Leaving Venice and anchoring out, 2-10 through 2-11, 2014

Tuesday, 2-10-2015

The goal was met to head out of Venice at first light. As we expected, both bathrooms were in use, even that early, so we cast off to head to Pelican Bay.  At least the electrical cord didn’t need to be disconnected and stowed!

It was a chilly morning, and rain was threatening, but off we went with high hopes of anchoring around and about until our reservation at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin was available for us on Saturday, Valentine’s Day.  The goal was to spend some time in Pelican Bay, and explore Cayo Costa, a Florida state park that is only accessible by water. There were other islands and anchorages on the list as well.

As Tim piloted the boat, Kathy set about to charge the computers and phones, using the boat’s power supply generated by the motor.  In short, because the motor was running, we didn’t need to worry about the ship’s batteries getting run down. Only one computer (we have two) could be charged at a time, and one phone. A balancing act, to be sure.

The threatened rain appeared, and a cold rain it was.  We hauled out the foul weather jackets, hats and gloves once again. We had hoped to leave them stowed for the rest of our trip, but NO, not the case anytime soon.

The anchorage in Pelican Bay was a very busy one.  And a very shallow one. The waters were between 6’8 and 7’2 feet deep. Which, as Tim so charmingly put it, if the boat sank, we could sit on the top of the cabin waiting for help!

In addition to the shallow waters, the winds had come up, and presented 30 mph gusts, which made anchoring a challenge.  Tim, as chief anchorman, decided set two anchors off the bow, and we went about doing just that.  It took about an hour the first time to get them set.  But it turns out, the boat was dragging the anchor, so once again, out to reset the anchors. The waters were too choppy to untie the dingy, blow it up and set out for its maiden voyage of the trip. We got the cabin set up for the night, had dinner, ran the propane heater for a while, and hoped for a calmer day on Wednesday. The winds were fierce this night, and there was a lot of slapping of waves and bouncing about.  Not the most restful evening.

Wednesday, 2-11-2015

Wednesday dawned with weather similar to Tuesday.  It was disappointing, at best.  Visiting these state parks was something that Tim was counting on. He wanted to show Kathy some of the beautiful spots he had enjoyed when he lived here.  Today was not the day, again, to deploy the dingy. And so we stayed aboard, and read and napped.  Ran the motor a bit to keep the computers powered.
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Another bouncing night, again with wind gusts up to 30 MPH, with little sleep between the two of us.