Cruising -Team Rogers

Day 52 Saturday 9/15

That’s us on the end! And yes, we get up in the dark, alarm set at 6 am. For the last four days we have  piloted our boat for around 12 hours a day.  Our daughter asked what we did all day. Well, mostly watching the world from the sea or waterway.  Secondly, we check radar for weather updates, wind apps for wave heights and of course wind velocity.We check tide schedules and try to fit in at the best times! We plot charts and replo tand replot depending on bridge wait times, etc.

Today we made lemonade out of lemons.....our plan was to leave Marina Jacks in Sarasota and make it as far as we could and close enough to get into our ft Myers beach marina in time for the game on Sunday. We were on the GIWW admiring the scenery and waiting for another bridge opening when the bridge operator asked us if we knew about the waterway being closed for a rowing regatta just south of where we were.  Well no, we didn’t and really how can they do that?...

He instructed us the nearest pass out to gulf and told us which pass we could get in.
So, back in the gulf we went...

Here’s the lemonade part, we bee lined it (for us that’s 6-7 mph) out and headed south. We’re not going back in until we get to Ft Myers.  TONIGHT, instead of tomorrow.  It’ll be a 13 hour day and we hope we’re in before dark😨. We added the jib to our motor power and got up to 8.9 mph.

Now, for the meaning of the title!  We would never, ever have been able to do this as smoothly (knock on wood) as we did without Beth and Dave Rogers Blog. Where as I titled silly little sayings, Beth titled her posts geographically.  I could follow what to do on each leg of the journey!!  And we did!  Their blog is cruising-teamrogers.blogspot.com.  Their coinciding journey runs from Oct of 2016 until May of 2017.  THANK YOU DAVE AND BETH!

A pic and a video. I give up on captions. One pic is one of the cute bridges in the GIWW, a video of my dolphin playing with us and one of Mark between 2 mega yachts at our last marina!

Videos that work? And more pics!

Not enough exercise!

In the storm!

First day on the gulf!

This is my kind of gulf and dolphins too!

We got to sail!

And I’m watching the Vikings Win!

Can you guess morning or evening?

Pics from the previous post

We found a Tiki Bar after our beach walk!

That’s what hit us

Walked to the beach to see waves day before storm.

Perdido group mainly checking on storm status (or heads bowed in prayer😉)

Out in the storm

Blow, Blow, Blow your boat, violently on the dock.....

Day 47 Monday 8/10

It’s been 8 days since my last blog and so much to tell.  I’m going to blog two posts so they don’t get so lengthy.  First of all, we DID get a direct hit from Gordon!  I learned a new phrase from my friends at Perdido,  “East is the Beast”, which applies to the fierceness of hurricanes.  Envision the counter clockwise spiraling of a storm and you can see if you’re on the east side/right side you get hammered the most!
We were on the east side.   Everyone on the docks double tied lines, every which way, strapped or removed biminies(autocorrect changed it to bikinis which Mark wanted me to tell ya all) and closely watched any tide fluctuations. Our neighbors came out in the storm to help us retie, since we were rubbing on the piling. We all came out fine! Part of me wanted it to be 5 mph stronger so I could say “I was in my boat during a hurricane!  (Picture/video on next post)

Miraculously we were on our way 2 days later.  Next stop was Destin, Florida. Then on to Panama City. First day on Gulf was a little bumpy and we hurried taking turns to use the bathroom due to neither of us wanting to be in the rocking cabin that long. Not much was eaten that day.  Seas apparently only 2 feet and we both agreed we didn’t really enjoy it.

Next two days on Gulf were exceptional! Calm seas, dolphins, sea turtles, jelly fish migrations and a lone crab. (Have never seen a crab swimming on top of the water let alone 3miles out to sea.) We reluctantly pulled back in to GIWW in Port St Joe, because of needing places to anchor within reasonable distances. We went pretty far that day (Saturday) because my mission was to dock somewhere on Sunday to find a place with the NFL package so I could watch the Vikings!

Mission accomplished!  It did cost us $$$$ to get a ride to the next town but it was worth it!

We were driven back to Carabelle where our air conditioned boat was waiting for us! Carabelle is  where some boaters launch out of to make an overnight crossing of the gulf to Tarpon Springs. (181 miles). Not us.  We are hop scotching our way down and boy is it a long drive in and out to every port. Today We had a beautiful/ shorter day on Gulf where we dodged two rain systems and sort of got a close pic of a dolphin. Tonight we are anchored in St Mark’s River.  Just saw our first alligator swim by. Geez!

Tomorrow we’ll be traveling about 75 miles to Steinhatchee.  Maybe only 5 days after that, but again, who’s counting😉

Title Meaning, already explained!

Where the wind blows..nobody goes

Day39 Sunday 9/2

We are now at Perdido Key RV and Marina in where else, Perdido Key, Pensacola, Florida. We left Turner Marine on Friday morning, crossed Mobile Bay in around 4 hours.  Mark got to motor sail some by letting out the jib.  Wind gusts, along with choppiness made it a little exciting!  We lucked out by beating the line of weather.. Must go faster...is what Mark got tired of hearing.

Sunset at Turner Marine

Made it into the protection of the barrier islands and into the GIWW (Gulf Intracoastal Water Way) in early afternoon and felt familiar/comfortable in seeing land on both sides.  Reminded us of the rivers except for the greener waters and occasional dolphin sightings. Some money here..

Cruised into Ingraham Bayou off the water way for a relaxing evening on the hook (anchored).  Warm again so separated we were.  (Yoda speak)I woke up first as a cool mist of wetness filtered down my way. Realized it was raining with our hatches open! Apparently it was a light rain that had been going on for awhile so I hadn’t heard it.  Well, besides the difficulty of getting Mark out of his REM cycle of sleeping to help, spent quite a long time mopping up!

Woke up on Saturday morning and realized our planned course of sailing had to be amended when we found out that the Gulf was under small craft warnings. Mark looked on our Windfinder app and realized we wouldn’t be able to go out until Thursday.  Ergo, the morning was spent figuring out where we would be staying (of course it’s also a holiday extended weekend).

Pulled up anchor and began our route only to see some scary skies off starboard center. See pic

Well, we thought we might be able to beat this, and we almost did, but didn’t . Hopefully the video works, but, what happened was zero visibility, a middle section of canvas not completely waterproofed and side rain, wind, and choppy water.  I’m laughing now but it was scary because we couldn’t see any boats coming at us.  Mark couldn’t watch chart plotter(had to watch for boats) so I had the charts up on iPad in companionway yelling, port, port, starboard, buoy!, etc.  I kept us in the channel and luck or God kept us clear of vessels.  

Here’s a pic if the video won’t work...zoom in to see concern on Marks face!

Meaning of Title?  Even though we thought we could go out on Thursday..there is another wind possible if that tropical depression becomes hurricane Gordon.. stay tuned.