Return to St Petersburg
We now are on the last leg of the trip
travelling a short way up the east coast to cross Florida via Lake
Okeechobee to the west coast of Florida and then north on up to St
Petes. Travelling on the weekends in most of Florida is dicey. You
have every fisherman (& his dog) in small tinnies & wee boats
drifting about to huge game fishers at top speed to get to the fish
first. Then there are the wealthy boaters who just like to show off
burning up gallons & gallons of fuel, passing everyone at top
speed; no courtesy slow passes or no wake consideration for floating
fishermen. Then there are the family boaters out for the weekend in
rented pontoon boats & run a bouts; some know what they're doing
& some don't. Because there are so many on the water there is
little room for mistakes & you need to constantly watch in front,
behind & each side - & let's not forget the jet skis weaving
in & out of everyone & jumping every boat wake they can see.
Add to the mix kayakers, & stand up paddle boards all in areas
with varying allowable speeds such as no wake zones, slow for manatee
zones, bridge approaches & it all becomes very busy. Yes there
are rules but who's watching – it's safer to stay in a marina or at
anchor.
St Lucie Inlet has a stretch called
Hells Gate because of the narrow stretch & the conflicting
currents but the traffic confusion was the worst part of it. We've
been there before so no surprises but one needs to pay attention.
Then after 6000- odd miles we ran
aground. We'd popped off the channel to top up with some cheaper fuel
& then came back into the channel but misread some other channel
markers on the other side of the main channel, realised our mistake &
quickly turned out of it. Unfortunately we dug ourselves into
shallow, thick mud. We tried to back up & rock using the
thrusters & we turned the taps on to empty the water tanks but to
no avail. We called the marina we had just left for a quick push off
but no boats were available. They called Tow boat US but it would be
half an hour away and the tide was going OUT. Some kind souls in a
small runabout tried to offer help but they wouldn't have had enough
power. Colin made one major, last, ditch big rev & we bumped off
after only about 10 minutes aground. One of the good things about
having a full keel and protected running gear, so no damage.
We got back into the channel and
anchored, checked & cleaned the raw water strainer, it was full
of black mud & then we were off again. We arrived in Indian Town
– the marina that Colin had taken photos of all the abandoned &
dying boats last time through. The place was looking better & we
met 2 couples – 2 sail boats (no discrimination)– one called
Splash whom we had met in Riviera Beach Marina & another couple
on Tis Good who were friends of the couple who got robbed in Bimini.
(a small world even when wandering around the oceans).
We crossed Lake Okeechobee -about 25
miles – with good seas & wind. There is a very long canal
running on the southwest side of the Lake where we saw at least 7
alligators but no other boats. We spent the night on a free dock at
Moorehaven with 2 other Looper boats;1 gold (on their 2nd
time) & 1 platinum (on their 3rd time ) - Mint Julep
& Hallelujah. We all walked up to the local Mexican restaurant (1
of 2 restaurants in a very small town) had a great meal & dodged
the thunder storms. The next day we stopped off at another free city
marina at La Belle with free electricity & water. This was a
small town & we walked in to their local restaurant Forrey Grill
with a good menu, good service, good décor & had a great meal.
By the end of the night there were 6 boats tied up there in the small
8 slip marina.
The next day we had our worst case of
waking. It was in a long, narrow canal passing through farm land, not
much traffic & all of a sudden up behind us arrived a 60 ft
Hatteras (called Celebrate) doing about 20 – 25 knots creating a
huge wake & we believe that if Colin hadn't sighted him just
behind us & called on the radio to back off he would have passed
at that speed & I hate to think what may have happened. He
carried on up the canal with a bow wave of 6- 8 ft and leaving a hole
in the back of 4 ft. The damage to the banks from his wash was
evident & there are manatees in the canal & other wild life
that would have been affected.
We arrived at Kitty's ( a Looper
harbour host who had won host of the year for 2015) and this was our
third time here. She took us to pick up a few supplies in her BIG
truck & then we joined her for docktails. We took her to lunch
the next day at a neighbourhood Cuban restaurant where we had 3 meals
including drinks for $23.84. The canal into her water way is a little
shallow so we had to wait until 2.00pm for the incoming tide. It was
another slow day of manatee zones & no wakes before we reached
our anchorage for the night in Pelican Bay along with 20 or so other
boats. The wind changed during the night but our mighty anchor proved
itself once again.
We moved through Pine Sound where we
saw 6-7 houses on stilts & stilts where house had once been.
Seems a precarious place to build a house – in an exposed shallow
sound in a possible hurricane area.
We decided that as a holiday weekend
(Memorial Day on Monday) was approaching we would get as far as we
could towards St Petes & also out of the mad, boating narrow
canals & inlets. This was near Jewfish Island & Cortez Bridge
in Sarasota Bay. It was Friday afternoon & already we had seen
crazy stuff. Colin called the Stickney Point bridge to have a lift as
we couldn't quite make it under. It was 22ft in our book but the
waters were high & only showed 19ft on the bridge water level
gauge. We got a response from the bridge master that the bridge would
raise in 12 minutes but only one span would be raised. OK by us
plenty of room to pass through.
As the span rose we noticed another
large cruiser coming from the other side who hadn't called the bridge
for clearance – however we decided it was prudent just to let him
on through (obviously he didn't know he had to call or wait for us
being the down stream boat). The bridge operator did call him for his
name but he didn't respond – they were too busy dancing away up on
the helm. After he had completed his pass we moved forward only to
find a small 20 ft runabout of about 5-6 ft high coming on through
into our track. He could have gone under the side of the bridge that
hadn't opened; it was 19 ft. We gestured & called out to him &
he said he was sorry he thought the bridge had stayed open for him.
We finally passed through but once again glad to leave all the
madness behind to find a quiet anchorage for the night. We went into
a bay in Manatee River which runs into Tampa Bay. We got a good
anchorage until a boat came in and dropped a little close to us &
when the wind changed during the night he was only about 20ft from us
& obviously had not put down enough chain.
We survived the night, had an easy
crossing across Tampa Bay under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge into the
Harborage Marina at St Petersburg. We have completed our boating in
USA. This is where the boat will remain until it is sold. We will
spend the next few days tidying & cleaning before we leave. We
would love to think we had a buyer before we leave. We have rented a
car and will drive l across the states visiting Colin's sisters,
niece & nephews & our boating buddies from last year.
Our stats for The Great Loop plus
Florida Keys & Bahamas & back to St Petersburg.
5944 nautical miles including the Great
Loop, Florida Keys & Bahamas
Total Locks = 119
Total Bridges + 442
Engine hours 886
Generator Hrs 264
Diesel burned 2300 galls @ 2.58 mpg ( US )
5 Engine oil changes @ 14 Litres a
time.
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