The Trip Home, and Manatee Hunting...

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The trip back was pretty uneventful. There were not a whole lot of boats out, even for a Sunday afternoon. I’m thinking that the price of gas is affecting peoples’ boating habits.

We decided to come back in at Stump Pass instead of Venice. It cuts about 45 minutes off of the travel time to the marina, and we still had to clean up the boat.



Surprisingly, we passed a pod of manatees heading north up the intracoastal. We don’t normally see many of them in July – I think that they migrate north during the summer.



After following them for about 15 minutes, we radioed the bridge tender at the next drawbridge (about ½ a mile away) that she had a group of manatees on the way. I figured that she could warn any boat traffic, and I know that they like to see the animals. Then we headed into the marina to clean up the boat and head home. Here I am rinsing off the anchor and rode.



And now the weekend is over, and it is time to head back and earn some more gas money!

Here are links to some higher resolution pictures of the manatees:

Manatees 1

Manatees 2

Aquapalooza 08 @ Cayo Costa State Park

Sunday, July 20, 2008

We arrived on the beach side of Cayo Costa and found ourselves a spot to anchor. Set the bow anchor and backed up to the beach. I took the lunch hook and hopped overboard to walk it in. The water was only about 4’ deep, so it was easy to haul it to the beach. Climbed back onboard and set the lines. That was when it hit me to check my pockets! Sure enough, right in my back pocket where I put it was my wallet. I managed to salvage everything except the wallet itself, so I guess it is time for a new one.





Turnout didn’t seem to be too bad for this area, considering that a lot of boaters have gone back north for the summer.



We walked down the beach in search of our shirts and food. There was a steel drum player on one of the dealership boats, which was a nice touch. It gave it that ‘island mon’ feel. I noticed that the musician was set up on a Meridian, so I guess it wasn’t just for Sea Rays after all.



The Admiral and I enjoying a rumrunner…



Rob, Marinemax’s finest salesman…(that should be good enough for half off a new boat!) and his better half



I felt bad for the dealership crew. Here they are cleaning up after the kids games. They did a great job – it was a lot of fun. They even brought in Firehouse Subs for lunch, which we happen to like a lot.



By late afternoon, most of the crowd had headed out. I wonder if this means we stayed too long? One of the nicest things about this event is that we found a new destination to go to where we can drop the hook.



And so, at about 5:00 we started back. This was the first Aquapalooza event that we have gone to, and we really enjoyed it. It was also the first dealership event that we have ever joined. It was a good experience and we had a good time.

Heading to Aquapalooza

July 20, 2008

This year we decided to attend the Aquapalooza event at Cayo Costa. Our plan was to run down the intracoastal, spend the day, then come back up on the Gulf side.

I had been working on the hot water heater the previous day, so I had the boat in the water (we keep it on a rack), fueled, and ready to go except for food and ice.



The lines were cast off at about 10:00 for the 2 hour trip to Cayo Costa. Heading south, there is an interesting park just south of Venice. You park on the mainland and ride a pontoon ferry boat over to the beach. It keeps the crowds down, I think.



Continuing to cruise south, here we are approaching the Tom Adams bridge in Englewood. The White Elephant bar and restaurant is under the bridge and to the right. It’s a great place to stop but no time for that today.



Not sure what is going on – looks like a party and we weren’t invited – but there was a line of boats coming out from a marina set back off the waterway. I never even knew there was a marina back there.



The swing bridge to Boca Grande was open when we arrived. When we came this way over the 4th, I almost lost my antenna to that bridge. I had gone under it at the far end, where there was enough clearance for the boat, and completely forgot about the radio antenna until I heard it hit the bridge. No harm, no foul, though.

It was nice of the bridge tender to hold the bridge for me. I think it had been open for about 5 minutes when I got there. I’m sure that the traffic on the road just loved me…



The bridge swinging closed. We don’t have very many swing bridges – I only know of two down here. At least the bridge tender doesn’t have to ride on the swing span, in case it gets stuck open!



We are getting close to Cayo Costa. I wasn’t sure about the channel next to the beach, so I played it safe and went out to the route that I knew. There were a few boats out this weekend trying to catch a few fish.



Boca Grande Lighthouse – letting me know where I am.



There are four of us heading in to the Aquapalooza event, all lined up. The guy in the lead had the deepest draft of all of us. It was very nice of him to lead the way! Johnson Shoals are off to starboard and it doesn’t take long to find yourself in 2 feet of water.

Hot Water Heater Trouble

When we got back from the July 4th trip, I did a routine inspection down in the bilge and discovered that the heater hose that runs to the hot water heater was starting to split. I hate making repairs in the middle of summer, but I had visions of this hose letting go and spewing raw water into the engine room.

Since I have never liked the idea of running raw water thru the hot water heater, this seemed like a good time to just disconnect the thing. I have a generator, so hot water is not a problem.

So, I cut the two raw water hoses off and simply ran a piece of high pressure hose between the inlet and outlet on the raw water pump. It is the hose with the red colored rubber cap on the end of the clamp center left on the top of the engine.



I decided to leave the old hoses in the bilge for now. They are not in the way, and it will be easier to cut them off and clean it up when the weather is a little cooler.

July 4, 2008

Day 4 of our July 4th trip

The plan for the Fourth was to head back to Venice to relax and watch the fireworks. So, at about 11:00 we cast off the lines from Boca Grande and headed out.

The only picture that I took of Boca Grande was of the marker at the entrance to Boca Grande Marina. I need to work on this picture thing some more!



So we headed south toward the Boca Grande channel since the plan was to run outside. There were a lot of fishermen out trying to catch themselves a tarpon, so we slowed down to run the gauntlet of drifting boats. The first thing that we spot is a sea turtle. We don’t see these too often, and they don’t hang out on the surface for long, but we were lucky this time. We thought this was pretty cool!



Here is the Boca Grande Lighthouse. I like lighthouses with character, and this one has it. When we were on the island, we drove the golf cart down to check it out from the land side.



We watched this guy try to land a tarpon, but he lost him after fighting for about 15 minutes. I couldn’t catch it when the fish came out of the water, but it was fun to watch.



We headed north through the swash channel, and followed the beach for about 15 minutes before deciding to stop and have lunch.



We had just anchored and shut down the engine when along comes a manatee to check out our anchor line…



I think he wanted to know why we didn’t have any lettuce for him…



We anchored just off the beach. It was a picture perfect day, which is a little unusual for July. Normally we would be dodging thunderstorms by now.



After lunch, we headed north toward Venice. This is one of my favorite boating pictures…



Anchored off of Venice for the fireworks later in the evening, this just seemed like the perfect July 4th picture. The Admiral is hanging out on a float at the end of the yellow line. We got in some swimming and rumrunners before the show.



The boats are starting to gather for the fireworks. It wasn’t as crowded as I expected since it was a nice day – I guess people aren’t using their boats as much this year.



I tried to catch the green flash at sunset, but didn’t time it quite right…



The only thunderstorm was way off in the distance and the fireworks went off as scheduled. No pictures of those, I just decided to watch and enjoy this time. Sometimes life has to be lived “live”, not thru a camera lens.



After the show, we headed back to the marina after most of the party goers had headed back. This marked the end of this little trip. It was too short, but was still a lot of fun. Next up, we head to Aquapalooza on the 20th.

July 3, 2008

Day 3 of our July 4th trip

Well, the next day, Thursday July 3rd, we left Tween Waters and headed north to Boca Grande Marina. That is the old Miller’s Marina at Boca Grande. Yours truly forgot to get out the camera, so there aren’t any pictures of this day.

The only notable thing that happened on this leg was that we raced a severe thunderstorm in to the marina. We arrived about 5 minutes ahead of it. We had just enough time to tie up the boat and hook up shore power before the skies opened up. 50 mph winds, lots of rain and lightning, special marine warnings, etc.

Once the weather cleared, we rented a golf cart to use to get around the island. The Admiral wanted to do some shopping, then we headed to the Pink Elephant for drinks and lunch. They had a great bartender, so we went back for dinner.

Boca Grande shuts down from the Fourth until October, so everybody on the island was ready to head out.

Under the category of celebrity trivia for $1,000, who likes to vacation on Boca Grande? Alex, that would be George Bush 41 and his family. Laura Bush seems to be a favorite.

We decided that we would come back in the fall when everything re-opens.

July 2, 2008

Day 2 of our July 4th trip

Wednesday we enjoyed breakfast at the island’s restaurant with only a few other families. By about 11:30, the boats bringing folks over for lunch started arriving. I suppose that I should have made those some Kodak moments – oh well, live and learn. Our next stop was Tween Waters on Captiva. It is a short run from Cabbage Key, so we decided to take the scenic route getting there.

This first shot is looking south in Pine Island Sound. The weather did not look to good, but then it is Florida in the summertime.



Here is a picture of the south end of Cayo Costa.



This shows Cabbage Key to the left and Useppa Island to the right. Useppa Island has a bunch of exclusive houses built on some pricey Florida real estate. You can only access it by boat.



Some of the stilt houses in the Sound that survived Charlie. I’m really not sure what people use them for – maybe hunting or fishing. This is true waterfront property.



I'm not sure what happened here, either the Admiral zigged when the boat zagged, or the houses are about to slide off the earth. Either way, I thought it was a funny picture...



We decided to head out into the Gulf to drop the hook and have lunch. Anchored off of North Captiva Island. Beautiful beach here. We thought that we would get some swimming in also, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Once the thunder and lightning started we decided to stay out of the water.



Here is a shot of North Captiva looking south, with the South Seas Plantation Resort in the background.



Looking toward the north off of North Captiva Island. Notice how much nicer the sky looks in this direction.



With the weather not looking so good, we decided to head in. Here we are approaching Tween Waters – the hotel is the one with the blue roof. Our slip was on the other side of the dock from the sailboat that is in the center of the picture.



Tween Waters is a nice place to visit by boat. The island is only about 100 yards wide at this point, so it is easy to walk over to the beach. They have a nice pool with a tiki bar to hang out at, and they draw an interesting crowd. We had dinner at the on-site restaurant, which was pretty good although a little pricey.

If we had stayed another night, we probably would have walked or taken the boat up to the Green Flash, another restaurant that is about ½ a mile away.

July 1, 2008

Day one -

We were off work over the 4th of July, and the kids were off to visit their sister up in Panama City, so we decided to take a few days and run down the coast for some R&R. We departed on July 1st heading for our first stop at Cabbage Key.

Cabbage Key is an old Florida restaurant and inn on an island a little south of Boca Grande, Florida. They are supposed to be famous for their cheeseburgers, but I have never tried one so I don’t know if they are any good or not. It is a much nice place after lunch once all of the tourists from the mainland have gone home.

They claim that their cheeseburger was the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett’s song, but Jimmy claims otherwise, so who knows.

We were underway heading south down the intracoastal near Englewood when we spotted our first dolphin of the trip.




The admiral was watching the pod of dolphins swimming around. This is why I am not a professional photographer – I thought I had a good pic of her dolphin watching but somehow I managed to plant an antenna in her head…



Here is a close-up of the dolphins by the boat…



After watching them for a few minutes, we continued heading south. As we approached Palm Island, we had to slow down for the barge traffic – since they are a lot bigger than me! These are the car ferries that take people over to the resort on Palm Island. It looks like an interesting place to get away from it all.



Once we cleared the barges, we continued heading south, keeping an eye in the thunderstorms to port, over the inland areas. The weather held for us the rest of the day and the storms stayed over land.



Here is an ospry’s nest on top of the marker. I guess the Coast Guard didn’t want to disturb the nest to maintain the light, so there is a can buoy set up next to it.



After that, the waterway opened up as we approached Charlotte Harbor.



Going across the Boca Grande channel at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, the lighthouse is in the distance. This is one of only two natural deep water inlets on Florida’s West Coast (Egmont Channel at Tampa Bay is the other) and is home to some of the best Tarpon fishing in the state.



Going past Cayo Costa State Park, you can still see where the island was hit by Hurricane Charlie in 2004. The dead trees in the background are the remains of the Australian Pines lost to the storm.



Approaching Cabbage Key at about 1700 hours, we missed the crowds from earlier in the day. They had more than 200 people in for lunch.



Just in case I wasn't sure where I was at...



I should have taken more pictures, but at the time I hadn’t thought of keeping photo log and I hadn’t read Four Sun’s blog. I am still learning about this blog thing…