Still on our way to St. Thomas

I am a bit behind on our travels days.  I left off at day 22 and we are currently on day 32.  The weather has delayed our travels and made sea days quite rough.  We are in the Bahamas.  I plan to catch up with our days.  Often times I have been to tired to write anything or have been busy with other things...like enjoying the people and experiences around me.  Which I am sure we can all agree is what I should be focusing on. 

Today I have wifi and a bit of extra energy so I just wanted to drop a quick note to those of you following our travels.  We are safe.  Stay tune for more details

Day 23: Fixing our Prop - Stuart, Florida

October 20, 2017

The winds and the waves were wild again today so even if we weren't waiting for our prop we would have stayed here.  Our marina, Mariner Cay, offered multiple amenities like morning Kuerig coffee, large hot showers, laundry machine, and even a pool!   We hung out by the pool for a few hours then finished our remaining laundry.  While the kids and I finished that the prop was reattached.  I wasn't able to snap photos of that or our busted prop.  Whoops! Tomorrow we will head to West Palm Beach.

Day 22 : Day of Rest - Stuart, Florida

October 19, 2017

Mariner Cay Marina

After the day we survived yesterday and the weather report for today, a day of rest is in order.  That's exactly what we do besides making arrangements for our prop  to be repaired and replaced.

Fortunately for us, we are in Stuart, Florida, a mecca for boating.  The neighboring mariners were super knowledgeable and helpful; one even gave Jacob a ride to the prop shop.  They aren't too busy so it'll be ready tomorrow.  They will also deliver and reattach it. Woop woop! 

Day 21 : Please God Don't Let us Go Down

October 18, 2017

Clewiston, Florida - Port St. Lucia, Florida

"Please God don't let us go down, please Jesus let our boat stay afloat, please protect us, Oh God!"  is the phrase of the day.  Crossing Lake Okeechobee was intense!  Obviously we made it through safely, but I wasn't 100% confident that our boat would make it today.

We entered the lake knowing it was going to be choppy;  it's a large shallow lake and it was windy.  We were particularly concerned about wrecking another prop.  We were warned how frequently it happens and to stay within the channel markers.  Little did we know that was the least of our worries.

Just barely a third of the way across the lake, the slight chop turned into 6 foot chop.  Sound familiar?  This is what happened when we left Destin and we lost the back of our boat, our grill, and our autopilot.  Are we really going to do this again?! With the cold front coming in and our time schedule, we need to cross this lake today and be heading to Bahamas tomorrow.  So, yes, we are going to do this again; hopefully, this time not breaking stuff.  I'm already nervous from our previous encounters with rough choppy lakes.

Joie's tummy is getting queasy.  Jeeno pukes up bile; we didn't feed him breakfast today hoping he wouldn't get sick, but it doesn't matter.  Our whole boat is rocking to and fro.  Jacob is steering the boat from the fly-bridge because we had to close the isinglass to prevent the water from constantly spraying in.  I'm silently thinking we should turn back, but I keep holding on watching the depth meter and ensuring our autopilot and stereo don't get drenched.  All of a sudden Jacob hollers.  He drops the speed and comes down below.  Our bow went completely under water three times!  Jacob was having trouble maneuvering the trim tabs to the highest position to keep the bow out of the water.  At this point Jacob tells me to turn on the bilges, the mechanism that empties the boat of any water that is inside.  He had me look at the forward bilge, the one inside the cabin; there isn't very much water in it at all.  What is the problem?!!!!  He directs the kids and I to empty everything heavy from the front of the boat.  We typically keep 4 scuba tanks up there to balance out the weight, but today we need less weight up there.  Even the back of the boat looked lower than normal.  We were getting hit with waves from behind also.  All sorts of worries began to fill my head.  Oh my God!  Are we gonna sink the boat in the middle of this shallow mucky lake?  I was prepared to throw everything overboard if it came down to it, nothing on this boat is as valuable as the boat itself.  We filled our fresh water holding tank last night so I turn on the freshwater pump and run the faucet.  We don't need fresh water if the boat is going down.

In addition to the tanks we moved everything heavy to the back of the boat: books, cans of food, the ice chest, gallon jugs of drinking water, etc.  As I'm moving around the cabin area gathering the items the boat is jostling me around.  I can hear the waves slamming against her; it sounds as if she's gonna crack.  "Oh, God please not today, please let us make it to St. Thomas."  I check multiple compartments for water.  If there isn't water near the bilge pumps maybe its coming in from a crack some where.  I see a small crack, one I haven't noticed before.  Possibly because I wasn't looking for a crack.  Prayerfully, there is no water anywhere it shouldn't be.  Thank God!

The next wave catapults the boat.  I can feel the whole front of the boat is airborne.  Our 38 foot boat is taking these waves like I ride a seadoo.  I like to ride over the largest wave I can find to get as much air as possible.  In a boat I would rather glide across the water.  We come down with a crash!  I haven't stopped praying, but at this moment I add, "please protect our boat from these waves!"

Everything heavy is in the back of the boat.  I drain the cooler of excess water and pop open a corona for me and hand one to Jacob.  I slam it and grab another one.  I'm silently totally freaking out.  I look at Jacob's face to discern our status and ask if redistributing the weight helped.  I'm relieved a little when he confirms it helped, but I am still on the verge of announcing, "Life Vests On!"

I ask him how much longer do we have; I feel like our boat cannot handle much more of this abuse.  About 14 more miles, one more hour, we can do this.  "Please God help us do this."

We can finally turn out of the "ditch", the place where the direction of the waves is hitting the side of our boat.  Now we are heading into the waves.  Though the waves are still as large it is much easier to ride the waves, slowing and accelerating in unison with the waves.

Finally, we can see the other side of the lake!  We are almost there.  We have had seagulls following us the whole time so Joie and I start feeding them. We are going to make it!  The boat isn't going down today!! 

Two more locks to go.

The lock exiting Lake Okeechobee is already open because the lake is unusually high from hurricane Irma; we never had to worry about hitting ground even though we went outside the channel a few times struggling to battle the waves.  As we enter the the lock master comes over the radio instructing us we need to radio for permission to enter ANY lock , open or closed.  Whoops.  Another amateur mistake.  The water is so calm now, it's unbelievable.

Now that we have made it across the lake safely, our next task is to get Jeeno and I to the vet.  I chose to go to Surfside Animal Hospital; they do international health certificates, have a complimentary first visit, and they were very helpful and friendly.  The nearest dock is 1.5 miles from the vet so Jeeno and I hop off and walk while Jacob and the kids keep motoring along to a farther marina.  Our goal is for them to get to a farther marina and I'll Uber with Jeeno after the vet. 

We get Jeeno a Leptospirosis shot, fecal exam, internal and external parasite meds, and his health certificates.  Aside from being endorse we are set to travel to the islands.  Well, we weren 't able to get him a coronavirus vaccine so fingers crossed Bahamas will overlook that.  I mean, come on, it's an influenza vaccine that simply isn't needed anymore.

The kids and Jacob battle more waves and rain, finally docking at Mariner's Cay marina.  Luckily, my Uber driver is willing to take Jeeno along for the ride; we arrive at the marina within 20 minutes.  Success!  We made it!  I pour myself a glass of wine to unwind and we drop in the fishing poles.  A perfect way to end a chaotic day.  Praise Jesus, we get another shot tomorrow!
 

Day 20 : Lock Crossings

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

    We travel along the Okeechobee Waterway crossing multiple bridges and three locks today.  Locks are the strangest thing.  I was totally scared for the first one we came to.  First off we didn’t know where to enter.  We almost went into the wrong area.  Once the gate opened Jacob drove Dream Catcher into the concrete walled area with bumpers in place.  We line up on the right, starboard side grabbing the ropes hanging from the side.  I’m literally squealing with fear of the unknown.  They close the gates and the water begins to slowly flow in from the other side and rise the water level.  The first lock only raised two feet, the second one eight feet and the third one about five feet.  After the first lock we are all pros.  Crossing locks ain’t no thang, chickan wang. 

  The water is still dark brown yet now we witness people fishing.  Ick, no thank you!  I don’t want to eat a fish I know was surviving in this water.  It can’t be healthy.  

Joie took reigns of Dream Catcher for a moment today

Thankfully our marina, Roland & Mary Ann Martins in Clewiston, has great wifi so I was able to post my previous entries.  Check them out!

Day 19 : Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Monday, October 16, 2017

    I get up early on a mission to finalize preparations for Jeeno to enter the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos.  About 2.5 hours in I’m annoyed.  I can’t find anyone in the nearby area to administer the Corona vaccine which is required for Bahamas.  I planned to have Shot Vet do it, but our timing is off.  They only work on weekends and it’s Monday.  We needed to be in Fort Meyers two days earlier.  The Corona vaccine is no longer a common vaccine.  Bahamas is currently reevaluating their requirements and may be taking it off, but not yet.

The divers come by and dive into the water delivering bad news when they surface.  The prop needs to be replaced.  Damn rocks, coral, oysters, whatever it was!  Luckily, we have two props on board.  They are a little smaller, but they will do the trick.  The damage on the original prop is minor so we can repair it at a later time.

(PICTURE of the props to come)

During the prop replacement I finally make headway for traveling with Jeeno.  We decide to leave Fort Meyers and head an hour east to Sweetwater Marina.  Inside the marina I am able to print Jeeno’s updated shot records and Joie finds a book she’s willing to read.  Aside from life learning from our adventures, reading is the only “school” I’m requiring of my children.  Joie absolutely hates reading so I am thrilled she found a book.  I requested an Ebook for her from the library weeks ago, but it’s still not available.  We also found Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: And It’s All Small Stuff, a book we wanted to add to our collection since we saw it at Pud’n's house in Louisiana.

I try to catch up on my blog, but my computer won’t connect to the wifi.

Good night my friends.

Day 18 : Uh, Oh

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Venice Beach, Florida – Fort Meyer’s, Florida (84 mi)

Leaving Venice at high tide so we could easily take the intercostal channel, we wanted to stop in Lemon Bay; the diesel gas was significantly cheaper.  Everything was going along great.  We crossed multiple bridges some of which had to open just for us, stopping regular traffic.  We accidentally missed our turn for the fuel dock so we had to turn around in the channel.  Just as I was about to tell Jacob that we were out of the channel and it looked like something was ahead we hit something!  AHHHHH!  He immediately stopped the props.  We weren’t moving so we knew we hit ground.  As he reversed slowly we could hear the grinding and crunching of rocks.  Uh,oh!  No bueano.  It looked like we hit coral.  The gentleman at the fuel dock said there is a bunch of oysters out ther so maybe that’s what we hit.  It’s crazy because we weren’t even 10 feet off the green aton, marking the edge of the channel and we only draft(how deep our boat sits in the water) three feet.  After fueling and returning to normal speed we noticed the boat was vibrating, a sign of a damaged prop.  We keep trucking along also noticing that our speed was significantly reduce.  Our boat seems hurt.  We make arrangements to stop in Fort Meyers at the Yatch Basin Marina, one of the only marinas in the area with transient slips available.  Coming to Cape Coral area and entering the Caloosahatchee River the blueness of the water changes to a caramel tint from the pollution.  It’s such a drastic difference from the water we were basking in yesterday at Venice Beach. 

                                                      Look at how nasty the water looks

Jacob knows when we arrive at the marina he will have to get into the water to check out the prop.  Yuck!  He stuck his foot into the water and it disappeared just inches below the surface.  Visibility is about 2-3 inches at most.  He is doubtful he’ll be able to tell if there is damage to the prop, but he goes under anyway almost hitting is head on our trim tabs.  He can’t see anything so he gets out and rinses off.  With no success he calls a local diver who laughs and says, “welcome to my world.”  This water is a syrupy brown like Coca-Cola.  The viscosity of it has to be thicker than regular water, it moves different.  No one fishes or gets in the water.  The government recently tested the water discovering it is three times worse than sewage.  It doesn’t smell, but the bacteria count is so high that even catfish die here.  That’s so gross!  I bet it used to be beautiful here before it became over populated.

The divers will be in the area tomorrow so they offer to look at our prop for free.

We need some groceries.  A free taxi service in the area called Nickel Ride is going to bring us to a nearby Publix.  They service a 2 mile radius in Downtown Fort Meyers which our marina and Publix are in.  They wait for us while we shop and then bring us back home.  All we have to do is tip the driver.  Such a convenient service!  What’s even more convenient is that Joie and Jayden stayed at the marina to do our laundry!