CHAPTER SIXTY: INTO THE GULF – AND BEYOND!

CHAPTER SIXTY: INTO THE GULF – AND BEYOND!

It’s Thursday, February 21, and we’re getting ready to leave Legacy Harbour at Ft. Myers early tomorrow morning for the Rose Marina at Marco Island. Then with any luck at all, we’ll make a break on Sunday for Gulf of Mexico, heading to Marathon or Key West, both 100 miles away from Marco Island. This will be our first “century” day on Slow Motion, 10 straight hours on the water (at a minimum) if we can keep up a pace of 10 mph.

We just went to Publix, the closest thing to Disneyland that South Florida adults have, and stocked up on milk, carrots, yogurt, cookies and lollipops – all the basic food groups. Good thing I’m not lactose intolerant like my siblings, or I’d have to replace half my diet.

The Admiral has plotted into our GPS the waypoints for both Key West and Marathon, and we’ll decide which way to go, based on the weather reports. Tonight the flags are pretty still, but there’s a prediction for winds of 10 to 20 mph tomorrow afternoon. Ten we can deal with; twenty would not be comfortable at all. The waters we travel are rather shallow, so any wind creates a wave; the shallower the water, the bigger the wave and the closer together they are. I think I’m saying that right. If not, the Admiral will correct this part of the Blog.

Our neighbor at Legacy Harbour has a sailboat that he plans to take in one very long 21 hour day from Ft. Myers to Marathon – with a captain. I wonder if that’s how Marathon got its name – because all the boats that arrived there spent nearly 24 hours on the water trying to get there. Probably not – but the origin of its name is not as obvious as “Key West”, for example.

We’re celebrating sunny days in the mid-70’s again after a weekend of “cold” – for Florida – temps that actually went down to 40 at night. The cold pretty much ruined the fun at the Festival of Lights parade Saturday night. This is related to Edison’s choice of Ft. Myers as his winter home – I thought it was a Mardi Gras thing, but no, it’s the electric light bulb that takes front and center stage here in February – and every other day of the year too.

When we’re not traveling, I don’t have any anecdotes about how I goofed up with the lines or the fenders (thank God). Our marina lives are pretty much filled with errands – to the grocery store, the post office, the Lab, Wal-Mart’s, CVS, Lowe’s, Starbucks – and with our main avocation – fixing the boat. Here’s a list of what we fixed in the last five weeks at Legacy Harbour:

1)    Serviced navigation and anchor lights

2)    Bought teak steps for cockpit entry

3)    Installed searchlight

4)    Tightened shaft seal on port engine

5)    Installed new Garmin VHF 200 radio and tested it

6)    Diver cleaned bottom of boat, replaced shaft zincs

7)    Diver cleaned seacocks to generator and heat pumps

8)    Clean Fuel and Tank, Inc. determined fuel levels in auxiliary tanks were equal and removed and cleaned cross-leveling pipe between tanks

9)    Completed work on generator – installed new heat exchanger (Ray)

10) Installed teak steps in cockpit

11) Pump out

12) Rob and Sons investigated possible fuel drip on port engine; Rob tightened fuel supply fitting to lift pump; Rob relocated protective sleeve on starboard engine return line to prevent chafing; Rob replaced pins on both engines; Rob verified no leak in port engine

The last work done by Rob and Sons was completed today. And so, knock on wood, we should be able to leave Legacy Harbour early tomorrow in our finely tuned Slow Motion – unless of course, there is a leak. And then we’ll return and find it and fix it. That’s life in the Slow Motion lane. Something is always broken – we just need to find it and fix it, so that we can continue on our way. The next time you put some work into your house, be grateful that it is not a boat. You don’t have to get its bottom cleaned. You don’t have to put zincs all over to prevent corrosion. You don’t have to worry about bad smells coming from the bilge. AND you don’t have to sleep right on top of big tanks of diesel fuel. That still astounds me after all these months of doing just that.

In those rare moments when we are not arranging for a repair, we have been able to do a little exploring, including a trip to Marco Island to scope out our next marina. And as you know from my most recent blogs before this, I enjoyed the string music that the Curtis on Tour trio offered in Ft. Myers as well as the displays at the Edison Ford Museum down the road. The Admiral is not big on holidays. In fact, the Admiral doesn’t celebrate any holidays. So for Valentine’s day I rode my bike in a rainstorm to the nearby CVS and got a big box of chocolates for the marina staff – Sheila, Lana, Eric – who have been sweethearts, even in our darkest hours when Wi-Fi stopped working for a week. I really like to celebrate holidays, so I get my joy by giving. What a surprise when I received my very own chocolates from Janie the day before Valentine’s day! And you know who ate every one of them – yep, the guy who doesn’t celebrate holidays, just eats his way through them. We both thank you very much, MJ, for thinking of us on Valentine’s Day. You are an original sweetheart.

It’s time to hit the sack, almost 9 p.m., and we have a long day tomorrow on the water. One other enjoyment we share when Slow Motion is docked is the New York Times Crossword puzzle – for Sunday, Saturday, Friday, Thursday and Wednesday. The Admiral says Monday and Tuesday are too easy. He’s right. We’re back to January and February, 2005. Sometimes we get through a couple of months’ worth in a week. I am SO ready for Senior Jeopardy – or bring on the young’uns too! The Admiral’s trivia knowledge is complementary to mine, but he swears that sometimes he just pulls a long answer right out of his, well, you know, and it hurts too, he says. Our Sudoku skills are fading, but the NYT crossword puzzles – even Saturday – seem to be getting just a little bit easier. We have to remember the time frame we’re in – for instance, Obama was a senator and there were different movies and TV shows in 2005. But that makes it even more challenging. You’re probably saying to yourselves – What nerds! Guilty as charged. But if you want some of my Jeopardy winnings, just don’t say that to my face, okay? Good night.