Adventures on Apropos

  I think I neglected to post a crew pic when Maryellen joined…so here it is! We departed Gulf Harbor Marina early Saturday morning, heading for The Crow’s Nest Marina & Restaurant. In the Caloosahatchee River we encountered some floating debris - a section of someone’s dock!  No issues, crew spotted it and avoidance was easy. In this area we started to see some of the devastation from last year’s hurricanes.  At the end of the Okeechobee Waterway, the caloosahathee empties into Pine Island Sound (not far from Sanibel Island).  Things got a little rough in there, this short video doesn’t really illustrate how bumpy it became.  We arrived at the marina in Venice mid-afternoon.  A bit of a shit-show trying to tie up at the fuel dock.  It’s nearly impossible to tie up on port side against any wind or current unless we get aft spring (preferably) or stern line to dockhands.  That didn’t happen, the only line they got was bowline and then I was dea...

  I had 1.5 lay days in Stuart. We were held up by the malfunctioning Ortona Lock on the west side of the Okeechobee waterway. We were supposed to depart from Stuart on Tuesday am for the 2 day journey to the west coast. With the lock closed and limited places to stay within the waterway, it was prudent to wait in Stuart.  I stayed an extra day at the Safe Harbor Marina but then moved to a town mooring to save $. The only info on the lock was that they were awaiting divers to assess/repair. There was a possibility they would be functional wed or thurs or in 2 weeks! I didn’t end up saving much money after all…the moorings were $30/night (compared to $133 at marina) so I reserved 2 nights. Of course, on the water one loses track of days, so I reserved for the wrong nights (lost $30 there). Then, by late afternoon Wednesday there was still no news from the lock so I extended another night (thurs, the night I thought I had reserved to start with).  I spent the evening at Fra...

  Pretty chilly day yesterday and lots o’ wind!  Fortunately wind was from the north so not too bad until we turned to head up the St Lucie River. My clean boat is no longer so clean…if it warms up today I’ll wash it down again.  Had a really nice time at dinner last night with Frank & Maryellen and For Rachel friends, Gerry and Amy - whom I haven’t seen in at least 20 years (how can it have been so long?!). We were at Sailor’s Return restaurant, at Sunset Bay Marina.  The boat is currently at Safe Harbor Harborage Yacht Club in Stuart - a short drive from Frank and Maryellen’s home. The plan was to be here one night then head in to the okeechobee waterway, landing at Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston on Tuesday night.  One just never knows on the water…you have to be flexible!  It turns out that the ortona lock, on the west side of the okeechobee waterway broke on or near Thanksgiving. Because of the holiday it’s been slow getting fivers there to asses...

  Meet Frank Sharples - a brave man to crew with me!   This morning we left Ponce Inlet about 7:00 without incident. Temps were about 10 degrees above yesterday morning but still quite chilly (53*). I still wore several layers!   The view on this leg doesn’t change a lot but we did go through one narrow, woody section where we spotted several of these birds that I thought at first were bald eagles but apparently not - maybe some kind of hawk…anyone know? Wind started picking up again about noon and there was a fair amount of chop so not as smooth a ride as usual, but not terrible.  We are at Melbourne Harbor Marina, which looked like it should be fairly well protected from wind but really not!  Had to back in to slip with dinghy tied off to bow…I was a bit concerned about that situation but it went fine, no yelling, crying or crashing.  Very first thing I did (before paying) was confirm that they had functioning heads and showers! We went to Ichabod’s (on s...