Falcon's Log 34
May 12, 2010 - At Anchor at Punta Blanca Island, Charlotte Harbor (Cont.)

George and Kim had me over for dinner this evening. It was great. Chicken and sausage with potatoes and carrots and
toasted bread with melted cheese and ice tea. What a feast! The evening is warm and breezy and I just had a great time
taking some pictures outside. Oh, an aside. Rowing back and forth between the boats was the thrill of a lifetime. The wind
and current were both in the same direction and trying desperately to push me away from the boats and out to sea. I had to
row like Popeye chasing Bluto to make the trip each way, but coming back was the most desperate. Here are a couple of
sunset shots using different angles and camera settings.
May 13, 2010 - At Anchor at Punta Blanca Island, Charlotte Harbor

It is just before 6 AM and I have been up since 5 preparing the boat to get under way. Our plan this morning was to leave the
anchorage at 6 AM, when we thought it would be light enough to see, but it's still much too dark. We will wait until we can at
least see the markers without a spotlight.

Our first top will be the Gasparilla Marina 10 miles to the north, then it's out the Boca Grande Pass to the Gulf and down
around Captiva and Sanibel and in toward the coast. We are looking to halve the distance to Marco Island, which will be our
next stop on the way. I just checked all the charts and I'm not sure Marco is a good place to stop. There has been a lot of
cruiser harassment there in the recent pass and none of the anchorages that are readily available seem to offer much shelter
from Easterlies. I could be wrong, but our best bet may be to push closer to Naples tonight, the pass Marco and get closer to
Everglades City. From there we will easily reach Cape Sable and on the last day, Sunday, make it into Marathon with plenty
of daylight.
I was just reading an email from Ken and Sandy and realized
I'd forgotten to include a picture of the new GPS antenna
mount. Here it is. Time for me to warm up the engine.

We are at the entrance to Matanzass Pass and are anchored
in what SEEMED to be a flat, calm, protected anchorage.
The only problem is that, while the OTHER boats look calm
and peaceful, Falcon has somehow found a way to stay
sideways to the very minor wind waves. And I've moved from
one side of the anchorage to another. Same thing. Go figure.

The day was the longest and most grueling so far. From 6:30
AM until 7 PM. Going 'outside' into the Gulf instead of the
Intracoastal proved to be a huge mistake. It cost us about 5
extra hours and all our energy. I am posting now in a wildly
rocking boat and want nothing more than to lie down and
rest, so I will. I'll catch up tomorrow.
May 14, 2010 - At Anchor at Marco Island

So, you're probably wondering what happened to me this morning. It's a funny story. Ha ha. Okay, no more laughing. I woke
up and George and Kim were gone. They'd left in the night. And so had the other boat in the anchorage. What really hurt was
that Matanzass Pass had also left. Ahhh, that's when it hit me. THEY hadn't left, I had. I anchored poorly with too little scope
and Falcon had dragged anchor for a mile and a half. VERY lucky that I hadn't run into anything or run aground. Just at the
end of the stretch of deepish water, the anchor set and held. Obviously, I had no time to get on the computer. I called George
as I motored over to him and he raised anchor and we went on our way.

It has been a beautiful day and we made it all the way to Marco Island without incident. Once we GOT to Marco Island, we
created an incident by anchoring in the wrong spot and stirring up the ire of a local waterfront gasoline stop. They did fuss
some and Tarquin, with Eddie and Sandy aboard, returning from a trip to Everglades City, heard the gas stop crabbing at me
over the radio - I didn't hear a thing, I turn the radio off when I'm stopped - and motored into the anchorage and blew their
horn at me. I came out and they laughed and told me the gas people were ranting.

We were a little too close, so we moved across the way and anchored there. Some people on a deck boat - from Boston -
saw the home port on Falcon and stopped by to visit in the middle of all this. They politely left for twenty minutes, then came
back and visited with George and Kin, then me. I took their pictures and will post a couple here. I also need to do a little rough
calculation for our distances traveled the past two days.

Yesterday we traveled 60 miles, but only made 37 miles good toward Marathon.

Today we traveled 40 miles, with only 32 made good toward Marathon.

There are 97 miles left to go, as the crow flies, which we can't do.
Everybody here was very nice and some were from Boston.
The man at the helm is a retired Boston Harbor Pilot. I can't
help but wonder what the guy sitting in the back gate with his
back to us is doing.
CJoy under sail and apparently sailing well. It was a great day
for it and George made the most of it.

I have more pictures of today that I will post later.
May 15, 2010 - At Anchor at Marco Island

I was up and watching the anchor carefully from 11:30 PM until midnight as the tides switched directions and all the boats in
the anchorage turned and shifted. Falcon stayed put and no other boats came near.I went back to sleep and didn't wake up
until 5:15 AM. It's 5:50 now and I'm ready to get going. Of course, we won't leave until first light. Some pictures I neglected to
take last night were of our anchorage, so I'll get some in the morning.

After much discussion with George and Espin, we have made two big decisions: First, we will not attempt the 'inside' passage
through Goodland on this trip. With Espin's directions I feel confident that I could make it, but George was nervous and, I
think, much preferred the opportunity to spend another day sailing. Second, instead of trying to make it to Marathon in two
days, and arriving completely used up at night on the second, we have decided on three days, staying tonight at an
anchorage near Everglades City and the next night at the Little Shark River. From there, Marathon is a shorter distance and
we can take our time 'working through the muddy shallows'. (A line from "Riddle of the Sands" by Erskine Calder.)
I tried to get a nice picture of the bursts of spray that Falcon sometimes through when busting through the faces of waves, but
all I got was this one little poof. I feared leaving the camera exposed and ready, worried that it might get wet. On the right is
the anchorage at Matanzass Pass entrance where we spent the night and I dragged 1 1/2 miles. Nice to have that much lea if
you're going to screw up that bad.
To the left is the Sanibel Bridge that I was dragging down close to. On the right, you can see the Matanzass Bridge, which is
probably called the Ft. Myers Beach Bridge or Estero Island Bridge, but whatever, it goes over Matanzass Pass.
From Ft. Myers to Naples there is an almost unbroken line of coastline condos. Only Keywaden Island between Naples and
Marco Island escape the treatment. Not that I wouldn't like to have a condo in there somewhere, don't get me wrong, but it
does make the sightseeing boring.
George and Kim still sailing and me still trying to get a shot of spray.
On the left is (I think) a Wharram Cat) that Espin admires so much as an inexpensive, competent cruising cat. On the right is
another shot of our visitors in the Marco anchorage.
CJoy anchored and to the far left, the much 'ballyhooed' Snook Inn, that features a grizzled old favorite sitting on a stool with
an acoustic guitar playing Jimmy Buffet favorites. I love the place, just couldn't make it this time.
A better look at the Snook Inn, and the other boats that joined us in the anchorage.
The sun had still not risen as I took these pictures. To the right is the establishment from which the irate gasbag was
screaming at us. It's too bad we had our radios off, but Eddie said it was quite a radio air show.

It is very possible that I may not be able to get on line on either or both of the next two days. I will catch up, however, when
we get to Marathon.

I'm back, and it's only 7:38 AM. I started the engine to warm it up and called CJoy and got Kim. George is not feeling good
this morning. He is tired and stiff all over, but worse, he has chest pains. We are standing down. George called me back just
now and says that all he needs is an hour to rest and relax and he'll be ready to go. He also told me about something that
happened yesterday that I missed.

He asked if I'd seen the small skiff with three fishermen in it that was hanging beside his boat yesterday. I had noticed them
and said so. Then he said, "All of a sudden there was a big splash and they'd hooked something. One of the guys pulled up
their anchor and something dragged them all over the anchorage. (Sorry I missed this.) They were pulled almost to the far red
marker when they finally had the fish tired out, and they pulled a 130 pound Tarpon aboard the skiff with them."

I don't know what most guys do with Tarpon, but I think they release them. George told me that they guys told him they'd
caught a 180 pounder before. I'm pretty sure they must have released the fish because they came back to the same spot and
started fishing again.

I will post this again and go wait in the cockpit to see if George feels up to carrying on. If not, I'm not sure what our options will
be.
May 16, 2010 - At Anchor at Russell Bay Anchorage, Everglades City

Yesterday was a long siege in rough water but a great night in an awesome anchorage. Everything, and I mean
EVERYTHING, got tossed around inside the boats. George had to slow down because his engine was trying desperately to
break loose. This happened in one of the roughest areas - the southern section of the Cape Romano Shoal where we took a
slight short cut along a 24 foot depth cut in the shallows. Once in the area between the shallows and the Everglades City
channel at Indian Key, it was much better. I would have been sweet to have a depth sounder or a GPS.

I took 5 movies and will try to find a way to post them here. It was an awesome ride, and you'll love the videos.

We have no phone or internet access here and have to communicate by shouting. Obviously, I can't post. Today we will
make the run in shallow water along the coast to the Little Shark River, about 40 miles to the south. I have to get ready now.
See you later.

We started out late because George had a lot of stuff he wanted to do, which turned out to be a bad thing later in the day.
The run down the 'Swamp Coast' was uneventful and boring until we were about 2 hours shy of the Little Shark River. That's
when a pretty nasty front clapped us right in the teeth. The wind howled and the waves in the shallow area quickly climbed to
four, five and six feet. Between the wind and waves, our forward progress was often halted - I'm serious, zero forward
momentum. We were getting thrown all over the place. My port fuel tank came loose and started spilling fuel into the bilge.
We got soaked with rain and it took us over three hours to finally find shelter in the Little Shark River.

I have never in my life been on any cruise with so much wind and current and storms straight against me. It's just
unbelievable. And we are now stuck in the Little Shark river for at least one more day, maybe more. The marine forecast is for
more of the same all day tomorrow, then maybe a break on Tuesday. Now, there are other places where it is not quite so
desolate as this that are called 'the end of the world', but this is really, the end. No telephone or TV signals reach here. No
internet or method of any kind to reach people and tell them we haven't sunk and we're okay.
May 17, 2010 - At Anchor in the Little Shark River, Cape Sable

The anchorage here is a tad crowded, but not bad. Two boats have already left this morning and we're hoping another one or
two will follow suit. I would like to move more to the middle.

I had already set the sliding fuel tank back where it belongs and siphoned off 5 gallons of fuel for George - he's running low
again. I have to find a suitable way to secure this and, and the other, to prevent them from being able to slide backwards.
That is what this one did. I don't think I lost much fuel. It's difficult to tell. The bilge pump was kicking it overboard during the
storm. The tank still feels very heavy. The gauges are not at all accurate so I'll have to 'stick' both tanks today and do some
calculations.

I rowed over to CJoy to bring them the 5 gallons of diesel and stayed for quite a while. Kim made a fantastic breakfast that
can't be beat and also made me a 'Bag Lunch' to take home with me. In a moment I will crawl back behind the shifting Fuel
tank and lash it into place so it can't move, then I'll watch another 'Bourne' movie - watched one last night - and consider what
else I can do to prepare Falcon for the last 50 mile stretch to marathon. It is about the most 'exposed' stretch, though only the
first 40 miles if really 'out there'. Once you get under the 7 Mile Bridge, there's a little shelter fro the Easterlies. We are
leaving at 6 AM to get as good a start as we can, hoping to cover almost 20 miles before 9 AM when morning winds begin to
show.

Okay, the tank is lashed. The other one doesn't seem to need it. Go figure. Pray for light winds tomorrow. I'm taking some
pictures and downloading them by day. Once we get to Marathon, I'll put together a more colorful post of this trip.

I've calculated the remaining fuel to be 60 gallons. I gave 5 gallons to George and spilled a little, though I do not think more
than about a gallon - it was sloshing out of the fill spigot during violent pitches and rolls. Since I'd probably used only about
two or three gallons in the marina, and I started with exactly 100 gallons, that means I've burned about 32 gallons or so on the
trip. I haven't had a chance to closely measure the distances to get some idea, but with 40 miles left (in a straight line) and 50
(going under the 7 Mile Bridge) I think my use will be about 40 gallons all told. More than I'd expected, but considering all the
wind and current we've had to buck, damn near every inch of the way, I'm not that surprised.

I have NEVER had a single trip where I wasn't being forced to go in a hurry, against the weather, on routes I would have
avoided, or just plain on a freakin' mission. I would someday love to try heading out at my leisure, going where I wanted to go
at my own pace. I'd like to have sails ready as well.

One more day on this mission. Hopefully. The wind is banging away out there right now, just as they said it would. I surely
hope tomorrow it really does curl off toward the East and stay below 10 knots.
May 18, 2010 - At Anchor Beside Boot Key, Marathon City, Vaca Key in the Florida Keys

It is 3:23 PM and we are at anchor beside Boot Key, next to the channel leading into Boot Key Harbor and the City Marina.
We have been out of touch for the past few days, so I wanted to jump on line and just say we got here safely. It is hot right
now and I'm tired and will be back later with all the details.

The Raymarine ST40 and Garmin GPSMap 545 are junk. I bought these things brand new from West Marine and Pyacht and
all I can tell people is, these vendors have absolutely no help to offer you in any way - you must go to the company that made
them, and these companies couldn't care less about the products once they have your money. You have no recourse and
they have no sense of obligation.
May 19, 2010 - At Anchor Beside Boot Key, Marathon

I got a surprise yesterday. George and Kim were going to go into Boot Key Harbor with Dave, one of their friends from
Regatta Point Marina, get some fuel, pump out the holding tank, scout the anchorage for room for us to move inside, then
come back and tell me. They never came back. Or called. They just took a slip and tied up for the night. I called some time
later and George told me then. They are at the same Marina as Dave and will be getting a mooring at the City Marina today.
Feeling a little left out, I called Donny and Barb to see where they were and when they'd be here. Donny said it would
probably be late today and he would help me out so I wouldn't have to wait at anchor outside for almost two weeks. Awesome.

I have a tremendous amount of work to do straightening out the boat and cleaning it up. I'll get busy on that today. This
anchorage gets waked a lot by power boats blasting in and out with no reason to slow down or be courteous. I may feel the
same in their position, but now I'm on the pointy end of the stick.

It's time to bring the trip up to date. Below are pictures taken in Everglades City on the evening of the 15th of May.
This is the anchorage just outside of Russell Bay near Everglades City. There was really nothing there and not much of
anything to see. Even the sunset was muted. The holding seemed good and it was calm and peaceful and a great place to
spend a little time. We started off in Georges dinghy to find Everglades City, but after fighting too much current in an
overloaded little rubber boat with not enough horsepower, I called Eddie Bartels and said there was no McDonald.s, no
nothing in Everglades City, and just like a switch going on in my head, I remembered visiting the place while I lived in Naples.
We turned around immediately and went back to the boats. Everglades City is the equivalent of Hooterville without the cool
train.
The anchorage at the Little Shark River was such a welcomed sight. Of course, it was here that I discovered my Port fuel
tank had shifted, and I saw the BIGGEST BLACK FLY IN THE WORLD. (He was completely black, just like Johnny Cash,
and about 1 1/8 inches long and 7/8 of an inch wide and landed RIGHT ON MY KNEE! So I killed him, as a message to his
friends waiting in the trees.) The mosquitoes weren't bad, but they were there, and after the very nasty three hours of our
days run, we decided to wait out the weather for an extra day.
On the second day at the Little Shark River, the 17th of May, a Wharram Cat came in and the people came over a spoke with
us for a while. It seems there was a gathering of these vessels in the area recently and that's why we saw two in Marco and
this one here. It, and it's dinghy, were painted EXACTLY like Falcon, same colors, same way. The sunset on the second night
was spectacular. I tried to get better pictures of the row of dead trees silhouetted against the changing colors of the sky, but I
need more learning with the camera. Maybe I should read the manual.
It turned out that waiting the extra day at the Little Shark River was the right decision. I wanted to start early to get a jump on
the wind and waves that were expected to be small, but just in case, so to speak, and we did get under way by about 6:15
AM. There never was any wind or waves, just flat, calm, often glassy water. What a relief. The pictures below, taken out of
sight of land on the 18th, show what it was like.
This was what it was like for most of the 9 hours I spent at the helm yesterday. We did see a lot of fish and pretty views, and
were grateful not to be tossed around. I will sort out the actual tracks and mileages next. I will also get some shots of this
anchorage once the sun comes up.
It is cool and overcast this morning and I may have to close up the boat if it rains. The first picture is the entrance to Boot Key
Harbor. The second is the high part of the Seven Mile Bridge that we came under to get here. The third is the near section of
the long bridge and the last are some nice looking houses right on the tip of Vaca Key.

These are the measured distances of each days travels. We were on our way for 9 days but only traveled 7 of them. I made
these measurements from Google Earth using the 'path' function. I know precisely where we went each day and the route we
used to get there, so these are quite accurate. The times are only 'close' in some cases, but right on in others.

May 3rd - Seafood Shack to Rivertown Boatyard - 9.11 miles, 3 hours.
May 10th - Rivertown Boatyard to Lido Key - 32.6 miles, 7.5 hours.
May 11th - Lido Key to Punta Blanca Island - 48.88 miles, 9.5 hours.
May 13th - Punta Blanca Island to Matanzass Pass - 66.3 miles, 12.5 hours.
May 14th - Matanzass Pass to Marco Island - 35.8 miles, 7.5 hours.
May 15th - Marco Island to Everglades City - 38.29 miles, 9 hours.
May 16th - Everglades City to Little Shark River - 44.69 miles, 8 hours.
May 18th - Little Shark River to Boot Key - 52.49 miles, 9 hours.

The totals equal 328.16 miles and 66.1 hours under way.
We had a mild squall pass over at the anchorage and the only other boat left there - besides Falcon - dragged his anchor and
drifted away like there was no ground tackle at all. Now I see how fast Falcon flew away from the anchorage the other day
when the same thing happened to me. Oh, I didn't tell you guys before, because I didn't know, but George really thought I'd
just slipped away in the night and left them behind on purpose. He was spouting and fuming to Kim. I started laughing
because he was mad, but I was just bummed when I first thought they'd left me behind.

I had one last 'wake' incident from one real jerk in a dive boat who deliberately waked me as hard as he could in the
anchorage. I couldn't catch everything, and my camera fell off the counter. I was able to slow it, but not stop it. It seems to be
okay, though.

I'm on mooring number 'N1', Nancy One, one of the closest to the Office and the new dinghy dock. Awesome. It's still overcast
and was raining when I came in, but I took pictures anyway.
May 20, 2010 - On Mooring N1 In Marathon City Marina, Florida Keys

Hey! No wakes! No bugs (yet - they say there is a 'no-see-um' problem here). I went over to Dulcinea for a great supper last
night and ate until my belly hurt. Grilled chicken, corn on the cob, broccoli, lemonade, and fruit Jello for desert. Someday I'll
be civilized enough to invite people over here to eat. I hope we have sun today. It's fairly unusual to have so much cloud
cover down here and I'm needing some battery charging rays to keep the energy coffers full.

Donny and I are going across the street for breakfast this morning and George and Kim are coming into the mooring field
some time today.

http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/index.aspx?NID=600

The link above connects you to the Marathon City Marina Webcam and you can see Falcon on the first mooring past the
dinghy dock. It isn't on at night any more, I guess (it's not on right now), but it's usually on during the day.

I am now all signed in and have my key/pass to the heads and laundry and stuff like that.

I walked to Publix and Home Depot with Barb and Don and also went into K Mart. They had various things to do, but my only
mission was to find 2 5 gallon jugs to trundle water to the boat with. While we were gone, George and Kim came in and got a
mooring right across the main, center channel from me.
Above are a couple of shots of last nights sunset. Lots of guys blowing conch shell horns at this time. Oddly enough the dogs
were silent then. Lots of big dogs on boats in the mooring field. Below are the water jugs and CJoy, now moored across the
way.
I also launched the dinghy, set up the sun shade, started sun-bashing the batteries one at a time, and used the head for the
first time. I went to Dulcinea and helped Don get his broken bracket ready to weld, started getting ready to finish the sun
shade section that goes from the front of the hard top to the mainmast, and made the worst oatmeal I've ever tasted. Don and
Barb gave me some no-see-um screening and I gave them some leather for chaffing gear. George and Kim are resting today.

I think I'm going to watch a movie and make some better oatmeal.
May 21, 2010 - Moored In Marathon, Florida Keys

Got together with George and Kim and we took a walk across the street to a Pizza joint and split a really good pizza for
supper. It turned out to be a bit pricey, but George picked it up and finally agreed to keep the 5 gallons of fuel I gave him.

I have too much line and it's trying really hard to be a pain in the ass, but I'm determined to find a way to deal with it in the
near future. I will also find an acceptable solution to illuminating my keyboard so I don't have to burn a light to see it. I am a
pure 'hunt & peck' typist and have a severe mental block that will not allow me to graduate to 'touch typing'. It's like music. I
can appreciate a great musician, but I'll never be one. The whole 'dexterity on the instrument' is out of my reach.

I've received a number of website 'Contacts' since leaving Cortez and I should try to get responses out to those people as
soon as possible. There is an element of response in the daily log, but I greatly appreciate the Contacts and want to take a
personal moment to answer each one. The traffic on the site has increased by 50% since leaving the Seafood Shack.

Having finally arrived in Marathon has seriously shifted the priorities on Falcon. I really want to get her cleaned up and
properly organized and easy to live aboard. I will complete the cabinetry and tabbing and dispose of the last of the 'just in
case' supplies (like, miles of extra line, etc) through the morning Cruisers Net. I want to scrub down the outside and touch up
and finish the new paint, re-tar the rigging and get cotter pins in everything. I might take that TV antenna down. There is NO
TV here anywhere. Nothing. Not even a grainy Hispanic station with barely dressed, smoking hot Chiquitas bouncing around
saying things I wouldn't understand even if I spoke Spanish, which I should definitely start learning, along with Vietnamese.

I just thought of the unfinished reefer. It is now emptied and need to be finished. Publix is only a 1 mile walk and with a good
reefer I can have fresh produce and cold drinking water all the time. Life is good.

Very soon I will have to disassemble the computer and install all the 64 bit components and operating systems. Once again I
will try various versions, 64 bit versions, of Linux based OS's and see if there have been any remarkable advancements that
render them usable, intuitive, and non-hostile towards generic operators who have no intention of becoming proficient Unix
programmers and code detectives. I REALLY want to get to the final editing of the novels and get the first one published. It
might be good and do well. At the minimum, it will mark another serious milestone in my journey.
These are a sequence of this mornings sunrise. I love the weather here, so far. I will continue todays post on the next page.
The day was made longer and more tedious by a Raymarine ST40 Depth sounder that was useless and a Garmin GPSMap
545 piece of crap that had to be constantly reset so I had snapshots of my position and could avoid shoal areas. If you're
wondering why I use the complete registered names of the units each time I mention them, it's because, even though the
company's know the units are brand new and are bad out of the box, my buying them earlier - when I could afford them -
voids the warranty. They know I just started using them, but they're giving me the grin and the purchase dates as reasons
why I lose and they don't have to stand behind the product. They just don't have to so they won't. I think I have the right to
make sure that anyone who does an Internet search for these products gets to know what the companies are really like.
Raymarine ST40 operating to 10 feet today, but the Garmin GPSMap 545 getting worse. What a piece of junk.