10,000 Islands Trip

We did not really have time to go on this trip but the weather forcast was just too good to pass up,  Highs in the 80s is warm for this time of year, even by our standards.  It was a bit of a scramble getting everything ready and we ended up arriving at Port of the Islands launch ramp around midnight Friday.  Port of the Islands is a pretty nice facility with hotel rooms, lots of slips and a small relatively short ramp.  Of course it was low tide when we arrived but we decided to launch anyway as we had reserved a slip and stealth-camping on the boat while on the trailer was not really an option here.  We quickly rigged the boat and launched without any trouble.  Egret with her flat bottom and one foot draft slid effortlessly off the trailer.
We spent a peaceful night in the slip and by the time we were waking up John and Colette Johns, Terry Clements and Jeff Carr had shown up and were rigging their boats.  We are always extra slow to get rolling in the morning so even though we were already rigged we were the last to leave the marina.
To get out into the Gulf you have to motor or sail, if the wind is just right, down the ~3nm long Faka Union Canal.  We motor sailed until it opened up into the 10,000 Islands area where we were able to sail.  The channel out is very well marked and easy to navigate.  We hung a right between markers 16 and 17 and soon after popped out on the west side of Panther Key.  This was our first time sailing the waters of the Everglades and it felt good to finally experience a bit of this beautiful and fascinating area.

Motoring down the Faka Union Canal.

 Northern tip of Panther Key.  

Northern tip of Panther Key

 The fleet at Panther Key

 Terry's Satori looking super sharp with the new mizzen mast.

 Firewood

 Colette not having any fun at all.

Waiting on the fire Saturday night.

We had a beautiful sunset Saturday night, alas no green flash.

Conversation around the fire Saturday night was so engaging that we forgot to check on the boat during the falling tide ...... or was it the refreshments.

So this is how we spent the night and all of Sunday since the morning tide was not high enough to float us free. We're never going to get tired of being able to do this with impunity although visions of Scamp's misadventures in the Everglades Challenge briefly flashed through my mind when I realized we had beached at a relatively high, high tide.

Ron and I wanted to explore Cape Romano Shoals so we took off in Ron's Sea Pearl "Whisper"

Ron on lookout approaching the shoals

The famous domes of Cape Romano came into view.  This dome home was constructed in 1981 and purchased in 2005 by a family with the intent of restoring it as a retreat.  The restoration has not happened and the domes are now being claimed by the Gulf.

 There were several tents set up on the cape.

Whisper's track from Saturday

 We explored the south west entrance to Morgan Bay behind Cape Romano. It was dead low tide so we did not venture too far in.  It's a neat area and warrants further exploration.

 On the way back I got to play with the new bigger kite for the GoPro.  What little wind there was, combined with Whisper's speed under power barely got the camera flying.

Still high and dry as we returned back to Panther Key.

Colette and John came sailing back about the same time we returned.

You know the water is warm when Kristi is willingly just hanging out in it.

Jeff Sailing his Kruger

Yep still not floating and Kristi is still in the water.  We really get a big kick out of this drying out business.  It's been too long since we had a boat that could do this.

That got me onto nostalgia lane so here's a pic of our and a friend's Macs drying out at Cape Lookout NC, circa 1998.

Back in 2013 the tide finally floated us free and we left on Monday morning while Terry and the Johns remained for another day.

On the way home Ron, Jeff, Kristi and I stopped by Goodland to check out the launching facilities. The Goodland ramp looks marginal for bigger boats but Calusa Island Marina has a nice looking ramp and docks with a lot of parking.  We ended the trip with a delicious lunch at the New Little Bar in Goodland.  Highly recommend this place.  Great food and a really nice outdoor patio.  You walk in to what looks like a typical South Florida fish joint but the waterfront patio feels like you've stepped out somewhere on the Med.



Cedar Key small boat meet.

At the rate I'm going the Goat will be built in 2020. There is just too much fun stuff to do on the weekends that gets in the way of building. Last weekend was the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron's Cedar Key small boat meet. The only small thing about this affair is the size of the boats. There must have been at least 70 small sailboats, kayaks and UFOs (F for floating). We met a bunch of fascinating people and had a great time. I even passed a tough test when Mike Leneman, who I had just met, set me up by asking which epoxy I had used to do a repair. Fortunately I answered West System Gflex not realizing that the other gentlemen listening to our conversation was Meade Gougeon Of West System fame, whew good answer :-) Anyway more boat building to follow soon but for now some piccies from Cedar Key. Oh, and the Canon is still dead so these are from iPhone and an ancient Olympus. Click on the Cedar Key 2009 link under the pictures if you want to see the whole album.

From Cedar Key 2009

From Cedar Key 2009

I got a water resistant pouch for the iPhone so we took it out on the water. Below is our GPS track from the iPhone superimposed on Google Earth. MotinX, the $3 GPS app I use, generates a .kmz track file which can automatically be displayed in Google Earth. I just email the track to myself or anyone else and its done. No more forgetting to download your trip track from the Garmin. The track starts on the beach at Cedar Key goes to Atsena Otie island and back to Cedar Key. Then I forgot to turn it off so it logged my walk back to the hotel.

From Cedar Key 2009

Great Florida Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival

Slow progress on the Goat. Took me a lot longer than expected to loft the hull sides. There is a slight hollow in the bottom just in front of the transom which I did not expect so I held off on cutting the sides out and checked in with Michael Storer and the helpful crew on the forum. Turns out I was doing it right but better ask than waste a lot of ply. I'm a relatively new iPhone owner and that little device never ceases to amaze me. I was in the workshop browsing the forums and posted a question. An answer, from Michael, was waiting for me when I got home, amazing. Did not have a whole lot of time to build anyway as there were lots of interesting things going on like:

The Great Florida Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival at Cortez.

From Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival

What a fantastic little harbor and a perfect setting for small boat messing about. Just in front of the docks is a large shoal which is exposed at low tide. It makes for a perfect beaching area for numerous shallow draft boats.

From Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival

Cortez is a unique fishing community with a working waterfront including a fish house and all of it's associated salty charm. Let's hope this little spot never succumbs to the condo-locust hordes. Click on the photos to go to the photo album of the event. Most of the pictures were taken with my iPhone 'cause the trusty old Canon PS finally gave up the ghost with one last spectacularly distorted image.

From Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival

The iPhone images are horribly low quality but considering it is a phone, not too bad. They remind me of aged Kodacolor 400 prints. Oh and since the iPhone pictures are geotagged with the photo location they automatically show up on the map in Picasa. Yes I know, nothing new but it always impresses me when this stuff just works.

Time spent: 4 hours
Total time: 13 hours 30min

Chesapeake Light Craft demo day

No boat building today since CLC was in town with their trailer full of boats. We spent several hours test paddling all sorts of lovely wooden craft. A pair of nice wooden kayaks are on the builder's list. Both Kristi and I really liked the 18ft CLC Night Heron. It's #1 on our short list.