Here at TITYC (Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club

The picture below is of the yacht club. They have been wonderful hosts and have lent sympathetic ears to our break down woes. We couldn't have asked for a nicer place to have problems. Unfortunately, this great club is in the process of reorganizing under Chapter 11. Apparently the building was a bit too ambitious and the debt burden too great. We're hoping it is all resolved and they can remain an active club. They will be on our list for next trip. (Yes, despite maintenance woes, we still want to do this again.)

These are some beautiful birds that watched us sweat out an alternator break down at John's Pass Marina. They were totally unconcerned with our plight once they figured out we had no food for them.

David proved himself the genius again yesterday. He sat down and worked out the schematics on the old alternator and managed to get it working. We walked down and took the busted one to a local repair shop so it is now up and running again. David is working on reinstalling it so we'll be good to go once the weather cooperates.
We are staying put on this side of the gulf for at least several more days. Gale force winds and 7-9 foot seas are predicted through Thursday night. While Sanctuary may be up to those conditions, we aren't. We are still okay on time so we're not pushing the envelop.

And Now......Plan C

Okay, we're not out in the gulf on our way but sitting back at the Treasure Island YC. It is a nice place but we're here for the wrong reasons. We stopped to fuel up before going out the St. John's pass and there was this smoke coming from the engine compartment, never a good sign!! Turns out the alternator had given up the ghost. No problem, we naively think, we have the original. David pulls it out and realizes it's not wired the same as the one installed. Still no problem, we still naively think, we'll call Les back at the yacht club, he knows everybody. Sure enough he put us in touch with a great guy, Dave. Dave comes out to the boat on his day off, I did say he was a great guy, sees our FWYC burgee and pulls out his own membership card. Turns out he is an out of area member. The two Daves put their heads together, get the new/old alternator installed and wired and lo and behold, it's bad, too. He tells us about a shop that can repair either one or both but not until Monday. So, we thank him, thank the nice people at the fuel dock who let us stay tied up until we could figure out the problem and limped back to our same slip at the club. Turns out this is the day for their annual Blessing of the Fleet and they asked us to participate. We take on two very nice members, Bob and Michelle to be a part of the event with us. We parade out in the bayou and then pass before a reviewing stand and are blessed by the commodore. At this point we need all the prayers and blessings we can get!!! While waiting for our turn, we talk with Bob who turns out to know all about Caliber yachts since he was the dentist for the two brothers who build the boats. That is a cool bit of trivia and makes the sting of boat issues easier to take. Later, we head to the bar to watch the horse race. We have placed "donations" on a few horses. We need to win so we can pay the bill Monday without having to sell major body parts after all.

Assuming we can get the alternator(s) rebuilt we still have to wait for a weather window. That puts us in hold status until at least the middle of next week. At this point we feel that we need to get back asap before anything else fails on us. We're still grateful to be alive and well and living our dream of cruising. We knew stuff could happen, we just didn't think so much would in one trip!! Well, off to the races!!

Travel Plans Revised

Due to changing weather forecasts, we'll be pushing off this morning from Treasure Island as soon as we can. We'll go out the Clearwater Channel and head to Appalachicola, hopefully ahead of the storms. Keep us in your prayers.

Ft. Meyers to Treasure Island

This is never a happy sight, your boat being towed!! We had just left Captiva YC and were almost to the ICW when our engine made this horrible squalling sound. David determined it was our fresh waterpump and we needed help asap. I was able to sail up to the ICW and back towards help while he called for a tow and arranged for a part to be waiting for us. Capt. Ed was a very friendly guy and got us up this impossibly narrow, shallow canal to a shop we would never have found otherwise. The mechanic (they don't let you do your own work) was also a nice guy and had us back up and running in only two hours. The tow was almost $700 but thanks to our Boat US membership didn't cost us anything. The pump is another story. We don't think we'll have to sell any major organs when we get home but might have to part with some toes. We pressed on and made our original destination of cabbage key just before dusk.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of our woes. Water is seeping into the cabin from our fresh water tank. We're not sure exactly what or where the problem lies but there isn't much we can do about it until we're home so we've pushed up our time schedule to get back. We went from cabbage key to Sarasota Yacht Club and from there to our current location, Treasure Island YC. We really miss not being able to stop at Bradenton YC. We had been looking forward to that since we left there. We did meet a nice trio of people at Sarasato though. The couple, John and Caroline had just come back from Bradenton and had also met Mike and Phyllis and we all agreed they were great folks with a great dog. The third member of the trio, Marge, had quite a story. She is a "seasoned" women with lots of experiences. She had been a teacher at the University of New Mexico for many years. She moved to Florida and fell in love with sailing. In fact, she was the first female sailing charter captain licensed in the BVI. We had a lovely time sitting on the patio swapping stories.

We'll sit here another day getting the boat as ready as we can for the next gulf crossing. The current plan is sometime on Sunday morning departure with a sometime Tuesday landfall at St. Andrews YC. From there we'll get back to Ft. Walton and try to figure out our water problems.

This little cafe is a slice of old time Florida. It was directly across the canal from the boat repair facility.

These cloud and sunset shots were all taken at our anchorage from behind Cabbage Key. We didn't get any rain ourselves but we could see it falling all around us.

We nervously got back in the saddle with the spinnaker on the trip from Cabbage Key to Sarasota YC.

Rain seen from inside our cockpit. We haven't seen this since the beginning of the trip back up in the panhandle. This was taken in our slip at Treasure Island.

We went up inside this creek cutting through the key. Very cool inside.

Click on this for details. You can see his/her eyes! This beautiful osprey was perched on a branch about 100 feet from the boat. It didn't seem to care whether we were there or not.

This boat and barge were inside this lagoon. They seemed to be a pare of something for the preserve.

This preserve is the entire island of Buck Key. It was a bit up from where we were staying. We discovered it while we were out exploring in the dingy. We turned off the motor and rowed up into this opening in the mangroves. It was so beautiful and quiet. We saw so many birds, dolphins and maybe a racoon. It was too fast to be sure.

This boat had been on the hard for a long time. It seems to have turned into a mini bird sanctuary.

mThese were three boats tied up together. Two seemed to be some kind of weird nursery with all kinds of plants, even palm trees. The third boat was one in good condition. If somebody was living on the other two, they didn't have much room.

This was the biggest house we've seen yet. We've decided that money must grow on trees from all the big houses and boats we've seen all along the way. We just haven't figured out where the forest is yet!!

The island has avoided the overbuilding of condos on the beach. There are a few small condos but mostly houses. This is a very pricey area but not as ostentatious as some others.

I really felt small and I hadn't eaten any mushrooms!

My kind of privacy hedge! This one covered about 300 feet and had about 3 colors of flowers.

Lots of cute gingerbread all over the island.

The not too crowded beaches of Captiva Island. Our part of Florida has a 12 month tourist cycle but the entire southern section seems to only have winter tourists. The southern yacht clubs even close for a month in the summer.

Sunrise at the Meyer's Beach mooring.

What's Next

We are currently on a mooring in Ft. Meyers Beach and plan to rest, do laundry and do a bit of resupply. There is always the need for some kind of maintenance. Two nagging problems we have are an unknow leak in the head compartment. We've done everything but pull the toilet and found several leaks. Next we'll pull the toilet (huge YUCK of a job) but probably not until we're home unless it gets a lot worse. The second is our transom can't seem to keep clear of soot from our engine exhaust. David has used all the recommended fixes, costing lots of time and money but it still persists. We'll keep picking brains until we figure it out. On Monday we'll start our trip back up the coast towards home. We're not sure of when we'll be where as the weather will dictate that. We still plan on being back in Ft. Walton Beach on or before the first. We plan to visit some new places on the way back so stay tuned for the rest of the story.

From Dry Tortugas to Ft. Meyers Beach

This was the sunrise over Bush Key which is a bird sanctuary. There are an estimated 60-70,000 birds there now. It is a popular roosting spot for several species of birds. They migrate from around the Atlantic to this island to lay eggs and raise the chicks before taking off again. The island is off limits during the spring and summer to let them have some peace. With that many birds, it's never quiet. Once speicies prefers the nighttime so it's a contiuous sound of birds.

This is a modern day light house. They are dotted throughout the gulf and you can see them a long way off. If a big ship runs aground these days it's probably not due to an unknown shoal.

Loggerhead Key-Especially for Paula Bushelle

Loggerhead Key is the point of land farthest south in the U.S. It is also the largest island in the Dry Tortugas. The only way to reach it is by boat. It has a beautiful light house and lots of wrecks off it's shores. There are stretches of beaches and cactus patches. Lots of coconut palms would keep a person from starving but you'd probably get sick of coconuts!

Our friend Paula Bushelle is a native conch (keywester) and her family has a long history of being the keepers of this lighthouse so we made sure and take pictures for her. It is now staffed by volunteers so if you want to live like Gilligan, the park service wants you!

The coasts around the island have lots of coral reefs populate with so many types of tropical fish. I don't think I'd ever get tired of diving and snorkeling around the area. We only had time to explore a tiny portion of the park. If we had a big water maker, we could stay for a long time without running out of things to explore.