There is nothing like a cup of coffee and FOG in the morning!!  We were able to get a place at the end of the dock making our docking experience easy enough.  Quiet night  – we assume since we were so tired we didn’t hear anything for the next 10 hours.   Early to bed and late to rise.  This is a fixed dock so we were wondering how our fancy stairs were going to work out.  At low tide, it flattened into almost a ramp.  At high tide, it was back to being a stair.  Whomever designed this contraption should get a raise.

Fog delayed us getting out of the marina.  It was supposed to lift by 10am.  We figured that was acceptable.  We are in no hurry.  But where to next?

Bahamas?  Tortugas?  That sounds enticing, doesn’t it??  This time we are just heading south.  No grand plan to cross the Atlantic, at least for now.

While at the marina, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this boat’s name.  For all you boaters out there, this rings true, doesn’t it?!?

As we started out of the marina channel back into the GICW, a flock of white pelicans were swimming along.  You can still see a bit of haze on the water, but the skies looked clear enough.  After all, it was almost 11 am before we left and we figured that the fog would be gone.

A flock of turkey vultures on top of this house.  Homeowners must be thrilled to know their house was chosen to be their roosting spot.

 

What happens to weather men when they get their forecasts wrong?  What happens to boaters who believe their forecasts?  Oh dear!!  There still be fog!!  Fog for miles!!

Visibility was pretty bad.  We slowed to idle speed to be safe – aka crawling at 3mph.  A trawler passed us by and we followed it half the day.  They seemed to be more confident about where they were going.  They called us on the radio to let us know they were passing.  Nice folks.  We both were following the “magenta line” and hoped everyone out there in the water world would behave.  Out of the fog came smaller fishing boats and day boats – “go fast boats” is what I call them – running full tilt in and out of our view.  Really?  We can barely see them and yet they are zooming through the mist.  I didn’t get a picture of the fellow on a jet ski that ran along our port side for what seemed like 30 minutes.  We were nervous for him and for us.  I didn’t get a picture of the guy.  I was busy keeping an eye out for the boat in front of us.  He finally stopped and had that bewildered look… where am I and how do I get back to the marina I came from when I can see shine’ola.

By early afternoon, the weather finally improved.  Fog lifted and we were back to running straight and normal.  A beautiful day at sea, sir!!  We were being followed by several pods of dolphins.  I caught this family along our port side.

I also shot a short video…

The dolphins did become a bit of a distraction.  “Go fast boats” trying to pass us by saw the dolphins, slowed down and took pictures.  Our boat will show up on youtube soon.  Or at least the side of the boat.  It is like when a semi-truck starts to pass your car on the highway going 75mph then slows down and paces you for several miles.  It is a distraction.  These smaller boats may go faster than us, but they are a lot smaller and sometimes a bit hard to see when they get too close to us.  It is helpful to have a lookout while the captain is watching the waterway ahead.

Unfortunately, as the weather cleared that meant everyone could go fast.  We had a larger than us trawler come up behind us.  Ok.  Cool.  We will handle their wake when they come around us.  They slowed down to view the dolphins on our starboard side.  They actually got out of the channel and they went over several crab pot buoys.  All of a sudden they changed their minds.  They went forward, turned around, and went back north again at full speed.  We didn’t anticipate this and their wake was pretty bad.  The worst we had ever experienced to date.  We swayed enough to cause trash cans to go flying.  The refrigerator/freezer doors popped open and spilled their contents on the floor.  Yes, we had something on the handle to keep the doors closed, but the wake was enough to pop that off.   Grrrr.  I even found a soda can down in the master stateroom after it had fallen down the galley stairs.  Grrrrr.   The boat owner was maneuvering his 55 footer like it was a smaller 20 ft ‘go fast boat’, showing off and being an inconsiderate jerk.  We have heard about these kinds of boaters. <sigh>  The good news – no broken bottles, no cracked eggs.

Finally, we passed Green buoy marked 0 – zero – the beginning of the GICW.  Or for us, the end of the GICW and the beginning of the Caloosahatchie River inlet into the Okeechobee Waterway!!

 

Being a holiday week, there are lots and lots of boaters out on the water.  Lots of beautiful homes and condos on the water’s edge.  If you look really hard, I am sure you can call the number on the realty sign and buy this 1/2 acre prime lot.  errr prime island with their own private dock.  It is supposed to be a commercial location!!

 

OR just float your commercial enterprise and not worry about the island.  Bait!!

 

We finally arrived at our marina for the next several days.  Whew!!  Wayne docked our 16 foot wide boat in a 18 foot wide slip!!  I was concentrating on throwing the lines to dock hands and getting fenders over the side to really pay attention to the details.  When Always Home was tied off and we could take a breath, our boating neighbor came out to say “hello” and put out more large fenders off the side of his boat.  It looks like we have plenty of room between boats, right?

 

But, at this angle, not so much.  I told the neighbor he had a wonderful idea!!  Can’t have enough bumpers to protect our homes, can we?

I am so impressed with Wayne’s docking skills!!  He shoe-horned us into this tight slip like a master.  Must be all that superb training he got!!

 

Time for a glass of wine, dinner, and rest!

Day 2 – 42 nautical miles