Capt's Jerry and Jean — Capt’s Jean and Jerry

Captain’s shuffle

Our primary captain, Graham, had commitments on his time and couldn't stay with us through Saturday. He spent the day on Wednesday sleeping and recovering from Tuesday night. After contacting Captain Karl (at-the-helm.net), we were able to get Jerry and Jean Coleman to join us for the last run up to Sarasota. They live local, just north of Tampa and were willing to spend time with us on our last night travelling to Sarasota.

Since we had the slip (themarinaatfactorybay.com - where Captain Craig was very helpful) until Saturday, we decided to just rest up and enjoy Marco Island. The island is undeniably beautiful, with very manicured properties, pristine clean roadways and very stylish homes. You can tell there is a lot of money here. After doing some research, the story is pretty much the same - developers took the land from the native tribes that were already here, who were peacefully living off the land. In some cases it was easy, diseases and forced taxation totally disrupted the tribal nations way of life, in other cases the tribal nations fought back until they were overwhelmed. The true history of the American dream in reality comes down to finding other peoples resources and claiming them for their own. And then, by not reporting history accurately, "Americans" feel entitled to the spoils that they have gained.

We visited the Dolphin TikiHut, Mangos, Wake Up Marco, and Snook Inn ). These were pretty typical of the Florida eateries - mostly outside, had some good wines, and generally good service. All were fairly expensive. Wake up Marco was a unique coffee ”house”, but didn’t have decaf (??). I was particularly grateful to Carlos who retrieved my log book from Snook Inn after I left it behind.

Farewell to Graham

Graham mentioned to me that he felt he got a much warmer reception from the folks in Marco Island when he was by himself vs. with us. Welcome to our world. All I can say is that the black and brown people we saw were workers, not tourists.

Graham hopped an early flight out of Ft. Myers, heading for Chicago. He was a little sad at not completing the trip, but I re-assured him. He did an absolutely fabulous job. It is good to see that some people still have conscious and a heart. Graham has that and more. Best of luck to you, sir. Amber opted to stay on board for passage to Sarasota. From there, her partner's dad would pick her up for an eventual meet up with the test proctor in St. Pete.

Meeting the new crew

We met Jerry and Jean on Friday evening and reviewed the plans for the next day's travels. Walked up to Mango's and had a great dinner, learning more about each other and starting to relax. Nice couple, really cute. They both have been around the water, sailing and boating for most of their lives; her through her family and him through the Coast Guard. They both have captaining credentials, Jerry is a Master Captain. They started a boat delivery service a few years ago (East Coast Vessel Relocation) and have been staying busy in their retirement with that line of work.

Next day and Murphy kicks in

We got a good start, up at 7:30 and everyone raring to go. We had prepped the night before, packing and organizing. Our tasks were to add water and add fuel, then leave for Sarasota.

Murphy is always with you, no matter what. As we started to fuel with diesel. the cap got tied up in a absorption rag and fell into the water. It was almost like slow motion as the cap bounced on the back step and plopped into the fuel dock water. Yikes! We can't travel without a fuel cap.

Full “macgyver” mode is on.....Should we dive for it? That was ruled out pretty early since we had no idea what was under the murky fuel dock water line. Can we buy one? West Marine doesn't open until 10 and they are all the way in the center of town. A quick look in their webpage says that we would need to order it and we can't tell the exact dimensions. Can we cover it with aluminum foil? Probably not a good idea, as we have to sail at least overnight. Can we juryrig one? ACE hardware opens at 6am, Carlos and Jerry make a bee line for the store, which is about three blocks away. Jean, Amber and I make sure we keep the boat there and we strategize homemade solutions: foil and plastic bags and tape: check we have all that. Just in case we need a plan "C".

What you can do with a good hardware store

Carlos and Jerry come back with a pipe plug, a sink stopper and some ingenuity. Carlos was determined that the rubber pipe plug solution would work, with some modifications of the screw rod to fit into the fuel opening. After some filing and fitting, the rubber plug solution was secured and we could be off on our final leg of this phase...

Changing Captains and Continuing on….

Getting into Sarasota Harbor is tricky....

Stopping at Key West and wishing we stayed…