raining. My temporary solution was to try to collect the water as it entered my berth. I did my best to identify where the drips were coming from and I found three places to set bowls catching the intruding water. It helped immensely and over the next two days, I collected somewhere around a gallon of water. Once the rain stopped we poked around some more and think we’ve figured out what’s happening. The leak seems to be coming in at the hull seem. Jimi can fix this, but he’ll have to wait for a hot, dry sunny day. In the meantime, I hope for no rain.

This is the top corner of my mattress and sheet.

These were the three containers I used to catch water. I emptied them twice in a 24 hour period.

Somewhere along this shelf is where the leaks are.

I’ve kept myself busy with a lot of reading and knitting. I’ve made soap bags, a hanging organizer for my vanity, an apple bag, another bag for onions and potatoes, a bag for bags, and carrying holders for our new Yeti mugs.

Apple bag. Apples should be stored in a dark, cool place away from other fruits and vegetables. As they sit around they put off a gas that causes other fruits and vegetables to ripen faster.

This small bag will hold one onion and two potatoes. That's a good size for us right now.

I love my bag of bags. I use all my scraps of cotton yarn and came up with this. The grocery bags are pushed in from the top and can be pulled out one at a time, as needed, from a small opening at the bottom.

My hanging organizer. 

Soap bag - no wash cloth needed. It lathers nicely with 100% cotton yarn.

While in Punta Gorda, We’d only been able to get to shore a few times for walks. Most of the time we either couldn’t go because of weather or went only for groceries, showers or laundry. It seems like we’ve been stuck on Sanibel more than usual.

On February 1^st, friend, Bob from s/v Windygo arrived to buddy sail with us. Jimi and Bob help each other with projects as needed. We’ve had him over for dinner and he’s had us over for dinner. Bob loaned us an antenna and when we hooked it up to our TV, we were able to get reception for the Super Bowl. That was GREAT – we felt as though we didn’t want to miss the game since our home team, the Broncos, was playing.

Bob arriving at the anchorage.

Chicken pot Pie from scratch on Super Bowl Sunday.

Bob had us over for dinner and grilled us some FANTASTIC steaks.

I took the leap and cut my hair. It’s length was to the middle of my back and now it sits above my shoulders. It’s still thick and out of control, but at least it’s easier to manage on a sail boat.

Jimi had had many other repairs and projects he's worked on including the patching the genoa sail,  patching the dinghy, replacing the lamps in the saloon, turning 275 feet of anchor chain around and some other miscellaneous projects.

Patching the sail.

Replacing the butyle tape under hardware.

The finale of our stay in Charlotte Harbor this year was the visit of John and Christa, from Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have been close friends of Jimi’s since his teen years. They came aboard Sanibel for a tour and an afternoon sail. Afterwards we walked along the water’s edge to the Tiki Hut where they treated us to a nice lunch. We had a fabulous time.

John, Jimi and Christa.

Lunch at the Tiki Hut.

The Tiki Hut.

Jimi and Christa in conversation.

On Saturday, February 13^th, we sailed off; we’re heading south with s/v Windygo following along. We stopped for the evening in Pelican Bay and continued the journey on Sunday. We arrived at Fort Meyers Beach, Florida around 3 pm.

It’s good to be on the move again. The way I look at it Jimi took me on a romantic sail to Fort Meyers Beach for Valentines’ Day. He also gave me some chocolate covered strawberries and a potted flower – Hyacinth. Just before sunset we went for a relaxing walk on the beach.  I can’t think of a better way to spend the day.

Hyacinth sitting in the sink during our sail.

The chocolate covered strawberries took a beating getting to me, but they tasted the same.

No footprints - not many have access to come here.

Sea life passed on.

A relaxing stroll.

The colors are so pretty at sunset.

Sand...

It was also good to be on a beach again. With our detours over the past year, this is the first time I’ve been on a beach in a year and a half.

Liquid sail

It doesn't matter that you rebuilt your boat from the ground up or sailed the Caribbean, when I tell a fellow sailor I patch my sails with 3M 5200 fast cure they lose a little respect for me. Well that's fine because it is fast, easy and it just works. And before they recover from that, I tell them I patch our hypalon dinghy with it too. Thou I do know how do these repairs correctly, this just works better.

Early on, for large sail repair jobs I would have to remove the sail, find a location to lay the sail out that also had 110 volts ac to run a sewing machine. Or find a loft that could do the repairs. This option was not possible with the sailing we have been doing for the last few years. For the smaller holes and ripped seams I would have to hand sew the heavy dacron material. Often multiple layers. The sewing is difficult and adds a perferated row that weakens the sail that is asking to rip again.

Enter 5200. This product was at one time my enemy. It's most often used as a bedding compound but it is difficult to remove and will leak after a while, so I use butyl tape (that is another post). As for sails it is a perfect match. I have even started calling it "Liquid sail." For holes I cut a dacron patch and glue it down. For blown seams I simply spread it in the seam and put push it together and let it cure for a couple hours. Done. It is flexible and UV resistant which makes it great for patching holes in our dinghy too. I will not even begin to write about the "proper" way to patch hypalon dinghy material, but will say you nearly need to have a doctorate in chemistry or you can deflate the tube, scuff the area with 60 grit sandpaper, smear on some 5200, wait a couple hours and inflate. For a nicer finish I apply a patch of pvc with the 5200, but usually I use the smear technique because it is best not to have the nicest looking dinghy at the public dock. 

Back in Charlotte Harbor

Previously, back in November, Jimi left me in Nebraska while he finished out the Rediscover America Tour by himself. When he arrived back to the boat yard in Florida, where Sanibel slept, in mid-November he got started right away with boat projects. Among his lists were fiberglass repair on the rudder, the creation of a secondary battery bank, fixing the outboard engine, selling unused boat parts and new bottom paint. He allowed himself about a month to complete them all.

On December 16^th he launched Sanibel back to her natural habitat. Jimi and Sanibel sailed up to Fort Meyers, where on December 22^nd they picked up lifetime friends Juraj and Matt. Both of whom have been out to visit previously. The three men spent two weeks together; they sailed, fished and ate. Juraj and Matt flew back to Denver on January 5^th.

Juraj's photo of them going through a bridge.

A shrimp dish Juraj cooked on Sanibel.

Juraj's sunset photo.

The guys sailing Sanibel.

Meanwhile in Nebraska, I had been staying with my parents, sister and daughter. I got involved in the local church activities, at least as much as my injured back would allow and otherwise, I was mostly laying on my back usually knitting something for Christmas. I went crazy with knitting Christmas presents and loved every minute of it. 

My daughter, Jennifer, when we went to the dinosaur museum in Hays, Kansas.

Regarding my back, I started out by seeing a Chiropractor, but didn’t see the results I’d wanted and quit going. I went through two bottles of prescription muscle relaxers with no long term fix, I tried sciatica nerve exercises, a tennis ball and an inversion table. None really seemed to show me any signs of improvement…or so I thought. Looking back on the long term, there has been improvement, I’m just not sure what helped. I can at least sit up for longer periods and lay on my right side now. I’m still very careful not to twist or lift, as I still have some pain.

On January 9^th, I hitched a ride with my long time BFF, Melody. She moved to the pan handle of Florida and offered to take me home. Though I was a little worried about riding in the moving truck for three days, it had to be done. Melody, her dog, Mali, and I were in the Penske truck while her daughter, Summer, and friend, Cicero, were in Melody’s car. The trip went well. We arrived in Destin, Florida Monday afternoon about 3pm CST.

At this point Jimi realized it was too daunting to sail North to Destin to retrieve me, so he turned around and headed South. He spent the next several days, sometimes sailing non-stop overnight, to get Sanibel back to the boat yard. He put her on the dock and then drove the van to Destin. He arrived on January 13^th. We spent the evening with Melody and her peeps and then we drove back down to Sanibel the next day.

Reunited…so now what? Well, we stayed on the dock a couple of nights, so I could unpack, do laundry and re-implement some female organization to Sanibel’s interior.

We left the dock on Saturday the 16^th, motoring just a couple of miles up the canal and anchoring in a very protected pond like area. And it’s a good thing we did. We were hit the gale force winds. In the middle of the night Sanibel blew over on her side, but as we are a “weeble wobble and don’t fall down”, she popped right back up leaving us a mess inside to clean up. That weather band that came through Florida was a nasty one. It caused a lot of destruction and lost lives. We were so grateful to be in the protected pond.

A couple of days later we motored rest of the canal to the lock. When we arrived at the lock there was a long line of boats trying to leave. Come to find out a boat with the same draft as us tried to go through the lock and got stuck on the other side. The storm pushed so much water out that it was only about four feet deep and we draw close to five. Therefore, we anchored and waited it out. High tide would be at midnight, but Jimi decided to attempt it at sunset, around 6pm; luckily we made it through.

At the lock. Jimi decided to paddle to check the depth for himself.

Goofy Jimi - excited he made it without falling in to the Alligator infested waters.

After confirming it was too shallow for us, he paddled back to Sanibel.

We sailed the next two hours to Charlotte Harbor. This is where it all began for us three years ago. We met up with our New York friends, Gary and Judy on S/V Cool Runnings and have been here since.

We encountered another blow over the past weekend. Jimi moved Sanibel to a more protected area for that blow too. When we woke the next morning Sanibel was proudly sitting straight up on the bottom of the ocean. It was low-low tide and with Sanibel’s wide and long keel, she just sat there without tipping over. After a couple of hours the water rose and we were able to move back to the Punta Gorda side of the channel. 

Sunset as we left our friend's boat in Fisherman's Village.

Android apps I use for weather

There are an overwhelming number of weather apps out there and when you find one you like you tend to get a bit biased. Here are mine:

My goto app is a grib downloader called PocketGrib. A free version is PocketGrib Lite and will download two days of grib files. The full version is four bucks and allows eight days of weather to be downloaded. For your file you can select resolution down to .25 degrees, interval of time down to 3 hours, up to eight days, and a mess of parameters  that include: wind, pressure, air temp, waves, clouds and humidity. Once downloaded the data can be displayed  on a map, meteogram which is basically a bunch of graphs, and the data tab that is in column  and rows.

             

Raindar is my next app. This is an intuitive map and radar display. Zoom in and out with pinch and move around with ease. It automatically  animates to give you a clear picture on when you are going to get clobbered. My boat neighbors think I have a sixth sense after they see me checking the anchor snubbing  line and bringing in the cushions  then 15 min. later we get hammered.

           

Weather Underground is a nice local weather app that includes some helpful features such as moon phase, sunrise and sunset times, and a easy to read forecast chart.

            

An honorable  mention is this modeling website not an app at all, though there are similar apps they are not suited for mariners, the site stands out because it gives a great visualization of coming weather. It takes some fiddling with to get the most out of it but once you do, it will improve your sixth sense that much more.  

               

These have been what I use when we are on grid, in a coming post I will write about my off grid system. 

             

Anchor chain

Lately it has been a fight to bring the anchor in. The chain will jump off the gypsy and get jammed on the windlass. This is potentially  dangerous if the seas and wind are bad when the jam happens. One problem is if the gypsy is just getting worn, but at 300 plus dollars to replace I need to try all the free options first. There are two issues that have been on my mind with the chain. One, the chain may be a bit worn and two, it is as twisted as a middle aged man at Key wests fantasy fest. First we need a nice calm day and now after 3 consecutive  storms have come through we have it. Next is to deploy our secondary anchor. Now i can remove the primary anchor from the chain and flip it end to end. There, new chain and I can get the twist out. I keep a line spliced to the bitter end and then attached in the anchor locker, this way I don't run out the anchor and chain right off the boat and if I need to I can  cut it away. BTW  splicing old line sucks. 

Big blow

Well we have been back on the water for a week or so now and have had 3 good blows come through. We are in Charlotte  harbor for the last one which was 30 plus knots of wind for 36 hours. You can imagine   how boring that gets. The good is that it all calmed down this morning when we decided to lift anchor. The bad is we were now in 4 ft of water and the boat floats in just under 5 feet. So we are now a little island until the tide comes in.