Today we are tied back up at the Marina at Edison Ford. Tim is walking to the hardware store that’s about 2 miles away while I rinse the boat and take care of the blog.
It has been a busy two weeks since my last update. While in Sarasota we attended the DeFever Rendezvous and had a wonderful time. We met some great people and learned so much. So much learning that we had to return to Ft. Myers to put it into actions. After Sarasota, we anchored out with some other DeFevers at Pelican Bay by Cayo Costa State Park. Unfortunately we had a run in with the bottom as we were leaving, so we now have another issue to resolve.
So let me go back to the rendezvous. We had two major goals for the rendezvous- meet other DeFever owners and learn as much as we could from them; and try to find someone also heading to the Bahamas. We certainly hit our first goal. Everyone we met was so friendly and helpful, from the newbies to the people who have owned their DeFevers for 15 + years. Tim had a list of questions to ask and I think he got answers to all of them. A big consideration was whether or not we should buy an additional freezer and if so, what kind. Marine freezers can run just shy of $1000 for a 1.3 cu. Neither of us wanted to spend that. We found several DeFevers with inexpensive freezer chests purchased from Home Depot or Sams type places. The owners sprayed exposed metal with a rust preventative, made covers for them and lashed them to an exterior deck. When the freezer went kaput, they tossed them and bought another for $150. We’ve been debating doing the same for quite a while. After seeing so many we decided to buy one as well. The local stores do not stock the 3.5 cu size we want, so we ordered one to be delivered to a store in Ft. Myers. Unfortunately, we have not found any others who are heading to the Bahamas when we are. We may be crossing on our own.
After the rendezvous, a small group of us headed south for Cayo Costa State Park to anchor out for a couple nights. Cayo Costa has been on my “gotta go” list for a while, but something has always come up that prevented us from going. It has been called one of the prettiest beaches in the world and we had to check that out. Luckily another DeFever that has been through the shallow, narrow channel guided us into the anchorage. If he hadn’t been there assuring us that there was enough depth, I think we would have chickened out. As one leaves the marked channel, the water depth begins to drop rapidly. We draw 4 1/12 feet and when the depth meter started reading 6 and then 5 feet, we got pretty anxious. All of the info told us to run 50 feet from the shore and to aim for the wooden dock. It’s pretty nerve racking to run that close to the shoreline, but the advise was good and soon the depth meter was showing 10s and even 15 feet of water. We made it in and set anchor for the night.
The morning sunrise was spectacular. Already I was in love with this anchorage and we hadn’t even been to the beach yet.
Dogs are not allowed in the State Park, but there was a sand bar that we slid by coming in, so we dinghyed Maggie over for her morning romp.
Once Maggie’s needs were met, Tim and I headed to the beach. It was beautiful. Clean white sand, clear blue water, and no pictures to show. Sorry. Unfortunately, we were not as prepared for the beach as we should have been- no extra sunscreen, towels or water. So after a short stroll, we headed back to the boat. That evening we enjoyed cocktails with some of the DeFeverites on their boat (Ron and Charma Owens, with Jim and Anne O’Malley) again getting to pick the brains of some great people who had years of experience cruising. We planned to leave the next morning as winds were projected to increase significantly. We had reservations back at the Marina at Edison Ford and our good buddies from Seabrook Marina, Luke and Juliene just brought their boat, Norman Jean, up from the keys to Legacy Harbor, just down the street from Edison Ford. We were anxious to get going.
Neither of us slept well that night. The winds picked up significantly and we both wondered if we should have left the afternoon before. We got the anchor up with our incident and then headed out of the anchorage. Remember that shallow, narrow section of water we had to traverse to get in? Now we had to find it again to get out. But conditions were different. The wind was blowing from the north, right on our nose and it was now low tide, two conditions we should have considered earlier. Well, one thing lead to another and before we knew it, we were aground. An underwater sandbar extended across what looked like a navigable area in the anchorage. We found it. Luckily we had the wind and the waves helping push us backwards off the bar and we were able to find that skinny bit of water we needed to ease our way out and back into the channel. Any time you run aground and have to back out, you risk damage to the exposed props and shafts. As we traveled south to Ft. Myers, we became aware of the tell tale sign of a problem. Tim noticed that the transmission on the port side was vibrating significantly more than our starboard transmission. This vibration could be the sign of damage to the prop or worse. We decided we be wise to have the boat hauled out before heading to the Bahamas. We need to be sure that any problem we have is fixed before it gets worse and we sure don’t want to have problems in the Bahamas.
So, we now have the freezer and Tim has made a brace to keep it in place while we travel. He also found time to work on the generator, replacing the fuel pump suction hose.We are scheduled to have the boat hauled on Monday the 13th at River Forest Marina in La Belle. I have ordered fabric to make a cover for the freezer and it should arrive here on Friday. Tim just picked up a rental car so we can do our final provisioning and fill the new freezer. Meanwhile we are enjoying playing in the evenings with friends, Luke and Juliene. We’ve been cruising full time for 4 months now and still have plenty to do to keep busy and we still feel privileged to be able to do it.
An extra note: We want to thank our Home support group. None of our adventures would be possible without the great help from John and Florence who manage our mail, banking, and taxes; and Patti who checks over our house and delivers the mail to Florence every week.
Your adventure continues, and (as you know) you are almost to Lake Okeechobee! I never would have thought that an ice chest would be helpful (I must be thinking of cheap, much less efficient kind). I hope you find someone to go along with you to the Bahamas – it seems like such a long trip to do all by yourselves – of course, I know you can do it!!! It difficult to believe that there is a beach that won’t let Maggie on it. That just plain WRONG!
Things here are going well – after weeks and weeks of ‘no snow’ we are expecting 3 to 4 inches by morning. It will make the out of doors look clean and bright.
We got our first hepatitis vaccine for our Amazon trip, the booster, and yellow fever, typhoid, etc. will happen in September.
Saw the movie “Lion” it is really worth seeing – especially when you realize it is a true story.
Much love and keep the stories coming, Elayne