Leaving Clearwater & a boarding at sea.....

 Wednesday, January 27, 2021 Day 52.

Sadly, we have to leave Carlouel Beach and Yacht Club, and Clearwater. It had been an amazing visit. A travel advisory was in place because of heavy fog in the early morning; we couldn’t see anything.

Sometime around noon, the fog began to lift and we felt comfortable to cast off. No one was around and we left the dock on our own, one of the few times so far that we have handled docking or de-docking without assistance. Fortunately, the wind was in the right direction and therefore helped us off the dock, and because there were no other boats at the yacht club, it turned out to be fairly easy exit. Roland did almost all the work, although I did tie up the two fenders and secured them on the flybridge.

We went south the way we had traveled north to Clearwater, going through various fixed bridges and then those that required us to request openings.

 After an hour or so, the fog rolled in again and it became almost impossible to see. We slowed down and listened to the other captains on the radio requesting openings and letting the bridge tenders know they couldn’t see how far or close they were to the bridges. It was dense fog. Because of the fog, we had to change our plans. After a couple of more bridges, at 2:30pm, we reached the anchorage that we had stopped in last Thursday, on our way north. At 2:40pm, we were anchored and celebrated with an early happy hour. We were very happy that we had survived the fog.

Having arrived fairly early, we decided to experiment with dinner. Roland moved the grille from the flybridge to the staple on the swim platform, and opened the new the air fryer to make sweet potato fries. The dinner was excellent. I worked on my blog and hoped that the storm would move on. The boat was being moved around quite a bit; it rained for a while, and we had to move the grille under cover and prepare for a stormy day tomorrow.

Thursday, January 28, 2021. Day 53.

I was up before 7am. An alarm was beeping in the pilot house. I was concerned that we were in shallow water (my hope was that that was all it was; shallow water is handleable). I awaken Captain Roland to deal with the alarm. Fortunately, it was the shallow water alarm, and at this point, be were at the low tide and there was enough water for us to stay where we were. In fact, the tide has already begin to rise.

Until the storm passed, which would probably be around 1 PM, we would not be going anywhere. I took the opportunity to stretch, we had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, I did the dishes and thoroughly dusted the main cabin, the pilot house and one set of stairs. A lot of work.

When the winds died down a bit, we pulled up the anchor and Magic Moments, was on the move again. As we were on the Gulf ICW, we had to go through and under a myriad of bridges, so many that Captain Roland prefers going into the Gulf when the weather permits. The bridges can really slow progress.  We passed by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is a spectacular cable stayed bridge. 

We were now in Tampa Bay and it was getting really choppy, but I needed to organize my vitamins so I can easily take them each night. vitamins together. I take 12 vitamins a day; every six weeks or so I organize my vitamins and put them in individual containers so that each night it is a simple process. There’s really no place on the boat for me to lay out these 40 to 60 small containers and fill them with my 12 vitamins. So, I used the table in the salon and after setting up these 60 or so containers,

 I heard Captain Roland speaking to someone. This was enormously surprising; we were in the middle of the Bay and no one was around. Silly me, I looked out the window and saw an inflatable dinghy with four Coast Guard officers talking to Roland. Really?? The officers were politely requesting to board the vessel. Requesting is just a formality, the answer, of course is: “of course”. After they determined the number of folks aboard, and were comfortable that we had no firearms, their inflatable dinghy moved to the stern to prepare to board.

How lucky! Are you kidding me?? Roland has been sailing for 50 years, he has soloed across the Atlantic twice, he has been living on the water full time for a total of 9 years, and he has never been boarded by the Coast Guard. And now, I have been on this boat for less than 2 months and we were now going to be boarded by the Coast Guard for a random safety check?!

First of all, there were now hundreds of small bottles and pills covering the salon, which is the entrance to the boat. I was freaked out; what if they thought the vials and pills were other than Vit C, A, D-3, etc., etc., etc.? Really, these bottles were all over the salon table.

So, Captain Roland put the motor into neutral and the throttle into idle, and as Magic Moments was bobbing heavily on the water, two of the four Coast Guard officers, wearing sidearms, boarded the boat (the other two stayed in the inflatable dinghy next to us). Keep in mind we really don’t know a lot about this boat; we are brand new owners, and we haven’t used most of the safety equipment (thank goodness!). 

One of the officers sat with me in the salon and asked some detailed questions as he filled out some paperwork. The other officer went through her list of safety items that we were required to have on board. Fortunately, we had everything on the extensive list (our PO was a volunteer safety reviewer, so things should have been in order), except that we were required to have three flares. We had between 20 and 30 flares, however, the officer checked every expiration date. We were 1 short, the rest had expired. BTW: they still work, but we will buy some current flares. The officer suggested that we donate the expired flares to the coast guard for their training use.

It was amazing that Roland could find every item on the list, notwithstanding our short ownership period. The officer was shocked that we had the required Rule Book (everybody else downloads it on their phone); 

she said we were her best safety check yet (we have no idea how many she has done). She issued her clearance (she was still blown away about the hard copy of the Rule Book), signed off on a yellow sheet, giving us the opportunity to skip another inspection for 6 months.

I was just thrilled that they didn’t ask me about the vitamins!