Ft Myers to Little Shark River 1/15/2011 - 1/18/2011

From our departure from Ft. Myers, would be taking us to Naples. We would have a great push from the current today, therefore, we were making really good time. At this speed, we would be reaching Naples around 1:00, Charlie and I decided that we could make it to Marco Island before dark. We decided to anchor in a place called “Factory Bay.” This would put us in the back yard of several great big mansions. Off to our right we noticed another boat with a “Looper” flag on it. Therefore we went to investigate to see who the were, and where they were from. This happened to be a boat that looked exactly like the MV “Stella Maris,” a 42’ Grand Banks. Her name would be the MV “Crawdad.” Oddly enough their last name would be “Crawford,” Captain Gloria, her husband Jim and their dog “Boo Boo.” We were invited on board, had a very nice chat, then we all decided that we would get up early in the morning and run to Little Shark River, located just inside the Everglades National Park.

Anchors were pulled up at 7:30, and we headed to Little Shark River. We made this run out in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was very unusual for the gulf, they were like glass! We would arrive in Little Shark River around 4:00 pm. Another new experience for us. We would “raft up” to the MV “Crawdad.” Now, what this means is that one boat would anchor, then the other would anchor in the opposite direction. The anchor chain would be let out to the point that the were side by side. Once we were side by side the two boats would be tied together. This made it great to be able to visit each other! You just stepped over onto the other boat. Jim and Gloria’s dinghy would be in a position that they would not be able to get it down, so we all hopped in our dink. The main purpose of this adventure would be to find the dog a place to relieve himself. All we could find in mud and mangroves. “Boo Boo,” he really wasn’t thrilled with this idea, so we headed back to the boats. Jim and Gloria invited us over for dinner, these always turn into pot luck type dinners. The Crawford’s made a very good shrimp scampi with spinach noodles! WOW!! In the morning we would be greeted by a not so good weather forecast. Strong storms were headed for us, along with 40mph winds. Time to untie the boats and get them separated. The rest of our stay in the Everglades would be very wet, and very windy! Time to head to Marathon!! Our new buddy boat the “Crawdad,” and the “Bama Belle,” are heading to the Florida Keys early in the morning!

Sarasota to Ft. Myers 1/11/2011 - 1/15/2011

We enjoyed our stay in Sarasota very much. It was time to depart and head to Pelican Pass, that was the plan anyway. This would be a nice long ride, we were set to cruise 52 miles. Once again we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise, and calm waters! The strong gusty winds from yesterday had died down.

It took us approximately 6 hours to reach Pelican Pass. This would be another place to anchor for the night. Once we approached the anchorage, conversation between Sean and Charlie, they decided that this would not be a good place. The wind would be coming from the north east. We need to be near land that would protect us, from the high winds expected that night. The journey continued to another spot that we may be able to throw the anchor. We ran into issues getting in there too. Seems as if there was not enough water for us to get to the cove that we were headed for. MV “Stella Maris,” ran aground rounding the corner, and then of course we ran aground too! Thankfully the bottom was sand where all this took place, both of the boats were throttled up and our motor pushed us out of the sand. Third time is a charm, right? Well, not exactly today. We were told about another anchorage but we were not quite clear where it was, therefore we past that one up too. It was now almost dark, we needed a place to dock. This put us in the coolest place for a couple days. This would be a 100 acre private  island called “Cabbage Key.” The only way that you can get to this island is by boat.
We went up to the restaurant after we had gotten all secured. This was a very nice place so we actually did clean up a little. When you walk into the door, there are thousands and thousands of dollar bills taped on the walls. I think they estimated that there was $82,000. When the dollars fall off of the wall they are gathered up and given to charity. They have donated over $80,000. They also have dollars that have been signed by people like Jimmy Buffet and John F Kennedy Jr. The bartender, who’s last name is Fish, that is also what he was called! This man was extremely funny! He could pop off one liner jokes one after another! We ended up eating dinner at the bar, it was so good! Thankfully, we had decided to stay there for two nights. The next morning we would be faced with two weeks worth of laundry! Now, these places don’t have the best of machines. It took us almost all day to complete this chore. We did take time out, to go out on the dink with Sean and Hazel, to another island that had a beautiful beach. There were some fallen trees that had really neat root systems. They were laying partially in the water, one even had an old crab trap wrapped around it. On Cabbage Key, there is a wooden water tower, it just happens to be the highest point on the island. We climbed to the top to watch the sunset. It was amazing. From Cabbage Key, we would make it to our next destination in a little over 5 hours to, Fort Myers.

Once again, the idea would be to anchor out. The problem was because of all the north wind that had been blowing, it has blown a lot of water out into the Gulf of Mexico, making the water very shallow. After a few incidents of running aground, once again we were headed to a marina. This one would be, Ft. Myers Yacht Basin. This marina sits right in between two bridges, it’s a very unique location. Docking again, would be another challenge. Trying to dock this 39’ boat in a slip that was designed for a 50’ or longer boat was of course another interesting experience. Thankfully, there were several dock masters there. These guys hopped onto the boat, grabbed the lines and then got us all taken care of.

The evening would be spent with Sean and Hazel, as we made a quick little pot luck dinner, and watched part of a movie (Charlie kept falling asleep!) Friday would be spent getting things together so we could depart Ft. Myers in the morning! Sadly, we would be leaving MV “Stella Maris,” and Sean and Hazel behind. They had company flying in later that week. They will be catching up to us soon. We spent the evening together, and said our good byes. I am learning on this trip that all of the people we have met so far, you bond with very quickly, and then they become family.

We would be up before daylight and pulling out of our slip at sunrise. We have a long ways to go, an early start is a must. Sean was gracious enough to help us get out of our slip, made it go very smooth! Once again, waved good bye, and we were on our way. I am anxiously waiting for them to catch up, and we haven’t even gotten all the way out of the marina yet!

St. Pete Beach Pass-A-Grille Marina to Island Park, Sarasota, Fl. 1/7/2011-1/11/2011

Thankfully, our departure from Pass-A-Grille was a lot easier than the arrival. Today, would be another short hop (39 miles) to Sarasota, Fl. We have been so lucky with our calm seas, experiencing mostly smooth water or a light to moderate chop! On this part of the journey we would be able to see the change in the water colors! The water would change from a dark blue into a beautiful emerald green! Once again, and really it occurs quite often, we were able to watch the dolphins play in our wake. We would be anchoring out this time, in a place in front of downtown Sarasota! This anchorage would be called, Island Park! Some of the anchorage area is located near a marina. Marina Jacks, was right in front of us! This is one of those high dollar operations! There were a whole bunch of what I would call “million dollar yachts!” Some of these vessels were absolutely gorgeous! Between the marina and where we anchored was the park! We had a fantastic view of the dolphin water fall, people walking enjoying their dogs, twenty to thirty story buildings and seeing the big boats come in and out of the marina.

Lets me tell you about anchoring! After the Pass-A-Grille docking, anchoring is the new favorite thing! All you do is unlatch the chain keeper and let the hook drop! The downfall to this is there is no electricity. Every time that we needed to cook, the generator would have to be turned on. With the generator on you have to take advantage of it! Plug everything in that needs charging, turn the hot water heater on, and can’t forget to turn the heater on too!

Anchor was tossed overboard, we put out 100' of chain in 8' of water, everything is secure. Time to go visit Sean and Hazel! We took the “dink” down off of her davitt system, and headed over to the MV “Stella Maris,” she was about 25 yards away from us. All of us decided to hop in our “dink’” I named her “Baby Belle,” actually though she is another “Bama Belle,” just a whole lot smaller. There was a dinghy dock located at O’Learys. This would be a neat little tiki type bar. There was a great reggae band playing, we listened to them for awhile and headed back to the boats for the night!

Saturday we would get up and take care of some things around the boat, check out some email, and catch up on other things. Charlie and I would hop in the dink and head over to O'learys Tiki Bar where we could tie her up, and we could go walk around Sarasota for awhile. We actually were trying to find a bus that would take us to the Ringling Brothers Museum! Unfortunately, we had no luck at that, and to walk would be way to far. We did get to see a great part of history, there is a statue that is a sailor kissing a nurse. This statue was named “Unconditional Surrender,” it was from a photograph from World War II, in 1944. As we were getting ready to head back to the boat and fix chicken wings for the four of us (Sean, Hazel, Charlie, and I,) a man approached us and said “Hey! I know you!” It turns out that we have run into Mark Mills, this guy worked at Turner Marine, in Mobile. Mark and his wife sailed down from Mobile on their sail boat “Arianna.” We were then introduced to his wife, Anna, and we invited them to join us for dinner! This would be the first pot luck dinner aboard the MV “Bama Belle.” Charlie and I fixed chicken wings and deviled eggs. Sean and Hazel brought over a magnificent salad. Mark and Anna brought over this great cheese and cracker platter and some of the best baked beans we have eaten in a long time. We would laugh, and talk the night away.

Sunday morning we would be greeted by Sean, wanting to know if we wanted to go explore one of the nearby local beaches (this beach is supposedly rated the #2 beach in the world.) Woo Hoo!! Off in the dinks again and headed across the bay. We would come up upon a very pretty park! This park had something we had never seen before, a sign that would say for boats only and no swimming. We beached the dinks, and went for a very nice walk on beach! From the beach, well, what else to do but go explore more things! We found the Sarasota Yacht Club, the boats there made the ones at Marina Jacks look kind of small! We continued underneath the Ringling Brothers Bridge, and found the local town dock! Now, we were in business, the grocery store would be directly across the street! From here new plans were made! We headed back to the boats, made lunch, and a grocery list! Back out in the dinks headed to the store! Every time that we have gotten groceries we have had a new experience. The highlight of this trip would be after buying more groceries then you could possibly carry across the street, our plan was we would once again roll the buggy all the way back to the dinghy and then bring it back. The fun started when we were happily pushing our goodies down the parking lot, and the front wheels on the buggy lock up! Now days, you cannot take your buggy’s from the parking lots, as for a little device will come out and lock up the wheels when you cross the barrier. Charlie went back and got us another buggy and we took it out a different direction. AH HA!! This time we got out of the parking lot. We ended up carrying the groceries across the street. Now, we would be headed back to the boats to unload. Monday would be another new experience for us! The original plan was to take the dink over to Marina Jacks, we would dock her for the day, and then head to the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum! We would go across and wait for Sean and Hazel, to come and meet us, call a cab, and head to the museum. While waiting at Marina Jacks, Charlie received a phone call from Hazel, saying that the wind has kicked up way too much and they are going to stay with their boat. At this time we took a second look at the wind and realized that it would be better to head back to the boat. The weather report had stated that we had sustained winds of 27 mph gusting to 39 mph! In this kind of situation you never know if your anchor is going to hold, of even a more dangerous scenario, some one else’s anchor not holding. There were a couple boats that had drug their anchor a little bit but, they solved the problems quickly. Thankfully, our anchor kept us in the exact same area that we put it out at! What a good feeling!!! Finally, the wind had subsided to a reasonable speed. Tonight would be the BCS National Championship Football Game! All four of us, hopped back in the dinks and headed towards the nearby sports bar to watch the game! Charlie, of course was pulling for the SEC and the "Kitty Kats"or Auburn Tigers, and the rest of us were Oregon Duck fans. Even though the first half was very exciting, it was time to go and head back. The plans were to pull anchor in the morning and head to Pelican Pass, located west of Punta Gorda, Fl.

Tarpon Springs to Pass-A-Grille Marina, St. Pete Beach 1/4/2011 to 1/7/2011

After getting setteled in at the City Marina in Tarpon Springs, we finally got to meet our new friends on the MV “Stella Maris“ in person! Sean Jahr and his girlfriend Hazel Thomson. Our chat would be short because everyone wanted to take a nap, after the 22 hour adventure in the dark! We took a short walk to a small, locally owned, greek restaurant. I would tell you the name but I have no clue how to spell it or pronounce it, so I will just say it was a great place to eat lunch at! Gyros and a huge greek salad, it was delicious! We made a mad dash for the boat, we were so exhausted. We took about a 3 hour nap, got up just in time for dinner! On our way out we met the other couple that traveled with us on MV “Yesterdays Dream.“ Steve and Linda Franco. Had another short visit and headed out to get something to eat! Imagine another greek restaurant! Tarpon Springs is the Greek capitol of the US. We went to a place called Costas. This place is famous for its greek salad! They build the salad over a scoop of their own potato salad! We had a great dinner, plus 2 for 1 Sangrias made everything just right, to head back to the boat and go to sleep! The next morning, after all the chores were done, we got our bikes down so we could ride to West Marine and get a few things that the boat was in desperate need for! Our ride through town was very pretty, although we had to stop several times and ask for directions, we finally made it. We also decided to run in and get a few groceries, since the store was across the street! We have now learned a new lesson about hauling water! Buying the big 2 ½ gallon jugs is a lot cheaper then getting bottles! Sounded like a great idea at the time! When we got the bikes loaded down with everything we bought, the water was to much weight for our little rack to hold! I (Brandy) decided that since my back pack was virtually empty that I could haul the water and the ½ Gallon of milk. On our ride back to the boat on the Pinellas Bike Trail, that runs the distance of the entire county, those 3 gallons of liquid began to get very heavy! Although, Everything that we had bought, once again made it safely back to the boat. Later that evening, one of Charlie’s long time friends, Diane Gillmore Williams, was going to pick us up and take us to her house. Charlie and Diane go way back, into their high School years in Orange, California. They had a lot of catching up to! We met her husband “Stu,” and their great big cat “Chad.” We had a great conversation and shared pictures. The stories from the past, and what had been going on with each others families, it was a lot of fun to listen to! We took a ride on Diane and Stu’s golf cart. They took us around their neat little town, Ozona. It was hard to believe that there were million dollar mansions, amongst the plain old everyday houses! We stopped at the local pier, where neighbors gather to watch the sunsets, and another local marina called “The Speckled Trout.” Seafood would be on the list for dinner tonight! We arrived at “Molly Hammerheads,” that had a parking lot just for the golf carts! The food was excellent, in a great atmosphere. It was a very short ride back to the Williams house, where we had to change from the golf cart, to the car, and head back to the marina.

     Once again, we slept in, as I guess we didn’t catch up on our sleep! The plan was to head out, and run the 37 miles to Pass-A-Grille Marina! We waited for Sean and Hazel to get back from breakfast, and all 3 of our boats were headed out of Tarpon Springs! I think, I forgot to mention that Tarpon Springs is also the sea sponge capitol of the U.S. Once again, MV “Stella Maris,” MV “Yesterdays Dream,” followed by MV “Bama Belle” would be going down the Anclote River. We would be leaving MV “Yesterdays Dream,” as they were only planning the short jump to Honeymoon Island.

     After another beautiful day on the water, the arrival into Pass-A-Grille was anything but pleasant! Both “Stella Maris” and “Bama Belle” got into low water, which caused us to stir up some mud! The wind got to blowing around 20 to 25 mph. The wind was blowing so hard in the direction that would push the boats away from the dock, made the approach and the whole docking process a night mare! Especially for me, the rookie on board! I have learned that trying to move this large vessel sideways in the strong wind, is like trying to move a car with its parking breaks on! Finally, after both of us were successful in getting completely tied to the floating dock, we all walked up to the local pub “The Wharf,” for dinner! After this not so much fun experience of docking in the wind, we all needed a drink! The food was awesome! We ate anything from: buffalo wings, buffalo shrimp, conch fritters, lobster bites, and prime rib! We all felt like someone should carry us back to our boats in a wheel barrow! Before we untied the lines and head east to Sarasota, we wanted to go to the little deli, and go across to St. Petersburg Beach. This was the coolest little deli, it had all kinds of food! It had everything! We then walked the whole entire 3 blocks across the island, to the beach! We took a short walk down the beach, found a few shells, enjoyed the smells and the sounds of the beach. Time to head back to the boats, and make our journey to Sarasota!

Crossing Florida's Big Bend January 3, 2011 - January 4, 2011

The morning of January the 3^rd, 2011 Charlie had made a list of things that we needed to do to prepare for the “crossing!” Our plan was to depart Carrabelle the next day. This would be the only time that the MV “Bama Belle” would leave the site of land on this entire adventure!

We spent most of the morning, getting everything ready. We had a “ditch bag” full of food, life vests, flares, and other safety devices just in case we had to leave the boat! We had been watching a boat that had been anchored out in front of us over the weekend! It looked as if this boat and another one was leaving! Charlie, gave them a call over the radio! Her name is the MV “Stella Maris!” It turns out that they were headed out to make the big crossing! We had wished that we had talked to them earlier, because it would have been nice to have a buddy boat! MV “Yesterday’s Dream” (the second boat) radioed over to see how long it would take us to get ready! We told them that we could be pulling out of the slip in one hour. Believe it or not, MV “Bama Belle,” was loaded up everything was complete, even took the time to say good by to our new friends at Dockside Marina, and she pulled out of her slip in exactly one hour!

We were able to catch up with our buddy boats on the east end of Dog Island (just outside of Carrabelle!) We headed out towards the Gulf of Mexico around 1:00 pm. This would be the beginning of our overnight, 150 mile off shore adventure! The beautiful MV “Stella Maris” in the lead, followed by MV Yesterday’s Dream, and heading up the pack would be the MV “Bama Belle!” Oh yea! Brandy, was singing the theme song to “Gilligans Island,” almost the entire trip!

We all had introduced ourselves over the radio. Sean and Hazel were aboard “Stella Maris,” and Steve and Linda, aboard “Yesterday’s Dream!” Having all these boats traveling together giving us entertainment by being able to chat with each other, and share some great stories, made this trip more enjoyable.
As the sun was going down, making for a very pretty sunset, we were all entertained by several dolphins! They love to get in your wake and run along side the boat! Entertaining us also before it was dark were the many different species of birds! Pelicans, Seagulls, and Osprey made up most of them! Watching them do the 100 mile an hour nose dives right into the water and catch fish. Its really neat to watch!
Now, when we left Carrabelle, the seas were very nice and quite. The weather forecast was stating that the seas would be one foot or less all night long! Unfortunately, the weather man forgot the 4 hours in the middle of the night, where we encountered 2-3 foot seas! Let me tell you, She got a little bouncy in here! As soon as we could see daylight starting to appear, the winds and the wave calmed down enough to make the rest of our journey into Tarpon Springs, Fl very pleasurable.

Finally, we have made it to our destination, the City Marina in Tarpon Springs, Fl. It only took us from the time we untied in Carrabelle, to being completely docked in Tarpon Springs took a grand total of 22 hours. The trip was an awesome adventure! We were so fortunate to be able to share this experience with our new friends that we have never seen in person, only talked to by radio! If we ever make this part of the journey again, I would want to do it in the company of MV “Stella Maris” and MV “Yesterdays Dream!” I would like to express our gratitude to these two boats to put their journey on hold for an hour, so we could travel with them!