We've arrived in Panama

Seabiscuit Blog June 16

Location: Bocas del Toro, Panama

We’ve arrived!  Actually, we’ve been here over a week already.  We arrived at our destination (for the next 6 months or so), Bocas del Toro (Bocas), Panama on Friday, June 7.  To get here we did an overnight voyage from the Albuquerque Cays.  The Albuquerque Cays are about 170 miles N of Bocas.  We arrived at the Bocas Del Toro Channel at about 7:00 AM.  At 7:30 AM the wakeup call on the Bocas net came across the VHF radio telling us that the net started at 7:45 AM.  Every day on the radio they have the Bocas net.  It’s an opportunity for everybody in the local boating & land based expat community to hear the local events, talk about boat issues, hear about new boats coming or boats leaving, share treasures of the bilge (items for sale or trade) and get the daily weather and trivia.  As we were coming down the channel we reported in as a new boat and then waited in the bay outside the marina.  The trivia discussion that day was about absolute zero and there was some controversy about the right answer so the net when extra long.  The net uses the same VHF channel as the marina so we couldn’t call in for our slip until the net was over.  Once the net ended, we radioed the marina and backed into our designated slip.   The marine owner, one of her workers and folks from other boats were on the dock to greet us and to help with our lines.  In the slip just to the west (starboard) of us is another trawler, Grey Goose.  On our east (port) side we have an empty slip and then a sailboat from Houston, Chasing Sunsets.

Once we got tied up we introduced ourselves to the other boaters in the marina.  Next we had to do the paperwork cha cha.  Four officials boarded the boat including the port authority, immigration, quarantine, and customs.  We offered them cold drinks and they settled in to complete their paperwork.  After the paperwork was complete, they inspected the boat and we paid our fees; then we were allowed to get off the boat and to take down our yellow “quarantine” flag.  We were instructed that we would need to go into town before 2:00 p.m. to get our cruising permit for Panama.  We went to the marina office and checked in with Mary, the marina owner, and got a tour of the facilities.  Then we had a little lunch and asked Mary to call a water taxi for us so that we could go to town. 


Saturday night potluck.
Doug and Michelle (Grey Goose)
and Mary (the marina owner)
with Mary's ceviche and avocados.

Saturday night pot luck.  Rick and
Judy (Chasing Sunsets) with Judy's Texas Chili.

The marina we are at, Marina Carenero, is across the bay from the town of Bocas del Toro.  To get back and forth from town to the marina, you either take a water taxi or take your dinghy.  We have been using the water taxi service and it works well.  You call the dock where the water taxis hang-out and let them know where you want to be picked up.  For $1, they give you a ride to town.  When we got back from getting our cruising permit ($193 for one year), the other boaters invited us to join them for chicken fried chicken dinner at the Rip Tide.  The Rip Tide is an old boat that has been converted to a bar/restaurant.  It was a great opportunity to meet the other people staying at the marina and to get a feel for Bocas town and what it has to offer.  Almost everything in town is within walking distance and if not, taxis are readily available.  After dinner, we stopped at the local ice cream shop and then headed back to the marina via the water taxi.

Saturday night pot luck. Sharon
(Sunsation) and Rick, the back of
Michelle's head and Michelle's lemon cake.

Saturday we finished our paperwork at the marina, did some laundry and settled in.  Saturday nights at the marina are pot luck night, so it was another opportunity to swap sea stories with some of the other boaters. 

Saturday night pot luck.  Mary, Linda
and Helmut (NatiJaq) and Dave with Linda's
meatloaf and squash, Sharon's chicken and our jambalaya.

 Sunday we walked over to the Cosmic Crab (the restaurant and cabins next to our marina) for Sunday brunch, only to learn that this time of year is the slow season and they only do the Sunday brunch the first Sunday of every month.  So we ate at the breakfast buffet that they set-up for guests staying in their cabins and then took a walk around Carenero Island.  There are a lot of hostels and small cabins on the island.  The marina and the Cosmic Crab are on the west side, a surfing school and another restaurant are on the east side and the middle of the island is mostly jungle.  Sunday night we went back over to the Rip Tide for ribs.

B on the west side of Isle Carenero.

 During the week, we spent most of our time going to town provisioning and getting maintenance parts, doing boat chores and generally settling in to our new home.  Happy hour on the dock is every night at 5:00 p.m.  The weather has been nice, with one day of hot sun followed by a day of rain to cool things off again (it is rainy season here now). 



Helmut's 75th birthday party.

Friday during the day, we went into town to the beer distributor to stock up on happy hour drinks, sodas and water.  Friday night was Helmut’s 75^th birthday, so Linda planned a pot luck birthday celebration for him.  Mary graciously opened up her house and the party was on her upper deck.  Helmut and Linda live in David, Panama’s second largest city and keep their boat here at the marina.  They come down for about 10 days every month to work on the boat and enjoy the marina atmosphere. 

Last night (Saturday) we went into town with a small group to Gringo’s for Mexican food and margaritas.  Of course, we stopped at the ice cream shop after dinner and then walked down and listened to the fireman’s band play.  It is mostly young men playing drums and twirling their drum sticks plus three or four trumpets playing a few notes every now and then.

Boat Chores

B studying "the list"

So, let’s talk a little about boat chores and what that really means.  As you can imagine, living on a boat, there are always maintenance items, general housekeeping items and fixing of things.  While underway, it isn’t always easy or necessary to do these things immediately, so they get put on “the list” of things to do when we arrive at our destination.  Of course the list grows and grows.  It is nice to finally arrive somewhere and to check things off the list.  On an earlier blog, I mentioned that the dinghy wasn’t working well.  We knew we would need it at some of the anchorages, so it was at the top of the list to fix while we were underway.  We ended up disassembling and cleaning the carburetor four times before finally getting the outboard motor to start-up and run without any problems. 

Dave with the chain locker hatch cover
rigged up to the come-along.

Another major issue was our anchor windlass.  It started giving us problems last summer and we operated all summer only using the port anchor.  While we were in Alabama at Barber Marina, Dave disassembled the windlass to look for issues and change the gearbox oil.  All pieces and parts seemed ok, with no signs of metal shavings.  We tried to open the chain locker to see if the problem was with the chain, put the hatch cover wouldn’t budge.  Dave had two nuts welded onto the cover so that we could connect the come-along and try to get it to break free that way, but still no luck.  Whoever had the cover off last time used the red form-a-gasket material when they put the cover back on and it was stuck tight.  When we arrived in Mexico, we still couldn’t deploy the starboard chain, so we knew the problem wasn’t fixed and “fix the windlass” went back on the list.  The problem got even worse by the time we got to Providencia and we couldn’t get the windlass to pay out either the port or the starboard chain and had to free fall the chain in order to anchor there and in the Albuquerque Cays (more on our route and stop-overs below and in the next blog).

The chain locker (in the forward cabin)
with port and starboard chains.

Last week, Dave disassembled part of the windlass and decided the problem wasn’t with it, but was probably with the chain balled in a knot in the chain locker.  So, out came the come-along and by pulling on just one corner of hatch cover we finally got the hatch cover off.  The problem did turn out to be with the chain and not with the windlass.  The upper part of the starboard chain had spilled over into the port chain locker and the port chain was piled on top of the starboard chain, preventing it from moving.  In order to get each chain on its own side of the chain locker, we payed out the chain from both lockers.  Another item on the list was to unclog the bilge suction from the chain locker to the bilge manifold in the engine room.  We had tried to pump out the chain lockers while in Alabama but no joy, the line was plugged.  While the chain was out of the lockers, we unclogged the line, flushing the mud out with fresh water and then testing the flow using the bilge pumps.  When that was finished, we heaved the chain back into the lockers, bringing in 50 feet of port chain and then 50 feet of starboard chain, with Dave checking to make sure they each stayed on their own side of the locker.  With the chain in the locker, all that was left was to scrape away the old form-a-gasket, cut a new gasket and install it and the chain locker cover.

Watermaker membranes resting on the
watermake bracket in the engine room,
waiting to be installed.

Other items that are now checked off the list include replacing the grey water tank level gauge, repairing the cabinet door for the pan cupboard, replacing fuses in the navigation system and install cleats for the blinds.  Along with that are the every day things like cleaning, washing the decks, vacuuming, etc.  The next major project is to install our watermaker.  This was initially on our list to install while we were in the shipyard in Alabama but we decided to wait and do it at another time when the boat wish list funds got replenished.  Well, it turned out that one of the boats here had a spare 24V watermaker, so we purchased it from them and they are going to help us install it sometime next week.

 Our route and stop-overs

Our route and stop-overs from the time we left the USA until arriving in Panama are detailed in the table below.  To summarize, we ran the main engine 232.9 hours, traveled 1600 nm, used the generator 33.2 hours and had an average cruising speed = 6.87 kts. 

Date	Location	Main Engine Hours	Trip Log (nm)	Avg. Speed (kts)
Apr. 25 – 28	Elberta, AL to Pensacola, FL to Isla Mujeres, Mexico (3 days)	78.9	580	7.4
Apr. 28 – May 5	Isla Mujeres, Mexico
May 6	Isla Mujeres to Puerto Aventuras, Mexico	9.1	58	6.4
May 6 – May 8	Puerto Aventuras, Mexico
May 9	Puerto Aventuras to Bahia Ascension, Mexico	8.1	52	6.4
May 9 – May 11	Bahia Ascension, Mexico
May 12	Bahia Ascension to Bahia Espiritu Santo, Mexico	5.2	34	6.5
May 13	Bahia Espiritu Santo to Xcalak, Mexico	10.5	78	7.4
May 14 – 15	Xcalak, Mexico to Roatan, Honduras(overnight)	26.1	152	5.8
May 15 – 25	Roatan, Honduras
May 26	Roatan to Guanaja, Honduras	6.1	39	6.4
May 27 – 28	Guanaja to Vivorillo Cays, Honduras (overnight)	23.6	151	6.4
May 28 – 29	Vivorillo Cays, Honduras
May 30 – 31	Vivorillo Cays, Honduras to Providencia, Colombia (overnight)	30	196	6.5
May 31 – June 4	Providencia, Colombia
June 5	Providencia to Albuquerque Cays, Colombia	11.4	84	7.4
June 6 – 7	Albuquerque Cays, Colombia to Bocas del Toro, Panama	23.9	176	7.4

 That’s probably enough babbling for one day, so will follow-up this blog with a short one to tell about the rest of our time in Roatan and our trip from Roatan to Panama.

Roatan, Honduras

Location:  Roatan, Honduras

If you can believe it, we’ve been here a week already.  We’re moored at a small marina/hotel/dive center called Barefoot Cay on the south central side of Roatan.  We arrived here last Wednesday morning after doing an overnight cruise from Xcalak, Mexico.  The seas and wind were both calm, so we made a decision to skip Belize and head straight for Honduras while the weather was good.  The wind has been blowing quite strongly since we arrived with gusts up to 25 mph at night, so we are waiting for another good weather window before we head further east and then turn towards the south. 

We left Isla Mujeres after staying there for a week and did a day cruise to Puerto Aventuras.  Puerto Aventuras is like an all-inclusive resort in the Mayan Riviera; they have a marina, lots of condos, restaurants, shopping, etc.  One of the big attractions there is the “dolphin experience”.  They have several pools with dolphins where people can get in the water and interact with them.  We didn’t try it, but did have a good time watching people who did.  We did some swimming and some grocery shopping and walked into the small town outside of the resort to go to the hardware store.  We broke our refrigerator latch again ( I broke it while we were crossing the GOM; we had a spare latch on board so Bob repaired it with that, but it broke again enroute to PA).  We bought a few nails and Dave fixed it using those.  Dave also got his first haircut using our new hair/beard trimmer.

Dolphin Experience, Puerto Aventuras

Dave's Buzzcut

Isla Mujeres, South End

Dave Boroscoping Swim
Platform Gas Tank

 

Here are a few pictures from Isla Mujeres that didn’t make the last blog.  One is a picture of the south point of Isla Mujeres where you can see some Mayan ruins.  The other is Dave, using a boroscope to look at the inside of the gas tank in our swim platform.  We haven’t used it and wanted to make sure it was clean with no cracks.  One of our marina neighbors loaned us his boroscope and in order to see the screen, Dave draped a blanket over his head. 

Sunset Bahia Ascension

From Puerto Aventuras, we did a day trip to Bahia Ascension and anchored out there for a few days.  Then on Sunday, we did a short day trip to Bahia Espiritu Santo and anchored there overnight.  On Monday, we did a long day trip to Xcalak, our last port in Mexico.  On the way to Xcalak, we had a pod of 6 dolphins catch a ride on the bow wake, you can see them in the picture.  On the way down from Espiritu Santo, we talked with the sailboat Ace and Outlandish, a catamaran that was at El Milagro Marina with us in Isla Mujeres.  Both were also headed to Xcalak, with Outlandish scheduled to arrive there first.  While enroute, a Mexican Navy boat approached us and radioed with all kinds of questions, name, how many people aboard, where are you going, where are you coming from, etc.  They finished with us, then moved ahead and questioned Ace and then moved ahead and questioned Outlandish.  By that time Outlandish was close of the entrance of Xcalak and they asked the Navy if they would escort them through the reef and into the harbor.  The Navy agreed and once safe inside, Outlandish came out in their dinghy to help Ace and us enter safety.  It was a bit disconcerting as there was a sailboat aground on the reef and it looked like it was a recent event.  Our chart plotter had some offset in it and if we had followed the path it showed into the harbor, we would have been aground next to the sailboat.  That’s why they call them “aids” to navigation; no one aid is foolproof and it is important to use all the tools available... even your eyeballs. 



Dolphins surfing the bow wake



Sailboat on the reef, Xcalak, Mexico

 Tuesday morning, we pulled up anchor and were planning to head into San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, but decided to do a longer cruise and thought we would stop at Lighthouse Reef, an offshore atoll, anchor out for the night and then continue to Roatan, but as the day went on, and the seas remained calm, we decided to carry-on.  As we were nearing Roatan, early, early morning Wednesday, we could see the glow of two cruise ships coming over the horizon, one from our port side and one from our starboard side.  Both ships were Carnival Cruise ships, lit up like Christmas trees.  They over took us as we neared the island and we followed them around to the south side.


Carnival Cruise Ships, Roatan



 

Upon arrival, we were faced once again with the paper work cha cha to clear into Honduras.  The process here was much simpler than in Mexico and we had time to enjoy the Wednesday lunch pig roast while our clearance papers were being processed.  Since we’ve been here, we’ve done some chores, swam, snorkeled, went to town, went to the beach, etc.  We have been having some problems with our dinghy motor, so Dave has been working on that, so far she’s still not running quite right, but we haven’t given up yet.  

 

Dave unlaxing, Barefoot Cay

Seabiscuit at Barefoot Cay

A few days ago, the superyacht Dardanella pulled into the marina next to us, so it is like having a big sister looking over our shoulder.

Dardanella at Barefoot Cay

 



We’ll probably stay here a few more days.  The wind is supposed to start dying down on Friday afternoon.  We’ve started doing some re-provisioning and will finish that up over the next few days before we take off.

Back to Cruising

Location:  Isla Mujeres, Mexico

We are finally back on the boat after taking about 4 months off to be land-lubbers and to take care of some chores.  Way back mid-December, we pulled the boat into Barber Marina near Elberta, Alabama after making our way north up the west coast of Florida and then west along the panhandle and across the border into Alabama.  We made some interesting stops on the way to Alabama, the most memorable being Long Beach Key - where we had all you can eat stone crab claws and Carabelle - where we docked the afternoon of the Christmas parade and fireworks show.  Barber Marina is an interesting place.  It's a very nice marina out in the middle of nowhere.  The owner has placed life size dinosaur replicas in the woods around the marina along with a replica of Stone Henge, huge metal spiders, knights in shining armor and a lady in a bathtub.  For pictures, go to their website www.barbermarina.com  We docked the boat and hopped into our trusty truck (we had the truck shipped from Pa’s place in New Hampshire to a friend in Pensacola) and headed to Texas.  We sold our place there and spent some time with family over the holidays.  Here is a picture of our sweet granddaughter, Magnolia Jane, sitting on my lap reading her book.  She'll be two in July, hard to believe how fast time passes.

Magnolia Jane, December 2012

 

After New  Year’s we hopped back into the truck and headed to the farm to finish construction on the cabin.  Most of the interior work still needed to be done including walls, floors, doors, cabinets, etc.  Ben and his friend Andy visited for a week early January and did some deer hunting, helped with farm chores and put up the first cedar wall in the guest bathroom.

Front Porch Railing



Cedar wall in Guest Room

Kitchen Cabinets and Oak Hardwood Floor

 After they left, we hired a construction crew to help us install the walls, doors, floors and window trim and to apply clear coats to protect the wood.  All of the walls are different varieties of hard wood.  In the great room we have hickory, red gum, maple and cedar.  The master bedroom has a wall of poplar and a wall of cedar with the other walls being a combo of oak, red gum and other woods.  The other rooms have different combinations depending on the quantities and varieties we had available.  My mom came to visit mid-February and helped us to assemble the kitchen cabinets and then Dave installed those after the floor got finished. 

Mom and I headed from the farm to Fairhope to do handyman/fixit work there so we could get the house on the market.  In the meantime, Dave made a trip to Scotland and I made a trip to Angola, with a stop in Houston to catch up with friends and to take care of a few things.

We got the Fairhope house on the market mid-March and had an offer the first weekend.  While that was happening, Dave finished negotiations with a shipyard near Barber Marina for maintenance and upgrades on the boat.  The boat was hauled out of the water early April and work continued right up until the day we left the country.  We closed on the Fairhope sale on April 19^th and rented a condo for a week while we finished up the shipyard work.  Our scheduled departure from the US was on Thursday, April 25.  On Wednesday, April 24^th, we completed sea trials to test the stabilizers and some of the other shipyard work and Dave’s friend Bob arrived from Dallas to make the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) crossing with us.  On Thursday morning, we pulled out of Barber Marina and headed to Pensacola to pick-up 2000 gallons of diesel fuel; the price for diesel there, delivered by a truck to a shipyard, was $3.06 per gallon compared to ~$4.00 per gallon in Alabama.  One of the Electronics Technicians from the shipyard rode along with us to finish installation of the satellite phone system and to finish some upgrade work on our GPS chart plotter/radar.  Dave’s friend Dave and his son Daniel stopped by for a quick visit while we were in Pensacola.  Finally, about 6:00 p.m. everything was finished and we could button-up the boat, cast-off and head across the GOM.

We passed out of the Pensacola inlet about 7:00 p.m., with Dave taking the first watch.  Bob made salads and a light dinner and I went down for a nap.  About 11:30 Bob came up to take over the watch and I came up about midnight to help him.  The cruising was fairly smooth.  Here is a picture of our first sunrise at sea (Friday morning) and a ship that crossed about the same time.  Bob rigged up our new fishing gear and Dave got up to take the morning watch.  About that time, I went to the bunk feeling a little seasick and Dave and Bob ended up taking the rest of the watches.  Bob did catch a fish along the way, a nice dorado and we picked up a few flying fish on the decks.

Bob with flying fish

Dorado caught while underway

Dave, B, Bob El Milagro Marina

We arrived in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, Sunday evening.  It was too dark to enter into a marina, so we anchored and Bob cooked us a fresh fish dinner.  The next morning, the local police boarded us to make sure we were going to clear in and then we headed into El Milagro Marina.  Little did we know, just in front of our slip was a shallow area and as we were maneuvering to back in, we went aground forward.  Some of the folks staying at the marina rowed out with their dinghy and attached a line to our stern.  Dave eased the engine into reverse and between that and the marina staff and other people on the dock pulling on the stern lines, we made it into our slip.  The next few hours were spent doing the paper work cha-cha, customs, immigration, the port authority, agriculture, etc. are all required to clear in.  We finally broke away around lunch time and went to the local market for guacamole and lunch.  We wandered around town Monday afternoon, went back to the boat to freshen up and then had a fresh seafood dinner at a nearby beach restaurant.

Tuesday morning, we were up early.  Bob had a flight out of Cancun and Dave and I had to go there to complete the paper work for temporary importation of the boat.  We rode the ferry across to Cancun, found a taxi to take us to a local breakfast place and then Bob headed to the airport and we went to do our paperwork.  We needed a few boat supplies so after we finished our chores we caught a taxi to a marine supply store and then rode the ferry back to Isla Mujeres.

Since then, we have been doing some unlaxing… We rented a golf cart one day and drove around the island and went swimming at the north beach.  We’ve walked into town a few times to sit at the blues bar and drink a few beers; we’ve done a little shopping and have sampled a few of the local restaurants.  And, we have met a lot of great people with really good information about cruising, where to go, what to see, maintenance tricks and lots of good sea stories.

Our plan is to depart here tomorrow (Monday) morning and head south to Puerto Aventuras.  We’ll stay there a night or two and then clear out of the country and head towards Belize and Honduras.

Cabbage Key, Florida

Location:  Cabbage Key, Florida

Today our journey changed from southbound to northbound.  We are on the west coast of Florida, headed north and then west to Alabama.  Since the last posting, our journey has been south down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW), then west across the Okeechobee Waterway and now north up the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW).  Leaving Myrtle Beach, we got a real flavor for just how popular golf is there.  The picture here shows a gondola to move golfers and their golf clubs across the ICW from one side of the course to the other.

Golf Gondola, Myrtle Beach, SC

We traveled through South Carolina and Georgia before reaching Florida and finally, some warm weather.  The scenery on the ICW is beautiful.  It changes as you proceed south.  The northern part of South Carolina was mostly deciduous trees with their leaves changing colors as winter approaches.  Then it was the grassy marshes of southern South Carolina and Georgia changing to towns and housing developments as we crossed into Florida.  On the way down, we anchored near Georgetown, SC and dinghyed into town for dinner.  We had beer and appetizers at a local bar where the bartender and the girl seated next to us knew everyone who walked in the door.  We pulled alongside the dock in Isle of Palms, SC and changed our main engine oil, then spent the next four nights at different anchorages along the way.  For Thanksgiving dinner, we baked chicken and cooked a medley of potatoes and fresh vegetables.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we pulled into St. Augustine, Florida and picked up a mooring at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina.  We spent Friday doing chores.  Saturday, my Uncle Max, Aunt Darlene and cousins John and Lydia came up from Crescent City to spend the day.  They brought all kinds of goodies with them (lasagna, pumpkin pie, fresh orange juice, fresh oranges, home grown honey, home-made soap, home grown butternut squash and home-made banana bread) and we had a picnic/tailgate lunch with them on the boat.  After lunch we went into town to walk off our pumpkin pie and took in the historical sites.

Aunt Darlene, St. Augustine, FL

 

Uncle, Max, St. Augustine, FL

Cousins, John and Lydia, St. Augustine, FL

Sunday we went back into town and walked to the local farmers market to stock up on fresh vegetables and then walked around to look at more of the historical buildings.  Here is a picture of Dave and I outside Castillo de San Marcos

Dave and B, Castillo San Marcos, St. Augustine, FL

Monday we left St. Augustine and cruised to Daytona Beach.  We tied up at a local marina and walked into town for a Thai dinner.  Here is a picture at dusk looking out from the marina with the full moon in the sky.  

Daytona Beach Sunset

Tuesday we anchored near Cocoa Beach and Wednesday we anchored near Jensen Beach.  Mid-day on Wednesday a sail boat cruising in front of us went aground near Vero Beach.  We called on the radio and offered to help pull them off the bottom.   While we were setting up to do so, a local sheriff’s boat pulled up and helped by directing the boating traffic around us.  We managed to pull them free and arrived at Jensen Beach just after sunset.  For dinner we whipped up omelets using our fresh duck eggs and a mixture of veggies from the farmers market along with slices of banana bread.  Thursday we pulled into the Sunset Bay marina in Stuart for a two night stay.  We went out for a nice seafood dinner with Jeff and Debbie; they are thinking about buying a trawler and have been looking seriously at having Watson build one for them.  Friday was a day in town, chores and re-provisioning. 

We pulled out of Stuart Saturday morning for the journey across Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway.  The waterway is 145 statute miles long starting on the east side in Stuart, Florida and ending on the Florida west coast in Fort Myers.  It includes 5 locks if you cross the middle of Lake Okeechobee and 6 locks if you take the route along the south shore of the lake.  We crossed via the middle of the lake.  This is a picture from the stern of the St. Lucie Lock as it is closing behind us.  The St. Lucie lock is the first lock if you are headed from east to west and lifts you about 14 feet.

St. Lucie Lock

 

Saturday we traveled through 3 of the 5 locks and spent the night alongside at the Moore Haven City Dock.  We were the only boat along the docks, so we tied up, dropped our dock fee through the night drop slot at city hall and wandered around town to see what they had to offer.  Both city hall and the library near the canal were closed for the evening.  There was a nice park nearby and a few blocks away we found a small bar and had some $1 draft beers for happy hour.  Then it was back to the boat for a quiet evening and a spaghetti dinner.  We left early the next morning, went through the remaining locks and arrived in Cape Coral in time for sunset.  We anchored up in Glover Bight along with a few other boats.  The Sunday afternoon parade of local pleasure and fishing boats returning home after their weekend of fun was something to see.  We haven’t seen that much boat traffic since August in Massachusetts.

Sunset Glover Bight, Florida

Today we did a short 25 mile run and anchored near Useppa Island, across from Cabbage Key.  Legend has it that Cabbage Key is where Jimmy Buffett wrote “Cheeseburger in Paradise” so we dinghyed over to the restaurant for lunch and a walk around the island.  The island is only accessible by boat; there are no cars, only a few golf carts for the locals.  We saw some wildlife on our walk and there are many dolphins in the area that like to swim and play alongside the boat.  We haven’t seen any manatees yet although we have been through many manatee areas.

Tortoise Cabbage Key

Ibis Cabbage Key