Day 4
Day 4 was another full day of travel. We left the Venice Inlet bright and early. Motored out a couple miles into deeper water before we turned south. It was a beautiful day, full of glossy water. Unfortunately, glossy water and wind don’t go together. So, it looked like another day full of motoring. And what little wind there was came directly from the south! We even saw another sailboat traveling parallel to us doing the same thing.
No worries, that’s what the diesel motor is for. So we set up the lounge chairs, turned up the Sirius satellite radio, and dodged more crab pots. And seriously, if I ever meet a crab fisherman, I might punch him in the face on principal that they lay traps EVERYWHERE! Anyway, we got down to around Englewood, a fishing destination I used to go to with my ex-girlfriend and her family. Great place to go. Right as we are passing the city, Chad realizes the boat is taking in water, a fair amount, via the propeller shaft. We stop the motor so Chad can fix the leak, which takes about an hour and a half. While he fixed that, he noticed water coming from the air intake of the boat. Not good! The engine, when underway, began to billow out white smoke. Unfortunately, we weren’t in a position to sail and we couldn’t just chill a couple miles off the coast for the rest of the day/night. So, we kept motoring while monitoring the engine.
We tried to gain access to Stump Pass, really the only inlet we could get into for the night before the sun went down. This was around 3:30p so we thought we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, the boat wasn’t having it. The few attempts we made to get in there were foiled by the depth gauge that said we would ground if we tried to enter. We even had a nice gentleman in a flats boat try and check the depths and unfortunately it was a no-go. When we asked him what the next inlet might be, he said Little Gasparilla pass, but there were so many shoals there that we wouldn’t want to try it. Our only option was Boca Grande pass. After charting it, we knew we had around 16 km to get there. And you have to start entering the pass from at least 3 miles out to avoid the breakers and shallow waters.
We finally arrived at the markers to turn in around sunset. The water was eerily smooth. You couldn’t pay me to take a swim in that water! We watched the sunset right as we turned into the channel. We still had very limited daylight so we motored our way in, took about 45 minutes to an hour. By that time, it was dark. Unlike the first day, we had all the tech gear out to assist us in finding a place to anchor. And, we didn’t have to deal with huge waves and freezing conditions. So we turned just north from inside the bay, went up a few hundred yards, and there was the the other sailboat we traveled with earlier in the day. We knew this was the spot for us. We anchored down, turned the engine off.
Today’s agenda includes diagnosing the engine problem. Perhaps ringing up TowboatUS, unfortunately. And getting things set back up for sailing again. In the mean time, while Chad works on the boat, it gives me plenty of time to work on client stuff. So I guess day 5 won’t be the tropical paradise just yet! Soon though!
