IT‘S NOT AN ADVENTURE UNTIL SOMETHING GOES WRONG

I began my documentation of this trip unintentionally, by taking photos on my phone. I honestly thought William was going to video everything and do the YouTube thing he had talked about, but I think the timing of the actual ‘buying of the boat’ and the quickness of ‘the boat needs to move now’ surprised us both. On top of that, we arrived and moved aboard as planned under the cover of darkness and when we left we quietly whisked away off the docks on our own so there was no expected fanfare to either our arrival or our departure.

In fact, my departure photos were such a hasty after-thought that I didn’t catch many, but if you zoom in and look really closely at the dock we left you may be able to make out the top of at least one of the two doggie strollers we left behind.

Yes! Though we didn’t realize it at the time, we were so excited to be on our way that we left both strollers behind! We departed quite smoothly however, and made our way uneventfully down the Manatee River to the mouth of Tampa Bay.

 

 

We met our first taste of open sea swells in the catamaran just outside the bridge of Tampa Bay as we rounded the coast making the sweeping left turn that would take us South down the gulf side of the intracoastal waterway. We had made sure to secure or stow everything that we had brought or which was obvious to us that may be tossed in rough waters, but being unfamiliar with catamarans which are famous for their stability factors over monohull boats, we did not scrutinize existing items such as the large old microwave which came with the boat and filled a shelf in the starboard aft pantry. Probably it had survived at least the trip with the previous owners, and possibly it had survived many years prior in many different conditions on the water, but it did not survive the swells before the turn behind Anna Maria Island.

Many would think this microwave loss was a catastrophe, especially in a camping like traveling environment where a quick zap could come in handy, however since we don’t usually rely on the microwave for anything we hadn’t planned to use it and we truly were not upset by it’s demise. If anything, the microwave was a waste of valuable space occupying so much room on the pantry countertop, but that could now be rectified at a later dock.

 

Just on the inside of Anna Maria Island was our first bridge, which is on a timed opening schedule. Bridges on the ICW for any boat with some height are an inconvenience at best, and for sailboats which travel super slow (at full speed with current and wind behind them), any bridge that only opens on a fixed schedule can be a downright nuisance! After hailing the bridge and discovering we had a 50 minute wait until her next scheduled opening, we settled in and began slowly circling.

This is the norm for boaters on the water waiting for a bridge opening, it’s like waiting your turn through some of the longest red lights ever, and it’s kind of unfair that only the slowest, tallest masted boats are the ones affected the most by this issue, but that’s a rant for another day. On this particular bright, pretty day, we got caught waiting for an opening. Then I noticed the floating clusters of what I described as manatee poop floating past us in the waters.

These large carpet masses of manatee poop were ugly enough to look at as they floated by, but  they can also wreak havoc on a boat’s engine cooling water intake system, as we were quick to learn. Just as the Anna Maria bridge hailed us to signal her opening, we throttled up and discovered that not just one but both of our water intakes to port and starboard engines were clogged, so no water was getting through to cool the engines and little to no water was coming out of the exhaust pipes!

Quickly cutting both engines we signaled the bridge to abort our passage and William tossed out an anchor to secure us out of the channel and away from other boat traffic while he assessed the situation. In the water, both intake holes were completely clogged but they were easy enough to clear. Inside the hull, between the exterior intake and the sea strainer (filter) was a small pipe with a 90 degree elbow. This too, was totally clogged and had to be cleared on both sides, however on the starboard side the elbow pipe was beyond repair and needed to be replaced.

Digging around through the store of spare parts that had come with the boat, William was able to find and cut a thru-hull fitting which worked perfectly and produced the same desired effect but without the potentially clogging elbow bend, and so with a quick cleaning of the sea strainer and a few more tweaks and adjustments he was able to get everything back to satisfactory working condition and our engines were finally receiving their vital cooling waters once again.

By the time assessments of collateral damage had been performed and all necessary repairs had been attended, it was dusk and we currently had no desire to travel anywhere in unfamiliar waters in the dark, especially in an unfamiliar ‘new to us’ catamaran after a new repair. The bridge tender at Anna Maria was a champ; not only had they stayed in touch with us all afternoon and evening, checking in to make sure we were okay and asking if we needed anything, but also like a protective guardian they monitored our positioning and advised us that we were fine to stay the night at anchor where we were once night fell.

And so passed our first night at anchor, behind Anna Maria Island, between two busy, intersecting channels at the Anna Maria Island Bridge. We stayed awake on watch in the cockpit overnight, mostly because of where we were positioned, but also because the wind had picked up which had us swinging pretty wildly for a bit, and despite our strong anchor hold we were of course still extremely unfamiliar with the boat and we didn’t quite trust our anchor, so we only caught bits of sleep between monitoring instruments and visual markings.

The next morning arrived without incident and I was able to snag a beautiful day rise picture before we raised anchor and continued on our way past the bridge and down the West coast toward Sarasota.

It was during those early morning hours that I realized the strollers had been left behind on the dock at the marina in Palmetto. Ugh. Most fortunately for us, another call to Jim and he was ready, able, and happy to help us again, agreeing to pick the strollers up from the dock (assuming they were still there and had not blown away) and meet us later in the day in Sarasota, FL.

Harley hides from the sun as we travel.

Fixed bridges on the ICW aren’t as much trouble for a mast of our height, but they always hold a fascination as you pass underneath. Below is one of several fixed bridges along the route to Sarasota. 

Once we arrived at Marina Jack’s we topped up our fuel tanks and took a transient slip for the rest of the day/night so that we could take showers and get some proper sleep before resuming our journey. The park at the top of the marina in Sarasota is a pleasant, picturesque visit with some historical value as well!

We did however feel just a tiny bit out of place in our slip alongside these big yachts