Long Weekend in Pelican Bay

 Thursday, February 25, 2021. Day 81.

Beautiful day and, bonus, the dinghy is already in the water from yesterday.

Roland inflated one of the paddle boards (apparently, not an easy task, it requires a lot of strength), and we towed it behind us in the dinghy, to the beach. We had our new folding chairs and we sat on the beach for a while until I was ready to give the paddle board a try. It was actually quite lovely. 

The inlet was protected from the bay, so there were limited wakes. The idea of an inflated paddle board sounded ridiculous to me, originally, but it was feeling really good. For the boat, inflatable made a lot of sense; space is at a premium. The plan is to use them in the summer at the beach as well.

We went back to the boat for lunch, and then dinghed to Cayo Costa State Park for a hike, checking out the island pretty thoroughly. You might recall, that the island was the center of the Cuban fishing industry in the 1800's. The names of the trails were a little disconcerting: Quarantine Trail (how apropo!), and Cemetery Trail. Other than the names, the island hiking was pleasant. It was very shady, there was lots of foliage, it was flat, and the trails were totally in the interior of the island. In order to see the water, we had to walk off the trail, and through the brush. It was not crowded, we saw very few people hiking. We walked a bit over 4 miles, and enjoyed the experience.

When we got back to the dinghy, it was clear that there was a problem (so what's new ?). The dinghy was losing air. A leak? A bad valve? Although it was not drastic, we still needed to address this new problem.

On the way back from the state park to the boat, I, for the first time, handled the dinghy. And I did a pretty good job, although a bit jerky for a couple minutes, until I got used to handling the speed and the tiller.

I hadn't been sleeping very well. I had insect bites all over my arms and legs and I was getting pretty tired of the extreme itching; it was absolutely driving me crazy. I tried various over the counter gels and salves some Benadryl pills to try to get through the next few days.

Friday, February 26, 2021. Day 82.

I slept rather late, probably due to the Benadryl, but at least I slept. I was still really itchy and tired of the burning sensation that went along with the multitude of insect bites.

We went to the beach but stayed only a short time. Another boater had pulled up right next to us and was blasting his music; totally inconsiderate and unreasonable behavior, for a shared beach. By the time I had returned from my sup ride, Roland had the dinghy all packed up with our towels, chairs, and my clothes, and our water bottles, hats and etc. He couldn't wait to get off the beach.

We got in the dinghy to return to the boat, but unfortunately, the dinghy motor didn't start. After several tries, Roland started to row, but but the wind was intense and we would never have made it back to the boat fighting the heavy wind, although we were only 200 yards from the boat. Soooo so after a bit, I tried operating the motor, it started and for the second time I captained the dinghy back to the boat and did what I thought was quite good landing next to the swim platform.

This is a problem! After all the money and time we spent to have the dinghy motor repaired, we were totally frustrated. The electric motor was so finicky and undependable; we couldn't rely on it to operate when we need it.

A new dinghy and/or new dinghy motor was not high on my retirement plan. There were a couple of things that Roland thought he could do, so hopefully one or all of them will work.

In the afternoon, the dinghy motor started right up, and we puttered to different parts of the of Pelican Bay. The first night in Pelican Bay, there had been about 30 boats anchored. As the weekend passed, boats kept coming and coming until there were easily over 100.

At 4pm, Roland went on a zoom to learn about fishing. He got a couple of good hints and hopefully he will actually catch something that we can eat.

Saturday, February 27, 2021. Day 83.

We got a very early start and took the dinghy over to the beach before anyone else had arrived to party for the day. Roland wanted to take some photos of the empty stretch of beach. We sat for a while and then Roland took the paddleboard out for a spin. The current and the wind were really strong and he whipped right down to the end of the inlet. Coming back however was challenging. Returning was a feat. To reduce the wind resistance, Roland dropped to his knees. It was so difficult that it didn't look like fun and I declined my opportunity to do some paddle boarding.

In the afternoon, we prepared to leave Pelican Bay, and pick up a mooring in Punta Gorda. We had never actually done a mooring, so this was going to be very interesting. The plan was that I would be at the helm, getting Roland close to the mooring so he could lean over the side of the boat as we went by (the bow of Magic Moments is way too high to pick up the mooring from the front), pick it up with the boat hook and tie us to what is essentially a floating ball at the top of an anchor. One of the advantages of going to a mooring, however, was that we could tow the dinghy (not have to put it back up on the top, yeah!), so we secured the dinghy brought in the stand-up paddle board, and made our way to Punta Gorda.

We had hoped to get a slipped in the marina but we were told it was totally booked. No room at the inn. Knowing that we were going to try mooring for the first time we charged the marriage savers and discussed the plan for our first mooring.

On the way to Punta Gorda, we were contacted by Sarasota, but they were only willing to give us our first vaccine and, of course, we needed the second. We so wanted to get our second vaccine a whole lot closer than Fort Walton Beach but so far we have not been successful.

As we traveled north and east to Punta Gorda, on the Peace River, off Charlotte Harbor, the wind died suddenly to 2 to 3 knots which would make it a whole lot easier to pick up a mooring. As we approached Laishley Park Municipal Marina, at around 2:15pm, the marina said that they did have a slip available for two nights, so we took it. It was a very short and narrow slip, only 6 inches wider than Magic Moments, but there was no wind and no current so a good docking was a possibility. Roland was not yet ready for a stern-in docking on Magic Moments, so we went bow in, which forced a port tie up. It was absolutely amazing to watch Captain Roland maneuver into this slip. It was not a floating dock and with bow-in, and a very short slip, getting off and on the boat was a high school gymnastics trick. But, we had been at anchor for almost a week and we needed to pump out the holding tank, do laundry and take a walk. Neither of us had ever been to Punta Gorda, and I was hoping that it would be worth the challenge of getting on and off the boat.