If you know anything about us, you'll know we always have an adventure. Our trip here is no exception.
On our way out of pass at Tarpon Springs our engine stopped. We threw out an anchor and after bleeding the injectors we got the engine running again and out the pass we finally made it.
Motor sailed down the Gulf coast with no problems. Had a great time watching dolphins and trying not to get a sunburn. Spent the night at anchor in southern Tampa Bay.
Got up early and headed south to find a more protected anchor. Due to a storm warning we decided to take the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) and find a place to anchor and wait out the storm.
We motored all the way as the ICW is not wide enough to sail. We encountered our 1st draw bridge on this leg of the trip and we were at low tide. Our boat has a deep 6 foot draft and if you get out of the channel any !!! you will go aground. So guess what ? But it only took 15 minutes for the tide to come up enough for us to get going again. We made it thru the bridge with no problems.
We were following a trawler as he appeared to know his way. But within an hour he was aground just ahead of us. We had to make a quick decision what to do and ended up turning around 2 times to avoid going aground and missing him. We turned a 45 foot sailboat around in what seemed to be a 35 foot channel without going aground. Thank goodness for the bow thruster.
We continued on and got into Sarasota Bay a little later than planned. Winds had kicked up and we had no place to anchor safely. I snapped a picture of winds clocked at 33 mph but shortly after that picture I saw it hit 39 mph but just didn't have the camera in my hands. We were rather busy trying to stay in deep water with wind and water spray coming across the boat. (To get this into perspective: 40 mph is tropical storm force).
We had to find a place to anchor so we headed to possibly deep water close to shore and the engine stalled. We dropped the anchor and Larry frantically swapped fuel tanks. We lifted the anchor and decided our best bet for a safe night was a marina. So we radioed the closest one, Jack's Marina, and thank goodness they had a mooring ball empty. Many other boaters were already moored there.
We are checking things over and doing maintenance. Always something to do on a boat.
I had a pretty bad migraine and spent a day in bed. But winds have started to settle down and hopefully tomorrow we'll go ashore and check out the marina. Hoping weather is good enough to leave day after tomorrow. Today Gulf waves are at 12 foot so we are staying put for a few more days.
Still fussing with fuel leaks in area of the fuel pump. Larry plans to take it apart and reseal it tomorrow and hopefully that will fix it for good. Had issues with Sirius XM weather account but they resent the connection link and it is working again. Very handy tool to have on the boat. Need to know the weather !!
Winds clocked crossing Sarasota Bay
First Draw Bridge
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