Anyway, after the waking everything was going just fine – until we hit something under the water. We were well within the channel – between the red and green markers – and WHAM. The port engine shut off and the engine alarm started buzzing at me. I restarted it and heard this horrible screeching sound. It turned off again. I still heard the buzzing and screeching. When I stopped panicking and took a deep breath, I realized that our starboard engine was still working like a champ. At that point I turned the wheel hard to starboard and put my one good engine in reverse. We slowly moved off of whatever-it-was. I re-started the port engine and we were again on our merry way. (I have no idea what we hit and really don’t care. What I am worried about is the screeching noise. It wasn’t the engine. I am hoping it was stuff on the aft deck sliding around as I later heard the same kind of sound when we accidently rubbed the bicycle wheels against the deck. Lord I hope it wasn’t the propellers.)
As some of you probably know there are a number of bridges on the ICW as you head south from Longboat Key. For many of them you have to hail the bridge tender on your VHF radio and ask that the bridge be opened. The first bridge tender we came across let us know in no uncertain terms that there was a horrible buzzing noise that came across the radio whenever we transmitted. I jiggled the cords and even went to the other radio on board. (We have two big radios.) No improvement. Pretty soon the bridge tenders all along the waterway would contact us as we approached and told us when the next opening would be. I think the tender network spread the word about us – and no one wanted to hear this horrible buzzing from our radios. It sounded like the soundtrack from the Fly must have sounded!
One more almost-grounding (due to operator headspace and timing that I refuse to discuss in any detail), but the day wasn’t over – far from it. Originally, we had thought we would go as far south as Venice – about 20 or 30 miles as I recall – and anchor for the night. When we got to Venice, however, we thought it was kind of early to stop, plus the anchorage did not have any boats our size and we were concerned that the water might be a little shallow. No worries, we decided, we would travel just a little further. In fact, there was an anchorage listed by Useppa Island, which was right on our way that looked enticing. We got to the anchorage a bit later than we had planned, about 5:00. I lined up the boat and told Ann that she had control of the anchor – as per our SOP. She pressed the button. The first 15 seconds went fairly well as the anchor and chain fed as it is supposed to. The next 15 seconds was an unmitigated disaster. The anchor chain started zipping out of the boat like Lucifer himself was throwing it out. Somehow Ann managed to stop the free falling anchor by stepping on the up-anchor button. We took a deep breath and decided to try one more time. Somehow we got the anchor into the boat and tried again. The results were the same – a zipping anchor. We managed to get the anchor back onboard again and realized (yes, I would like my sign please) that we had a malfunctioning windlass.
Okay, for those of you who are a little behind, here is the situation in which we found ourselves – primarily because we just tried to do too much that first day. First, it was getting dark, and boating at night is not for the faint hearted; we were in unfamiliar country and kind of in the middle of back country Florida; our windlass didn’t work, the wind was starting to howl and, of course, our radio was on the fritz. Nothing to worry about here!!!!
All was not lost. Between our Garmin chartplotter and Ann’s cell phone we got the number of a couple of marinas that might be nearby. By now, though, it was after 5:30 in the back country of Florida on a Thursday evening. How many marinas do you really think are going to be open? And how many are going to be able to take a 52 foot boat? While Ann was calling and getting no response, I was wondering what it would be like to spend the night going around in a circle until we could see the channel markers again in the morning. The situation was not looking good. Then, lo and behold a near-miracle occurred.
Ann’s second call was to Cabbage Key Resort and Marina. Somebody answered. Could this be possible? Ann explained our general situation and asked if they had a slip for the night. Did they really say “yes”? I was sure that when she told them we were a 52 foot boat with a 4’6” draft that they would have to change their minds. After all, this was a kind of backwoods Florida marina, right? “Of course,” they said. They also said that Jeff, the dock master, would be on the dock waiting for us. This was almost too good to be true. Not only did we have a marina with a slip for the night, but we actually had someone who was going to be on the dock helping us! All we had to do now was find the marina. While Ann was trying to copy down some rather confusing directions, I went to my trusty Garmin chartplotter, which knew exactly where the approach to the Cabbage Key Marina was.
After smoothly rounding a red channel marker and expertly finding the middle of a very narrow channel (Shhh, Ann! I am the one telling this story!) we slid into their slip for 52’ vessels (actually, they had one for 60-footers, but it was empty at the time; actually, all the other slips were empty). Ann and Jeff tied us to the dock and someone told me I could finally turn off the diesels. We had made it!!! We were alive! We had beaten the Klingons … oops, sorry, I am getting carried away again. We thanked the dock master, then walked about 100 yards to the bar and had a nice stiff drink.
Although we had never heard of the Cabbage Key Resort and Marina, it turns out that if you are from southwest Florida, or if you are a Parrothead (that is what Jimmy Buffet fans call themselves), then you may already know about the island. Parrotheads believe that either (1) Jimmy Buffet wrote a song here, (2) he wrote and recorded it there, or (3) he has a recording studio on Cabbage Key. Personally, I kind of doubt numbers 2 and 3, though I suppose it is possible that he penned one there. But whether or not you believe (or care) about Jimmy Buffet’s writing and recording habits, you would certainly find it one of the kitchiest places around.
When we entered the bar, we saw, first, that dollar bills covered the walls. We also noticed that there were three or four gentlemen bellied up to the bar, all of whom appeared to be regulars. As our eyes adjusted we could see into the dining room, which was pretty good sized– maybe 2500 square feet – though there appeared to be only four or five people eating there. Then we saw the walls of the dining room. They, too were covered with dollar bills. There must have been tens of thousands of them (later we learned that there were 70,000 of them – actually 70,001 as we added one while we were there).
Anyway we explained our equipment problems to the locals at the bar and they all suggested that we go to Fort Myer, because that is where we would get the best repairs done. Since it was blowing so hard, and because Jeff the dock master said it was supposed to blow even worse tomorrow – AND because we thought we owed it to the residents of CABBAGE Key for taking us in – we decided to stay another day, add a few dollars to the coffers of the establishment and then head to Ft. Myers the day after tomorrow. Are we having fun yet??
As it turns out, we thoroughly enjoyed our time at Cabbage Key. Throughout the following day there were boats coming up to the dock where Jeff would help them tie-up. In addition to a bunch of smaller, fishing-type boats, there were several 40+ footers that came in. It turns out that Cabbage Key is a hopping little place. They have a neat little nature walk you can take where plaques explain various plants and how they got to southwest Florida and all sorts of interesting little botanical facts. It was kind of fun! As we walked around the island, we also got to see a few of the full time residents’ houses. Like the rest of the island, the houses were, simultaneously cool, weird, fun, practical and interesting. At the end of the day we also had dinner in what turned out to be a very full, surprisingly good restaurant. It was fun to just relax for the day.
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