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Dec 2009 WASHINGTON STATE TO FLORIDA BY WAY OF CALIFORNIA GOD AWFUL DARK AND COLD After weeks of getting ready to head south and then east to the boat, we were up at 4:00 AM this morning to catch the early 6:00 AM ferry in the pitch black dark of winter. It was still a warm fall and with temps hovering around the 40s. Last year we decided to leave after Christmas but after getting several unexpected snow dumps before we left, we decided to head out a month earlier this year, right after Thanksgiving. I was a bit worried that maybe the ferry would be full of turkey gobblers all headed back to the mainland after celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday on the island. We figured, to be on the safe side, we should be there an hour early even though it was a God awful dark and cold time in the morning to be doing anything. The house is neat and clean and the bird feeders full. Hope the birds will figure out the next door neighbor has some feeders to tide them over. The beds were made, laundry done and frig and freezer empty. We were as ready as we could be. We had made the rounds dropping by neighbor’s houses dishing out care packages of leftovers and unused stocks of food that we had in cupboards and refrigerators, and freezers, that wouldn’t last until we returned in the spring. Late last night we drove around and put thank you notes in mailboxes thanking friends that had been kind to us, had done some generous things before we left and others that promised to watch over the house while we were gone. Though we love the island and especially our friends, we nevertheless were anxious to leave. I felt a bit like I was emerging from a cave with my blinders on. I hadn’t seen the sun for two months, well, maybe bits of it, but can honestly say for days on end there was no sight of it. Every once in awhile it would peek through the thick clouds but then just as quickly it’d disappear again for weeks. We hadn’t gone off island much either so I was really feeling island bound. I was really ready to see something else, anything else, and hopefully with some sun shining on it. WHERE IS THE SUN? Rain, Rain, go away And then you start it
all over again! Night after night I
hear only its dam sound! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with neighbors. It was well worth the wait. Others on the island were also celebrating Thanksgiving in their own special unique ways: ROCKY BAY For instance, we talked with John, who owns Rocky Bay Café in Friday Harbor. It’s one of our favorite “joints” for breakfast and we have come to know by name some of the waitresses, like Rachel and Sara, and it’s also a place where we run into people we know. Anyway, John said he had cooked a 32 pound turkey for the holiday. John was full of chatter talking about his turkey saying, “Its bottom was so big it was hanging out of the roasting pan but I just basted it along with the rest”. The turkey he said was called “Crook” because he “had a bad leg which was kind of deformed”. Crook was a local turkey raised by a friend or so he said. “We had to eat ole Crook because he was just getting too darn big. Otherwise that old turkey son would’ve been 100 lbs if we didn’t decide to eat him!” LIME KILN CAFE Tina, who manages the Lime Kiln Café at Roche Harbor, another favorite hangout of ours, ended up cooking Thanksgiving dinner at the Lime Kiln Café while she was serving lunch and breakfast for the normal boating and local crowds that came in the morning of. The Lime Kiln was busier than she’d ever seen it for Thanksgiving and she was working hard to keep up. She said the hotel was full and the guests were calling all around the island looking for a place to have turkey dinner so she decided to just make a Thanksgiving dinner at the Lime Kiln for whoever wanted some. She was cooking two turkeys at once along with a huge pan of sweet potatoes when I last saw her. She is a sweet lady. And to add to that story, the day after Thanksgiving, she was still working. Tina, having a generous and kind heart, let some of her co-workers have the day off to be with their families. She was so busy with the unexpected customers that morning that I helped her stuff the napkin holders and bus a couple tables during a particularly busy moment while we were having breakfast. THANKSGIVING ON THE DOCKS The morning of Thanksgiving we walked the docks at Roche with Ziggy. Though most of the slips are empty at this time of year, there was a cruising group visiting for the holiday from La Conner. They were having a Swinomish Yacht Club holiday outing. Larry at first thought they were part of the Polar Bear club because it was so cold. They got a big chuckle out of that. It was about 9:00 AM in the morning and bitter cold but here’s this small group of happy cruisers cooking a big pot of steamed crabs right on the docks. I asked if they were having crabs instead of turkey for Thanksgiving. They said “Hell no, we’ve got a 24 pound turkey cooking in our iron stove on the boat!” They had a beautiful old fishing boat that was restored for just cruising and I bet they did have a big old oven in there. I’m not sure if my oven at home would take a 24 pound turkey. I know one thing for sure and that is I’ve never cooked one that big. A BEAUTIFUL TIME As we walked back down the dock towards the old hotel and general store we saw an unusual sight. We counted at least 10 grey heron gliding over the harbor and finally landing in the trees up the hill above the little chapel. I know that one local heron hangs out on the docks, as we saw him shivering knee high in snow last winter, but never ever have seen this many. I guess his relatives decided to visit him for Thanksgiving. The J pods (local orcas that stay through the winter) were spotted cruising the waters around the San Juan’s today and our neighborhood eagles were flying by the living room window bringing sticks to rebuild their nest, something for us to look forward to this upcoming spring. So you can see there were many reasons we were kind of sad to leave the island and very grateful this Thanksgiving. DOCTOR’S OFFICE Finally we were in the ferry line and getting very anxious and excited about the trip ahead of us. The ferry line was full even in the cold dark early morning hours. People were standing around their cars talking to friends, also chattering excitedly about the upcoming holidays and many of us were walking over to the “Doctor’s Office” for hot coffee and muffins or maybe even one of their really delicious homemade cinnamon rolls.
TRAVELS WITH A DOG HEADING SOUTH BEFORE EAST It was a dark ferry ride but once in Anacortes on the mainland, the morning was in full swing. Our new car was loaded and we were on our way heading directly south to San Diego to stop in to see family and get our annual physicals before we officially head across country to Florida where the boat has been stored for several months. CAN’T DRIVE THROUGH OREGON It was Sunday and the last day of a four day holiday weekend. I expected terrible traffic but we drove right through Washington without a glitch. Once we hit the Oregon state line Larry insisted on taking over the wheel. He won’t let me drive through Oregon. Seems I always get a speeding ticket in one of their many ridiculous 60 mph speed trap areas. Today though, much to his chagrin, Larry was stopped for speeding through one of those 60 mph zone so I guess he can’t throw that up to me anymore. ASHLAND, OREGON We made it as usual to Ashland, Oregon for the first night. We checked in to our old standby, the Windmill Inn but found it was bought out by some large company with big plans to transform the place into condos. So most of the property was closed and roped off with machinery ready to bulldoze. They did have one building still open so we decided to stay. You can’t be too choosey when traveling with a dog of course. Then we headed to our favorite local joint, Omar’s, for a great dinner. The hotel was a bit weird that night because we were the only ones there. They offered to bring a continental breakfast to your room in the morning but none ever showed up. Guess that’s the last time we’ll stay there. BLACK BEAR DINER, MOUNT SHASTA The next usual stop, Mt. Shasta, CA for a hearty mountain sized breakfast at the Black Bear Diner with the amazing view of the snow covered volcano as a backdrop. It always amazes us the amount of food they can pile on to a standard sized plate and all for $7.00! Who can eat all that? With our stomachs were full we wound our way down and finally out of the mountains. We were now headed down the long straight flat stretch of California’s very smoggy great central valley. The temps by now were already 20 degrees warmer than back home on the island and the sun was officially out in full force. What a difference it makes in my mood. Our eyes were sensitive to the light from not having seen it for so long. We had to dig out the sun glasses and drive with the sun visors down. DUST BOWL CREATED BY CONGRESS We passed a sign along the highway that read “Dust Bowl by Congress.” At first we didn’t understand what it meant. Then we saw more and more of them. Finally it rang a bell. I remember hearing something on the news about the Central Valley farmers being denied water because the environmentalists were saving a little 2” fish. It was unbelievable really to drive mile after mile, hundreds actually, to see what I have known my whole life living in California, what used to be the food bowl of America turn into nothing but dry brown dust and tumble weeds blowing across the highway. We looked in shock and awe at the acres and acres
of grape vines and almond trees, now pitifully just dried tree trunks and stumps left
to decay into the earth. And the oddest thing was the California aqueduct was full of
blue water meandering its way nicely all down the 100s of miles of dry valley, not
shedding a drop to the crops. Can all this be happening in the valley just to save a
2” fish? We can’t believe all the suffering farmers. Did they lose their farms over
this? What’s going on? The land is reclaiming itself and looking like the desert that
it was before we all came here. Around noon, it was Larry’s turn to aggressively battle the California drivers and pot holed highway of bankrupt California, keeping one step ahead of the endless truckers and snow birds driving huge RVs with large towed support cars. Ziggy was traveling like the seasoned trooper that he is. He slept most of the first day but was more awake the second day and pawing us occasionally and very politely to ask for a drink as we drove through the dry dust bowl. CALIFORNIA OR BUST I’m glad we made it and didn’t bust. Never did understand that saying. It was great seeing our family and our favorite doctor. We didn’t linger long though as we had the boat scheduled to be put in the water a few days from now. So hit the road we did. THE CHALLENGES OF THIS TRIP The rest of the trip is kind of a blur and mostly only worth talking about just to describe the challenge it is to drive across country with a dog, trying to avoid the usual dumps, the doggie motels. It’s definitely a challenge but we’re up for it. If you’re not interested in that topic stop reading now as that’s what it’s all about.
We’ll be taking the southern route across to Florida and I must say having done it a few times, it’s not scenic and it’s a real drudgery driving through that long stretch of Texas but here goes. SAN DIEGO TO TUCSON What we thought today would be a long drive
across a dry desert instead turned out to be a drive across a green expanse of what
used to be a dry desert. It was green as could be, fertile with produce. Maybe all
the water with the little 2” fishes in it is being diverted from the Central Valley to
this place, Yuma, which used to be nothing but a dry wasteland and the last several
year the spring training area for the San Diego Padres. Even the birds were mixed up
as we saw all sorts of exotic birds, like egrets and ibis wading ankle deep in watery
drainage ditches alongside the road munching on those 2” fish. Normally they would
never be seen in this area.
We passed out of this green verdant area and into hills piled high with big round teetering boulders. We marveled at this miracle of nature and thought surely only some goofy human would place and balance rocks precariously that way. We also passed a new addition to the desert; miles and miles of barb wired fences and monstrous flood lights all along the Mexican/US border and along with it dozens of border patrol hummers hovering about. It looks a bit like Iraq out here.
We lucked out the first night and found a Sheraton which you can usually count on to be very dog friendly. We had some really fiery Mexican food for dinner that night in the hotel restaurant. I guess our palates are a little rusty with the hot chili peppers.
PUSH TO ABILENE Next day it was a long 750 mile push to Abilene, Texas. We took a slightly northern detour at this point because Texas is so big and there’s not much in between. Abilene was the best stop for the distance. We spent the day driving past endless miles of pumping oil wells and monstrous piles of equipment having to do with oil and refining it. I can see why most people wouldn’t take this route. It was an ugly swath of land and the dump of a Holiday Inn that we stayed in that night matched the scenery. That night we chewed on huge Texas steaks served up by a waitress whose husband was stationed in the nearby air force base serving as navigator on a B1. That’s the big bomb dropper! Wow.
LADY IN OUR DASH BOARD The next day we searched our Nav system in the new car for another Sheraton. We didn’t care what city it was in as long as it was along the way. We had no interest in spending another night in a crummy motel/hotel like last night. Those old Holiday Inns are really dumps and to imagine they have the gall to charge $30 extra for Ziggy! We are sure enjoying this new car with all its bells and whistles. The days of traveling with stacks of AAA Travel books, maps and Trip Tiks are long gone as we can now search for hotels right in the convenience of our car and get the route charted like on the boat. The only thing different from the boat is a nice lady does all this coordination and she lives in the dash board. She politely tells us how to get to where ever we want to go, how long it will take and what time we will get there. She is very considerate too because if we miss a turn, she never gets mad, just patiently recalculates everything and tells us the next turn to take. I also never thought we that we could search for the nearest Starbucks as we drive down the highway. How did we manage without this nice lady in our dashboard?
BUTTS WARM The weather changed for the worse. It got frigid cold as we hit Texas and for the rest of the trip but our new butt warmers in the car worked wonders. We had warm butts all the way to Florida. The next night we made it to another Sheraton, in Baton Rouge right on the Mississippi River found by the nice lady in the dash board. It was a long day so we ordered up room service and relaxed in our room as the storm poured cats and dogs outside. It looks like we were ahead of a major storm system again. We just saw on the news that a huge snow dump was expected all across the Midwest including Texas. Luck is on our side this time. Again we seemed to be the only people in this hotel. It was odd when we called for a reservation they said “no need for a reservation as we have over 200 rooms available!” The hotel didn’t look like it had much more than 200 rooms when we got there so it makes you wonder how they are surviving. You can definitely see the effects of the bad economy as we drive all across the country and this place is one that is surely must be suffering. We also noticed the price of hotels and motels generally across the board was half of what it was last year.
TALLAHASSEE, FL We were making good time, in fact, ahead of schedule, so we decided we’d stop in Tallahassee tonight. I don’t why we picked it but that’s what we did. I guess it was because we remembered how dog unfriendly most of the hotels are in Florida. So I guess we thought Tallahassee was big enough that we could get a decent place. We’ve had our problems before finding places to stay with Ziggy in Florida. We didn’t want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere without a place to stay like we have once before in Florida. We ended up driving into the late night hours until we finally found a place…but again, tonight it was going to be another Holiday Inn, oh drat’s. Well, they can’t all be bad we said and they accepted dogs so we thought we we’d give it a try.
WHAT A DUMP! Anyway, we gave the Holiday Inn a try in Tallahasse and again it was another mistake. We’ve never done this before but we walked into the room and walked right out. That’s it, no more Holiday Inns. Period! We drove around and finally found another motel that was just fine and they accepted dogs but for a $75 fee. Yikes! Anything was better than staying in that last hole in the wall. So much for traveling with your pooch! It does take lots of stamina, patience and usually always having to put up with a bunch of crap.
As you can imagine we were very anxious to get to the boat having had enough of these hotel/motels.
NOW THE WORK STARTS The next two nights were spent in a nice Best Western we know that overlooks the Caloosahatchee River in North Fort Myers. I’d recommend it to anyone traveling with your pet. It’s a nice place that we’ve stayed in before so we lucked out having an extra day to rest before the boat was ready to be put in the water. The next few days with be filled with lots of hard work as we get the boat ready.
ANOTHER ALARM GOING OFF Beep, beep, beep….another teeny tiny alarm is going off in the boat. The frequency was too high for Larry to hear so I get up off my bunk and tell him about it. We had been trouble shooting things since we got on the boat again. We finally trace it to the GPS this time. Oh great, no GPS signal. GETTING A BOAT OUT OF STORAGE
It’s always a challenge trying to get a boat going after being in storage for months. It’s the end of a very hot muggy day and we are pretty exhausted. We just arrived at the storage facility this morning and have been working all day getting the boat ready. We are definitely not used to these temps after the crisp weather of the Pacific Northwest. STIFF AND OUT OF SHAPE We did our best to rehydrate our bodies with water all day in the heat but sweat it out our pores just as fast as we put it in. It would help a lot if we both had lost some of the fat we’ve accumulated the last few rainy months sitting on our rumps on the island. I also can definitely feel the results of having broken my foot this summer even though the break has healed my body has not yet recovered. I feel uncoordinated and my muscles feel a kind of atrophy making each step onto the boat a bit unsure. I hesitate at every stair. I hope I can get over that soon or there will be an additional challenge to docking this season. RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY I suddenly realize how important it is to be in shape when boating, if only for the safety factor. Give me a couple weeks and I think things will be better. You certainly can’t waddle around and expect to function successfully on a boat. We are both looking forward to getting some exercise as the last two months in the San Juan’s were the wettest I’ve ever experienced. Day after day the gray wetness became oppressive and when “they” whoever “they” are, set the clocks back to supposedly “save” the day light it became even more depressing. They were not saving enough light in my opinion. We don’t enjoy walking in cold rainy weather so we did a lot of sitting and looking out the window at the grey stormy seas. I have to admit it feels good to be off the island and see new things though I miss the wonderful people we have come to know and love there and I always miss the beauty and quiet remoteness of the island especially when you immerse yourself back into the hustle and bustle of “civilization”. I must admit I have an addiction to sunlight. My mood changes the instant I see a peek of sunshine through the clouds. It reassuring to know it’s still up there and sometimes I wondered if it was these last few months. I wondered where it had gone and was it ever coming back? One brief glimpse of it through some dark clouds and somehow you are OK again. A Cold Front came through central Florida late last night and this morning the temperatures are almost cool enough to put a sweat shirt on but Larry is still resisting determined to wear his shorts and golf shirt. Maybe later when the sun gets up over the horizon I may decide to expose my white extremities again in some musty smelling shorts and t-shirts that have been packed away in the boat for several months. STARTED UP PRETTY GOOD Larry managed to have a pretty lucky day today I have to admit. When they put Knotty Dog into the tea stained waters of inner Florida she started up immediately. He tested the thrusters pushing the water port and starboard before giving the OK to release the cradle straps and officially release her freely in the water. DIRTY AGAIN? Larry backed her out into the small boat basin of River Forest Yachting Center and maneuvered her over to the concrete bulkhead. Power was plugged in and water tanks filled and sterilized. All systems needed checking and I began the usual job of unpacking, provisioning and cleaning. I can never figure out how after cleaning a boat so meticulously down to every nook and cranny, that when you come back to it a few months later that it’s all dirty again. That scenario has never made sense to me. It’s just as dirty as before I cleaned it! So again, the cleaning begins, the vacuuming and wiping of dusty surfaces, and removing of dried up fossilized bug carcasses. The motion of this cleaning aggravates every lazy unused muscle and stiff joint in my body. WHERE IS EVERYTHING? I don’t know if it’s the same with anyone else, but we always find ourselves getting re-familiarized with everything or rather realizing we’ve completely forgot where things are and how they work. How can that be after spending months on the boat? Larry is much better than I and seems to remember what the switches are for and where things are but I on the other hand forget most of it. I have to ask again but thankfully it soon kicks in and all comes back. I’m like an old car that you have to pull the choke out to get it started. The other idiotic thing is finding out that you’ve packed and brought stuff that you forgot you already had on the boat so now you have at least two of whatever it is when you only need one and only have the space for one. I also soon realized I now have enough pairs of underwear on board to last almost a month without washing. I guess that could be considered a good thing but I hope I don’t forget to take some home on the return trip because there must not be a pair left at home on the island and no store there to buy any. I spend most of the day emptying the car, putting things in the proper places and driving several miles to the local grocery store to get minor provisions and Larry continues to run through his check list. He’s got the air conditioning going as the temps are sweltering in the muggy 90s but I am reminded not to complain by our friend Brenda on the island who says they are freezing their butts off in the 20s. WHAT’S THAT NOISE? Once I finally had a chance to lie down and rest for a moment I noticed the boat sure was making a lot of noise that I don’t remember. There was a of stuff running. Fans were blowing, motors running, water pumps going and other things making sounds I didn’t at all recognize. Sounds are very important on a boat and you need to pay attention to them and learn them. I asked Larry about all the noise, “Things just don’t sound normal.” We began to shut things down one by one to see what was making the unfamiliar noise. First we turned the water pump off, then AC, then some auxiliary fans, etc. down the line of all the known possible sound makers. Still, there was something running, a loud motor or pump. We snooped all around the boat and thought we narrowed the source to below the steps in the galley. SMACK IT! Larry removed the steps and opened the hatch beneath and the sound immediately became much louder confirming the location. There was the culprit, the bilge pump to the AC was running and wouldn’t shut off. Larry opened the box and fiddled with it and finally gave it a few magical smacks hoping to dislodge anything that may have gotten the switch stuck from sitting too long. I noticed he had used “this technique” quite a bit today as lots of things were getting little firm smacks. It stopped running for a few minutes but soon started up again. This happened three times and finally Larry just disconnected it. It was easier on a day like this to just replace it with a new switch when we get to a populated area. MIDDLE OF NO WHERE Oh didn’t we tell you? We are in the center of Florida, near Lake Okeechobee, up the Caloosahatchee Canal (don’t you love those names?) and at least 60 miles round trip in a car from any place to get boat parts or a West Marine. We left Knotty Dog here last April (I never quite got the logs done to that point). She’s been snug as a bug in a facility that maintains humidity controlled temperatures and is well inland and hopefully safe from hurricanes. The facility is called River Forest Yachting center and you could say is located in the middle of nowhere. The nearest small town is several miles away and has what you could say minimal supplies, a couple restaurants, a gas station, and some funky little stores. It’s a real small town like in the old days. Actually I love the little town. It is a side of Florida that most visitors never see. The area is surrounded by miles and miles of cattle ranches and orange groves. There are no typical strip malls, high rise condos and the typical Florida snow birds. It’s just small town America. EXOTIC As I drive back and forth to town I’m amazed to see the most exotic birds just along the roadside. Birds you would expect to see in a zoo, bird book of extinct species or on some eco tour in the jungle. This used to be their land before the early developers drained much of the Everglades for farming and development. Many of these birds have adapted but now seem relegated to scavenging the man made drainage ditches along the asphalt highways. It’s kind of degrading considering their elegant beauty. There also is no sound of civilization here, no distant rumble of a highways or interstates, just the occasional small sound of a jet way off in the distance soaring tens of thousands of feet above us. This morning we woke to the sounds fish and turtles splashing and gurgling in the water by the boat and unfamiliar screeches from exotic birds and the moos of nearby cattle. The air is warm and tropical and the sky is big and blue sprinkled with white cotton ball clouds. It’s so bright, lush, clean and crisp…but in all this beauty and serenity I always remember there are plenty creepy crawly things and don’t forget the bugs, lots of bugs and they bite! I asked the guys that work here what kind of fish are jumping and splashing in the boat basin. They rattled off several varieties but the one that caught my attention was the one they said had a snout like that of an alligator and can grow as big as 8 feet long! They eat all the “good” fish he said, I guess he means the ones they like to “catch”. Ziggy better watch out and not get too nosy! I asked if manatees are around. “Oh yes, we’ve seen two in the area” they answered. I wondered out loud how they got through the two locks which is the only way to come up river this far. John said that the locks have a sensor designed within the lock gate to immediately stop closing if it senses a manatee coming through. He said the manatees have no problem going in and out of the locks. John also pointed out some plant life growing on top of the water near the boat. It looked much like typical lily pads but smaller and more textured pads. He said its natural habitat is the Amazon River but somehow, some way, it has hitched a ride or been brought to Florida for some ornamental pond and now is invading the inner waterways of Florida threatening native water plants and eating all the plankton. It’s become a real threat to the environmental balance. He said some agency came by the other day and sprayed the water to kill it. You wonder what the spray will do to the water???? ALWAYS SUMPTHIN’ Hey I sure digressed a bit. So, back to when I started this story…everything was working on the boat except the GPS and there was no fixing it. Thank God we had a car because we decided to stay an extra day and drive to Fort Myers to get a replacement which Larry installed the next day. I guess we could’ve run the boat to Fort Myers without it but there were predicted thunderstorms and strong winds so why hassle it when we had the luxury of a car this trip. So one day behind we were now ready. Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading down that Caloosahatchee Canal towards Fort Myers.
A LITTLE RUSTY We awake to a sunny but muggy morning. We’re in
no hurry to leave today as we have plenty of time to get to our next stop which is
Legacy Marina in Fort Myers. We’re a little rusty as we prepare to leave but things
are coming back quickly.
We head out the narrow channel from the square concrete yacht basin past a little trailer park situated immediately to our right and soon are back into the Caloosahatchee Canal. We pass a couple sailboats that I guess just decided to anchor overnight right in the canal or maybe that’s their permanent anchorage? FIRST LOCK We have barely begun our trip down the canal when
we come to the first lock. There are plenty of signs along the shore to tell you what
to do which is nice. Larry hailed the lock master on Channel 13 asking for passage
heading south. I immediately wondered doesn’t he mean West? The lock master picked
up on it right away and said “I might not be able to help you with that captain; maybe
you mean east or west?” and he chuckled. Okay, maybe we haven’t had enough morning
coffee yet. We sheepishly laughed back saying “Sorry, we meant west”. He said to
hang on as it would be a few minutes before he would have the lock filled and that he
had another boat to pass through first. It was about a 20 minute wait. You’d have thought there was a strong current running through the canal. As we waited we were being pushed or pulled toward the lock and past the sign that clearly says “Do not proceed beyond this point!” and “Proceed only with Green Light.” Larry got lots of practice in those 20 minutes trying to keep Knotty Dog from going forward. I can’t believe it was the draw of water to fill the lock that was pushing us forward, but maybe so. Pretty soon the bright yellow and black diagonal striped gates opened and a little blue hulled fishing skiff came out. We soon played a trick back at the lock master. He forgot to turn the green light on giving us the signal to come on through. He hailed us to come through like he was wondering what we were waiting for but we reminded him the green light wasn’t on. He quickly turned it on. Maybe he didn’t have enough coffee yet either. We were the only ones in the lock for our passage
and the only people around were a few spectators on the observation platform above
us. I was positioned up on the front starboard side of the boat and as we headed into
the lock chamber. I grabbed one of many lines hanging along the wall and then Larry
left the helm, came out back and grabbed one at the stern. I had the fenders hung
high to keep us off the wall which was actually very clean compared to other locks
we’ve been in. Most are covered with scratchy barnacles, mussels and other black and
green icky looking stuff. I held my line just forward of mid ship.
We heard the lockmaster call us again on the radio. We never did see him by the way, only heard him, it kind of reminded me of the Wizard of Oz talking down to us so big and powerful. He then said “I’ll be a droppin’ ya’ all about 8 feet now”. Once the water started lowering and things were under control, I looked up at the “spectators” who looked like a couple families with kids. They waved and we waved back. They yelled down asking what the dog’s name was. “Ziggy!” “Hi Ziggy!” they called out. Ziggy was too busy to answer back. Ziggy by the
way was enjoying every moment of this lock business by running from one end of the
boat to the other. I guess he thought he was supervising.
As the lock began the emptying process the striped gates on the opposite end slowly began to open and it was like the waters parting for Moses, except they were pouring out. You could see clearly the higher water pouring into the lower water of the canal. It was a strange image. Finally before you know it the gates were fully opened and the water levels were even. We quickly released the lines, pushed ourselves away from the wall and motored on out. RV PARKS The first thing we noticed on our left was a nice upscale RV park. The RVs were huge and very fancy with all the bells and whistles. They sure had some prime spots as they were parked right on the grassy knoll next to the water and each had lots of space separating them from each other. Each RV lot had their own shaded picnic table platforms but the most important thing was the great view of the comings and goings of the lock.
LUSH AND GREEN Ahead of us was a big open stretch. The canal was lined with palmettos and tall grasses. The shores on each side rise up like a dike. It was the oddest site as occasionally we’d see cattle strolling along the high embankment. The young calves would curiously look up and stare at us but the parents just kept chewing and didn’t even consider us worth a glance, probably bored at the sight of another stupid boat going by. There were funny little white birds, cattle egrets that followed the cattle around like a little parade. They munch on insects and grasshoppers that the cows stir up when they pull the grasses up.
CAMEL? Further down the canal we were surprised to see a camel munching away with the rest of the cattle. (We have a camel on San Juan Island also, named MONA) GOT SOME RAIN I GUESS The landscape in Florida looks so much greener and lush compared to last year in April. Florida was suffering from a severe draught but it looks like things are better now. We are surprised to also have a generous 24 feet under us which is much higher than last year when we came through. Last year there was talk that they were considering closing the lake and locks because the water level was getting too low. The canal made a turn towards the south. I looked on the chart and off to the right was a small indention in the bank called Hogpen Gully. I love the names on these charts. QUIET DAY ON THE CANAL? It seemed like it was going to be pretty quiet on
the canal today, well that is, until we saw something strange in the distance coming
this way and it was putting out a lot of spray. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we are in
Florida and they like to race, waking you to death. Whatever is coming, we’re going
to most likely get waked and big time. It was such a nice day I almost forgot about
these darn Florida boaters. I glanced quickly around to see if anything was in danger
of falling off the salon table or galley counter onto the floor. Nope, most
everything looks pretty secure. Jus to be safe, I grabbed the coffees and put them in
the galley sink. Before you know it these strange things were almost upon us. I barely had time to get the binoculars to see what they were and then get the camera. They were so fast and powerful, with large loud engines. You could hear their roar far ahead of their arrival. What the heck are they we wondered? Jet skis? No, it looks like..yep…they are hydroplane racing boats. ROAR!!!! Zoom, zoom, they sped by us one right after. They flew up in the air and bounced across the water when they hit our wake. Wow! Just when you think the day is going to be ho hum and you are sure you’ve seen it all, then here comes something new and today something quite ridiculous. I have to say….it’s always interesting on a boat.
EAGLES IN THE TROPICS? Hey, another surprise, two eagles just flew over
head and one landed on a dry tree branch across the canal from us and gave us a hard
serious look …or was he licking his chops at Ziggy? Luckily Ziggy has gained several
pounds like the rest of us and is by far too heavy of a meal to be grabbed and flown
away by them. Funny, I don’t really picture eagles in a tropical environment but I
remember seeing one last year by the Everglades. I guess they like it here too! I
wonder what our island eagles would think of this place? They could be here sunning
themselves instead of freezing their feathers off on their perch overlooking Haro
Strait. They were busy rebuilding their nest when we left, too busy to think about
being lazy and vacationing here in Southern Florida. I think these eagles have it
pretty easy as there is lots of food and no winter storms, but hey, what about those
hurricanes?
CRAWLING WITH TURKEY VULTURES We saw tons and tons of what I think are turkey vultures as we cruised down the canal today. Actually we’ve seen a lot of them everywhere in Florida. Maybe it’s their state bird?? Just kidding. No, maybe? They spend a lot of time in groups soaring over head circling seemingly mindless much like you used to see in those old westerns when the cowboy has lost his horse to the dry heat, his canteen is dry, and he’s struggling to get across the desert about to collapse and picked over by those turkey vultures. Today they are hovering over a nearby land fill.
LOTS OF WILDLIFE We love coming to Florida to see the bounty of wildlife. Today we’ve already seen the usual suspects, cormorants, egrets of many varieties, ducks and some really feisty fish that jump clean out of the water at least a foot trying to catch insects or maybe scooting out of the way of a predator in those dark waters. They look like little rockets launching themselves out of the water but have a quick malfunction in the air as they quickly do a belly flop back into the water. The water is dark as strong coffee and you know there are fish and other crawly things in it because of all the swirls and splashes. It’s a little scary this dark water as I imagine snakes and alligators in it. Lovely lily pads though contrast starkly against the dark eerie water. They float in beautiful masses along the edges of the canal intermixed with tall green blades of water grass. It’s a pretty sight.
LA BELLE We clear La Belle Bridge with lots of room to spare and just beyond to our port we see La Belle’s Public Docks. There were three boats at the docks, med tied, as there are no finger docks. I would think you better know how to do that before thinking about docking there. It must be difficult if there is any sideways current like we had at the lock. There is no drinking water or electricity at the public docks but it’s a good location if you want to be close to town which is a short walk away. Huge old oak trees draped in Spanish moss shade
the nearby town park and it’s old time gazebo is a centerpiece for the small town’s
festivals, one of which we saw last night as we drove to dinner. It was lit up with
twinkle lights for the holidays and tons of Mexican Americans were having a
traditional holiday celebration. Speaking of Mexican Americans, we’ve seen bus loads
of migrant workers in the area. It must be time to harvest all those citrus trees
we’ve been passing. After work yesterday several of their transportation buses were
stopped at a small grocery store called Fiesta Grocery Store where they were standing
outside in crowds, eating food purchased inside, like a Seven 11. Life must be tough
for them. Across the canal is an old paddle wheeler tied to the side of the canal. It seems to be out of commission and perhaps has seen better days or maybe it’s just waiting for the tourist season. We saw it in the same place last year. Just up the bank from it is a new billboard that has no printed word as the image says enough. It’s just a big image of an American flag flowing in the wind. We passed several nice homes along the river,
many with big screened porches, large groomed lawns stretching gracefully down to
water and many had their own little wooden boat dock. Lawn chairs were strategically
placed on the lawns under the shade positioned for viewing to watch what goes up and
down the river.
Ziggy is happy as a clam, even humped his lover babe along the way. Horny little old dog.
IT IS WORTH IT After all the hard work to get the boat ready and the long hard drive across country I think maybe both Larry and I had a few moments there when we wondered if it is worth all the trouble and expense to do this but when you are out on the water again you soon know that it is worth it. You quickly forget all the challenges it takes to get to this point. I think I must have some gypsy in me because I like this vagabond lifestyle, just cruising at a slow pace seeing the simple side of America.
BRIDGE TENDER LADY We are approaching Fort Denaud Bridge now. It’s an old swing bridge. We hail the bridge master on 9. An older lady that answers back. She says she’ll open the bridge when we get closer. Well, okay, we’ll move up a bit. Meanwhile we see several cars going over the bridge. We are now as close we dare and hovering but see no one around. Where the heck is she? Is she going to open it soon? Finally we see an old man and a woman dressed in a flowered shirt and little straw hat stroll up to the edge of the bridge. She starts walking about as slow as molasses across the long bridge until she finally reaches the control station. We hear her call back on the radio “OK Captain, you can come through now! What is the name of your boat?” “Knotty Dog” Larry answers back. As we go by she is standing there with her clip board looking more like a school teacher than a bridge tender. Larry calls her again “Thanks for the opening and have a Merry Christmas!” Well, that set her off and she answered back telling us where she was going to be for the holidays and so on. You could tell she was excited as she was going to be at Disneyworld for Christmas Day. Funny.
ANOTHER LOCK Oops, I had forgotten there was another lock. How could I forget as last year when we came through we met up with another boat that was a similar make to ours? The captain was a lobster man from Maine. We had a long chat with him as we waited for the lock to open. We had also bumped into them in Harbor Island, in the Bahamas a few years before when we had the Nordhavn. What is it they say? It’s a small world? It is in the boating world.
DISGRACEFUL The second lock was easy. We just had to wait a long time for the lock master to fill the lock for us. While we waited Zig and I noticed a little river otter on shore. He was busy snorting around and acting playful, rolling around scratching his back on a pile of shells along the shore. He was entertaining us with a lot of comical gestures so I decided to get the camera out and take a picture of him. Funny once he saw me taking a picture he did a disgraceful gesture. That little stinker! I’m getting quite a collection of animals doing that; a bear in Alaska, an alpaca in Friday Harbor, our baby eagle and now this little character!
BAH HUMBUG, CIVILIZATION Once out of the lock we were getting closer to civilization and seeing lots of jet skiers and more race boats speeding up and down the canal. They were headed towards us all in a pack and doing all sorts of spin outs and race maneuvers trying to top the other with a more daring maneuver. Zoom, zoom they went by in a crazy pack and Ziggy chased and barked at them up and down the gang way the length of the boat. I wonder what the people that own homes along the canal think of this noisy disruptive sport.
As we get nearer to Fort Myers the water opens up wide into the river and we are suddenly surrounded by mangroves, islands of them. There is a huge power plant to our left and several fishermen are fishing by the warm water output. We are going at a snail’s pace now because we are in the Manatee No Speed Zone. Those manatees like the warm water that comes out of the power plants but the weather has been so hot lately that I’m sure they aren’t hovering around there. Last year though we saw a dead manatee floating in the water in this area which sadly was hit by a boat’s propellers. So we all crawl at a snail’s pace. There are a few other boats out here with us now, mostly little fishing skiffs and the sheriff has suddenly appeared in the No Speed Zone so we all are being especially careful.
SPOONBILLS Up ahead we see a mangrove island by the large bridge that crosses the river. I remember these massive mangroves last year to be loaded with storks nesting on huge nests. I was looking forward to getting a picture of them today with my new telephoto lens but guess the timing wasn’t right for their nesting schedule. Instead I was able to capture, at a very long distance, a picture of an equally interesting and rare handful of spoonbills. They have a strange long beak with a flat round shape at the end that they use to strain the water for small fish and food particles. Today they were up in the mangroves mainly using those spoon beaks to preen their beautiful and amazing pink feathers.
TAKE US FOR A FOOL? Okay, two more bridges and we’re there to our destination. It’s been about a 5 hour trip today. Now we are traveling across a wide open stretch of the river and have to watch the markers to stay in the narrow channel. We don’t want to wander off into the shallow waters and get stuck. Oops, there’s a boat stuck as I write this! He’s way outside the channel. He’s trying to wave us over asking for a tow. Is he nuts? We’re not going over there and get stuck too. The sheriff is a mile behind us, let him figure it out. The weather is calm unlike last year when it seemed we had nothing but 25 to 30 knot winds. Today it is pleasant, no wind and so much easier to see the markers and not struggle to keep from getting blown out of the channel.
LEGACY MARINA, FORT MYERS We hail the marina Legacy Marina and soon are docked. Larry puts her right in. I guess that broken flap (the trim tab) that was hanging down broken on the starboard side of the stern last year was the reason why we were having so much difficulty at the end of the trip docking. Today Larry maneuvered her in to the slip perfectly. I like Legacy Marina because they have floating docks with cleats, a nice laundry with good facilities and are close to the a nice grocery store and more important, Bennett’s for coffee and homemade donuts in the mornings is right across the street. The marina is also within walking distance of town. We also noticed they now have pump outs at all the slips now. The people that work here are very nice and put us close to the laundry which we had requested. We’ll be here for a day or two.
Now here’s a cute little story. Remember all those Manatee Zones we’ve been talking about? We’ll here’s a little true story about a manatee. Ilya is a manatee that decided to swim to Cape Cod last summer. Manatees normally swim north in the summer but not usually that far. As winter was upon us he was making his way back south when he “dithered” a little too long in the New Jersey and Staten Island area getting himself stuck as the waters quickly dropped in temperature. Manatee’s need temps no lower than 68 degrees to survive. To stay warm Ilya hovered around the 75 degree warm water outflow of the ConocoPhillip’s New Jersey area power plant. Poor Ilya was losing weight and getting weaker and it soon became clear that he was in big trouble. The surrounding waters were dipping into the low 50s and it was just a matter of days before he would die if something wasn’t done. Ilya finally surfaced and the plant workers quickly called US Fish and Wildlife Service. Manatee rescue workers were immediately rushed in and the elaborate interception began. Ilya didn’t give in easy. He escaped from their nets three times before they were finally able to capture him and transfer him to a the nearby rescue station for stranded wildlife. Luckily Ilya had friends he didn’t even know about in the New Jersey area. He was immediately given some sedatives, antibiotics and nutrition and in a few days he was strong enough for the US Coast Guard to fly Ilya draped in wet towels all the way to Miami in a C-190 cargo plane. Ilya has since spent the last several weeks recuperating nicely in the Miami Seaquarium and because he had such a sweet disposition the head vet decided to put Ilya in the same tank with a nice young female manatee name Glade. Poor Ilya lost about 100 lbs during the whole ordeal (but considering he weighed about 1100 lbs maybe it wasn’t so much) but was happy to spend his time touching noses with his female aquarium mate. You may wonder how these manatees have been given names and how the researchers know their hangouts. Well sadly they are identified and named by the scars they receive from boat accidents. Ilya for example had a white circle cut out of his head and a chunk missing from his tail. Anyway, it’s a happy story because we read in the local newspaper here yesterday that Ilya was successfully released into Florida waters. I think he was released in the Florida Keys where he is from originally. Don’t ask me how they know that. Here’s an interesting video of his rescue. You got to hand it to the rescue team. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gfg2OfvRA4
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