Lessons from touching the hard - Day 101 - Sarasota to Captiva, FL

We awoke Monday, to a consistent 20 knot south wind and partly cloudy skies with a 30% chance of rain or thunderstorms.    As a general rule, 20 knot winds would keep us off Lake Michigan, especially if the winds are from the north which tends to produce 6 foot waves.  The same is true of Gulf waters, which were forecasted at 4 to 6.

However, our goal to travel to the South Seas Resort Marina, some 60 miles south on Captiva Island was doable as we use the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW).  The forecast for the inland waters was "choppy."  Inland water waves are characterized as smooth, light chop, moderate chop, choppy and rough.  So we were looking at moderate size waves on the larger bays and sounds and smaller waves on the narrower stretches.  This proved to be the case.

We depart Marina Jack and immediately experience light chop

The threat of thunderstorms is a serious concern.  Thunderstorms can produce high winds and heavy rains, which can raise wave heights, reduce visibility and make docking difficult.  However, with Sirius Satellite weather we can take the guess work out of the 30% chance and actually watch the storms moment to moment.  The other challenge we face is tricky shallow inland water with narrow channels and, of course, unfamilar waters.

Below is the Raymarine E120 page that we use when operating in the GIWW with questionable weather.  The left side of the screen below shows our position just after departure.  The upper right shows Sirius weather and the lower right shows a 7.8 foot depth on our fishfinder, which is about average for the GIWW.

Raymarine E120 presentation

On the upper right, you can see a low pressure center just southwest of Apalachicola with a warm front and trailing cold front; the classic pattern for thunderstorms.  If you look closely at the that screen you can see black arrows that show the storms moving in an east north east direction.  This information suggested that we at a low risk of storms as they were likely to pass to the north as we were moving south. This too proved to be the case.

At 10:03 AM, we approached the swing bridge at Blackburn Point and were told to hold at the red day mark.  In the process of holding there we ran aground in the narrow channel as I attempt to maneuver the boat.  Fortunately, the "hard" (which refers to terra firma) was soft sand and we were moving at less that two miles an hour.  So we had a very soft grounding.  With just a little difficulty I was able to back out of the sand under our own power and in less than 7 minutes we were afloat. 

However, in the process, I had to restart the starboard engine several times and screwed up my navigation equipment.  Fortunately, I was able to restore both units with no loss of data.  Additionally, we were able to verify that we had not damaged the running gear (props, shafts and struts) when we ran the engines slowly up to full throttle while under way.  There was no vibration and we were able to turn the rated RPMs and produce our top speed of 33 MPH.

At 12:50 PM we approched another railroad swing bridge at the entance to Gasparilla Sound (MM33)without sufficient clearance for us to pass without it openning.  We called the bridge operator who informed us that the bridge swings at 1:00 PM.  Again we required to hold in a narrow channel and this time came close to grounding.  This too was unnecessary as the photo below shows that you can pass on both sides of bridge, which is now realize in retrospect/

Swing Bridge at noth end of Gasparilla Sound

I learned some important lessons from this experience:

1. Before attempting to back off a sand bar, turn off the engine synchronizer, E120 and Sea Ray Navigator
2. In the future, avoid trying to turn the boat in a narrow channel.
3. If possible, turn into the wind and hold position.
4. Check for channels on both sides of a swing bridge.

The rest of the journey was largley uneventful.  As forcasted, we experience wave heights varying from one to three feet depending on the size of the bays.  The highest wave heights were experienced while crossing Gasparilla Sound where we had three footers for several miles in its open waters.

The only other tricky piece was the approach to South Seas Resort Marina.  On the photo below you can see a channel between the red daymarks R40 and R38 that leads right to the marina.  Trouble is that channel does not exist anymore.  The daymarks (buoys) have been removed and the charts have not been updated.   Fortunately, Dick Singer introduced us to David Taylor who you may recall provided me with the updated channel location.  Also, Ron Markovits brought this anomaly to my attention.  So we were well prepared.

The none existent channel heading west (Note: Chart is oriented north to south)

Note: According to the locals, folks are running aground by proceeding into the now unmarked channel and attempting to follow it on their GPS.  Bottom Line: Local knowledge is absolutely critical.

Because of the distance it was necessary to make this run at speed in those sections of the GIWW where it was permitted (25 MPH speed limit).  Note: The GIWW has numerous "no wake" and "minimum wake" zones and is heavily patrolled.

At 2:45 PM, we entered the channel to the South Seas Resort Marine having traveled the 64 mile distance at an average speed of 11.1 mile per hour.  In theory, we were on plane for a little less that half of the time but most of the trip.

Entering the South Seas Resort Marina

So, none the worse for wear we were now in an absolutely beautiful first class resort.  Click here to see the facility details

Guided Discovery in a lovely resort setting

Stay tuned for our next article, which we entitled "It.'s a small world" where we unexpectedly met up with new friends and connect with old friends.

Written by Les.