Lagniappe: 29 Dec 2013

Lagniappe

We got back to the boat late in the afternoon on December 17^th. The next day Greg installed the new, bigger alternator and pulleys and serpentine fan belt that he had ordered and picked up while we were home. Unfortunately, one of the pulleys was too big and we had to call Balmar and have them overnight another one. So while we waited for the new one to be delivered the next afternoon, we walked around Port St. Joe along the Bay walk and to the Constitution Convention Museum. Florida’s constitution was written in old St. Joseph. Hurricanes and Yellow Fever dessimated the town in the 1840’s.

Sunset at Port St. Joe Marina

Erosion of the tree roots along the Bay walk.

We left Port St. Joe on Friday, Dec. 20^th and motored along the ICW to Saul Creek about half way to Apalachicola. We anchored in the Creek near a little old floating cabin. Maybe a hunting cabin. Lots of hunters came through in their boats the next morning.

Cruising along the ICW between Port St. Joe and Saul Creek.

Floating Cabin near our anchorage Friday night, 12/20/13 on Saul Creek. Heard owls and loons during the night.

We left the anchorage Saturday morning and motored down the Apalachicola River to Scipio marina near the mouth of the river. It was not a nice marina but there was no where to anchor in Apalachicola. We had to wait for a good weather window for several days to be able to make the 130 mile offshore crossing from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs. According to the weather reports from NOAA it looked like Christmas day and Thursday would be good weather for crossing. We went to Mass on Christmas eve at St. Patrick’s church in Apalachicola and left the marina at 7:00a.m. Christmas day. The weather offshore was predicted to be 10 to 15 knot winds and 3 to 4 ft. seas. Then it was supposed to decrease to 5 to 10 knots with 2 to 3 ft seas. They LIED!!!! Our engine with the new alternator and pulleys ate another fan belt and we had to anchor just at the end of the channel coming out of Apalachicola and change it again. Then we motored through the channel to Carabelle and as we passed the sea buoy, we turned into the wind to put up the sails. The engine stalled but we got the sails up and kept going. We had a northeast wind and were on a broad to beam reach most of the way. However, we also had rolling seas on the beam the whole way. And they were about 4 to 5 to 6 feet. NOT comfortable!! By 4:30 in the afternoon, LizAnn (who wisely had not eaten since breakfast) was sick. Greg ate a late lunch and when he got sick it was worse. Thank God for our autopilot and our cockpit enclosure we had just had made before we left! By 5:30 we had 19 knot winds and put in a first reef and lowered the jib and put up the staysail. At 7:30 we put in the second reef because the winds were up to 22 knots. We spent the rest of the night lying down in the cockpit. LizAnn was out of commission and Greg was raising his head every 20 to 30 minutes to check the course and the radar. We never saw another boat the whole time. By the next morning, the seas had subsided and we made it to the sea buoy off of Anclote Key around 10:00a.m. We got into the harbor at Tarpon Springs about 11:30 and showered and then slept for several hours. It has taken a couple of days to get back to feeling totally normal.

We adjusted the pulleys and that seems to have resolved the fan belt issue. We also cleaned/replaced the fuel filters because the bouncing around in the swells stirred up a lot of junk from the bottom of the fuel tank and that (we think) is what caused the engine to stall.

We have enjoyed Tarpon Springs: great Italian and Greek restaurants. We’ve made new friends with some people next to us at the dock who are here on their trawler from Rhode Island. Dave is 72 and his wife and sister-in-law are travelling with him. They have a car they rented because they are here for a month and he kindly took me to the Laundromat on Friday so we could get some stuff cleaned after our crossing. We also met Jim and Pat who are on their catamaran and are friends with Frank and Carmen who we met in Port St. Joe. Brian is another new friend with a Tayanna sailboat who helped us out by having his engine guy check our work and he gave us the OK. The dockmaster, Mick Poppa was also very nice and helpful.

Monday, December 30^th we headed to Boca Ciega Bay near St. Petersburg. Wished we had a big “Who Dat” flag to hang out after the Saints beat the Buccaneers on Sunday. Greg went up the mast this morning to figure out why the anchor light wouldn’t work last night but couldn’t find anything wrong. It is working tonight. One of life’s mysteries, I guess. Today, New Year’s Eve we made it to Sarasota. We can hear the fireworks but can’t see them from our anchorage.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our friends and family!