Monday January 18, 2010

Woke up before dawn. It was still dark outside. I headed off to the showers. Later this afternoon I planned on making a landfall at North Captiva Island and wanted to arrive with a clean body and clean clothes.. I brewed a pot of coffee and waited for the harbor master to arrive at 8AM. The marina had a courtesy car and I needed provisions. Sandy trained me to never arrive anywhere empty handed. I needed beer for Jim and me, wine for Patt and some steaks for the barbeque, along with lunch meat and a coffee cake.

When the harbormaster arrived, he told me that it would be 10AM before the car was available. Insurance regulations would not allow me to drive the car. A marina employee had to be at the wheel. They suggested that if I wanted to get to the store quickly, that I take a taxi cab. So that is what I did. I called Julie’s Taxi service. It took her about 20 minutes to get to the Palm Island Marina. She drove me to Publix and said that she would wait while I hunted down the grocery items on my list. I was in and out of the store in 10 minutes. Julie was waiting to take me back to the marina.

After stowing he provisions, I started my search for an air pump. The dingy was stowed and it would be necessary to inflate and be ready for use upon arrival at North Captiva. I wandered around the marina from building to building looking for compressed air. I finally found the pump. Mike was the service manager at the marina and he said that inflating a dingy was a service that the marina provided and there was no charge for the inflation. It took less than 5 minutes to inflate the dingy. To my surprise there were no leaks! The dingy held air. The last time the dingy was inflated with the foot pump was up in the North Channel about 5 years ago. Bill wanted to go ashore and investigate a fire that he saw on the beach. It took him all most one hour to inflate the old fashioned way.

I put the dingy on a hand cart and rolled it to the dock. I then tied it down to the foredeck. At 10AM I bid a fond fair well to the Punta Gorda boat club members and pointed the bow south toward North Captiva.

I stayed in the channel and had to have 2 bascule bridges opened for me to continue. At 11AM I called the swing bridge tender and requested that the Gasparilla Island Causeway Bridge be opened. The operator said that the bridge opened every 15 minutes and that my timing was perfect. She swung open the bridge and we lost no time waiting. The Gaslparilla Island Causeway Bridge connects Gaslparilla Island with the mainland. This bridge has a vertical clearance of 12 feet.

Once through the bridge, we were in the Gasparilla Sound. A short body of water that connects to Charlotte Harbor. I stayed in the channel as Gasparilla Island slowly passed on the right. Then Cayo Costa came into view. Cayo Costa is the island to the north ofNorth Captiva. Once I reached the northern tip of Cayo Costa, I called Jim and let him know that I was about one hour away. He said to look for him on the shore and call him on his cell phone when I reached Safety Harbor.

The GPS gives you an estimated time of arrival. The Garmin that is used on Water Mark indicated that we would reach the fish house at the point guarding Safety Harbor at 1:30PM. At 12:55PM I passed Cabbage Key. Boat traffic increased as folks were heading to Cabbage Key for lunch. Cabbage Key is the place to go when you want to eat a cheeseburger in paradise. Local legend has it that this is the location that inspired Jimmy Buffet to write “ A Cheesburger In Paradise“.

I passed the fish house on schedule and turned into Safety Harbor. Pointed the bow toward the eastern shore of Safety Harbor and then wandered off course and made a soft grounding. I put the Honda in reverse and rocked in the cockpit from side to side and wiggled off the sand bar.

I then saw Jim stating on shore with his dogs Jack and Splash. He was waving me over and telling me to anchor off Hidden Beach next to a grove of Mangroves. A well protected anchorage. I eased out an anchor from the bow and secured the anchor rode to the starboard cleat. Once the bow anchor was set, I ran an anchor from the stern.. The two anchors would hopefully prevent Water Mark from swinging into the mangroves.

As I checked the holding power of the anchors, I remembered the summer conversations that led me to visit Jim and Patt on North Captiva and glad that I had arrived safely.