Monday March10, 2009

On Friday, March 6, after two weeks of enjoying our stay at Boot Key Harbor mooring field in Marathon, FL, we motor sailed and sometimes just sailed north on the west coast headed to Cape Coral. We entered Shark River around 4:00 to anchor for our first night with several other boats. We had six other boats going the same place and anchoring also in Shark River. No, I did not see any sharks, but they say that is why it is named shark because there are lots of sharks there. It was a good place to anchor but, the trees were all dead and there was not much to see. Our friend on Intransition said he thinks he saw an alligator the next morning but we did not see it. Randy and Kathy joined us on Last Boat for a pork chop dinner. They did salad and a baked potato. I baked some sugar cookies for our dessert. Together, we had a delicious meal.Saturday morning we set sails for Indian Key. We anchored around 4:00 and ate dinner with Randy and Kathy on their boat. We had chicken, rice and slaw. I baked a lemon pound cake and carried green beans. We were at their boat around six o’clock when two men came by on kayaks who said they were with others and got away and were lost and it was beginning to get late. Nelson, being the nice guy as he is volunteered to pull them on our dinghy back to Tiger Key where they were suppose to be. He and Randy found it on the charts and knew it was several keys up from where we were anchored. Well, we thought we were going to never see Nelson again. It got dark and there was no Nelson. He was two hours getting back. He did not have his cell phone to call us nor did he carry his hand held radio. We finally reported him missing with the Coast Guard. They asked us to wait one more hour and call them back. He showed up one hour later and we let them know he had returned. We finished dinner at 10:00. What a night! We all slept well.
The next morning, Nelson and I left on our boat. We sailed all day from 7:00 until 8:00.
We made it to Sanibel Island and anchored right across from the lighthouse. It was a beautiful day. The winds were blowing 10-15 knots which made for a good motor sail day. We like it when the winds are not so strong and that the boat is not rocking and rolling like it did the last day we were on the ocean. The waters were such a beautiful aqua green and sometimes, we could see the bottom. There were many dolphins on the water. They always look so neat jumping and swimming right beside the boat. We were having such a good day. We could have almost made it to Ft. Myers if we had had more daylight time. After getting anchored and eating a late dinner, we were very tired. We have not had any good television in so long that we forget to turn it on sometimes. But, we were too tired to even try that night.
Monday morning, we pulled anchor and motored under the bridge where we were suppose to pick up Eric and Leah to ride back to Cape Coral with us. As we went up toward the docks, the water became too shallow in a hurry and we came hard aground.
This was our first time ever that we could not get the boat to move at all. We called Eric to let them know that we were stuck. He asked one of the fishermen at the dock who had a big motor if he could come out and pull us back out to deeper water and one of them did. But, he got his finger caught between his boat and our anchor and almost pulled his fingernail off by getting it caught between the two boats. I felt so sorry for him. It was hurting him so bad and then he still had to pull us off the bottom. We paid him for his trouble and hated that he got hurt doing it. Another boat brought Eric and Leah out to meet Nelson in the dinghy. We should have taken the dinghy down and not tried to make it in such shallow water and everyone would have been happy. Too late no!
We were finally ready to get to Ike and Babs house with Eric and Leah on the boat with us. Eric was the captain as he knew the way and we had no idea which canal we needed to take to get us there. It was nice having him and Leah with us. The first canal we took after going slowly through the shallow waters had another obstacle for us. There were power lines and we were not sure whether our mast would clear them or not. So, we motored close while Eric stood right beside the mast and tried see if he thought we could make it without hitting the lines. Boy was this scary! Nelson told us not to touch any metal while we were going under the wire. Everyone was outside looking from their yards and shaking their heads letting us know that they too were not sure that we could make it. Well, we did! We were four excited people once we cleared the wires. The remainder of our trip was short and uneventful. However; Nelson and I were so excited because this was our goal for the whole trip, getting to Ike’s dock in his backyard and we have made it. They had a wonderful seafood dinner for us last night. Ike, Babs, Nelson’s brother and wife, Eric and Diane, Ike’s youngest son and his wife, and their daughter from South Dakota, Leah and us enjoyed eating dinner together out on the screened porch. It was delicious! And the weather was just great also!
We are getting the boat ready to leave it while we drive back to NC to do taxes (ugh). We are planning to leave early in the morning so we will be seeing Jackson, our grandson, our sons and their spouses, our friends and families soon. Yes, we have had a wonderful trip and have made some great friends, but we are also ready to get back to see you all too! We will continue our blog when we get back to Florida and back on Last Boat to continue our trip on the waters back to Jordan Creek, NC.

Nelson & Ondra