Day 5: April 11: Naples Sailing and Yacht Club to Marathon Yacht Club

Captain was up early, disconnected electrical, took off lines not necessary for leaving, turned on navigational instruments needed, all after coffee of course.

First Mate secured anything below which might fall, spill or break, locked all the doors and drawers, brought up log book, snacks, phone, books, Ipad, workout mat.

Day was breaking when Captain backed Never Say Never out of the slip at 6:40 and crept along the Naples channel into the Gulf’s light wind and calm seas.  His job today would be to keep us on track after dodging multiple crab pots.

Lady’s job was to find a comfortable spot to hang out, so like the three bears, tried several places till she found it.  She knew it was either come and endure the long days on the boat or spend 2 months in the kennel.  Of course, being a smart German Shepherd, she chose the boat.  

First Mate’s job, also keep a lookout for crab pots to maneuver around, take a turn at the helm giving Captain a break from the crab-pot dodging, supply hydration and snacks.  Record log readings for the trip. After getting underway do a 30-minute workout with yoga and resistance bands.

Each day on the water is usually totally different, but some make you question if we’re crazy to be doing this.  Like Day 1, Monday the 5 ½ hour, fifty-six-mile trip was washboard rough, with high winds and becoming a can’t-wait-to-get-off-this-boat day, while today, hardly any wind and very calm seas.  Captain did it again, choosing a perfect day to make the ninety-mile trip to Marathon from Naples in only 7 hours.  What a difference a day makes!  Wind and weather will also dictate when we leave, but here at least 2 nights.

Thank God for safe passage today, with fair winds and calm seas.

 

 

Day 3 & 4, April 9 & 10: Pelican Isles Yacht Club to Naples Sailing and Yacht Club

Day 3: Most days we’re early risers and like to get off the docks about sunrise.  But Wednesday we waited for the tide to come up, making sure the skinny water in the inlet was deep enough to leave, which was 8:30.   

Winds had shifted overnight from the Southwest to the Northwest, which tamed the 6 foot rollers which were slamming Never Say Never’s bow on Monday, down to 2-3 feet ones on her stern, giving a much nicer 13-mile, one-hour ride to Naples inlet. The steerage learning curve is challenging on any new boat, and captain has made transitioning from sailing to motoring look easy. 

Arrived at the Naples City Dock at 10:00 and took on 72 gallons of diesel fuel at $4 a gallon to be ready on Friday to motor to Marathon in the Keys.  Quite a difference from the sailboat, where it took us a year to use that much fuel, but what a beautiful thing to get places in half the time! A five-minute hop across the channel got us to Naples Sailing and Yacht Club.  Checked with the Dock Master to make sure we could stay and extra night, who agreed we could. With getting ready to replace their seawalls and also have dock updates many boats have chosen to find dockage elsewhere for now. 

After getting the boat secured, Captain made a trip to West Marine on his bike to pick up parts needed for repairs, replacement for front running light, and anchor chain roller. Both were probably original parts, which the Florida sun left brittle and broken.  Having an extra two days here has been a blessing to easily get parts before heading to the Keys on Friday.  

Walked to tourist trap, Tin City, which has many shops with similar souvenirs.  Nothing much of interest so saved up for another stop.

Day 4: One of our favorite outside restaurants in Naples is called Jane’s Café on 3^rd in old town Naples, which serves amazing breakfasts and lunches. It was a treat to walk the 2 miles there to partake of their dearly loved Eggs Benedict.  Lady went too and was greeted by our server with her own bowl of fresh water.  She laid quietly under Dennis’ chair the whole time.  She’s three, but not having been socialized before she became ours at 9 months we’re not always sure how she will respond to new people or new situations, but she’s been a real lady in Naples.  She’s also adapted to boat life pretty quickly. 

Spent some time laying pool-side, but the pool itself is actually closed since a wedding party somehow got broken glass into it.  It doesn’t get used much anyway, so when they renovate the club they’ll do away with it all together.

Dinner last night was K-Rico Mexican grill, a short walk from the boat, and portions were generous enough to have for tonight too.

With a forecast of a clear day, winds around 5 mph, the plan for tomorrow, Day 5, is to leave around 7:00 a.m., crossing the Gulf to Marathon in about 8 hours. During the crossing we will be without cell and internet service, but grateful for the Coast Guard which is only a radio call away in case of unforeseen problems.

Other friends, Kate and Bill Carney pulled into Naples today too, along with Rob and Diane Maffei, on their way to Key West tomorrow.  Should be a good crossing for them as well, and will keep a look out as they cruise by in their faster boat.

Naples is one of our favorite places on the Gulf coast, so blessed to spend 2 days here, while completing some quick-fix repairs, a 4 mile walk, people-watching on 5^th, laundry, reading, writing, resting, and of course, blogging.  

Another 2 days recorded, and grateful for the time, good health and opportunities God gives to spend cruising together.

Day 2, April 8: Pelican Islands Yacht Club

It's a boat, so "Expect the unexpected."

Rested well until 2:30 a.m., but awoke with no air conditioning.  Dennis took off his captain’s hat and put on his mechanical engineer’s one to check it out.  Thankfully it’s easy to access in the main salon under the settee. After about 15 minutes he found a loose wire on the capacitor, and making a guess reconnected it. Bingo, good guess!  Probably came loose from being bounced around yesterday. Shortly back to bed, and slept until 6:00.

At night we try to plan out the next day, and our schedule for today was to leave Pelican at 9:00 and go to Naples Yacht Club, about 2 hours away.  But of course, plans are weather dependent.  Radar indicated this one needed revision with showers coming in from the Gulf.  After checking with the dock master to see if we could stay another night, were glad to hunker down here.  The rain wasn’t real severe, but the winds were about like yesterday, so the change was right.  Thankfully with the club open tonight it’s a short walk over for dinner.

After leaving home early yesterday morning and our rough ride, it was good to have a day to regroup, clean floors, change out a bilge pump and inspect front running light, reload some charts, and rearrange the refrigerator. 

We call living on a boat, “Living large in small spaces,” and some days it’s challenging.  For us, attempting to keep up with routines much like home helps: coffee in the morning, stretching for both, exercising with bands and/or weights, if docked, walking Lady as far as the weather and time permits, showers, lite lunches, dinner around 6:00. All of which keeps us active and healthy and hopefully sane.

Finished the afternoon with pool/hot, tub and shower time, then a lovely dinner at the club. Back to the boat for coffee, tea and some sweets. 

Tomorrow, leaving early on a short 13-mile trip, destination Naples Sailing and Yacht Club, with a stop before docking to refuel at Naples City Marina.  

Cooler temperatures blowing in means a comfortable night for sleeping without the air, and gentle wave action for rocking to sleep. 

God’s peace to you and yours.        

 

 Day 1, April 7: Punta Gorda to Naples

Disembarqued Cesari dock at 7:15, navigated the rim canal and into Charlotte Harbor 30 minutes later.  Leaving on a long trip of any kind always brings contemplation, what did we not bring we will need, or what was left undone at home?  Those thoughts go in the Christmas frenzy category, if it really needs to get done, it did, the rest must not matter much, and as the song goes, “Let it go, let it go, just let it go!”

Hours and hours of planning and preparation goes into a long boat trip, fixing, replacing, buying, checking all systems, repairing, thinking, taking stuff off, putting more stuff on, having done everything financially and inhumanly possible to have the boat in perfect condition.  When it’s finally time to leave, and such a relief, makes you want to shout “halleluiah!”

Motoring across Charlotte Harbor seas were predicted to be 2 ft and was pretty accurate.  The Intercoastal waterway, ICW, to Ft. Myers was also pretty calm.  For the first time ever, we were able to skip the Miserable Mile on the way! It’s a dangerous mile of narrow, speeding boat traffic on the ICW to get under the Sanibel Bridge, and in season, truly a miserable mile. Now without the 60 foot mast of the sailboat, we could cut across and under the 26 foot Sanibel Causeway, into San Carlo Bay, shortening both trip, danger and frustration. 

Slipping under the causeway and into the Gulf of America, got into more of those 2 to 3 foot seas as predicted, but it was doable and comfortable.  It wasn’t long before the winds picked up, and yes, as you can imagine, so did the waves in the Gulf. Our Sailboat rule was we didn’t go out if the winds were above 15, well, they were at 17 on the bow. 

Captain Dennis did an excellent job, trying to out maneuver the waves which kept getting higher, cresting at 6 foot rollers as we pushed on towards Naples.  He sped up, slowed down, rode the crest, crashed down in the trough, saw lots of foamy white water over the bow, went closer to the shore, then back out again, but nothing seemed to help.  My job was to yell when went up those 6 feet crests and then crashed back down, and when captain asked why I said, “It’s either that or a heart attack!” I asked God to intervene, but he didn’t, so guess he trusted Dennis to get us through, and as always, he did. Arrived safe and mostly sound to Pelican Isles Yacht Club at 12:45 p.m.  Can't imagine why not, but interestingly we didn't see any other boats out on the water from Ft. Myers to Naples!!! 

Captain assured Lady, our German Sheperd and I we won't do that again!!!

Club wasn’t open so took advantage finishing off the evening with dinner at our favorite restaurant, Cooper’s Hawk. 

Blessed to be on this journey, but wiped out at 8:30! 

Sign off for tonight. God bless!