Deja Vu, All Over Again!

 

So, Apropos is back on the road again - about 2 weeks after rebuild of my house was completed. I was able to move in, at least partially, in mid March. The house is not yet fully unpacked but that can wait until fall. 

First Mate, Astrid, and I headed out a week ago from New Port Richey. Mostly were anchoring, now that I’m retired (a.k.a. Cheap). We haven’t stopped for any sight seeing yet. Overnight anchorages in Bradenton Beach, Venice Inlet, Pelican Bay and at W P Franklin Lock (to get a jump on the long journey through the okeechobee waterway). 

Franklin Lock was a breeze, in and out in Jo time. Ortona lock took a while, big water level change there. Moore Haven lock only had to open to let us in…a straight pass through there because the lake is very low. We also passed directly through Clewiston lock with no stop to rest for the night at Roland Martin Marina. It still took us about 9 hours to make that trek. 

Here’s where the ‘excitement’ began. First task upon arrival was to top off fuel. Only needed about 30 gal but I like to keep the tanks topped off when possible. Dock master not around so young lady handed me the hose  and I started to pump. About 3 gal in I followed the hose back about 35 ft or so and to my horror I saw she had handed me the gasoline hose instead of diesel!  What a sh*t show that became!  After a lot of texting and phone calls she found someone to come pump out the tank and got manager’s permission to hire him. It was Sunday at 6pm by this time. He came from Port St. Lucie, a 2 he drive each way. The girl at the marina was upset about the error, I was kicking myself for not confirming before pumping (and not noticing black pump handle cover and smaller nozzle)…no one was happy. The guy showed up, had to pump from the connection at fuel filter but it went fairly well. Using dip tube he could only pump to bottom of tube so an inch or so of fuel remained.  Assumption is that all will be fine.  They had initially told me that they would pay for the fuel they pumped but reversed that decision by morning when we added the fuel.  They paid for the mechanic ($800) and reduced fuel charge to $3/gal.  All in all the error cost me an extra $120.  I was surprised they didn’t comp out slip fee.

After fueling 7:00 Monday we headed out - there were 2 choices:  take the flat rim route and add an hour or go straight across the lake and hope the SE wind didn’t pick up more (it did) and that we wouldn’t go aground on the record low depth.  We figured we were better off with the one hour time penalty and took the rim route.

Port Mayaca lock was easy, had to wait for gate to open but straight passthru from there.  Everything went smoothly until we arrived at Indiantown Railway Bridge, it was down and reported broken.  They were expecting someone to come in an hour to look at it.  So it starts getting tricky…we were still probably 10 nm from St lucie lock and they close for the day at 5 - boats must be in the lock and secured by 4:30 to go thru.  Fortunately, we saw the rr bridge starting to open about 2:45 so quickly pulled up the anchor and got going again.  We arrived at St lucie lock about 4.  Again there is a large water level change do wait for the gate was quite long.  One of the boats waiting for the rr bridge had caught up by that time - large, steel boat.  He had apparently never licked thru before so wasn’t sure what to do or how.  After bouncing off the south wall the wind took him over to north wall and he was able to grab the lines.  If it weren’t so late with threatening skies it might have been amusing.

It took quite some time to reset water level before we could exit and as we did the rain started.  Not too bad at first but kept getting worse.  We were headed thru st lucie river into Stuart to Manatee Pocket.  I had already cancelled dinner plans with the Sharples but they were at the restaurant and too picture of us going by.

We tried moving to the lower helm in an attempt to stay partially dry but found air too stuffy with windows closed and we couldn’t see a thing around us.  So back up top in a driving rain I’m not sure I’ve seen the likes of on the water.  We could see adequately from the bridge and radar helped.  When we had to turn into the wind it was worse, I thought for a minute there was hail but it was just sharp stinging droplets launched at our faces!

Eventually we got to the mooring field and thankfully I had reserved mooring #1 right off the main channel.  We were able to quickly secure the mooring and by the time we did, the waterworks abruptly shut down!  What a day!

We decided to leave there a day earlier than planned (Tuesday) to get close to cape canaveral for launch scheduled for today (Wednesday).  Stopped again for pumpout and topped off fuel and water in fort pierce  then made it to this nice anchorage in Melbourne about 5:30 or so.  Anchor caught on first try and holding well with wind continuously spinning around.  Here we sit, enjoying the quiet (except a little road noise) and the company of dolphins.