 |
June 2007 |
Jump to updates:
15 June - Useppa with the Motley's, Pine Island, Friends & Family
15 June - Useppa with the Motley's, Pine Island Friends & Family
We headed off for Useppa with the Motley crew on 25th May and left via the Big Pass exit, this worked out fine, but we were glad that we headed out at high tide as we think we would have been bouncing along the bottom at the end of the channel in low tide (if not stuck there!) The sail over to Useppa was nice, the seas really calm but the wind a little gusty, we managed to use all our sails, one minute there was no wind then there was far too much, then there was none again but it made for a fairly rapid journey and we got there in around 8 hours. We all ended up rafting up together, in the end there was 7 boats all tied together. It was a fun way of doing things and everyone could pop back and forth to the main party boat as and when they felt like it. This was Ken and Cindy's boat 'West Wind' and they did a fantastic job of looking after the entire Motley Crew throughout the weekend.
During the days, everyone went about their own business and in the afternoon and evening everyone brought food over to West Wind, where Cindy, Ken, Greta and Danny did and wonderful job of putting it all together and making the most enormous meals we have ever had!
We took a dingy trip out with the others to Cayo Costa through a mangrove tunnel called the 'Tunnel of Love'. This was a real experience, half the time we were out pulling the dingy as it was to shallow to float over, the rest of the time was spent ducking branches, dodging roots and shooing away Love Bugs! The beach on Cayo Costa was lovely and there was no one else there. Everyone dashed in for a dip then we all headed back to the boats only to find that they had all been completely over run with Love Bugs. These creatures are a bit like our May fly's and only come out twice and year for a period of around 2 weeks and they come out in hordes. All everyone could say to make thinks better was "Well at least they don't bite!"
Click here for pictures of the Motley Crew in Useppa
One by one the Motley Crew headed back to Sarasota and left us in Useppa all alone.
Mike was the last to leave, he had only just brought his boat and it was his first time out on it, so he stuck around a while with us and we went and gave it a good sea trial. He also showed us where the manatees live (they actually live all over hear but you don't get many opportunities to see them).
He took us to a small mangrove bay and got us to turn the engine off and wait. Every now and then we would here a big puff of breath and look around to see a manatee nose pop out of the water, then pop back down again. We stayed there for a while but it wasn't long before we realised we were surrounded by them. They gradually got more inquisitive and we finally got a proper look at one when he came up alongside the dingy to see what was going on. They are such amazing creatures, so docile and practically blind and I think they must be pretty deaf too as they don't seem to hear boats coming towards them and a lot of them get seriously injured by power boat propellers. They must wonder what is going on in this crazy world, it used to be such a peaceful neighborhood before all the power boats turned up. Well luckily there a still a few havens like this one for them to rest in, where no powerboats go. Also the whole area is filled with no wake zones because of the manatees, so they are being well looked after. Although they themselves don't pay much attention to the signs and often still wonder out into the busy channels.
We missed everyone when they had gone and it felt very quiet and lonely, although we didn't have much time to ponder on it as we had a date to meet up with our friends on Pine Island and only had a couple of days to do a bit of tidying before my parents turned up.
The day we went over to Pine Island to meet up with Jack and Suzie they were taking their boat Sirena out of the water and bringing it back to their house to store. We left Marie in Useppa and took the 30 minute dingy ride over to Jug Creak at the north end of Pine Island and met up with Jack. The boys then went down to Jacks boat which was anchored at the south end of the island and took it over to the marina where Suzie and I met them with cameras in hand! The boat came out with only minor bumps and the mast came down without a fuss, although it is quite a scary thing to watch, it wouldn't take much for it to slip and cause havoc. The men at the marina were a right bunch of wise guys, giving it the big, 'get a move on your paying $80 an hour for my services' he thought he was some kind of god and the other guy there did all his work with a big fat cigar hanging out of his mouth, I don't think it even left his lips as he took the mast down. The kind of guys it's always good to see being taken down a peg or two! They got the job done though which is the important thing and a really nice guy got it on his trailer and after some minor adjustments (Jack had to saw his solar panel scaffold off to stop the boat taking out all the islands electricity and telephone services!) and back we all trundled to their house. A job well done, which we celebrated with a number of beers and ended up staying the night!
Click here for pictures of us meeting back up with Jack and Suzie
The next day was the first day we had seen proper rain in months and it tipped it down, the beginning of a tropical storm (the first of the season named Brian or Barry, or something similar beginning with a B!) We dingied back in the pouring rain and settled in the boat to await the high winds that were predicted. It didn't turn out to be too bad, we were very sheltered over at Useppa, the holding is good and the winds didn't go over 30 knots, we were just glad it came before my parents got here.
We met up with mum and dad on 4th June, taking Marie over to anchor off of Pine Island. We jumped in the dingy and was heading over to Jug Creak where we had left it previously but as we headed over we saw 2 suspicious looking people on the near beach, when they started to jump up and down and wave we realised that it could only be mum and dad! So we took the dingy over to the beach and left it there whilst we did some catching up and had a lovely meal at Captain Con's Restaurant. Its funny seeing people from home over here, as soon as you see them it feels as though they have been here the whole time! Mum and dad had decided to stay in the boat rather than a hotel so we were a little nervous as to how they would find it but they were fine and slipped into the cruising life style no probs. Back at the boat we dropped the luggage off and had a beer, mum and dad had brought us over lots of little pressies which was very exciting, it was like christmas again! Thank you Shirley and John for our t-shirts :-)
We spent most of our time on the boat splitting our time between anchoring in Useppa, Pelican Bay and Pine Island. We went bird spotting and manatee hunting, went through the Love Tunnel again and over to Cayo Costa beach for the day, where we built a small camp and had the whole place to ourselves. On the way we bumped into a manatee that must have been just below the surface sunbathing, he was very friendly (considering, I think I would have been quite angry if I was him!) He popped up a few times to say hello, it was the best view of a manatee we have seen so far.
We all went over to Jack and Suzie's for the evening and had day trips in the car to Matlacha, Fort Myers and down to the Everglades.
Click here for pictures of the Everglades
In the Everglades we took walks (or runs) through mozzie infested mangroves, spotted wild alligators and snakes. Had a ride on an air boat and got caught up in a man hunt. It was all very much like being in the movies! All we needed to do was catch the baddie and wrestle a alligator (preferably one with a big diamond in his belly!) then make a nice pair of cowboy boots out of him, it would have made a fab film (or should we be in Cartagena again for that one, and wasn't it a croc?! You have to have seen the movie 'Romancing the Stone' to realise that I'm not going mad!)
Went sailing in Charlotte Harbour and over to Fisherman's Village Marina for the night. $80 a night!! We paid that for a month in Guatemala!! We did get internet, cable TV, laundry, water, electric, hot showers and a pool for that though and mum and dad treated us to the night there which was very kind of them.
When we got back to Pine Island after our stay at Fisherman's Village, we thought we would stop in Captain Con's for a beer and to show our faces as the staff had kindly let dad keep the car in their staff car park. When we spoke to the woman who run the place she told us we they nearly had the Coast Guard out looking for us. The Sheriff is in the restaurant most mornings, lunch times and afternoons (in fact I'm not sure he leaves at all!) He noticed the car in the car park and was worried that it may have been stolen. The people in the restaurant said that it wasn't and was a hire car of some foreigners that had come over to stay on a boat for a while. Then they all got worried that we were lost at sea (well in the bay) and the Sheriff said he would wait another day before calling out the coast guard to search for us! It was only when another girl who worked there remembered seeing us at dinner a couple of nights before, that they called off the search!! It was funny as that day sailing back we had a police boat stop us and ask if we had seen any other sail boats out as some people had called the coast guard worried that one hadn't returned when they had expected it too!! It almost could have been us they were looking for!
Click here for pictures of our time with mum and dad
The 2 weeks went by so quickly and before we knew it, it was time to say good bye, we had a lovely time and wished they could have stayed a bit longer. We dropped them off at he beach and after a few tears they headed off toward Tampa for a day at Bush Gardens then to the airport and home.
Now we are all alone again and have to make a long trip north to get out of the hurricane belt. God knows where we will be next time this is updated, hopefully Washington DC.