Crossing Florida: Sarasota to Fort Myers

The goal today (April 24) was a 7:00 AM departure.  Diana picked up Phil and Carol at their home on Long Boat Key and had them on the boat at 6:50 AM. Darrel and Sue, our cruising friends that we met in November 2010 on the Great Loop, arrived earlier and were on hand to see us off.  They helped with the lines and took the photos below.  Darrel also helped me fix the strangest problem.

Strange problem. I have a Glendenning wired remote that enables me to control the boat from just about anywhere on the main and upper deck.  The remote plugs into one of three ports.  It consists of a control panel and 30 feet of cable with a plug.  The plug has a protective cover over the contacts, which I rarely use. This morning the protective cover refused to come-off and that resulted in a seven minute delay in departing.  Not that I am all that concerned with departing on time, but I did not expect such a trivial thing as a cover to gum up the works.  Ultimately we used vice grips and a pliers to remove the cover. The cover will NEVER be used again.

Explanatory Note: Before moving the 63 I go through several checklists to verify that the boat's system are operating properly.  The cover for the remote is not on the checklist.

Thus the journey began at seven minutes past seven.  Darrel captured the departure.

We're moving as Carol brings in the stern line

Clearing the slip.  That's me on the boat deck controlling the boat with the remote 

Leaving our winter home

This promised to be an easy run.  The winds in the AM were light out of the northwest and the forecast called for partly sunny skies with a slight chance (10%) of showers.  Making things even easier are the tracks that the Garmin laid down from our voyage last November.  Essentially, the boat drops bread crumbs and all I have to do is follow them to traverse the same safe waters as last time.

This was a good thing because the first challenge is Sarasota Big Pass which we hit at 7:29 AM. Sarasota Big Pass is not properly named.  "Big" implies easy with deep water, which is not the case. Active Captain identifies this as a pass requiring "local knowledge," which means, in this case, it is not easy due to hard to see very small private buoys, and shallow water due to an extensive sandbar of the northwest side of the channel.  The tracks made the passage easy as we crossed over the same waters as we did in November.  Note: I also visited the pass twice with the tender to verify that nothing had changed.

We cleared Big Pass at 7:43 AM and spent the next four hours heading southeast along the Gulf coast within two miles of shore.  The winds were out of the northwest at 8 knots and the seas were around one foot.  Water temperature was 82 degrees and the air temperature rose to 87.  Unfortunately our SE course cancelled out the breeze so that it was a bit warm of the flybridge.  Oh well.

We reached Red Fish Pass at the north end of Captiva Island at 1:15 PM and here again benefited from the tracks laid down last fall.  The photo below is of South Seas Resort on Captiva, which had initially been our first day destination.  Change of plan.  Phil and Carol arranged dockage at the Saint Charles Yacht Club in Fort Myers and this yielded two benefits; free first night dockage under the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs reciprocity rules and an additional 15 NM of distance traveled.  More about St Charles later.

South Seas Resort

At 1:24 PM we joined the Gulf ICW and preceded toward Fort Myers in a very well marked channel. Being Friday there was lots of boat traffic especially as we approached the famous miserable mile. It's nice to have stabilizers when boats go tearing past.

Unusual sight.  A water sports shop along the miserable mile

We arrived at the the entrance to St Charles Yacht Club at 3:12 PM and turned right into a long and perfectly marked channel to the club.  The dockmaster had informed me that the channel's depth was 6 feet at mean low water and that the bottom was soft mud.  We draw five feet so that's a little tight. However, we arrived at high tide which added two feet of additional clearance.

Mike, the dockmaster was also very accommodating.  He put us on a T-dock and helped us secure the boat.

The St Charles Yacht Club is located in a very protected cove with expensive homes.  The home astern of Guided Discovery was UNBELIEVABLY large with 13,326 square feet and 400 feet of water front.  Zillow showed a value of $1.6 million (which seemed extremely low).

Large home behind Guided Discovery

My friends Jerry and Cathy Swerdlick arrived for cocktails at 5:20 PM.   We were joined by Phil and Carol and their friends by Daniel and Angel.  We sat and chatted until 7;00 PM when we all adjourned for dinner.

Jerry and Cathy at the St.Charles Yacht Club.

Jerry, Cathy and I ate at the St. Charles Yacht Club where we each enjoyed a lovely delicious dinner in a quiet and charming setting.  We had a jolly good time.

Jerry is my oldest friend dating back to 1968 when I was working as the manager of the Liberty Loan Company office in Westerly, RI.  I spent a year their before being promoted to manage the Providence office.  Jerry, at the time, owned a women's clothing shop downtown and Jerry's Summerwear and Souvenirs on Misquamicut Beach.  We had a great time chasing women (I was 25 and single with a Corvette).  Today he is the owner of EVAS. a firm that provides computer aids for the visually impaired and handicapped (www.evas.com).

I have connected with Jerry and Cathy every time I've passed Captiva, which now is three times.  The first was in 2011 on the Great Loop, then last November and yesterday.  I suspect we will make this a bi-annual tradition.

Life is good thanks to Phil and Carol being on board.  Both have captain's license's and considerable experience. I could not have better crew.

All and all a very easy and fun day.  Tomorrow we begin the Caloosahatchee River and the Okeechobee Waterway with its five locks.

Statistics

• Distance Today: 69.9 Nautical miles
• Fuel Used: 68.0 gallons of diesel
• Time Enroute: 8 hours and 28 minutes

Written by Les.