We're in Sarasota, beautiful Sarasota... our final destination going South this trip.

And here's our first Sarasota sunset, right out our aft deck windows at Marina Jacks Marina. That little strip of land with palm trees across from us is a little park that has squirrels for daisy to tree into the liveoaks. Out on the end of the park is a statue of dolphins jumping in a fountain. It's just gorgeous here, and an easy walk right to the big downtown streets nearby.

The entire trip today was through the typical Florida canals and bays, lined with million dollar homes...











and huge condos. Unlike the "Big Bend" we have been in, this is the Florida that comes to mind when you think of it. They're both Florida, but this one is what I think of when somebody says Florida.






We also cruised through Tampa Bay today/ It's a very large bay and the Bay Bridge is huge and memorable.











This is Marina Jacks as we came in from the bay. We'll be here for about 3 weeks, just enjoying the area, so my blog entries may be less frequent until we start cruising again. Just imagine us doing whatever you think when you think of Florida.

We're in Tarpon Springs, FL after stopping yesterday in Crystal River. We did have a bit of heart pounding excitement before we left Steinhatchee. We had to change marinas in Steinhatchee Thursday because the little marina we started at didn't even have cleats on their docks, just boards nailed to the docks to tie up to. When a 30 MPH wind came up, one of the boards broke and the sternof Nonchalance was free to get pushed out into the river by the strong wind. Luckily, I happened to be on the dock when it happened and jumped to our boarding ladder before it was too far out. Since the bow and spring lines were still tied to the dock, the stern went far out and the bow was getting pushed far around the front of the little dock and right towards another boat docked there. I yelled for Kathy and fired up the engines quickly and threw the starboard engine hard into reverse, just in time to pull back, missing the other boat by inches.... also just in time to back over the 3/4 inch thick dock line that ripped free from the dock and was now trailing in the water still tied to a board from the dock. Luckily, I had installed PropSpurs on our propshafts and props,, which cut the line before it could get wrapped up and stop us. Then, the power cord and water hose were still connected and we were far out from the dock. I manuvered closer and Kathy jumped to the dock to untie the dock lines and I unhooked and I threw her the power and water lines. WHEW! The marina across the river had stronger docks with cleats and good shore power.

Yesterday, we went to Crystal River, which is a "Big Bend" Florida type of place. It's slower, non-touristy and shallow in many spots. I wanted to go see the manatees that stay there in winter due to the clear, constant 70 to 72 degree water, owing to a huge natural spring that feeds the river. We stayed at a marina 2 miles from the bay where the manatees are most plentiful because of shallow spots farther up the river. We took our dinghy the 2 miles or so up river this morning to the headwaters and spring.

The marina we stayed at could hardly hold a 53 ft boat and it was silted in and shallow such that the boats all become mired in silt when the tide is low and can't move. The silt is so soft and thick that the boats all stay upright and even, just no water under them. It's kind of like there is no bottom... it just keeps getting thicker as you go farther down. Our dock was open to a deeper part of the little bay so at least our running gear didn't settle into the silt much, but out bow and the front half of Nonchalance was totally in silt at low tide. Then the tide comes in and floats all the boats again. We had to wait until noon to leave when the tide was high enough to go. This picture is another marina we passed at mid-low tide. These docks won't have water until almost high tide. Our marina wasn't this bad. Most of the boats at the marina had water on the deeper end of the boat at low tide.

We did have a nice sunset though.














The manatees were a real ho-hum. We saw for or five of them passing our aft deck near sundown when we got in on Saturday. This is all you see... just a snout coming up to blow and breathe, or a big swirl in the water as they dive down again.




This morning, we took the dinghy up to the headwaters and big spring area, which is a National Wildlife Refuge, and encountered lots of boats, including tour boats, kayakers, scuba divers, snorkelers, etc. They have cordoned off the manatees favorite area close to shore and the spring to keep everybody out, but the manatees do come out among the boats frequently. However, all you see is the same swirls, snouts and the occasional huge fan shaped tail breaking the surface as they dive.

However, as we were getting the dinghy down at the marina, we saw a large river otter foraging in the river behind our boat. It would come up for air and then go down and stir up the bottom of the river looking for clams or something. It was an extremely lithe and graceful swimmer, totally at home looking for brunch on the bottom. It was fascinating, as neither of us have ever seen a river otter in the wild, and this one was right at our boat.

There is no ICW here, so travel is by going out into the gulf. Yesterday, coming from Steinhatchee to Crystal River the wave forecast was for 1 to 3 ft. and it was solid 3 ft. waves with the occasional 4 footer thrown in. Today from Crystal River to Tarpon Springs the forecast was for 2 to 4 ft, followed by 1 to 3 ft. closer to Tarpon Springs, but today it was completely calm in the gulf. I don't think there was a wave bigger than six inches. I didn't even have to wash the salt off of my boat when we came in! The water down this far is more clear and a nice green-blue color.

It's also full of crab traps and fish traps, with floats and lines, just waiting to get caught on your props (unless you have PropSpurs). You can see a white one off to starboard here and a black one in front of the bow (Kathy's driving). We probably passed one or two thousand floats and had to steer to avoid about a hundred or so.

Tomorrow, we're going to Sarasota, where we plan to stay for 3 weeks or so at Marina Jacks Marina. There is ICW from here to Sarasota, so we won't go out in the gulf tomorrow.

We're in Steinhatchee, FL at the top of Florida's West coast.

We crossed 70 miles of open Gulf waters today after waiting one day in Carrabelle for wave conditions to improve. Waves were about 3 ft. today for most of the trip. The picture is our GPS screen showing Florida's Big Bend, the armpit between the West coast and the Panhandle. Our boat is the arrowhead in the center, since this picture was taken when we were about half of the way across.

Once we were out in the gulf, it just looked like this for 360 degrees... all water on the horizon. We didn't see any other boats the whole way, except for a few fishing boats as we got close to Steinhatchee.

There is no other way to get to the West coast than to cross the gulf. Some cruisers take a very long overnight cruise from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs and miss the Big Bend. I want to try to get in to Crystal River in the Big Bend next to see, and maybe swim with, the manatees that come there when other waters get cold in the winter. It's a crystal clear, spring fed, river that has one of the largest springs in the world as it's source. The water can be shallow, so it'll be a llittle tricky, but the charts indicate that we should be able to make it if we're careful.

We'll be here in Steinhatchee for at least 2 more days, waiting for the Gulf waves to calm down. The forecast for tomorrow is for 4 to 7 foot waves in the Gulf.

We're in Carrabelle, FL after a cloudt and sometimes rainy cruise from Panama City. Carrabelle is the last stop before our long open water Gulf crossing to Steinhatchee. We have our car here because we thought it might be a longer stop, waiting for waves in ther Gulf. However, the forecast is now for low waves on Tuesday, only a one day wait.

Pretty much the same cruising as previously, fun to watch dolphins but not to go out on the side decks to watch them in the rain. The only other unusual thing was this deer we saw swimming across the waterway, right in front of our boat, from the land side to the barrier islands side. I can just imagine calling up my insurance agent... "I hit a deer"... "Which car were you driving?" .... "No, I was in the boat!"

While we were coming in to Carrabelle, my starboard engine tachometer quit working and just read zero and the engine started speeding up. It's probably the tachometer drive stub, a 4 inch long cable with a square end that can round itself off over the years. 3 years ago, this happened with the port engine. I hope that is the problem, because it's easy and cheap to fix if I can get the parts. I'll find out tomorrow when I take it apart. The speedup was from the engine synchronizer trying to keep it at the same speed as the other engine underway, and the synch thought the engine was turning zero RPMs so it kept increasing the throttle. We'll explore around Carrabelle tomorrow and I'll try to fix the broken tachometer.

We're in Panama City Florida having cruised from Sandestin today in cloudy and sometimes rainy weather. We didn't leave the dock at Sandestin until 11;00 because of lightning in the area, but got here about 4:30 PM.

Like before, half of the waterway is a dug canal, called "The Ditch" by locals here, and the other half is in large open bays and lagoons.










In the bays, dolphins picked us up frequently when they could siurf our side wake.












About 2 PM, a mother and baby dolphin surfed us and she seemed to be showing the baby dolphin how to surf. This is the baby, while the mother (or father I guess) is just a big ripple under water closer to the boat. The baby dolphin was only about 1/4th the size of the adult and had to come up to breathe many more times than the adult. They both had fun and jumped and splashed.

Later two big dolphins were surfing and jumping and I increased our speed to make a bigger wake, which caused them to jump higher, frequently clearing the water entirely like this.

I'm putting too many dolphin pictures in the bloig, but they're such fun to watch.


Tomorrow we're going on to Carrabelle where we'll wait for good wave conditions on the open Gulf waters to cross to Florida's West coast from the panhandle.

We're in SanDestin, FL after a nice cruise through the bays and Intracoastal waterway from Pensacola. We're staying at the Beach Marina, which is part of an absolutely huge golf and condominium resort.

The waterway went through many large bays lined with expensive homes in some places and thin barrier dunes and islands in other places.









In the bays, the dolphins picked us up frequently, surfing our wake and jumping for joy.










When I increased our speed, which increases our wake size, they surfed and jumped even more. I just love watching them. It never seems to get old.

Tomorrow we're gping to Panama City, FL

We're in Florida!

We cruised from Mobile, AL to Pensacola, FL today, a very nice cruise in 65 to 70 degree temps.

We went past the Mobile Bay Light, built in 1886.













Then we were in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway most of the day. It's a canal behind the barrier islands on the gulf, connecting the many bays and inlets along the gulf. It makes for a natural protection for gulf waves and is kept dredged for boat traffic.




And past Lulu's Restaurant (Jimmy Buffet's sister's restaurant).











The most fun was when we stopped at Perdido Key to go to a gulf island beach. It was recommended by a couple of the Hatteras Owners Forum members who have been here. It's really a beautiful beach. Perdido Key is one of the long thin barrier islands protecting Pensacola Bay from the Gulf of Mexico waves. It also forms the sheltered waterway of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway where we were cruising. The key itself is only a few hundred yards wide and many miles long. Both the gulf side and much of the waterway side is lined with beautiful sand beaches. It doesn 't seem to be a National Seashhore or a park, just a very long barrier island.

We just anchored Nonchalance on the waterway side where there is a nice wide spot (abouit 500 yards wide) so we were out of the way of boat traffic. This picture is from the gulf beach dunes back across the waterway where we anchored. Then we got the dinghy out, dingied to the waterway side beach and walked across the dunes to the Gulf side beaches where there's a nice surf.

The beach was about 10 miles long and we only saw one group of people and one fisherman on the whole beach. We almoist had it completely to ourselves! The sand is an extremely fine white sand here and feels good to walk on. Daisy loved it and chased a stick thrown into the water. She just about wore herself out running on the beach.

Of course, we had to hose the salt water off ourselves and Daisy when we got back to the boat.











I was also very happy to see the dolphins again. They caught up with us in many of the small bays connected by the waterway. When we were going slow, they'd surf our bow wave in front of the boat. When we were going faster, they'd surf the bigger side waves right beside the boat, so you could go out on deck and watch them jump and surf right next to you... only about 10 to 15 ft. away! I tried to get pictures of them jumping, but it's almost impossible because the digital camera has a slight delay between pressing the button and taking the picture. By the time it takes a picture, all you get is the splash. Previously, I got jump pictures by guessing when they'd jump anf taking a dozen pictures before I caught one jump. So I have a dozen pictures of splash when they landed and this one picture of one starting to jump. I am absolutely enthralled by watching them surf our side wake.

Tomorrow we're going on to Destin, FL.

The dinghy motor is fixed. It seemed like a fuse had blown to me, but I looked everywhere on the motor and wiring and couldn't find a fuse anywhere. I called Yamaha and they said there was no fise in the motor. I got the Dog River Marina expert to come down and look at it and in about an hour, he found a fuse buried deep in the motor wires that had blown. So the dinghy's all fixed and ready to go.

We'll preposition our car Wednesday and leave here Thursday. Can't leave any earlier because winds are forecast to make Mobile Bay very rough through Wednesday, then calm on Thursday. We have to go about 25 miles through the bay. Then on to Pansacola, Destin, Appalachicola and across the gulf to Florida's west coast again.

We made it to salt water! We're in Mobile, AL at Dog River Marina after 3 days on the rivers by ourselves with no marinas and seeing almost no other boats except a dozen big barges, a few bass boats and a few cruisers. The rivers are almost empty and, of course, cold. The day we spent in Demopolis started with a crunching sound, as we slept, at 6 AM. I got up, put some clothes on and went up to see a sailboat names Island Time leaving the docks past our boat. He had been docked right in front of us and when he left he scraped something on his boat against our anchor, because it sticks out in front of our bow and he had miscalculated his docking abilities. I only knew this because I found a 1 inch flap of blue paint stuck to my anchor. No damage to our boat, but I thought he should have stopped to investigate or say he's sorry.

The first night after Demopolis, AL we anchored Bashi Creek, which is a very nice anchorage with a park and boat launch. When we got there we found that sailboat Island Time anchored in the creek also! It turns out that his motor burned up 4 miles from Bashi Creek, which is 70 miiles from anywhere that can service a boat! The only other cruiser on the river that day had towed him the 4 miles to Bashi Creek. I felt so bad about his predicament that I was very friendly about his hitting our anchor. It turned out that the paint scraped off of his dinghy outboard motor. The Demopolis Marina had agreed to send a towboat down with 2 crew the next day, drive a car down to oick them up and bring a new crew to tow him back to Demopolis to fix his engine. Yikes! I can't even imagine how much that's going to cost him. When we took Daisy to the boat launch that night, our dinghy motor starter wouldn't work, so we paddled the dinghy with Daisy then and the next night and two mornings.

Luckily, we were able to anchor close to a boat ramp last night too, so we didn't have far to paddle the dinghy to get Daisy to shore 3 times. It was at an old, abandoned lock named "Lock One Cutoff". There was a very nice park there, great for walking dogs. That made for a longer, 110 mile, trip today but we got an early start and arrived at the marina by 4 PM.

When we got to the Coffeeville lock, the Delta Queen riverboat was just finishing locking up as we waited to lock down. The Delta Queen was one of the last real stern wheeler riverboats carrying passengers on river cruises. The Coast Guard refused to renew it's commercial license last year due to fire hazard of the wood superstructure, so it is being decommissioned. This is the last trip steaming up the rivers for this grand old lady, and with no passengers.










Then, when you get to Mobile, the river is full of boats, people working on the docks and big boats, streets with traffic streaming along.... stuff like we haven't seen for 3 days. Mobile is very interesting to cruise through because it's a very large, busy port with big oceangoing ships, huge docks, etc. We were passed in the shipping channel by this HUGE container ship.

Then we passed this huge Navy tri-maran fast boat. For size comparison, there's a pickup truck on the dock in front of the boat.









I went over and got shrimp off the shrimp boats this evening and grilled them for dinner. It's more hassle to remove their heads, etc. but they're very sweet and yummy. We'll be in Mobile 3 days or so, at least until we get the dinghy motor starter fixed.

We finished the Ten-Tom Canal and the Tombigbee River today and are in Demopolis, AL, which is a small town with a nice marina. Next, we'll start cruising the Black Warrior River to Mobile. It was interesting that we saw n boats on the rivers today at all, probably because it was very cold and windy. We just stayed inside and ran the generator and heaters so we were warm. I can't wait to get to Florida where it's nice for boating.

We passed the "White Cliffs of Epes" Alabama. They are very hard white clay cliffs, and rather pretty in the sunlight. Not exactly the white cliffs of Dover, but interesting nonetheless.





There were also a number of very large, inviting, sand beaches along the river. This one was probably about 2 miles long around a bend in the river.










Here's a shot of our GPS screen coming down to Demopolis. The dark black line is our "track" where the boat went and the arrow point at the end of it is our boat at the time I took this picture. While you can see we're heading generally South towards Demopolis, in the lower right hand corner of the screen, look at all the twists and turns in typical river travel routes. Now you know why "river miles" are so much more than "road miles" between any two places.

We decided to stay one day in Demopolis because tonight the temperature is going down to 22 degrees and tomorrow night is is forecast to be 21 degrees, so we prefer staying at a marina where we're plugged in to power and can run heaters at night. The next three days will be on the Black Warrior River and the Mobile River with no marinas and anchoring out, so we'd have to run the generator all night to run heaters and we'd be taking Daisy to shore in the dinghy at 22 degrees in the morning. It's supposed to be close to 30 Thursday night with daytime temps around 60, so we'll go ahead then. Staying here a day will also give me a chance to change the oil and oil filters on both of our diesel engines (5 gallons of oil in each!). It's nice that his marina has a used oil and oil filter recycling dropoff.

Back on the Water Again!!

After 2 months in the Chicago snow and cold, we returned to Nonchalance at Columbus, MS and we're heading south to Florida. It only reached 55 here today, but that's so much better than 5 like it has been in Chicago. We left Columbus this morning after taking a day to re-provision the boat and another to move our car to Mobile, AL, where we'll first get to salt water in about 5 days. The trip on the Ten-Tom Canal and then the Tombigbee River was nice, but all the trees are bare in their winter drab.

This evening we're anchored in a beautiful little Alabama state park called Sumter Landing. It has a great natural bay for anchoring, a boat ramp and little dock where we can land the dinghy and lots of walking trails.





We walked up the park road and Daisy flushed and treed a squirrel (her favorite prey) and smelled lots of other very interesting (to her) smells. As she poked her head into the grasses and bushes, Kathy and I said "That's where she gets the ticks". But you can't keep her from smelling all the smells.

We walked down this nice little park path and the only caution was the sign "Archery deer hunting only". At least Kathy was carrying Daisy's big blaze orange life jacket, so we couldn't be mistaken for deer. I don't know f it's even deer hunting season here.




When we came back to the boat, we did check Daisy and found 3 live ticks still just crawling around on her looking for a nov=ce place to bite. I hope we got them all. When we take her back late this evening, we'll keep her on the short grass.

Tomorrow we're going to Demopolis, AL.