TRIP 3 LOGS
Panama City, FL to Ft Lauderdale, FL
July 29 – August 8, 1999

Panama City, FL to Clearwater, FL, Thursday & Friday, July 29-30, 1999

     Angela and I flew to Panama City, FL on an early flight from Houston, July 29.  We taxied to the marina and dropped off our clothes at the boat, turning on all the air conditioning.  It was hot and humid.  We used the marina’s loner car to get lunch and go to the grocery store.  The Craft Clean crew finally showed up to wash the boat, and we hired Mr. Cool to flush the A/C lines and clean the strainer assembly.  We ran the boat a few laps in the cove and filled up with diesel.  We ate early and slept (?) early.

     Crossing the Gulf of Mexico from Panama City to Clearwater usually requires more than one daylight period because the distance is great compared to the typical boat’s speed.  There is no Intracoastal Waterway in that corner of the state.  A typical cruise would involve going to Apalachicola and spending the night before venturing out into the Gulf.  Then the departure is made before dawn so that the arrival in unfamiliar waters can be done in daylight.  Slower boats also have options for a port north of Clearwater, too, such as Tarpon Springs.

     Our plan was a modification of the usual cruise, because we can go relatively faster than most cruisers and we have longer range, I thought.  We had been averaging over 300 miles per full tank load of diesel, and our GPS said we had 200 miles to go from Panama City.  We planned to skip Apalachicola and go directly to Clearwater.  Still, to go 200 nautical miles at 14 knots would require 14.3 hours, and we would experience a time change en route, moving our clocks one hour later.

     So, we got up at 1:30am and left the marina at 2am.  The weather had been hot and sticky on Thursday.  Winds had increased to 15 knots at Panama City, but most other nearby cities reported 5-10 knots, from the West.  The weather forecast called for W and NW winds at 5-10 knots and 30 percent chance of widely scattered rain and thunderstorms.  We had a full moon, which I really appreciated.

     When we turned into the ship channel, just a mile or so from the marina, we felt the up and down surge which is typical of many constricted channels, such as the Houston Ship Channel at Galveston and the Clear Creek Channel at the entrance to Galveston Bay.  That surge got steadily worse as we moved south to Marker “SA” to make our turn to the southeast.  The waves were steep and close together, and we dropped into the trough after crossing the crest of the wave.  It was rough.

     I had programmed 5 waypoints into our GPS on Thursday afternoon.  It was 6 miles to Marker “SA” and 40 miles to the next WP.  Our course put the southerly waves on our starboard quarter, and we rolled and corkscrewed.  We had made special efforts to store everything for this possibility, but it was worse than we expected.  Whenever we opened a door or cabinet, such as the refrigerator or the pantry, everything inside tried to tumble out.  We both felt queasy and tried to avoid going below decks as much as possible.

     We saw daylight at 5:30am.  Rain clouds were all around us for hours, and we saw rain on the radar.  We even made some course changes to avoid the rain.  We munched on crackers and tuna fish salad and beef jerky, all prepared in advance for a bumpy ride.  By 12:30pm, the waters smoothed out, the sun came out, and we felt better physically.

     I decided to delete one of the waypoints and head more directly for Clearwater, in order to arrive during daylight without running out of fuel.  We had realized we were using more fuel then usual, due to not having a recent bottom job, and running fast to make time, and exerting the effort involved in going over those waves.  At times we were running up and over a wave, which was slow because the wave was moving with us, and then surfing down the other side, at which time the bow would bury itself in the next wave, slowing us down.  I call it “over-running” the waves.

     At the most, we were 80 miles offshore in waters 120 feet deep.  The Gulf was a deep blue in that area.  We saw no ships and only 2 shrimpers in the far-off Gulf waters.

     For the last hour or so, we were seriously worried about running out of fuel.  I developed some alternate plans, and we noted Sea-Tow and Boat US Towing on the radio as we approached land.  We saw the skyline about 8 miles out.  Both  fuel gauges still moved, but were below empty.  Our previous experience on the Atchafalaya River made me too optimistic; I knew our gauges were conservative and believed we would get in.  I didn’t even slow down.

     We had called for a slip for the night, and we knew the Clearwater Municipal Marina fuel dock closed at 6:30pm.  When we tied up, it was 6pm.  We put 234 galons of diesel in the port tank, the one which supplies the generator.  We put 225 gallons in the starboard tank.  Each tank holds 250 gallons, not all of which is usable.  That could be called “good planning”. 

     In 15 hours of running we covered approximately 220 nautical miles for an average speed of 14.6 nmph.  We can’t do that well on rivers and the ICW due to  stopping for locks, etc and slowing down for all kinds of small craft.  Offshore we could run relatively fast continuously, but at a price which included higher fuel consumption per mile.  Our speedometer ranged from 12 to almost 18 on the trip.  We weren’t wide open, but close to it.  Our tachs had both quit, so we used speeds from the GPS and engine temperatures as our guides.

    After getting plugged in at our slip, we walked down the beach and had a nice meal, and then turned in for the night.  Both of us had tried to nap on the ride over the Gulf, without much luck.  And the two previous nights had been unusually early for us, so we were tired.

Clearwater, FL to Sarasota, FL, Saturday, July 31, 1999

     Angela wanted to sleep late, so we did.  We had a late breakfast and left the Marina at noon.  Their rates, by the way, were $1 per foot for the night.

    On our way from Clearwater, FL to Sarasota, FL, Saturday, July 31, we went offshore from Clearwater Pass to Longboat Pass, at the north end of Longboat Key.  Along the way we crossed Egmont Channel and Southwest Channel, both of which led into Tampa Bay.  The depths along the sides of Egmont Channel, which was Tampa’s ship channel, were very shallow, requiring us to move further offshore to avoid going aground.  Otherwise, depths ran about 20-30 feet at 1-2 miles from shore.

     When we went in at Longboat Pass, we waited for a bascule bridge to lift up and open.  The horizontal clearance was listed as 45 feet, but it felt like 20 feet.  After clearing the bridge we turned to the right, toward the ICW, and tried to find enough water to float our boat.  A sheriff in a nearby boat waved us over more to the right where deeper water was located.  We made our way to the ICW, and ran out of water, not once but several times!  Even in the channel, we experienced such low water levels we suspected our depth finder was acting up again.

     We could not believe how narrow the channel was; at a few points it was wide enough for only one boat to pass in only one direction.  Then it got a little wider, thank goodness, because fast pleasure boats were zooming by us with no horn or radio call or reduction in speed at all.  Outside the channel there was no depth to speak of; we were just in a narrow, dredged channel in an otherwise very shallow lake.  It occurred to me that maybe we had gotten too big and too slow for the ICW, at least in west Florida.

     The trip from Clearwater to Sarasota was 55 miles, which we covered in 4 hours.  The weather was hot, humid, and breezy, with a threat of rain from 4-6 pm.  By 4pm we were in a slip at Marina Operations in Sarasota, and their rates were $1.25 per foot per night.  There was a nice, expensive restaurant on the premises; and the high-rise offices and condos of Sarasota were right across the street.  We saw our friends, Bill and Bob, from 8 to 9 pm, and walked around the marina, which was pretty nice and very active. 

Lay Day, Sarasota, FL, Sunday, August 1, 1999

     On Sunday, August 1, we left the boat shortly after 10am for the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, which were nearby, and which Angela had expressed an especial interest in seeing.  She raises orchids at home, and this botanical garden ranks first of 200 others in the US for aerial plants, including orchids and bromeliads.  We toured the grounds of almost 13 acres, and Angela met a man who had just gotten a PhD in orchids.  This man and his wife lived in Texas but were at the botanical gardens doing research on his specialty.  We had a nice visit with them, and we learned a lot about orchids. Maybe Angela will get a PhD in orchids now.

     Since we had spent most of the day at the gardens, we decided to stay another night.  Bill and Bob were at the K-Mart shopping center, at the YANA Club, from 5:30-6:30.  A friend brought us back, and we stopped at the grocery store for a few supplies on the way.

     The weather there was better than Houston’s, but not by much.  It was hot and sticky, but a breeze was occasionally felt, particularly near the water.  Florida charges 7% sales tax on slip rentals and on fuel for pleasure boats, so costs were higher there than we were used to.  Diesel was $1.18 + tax; we gave it a miss there.  Diesel at Clearwater was $0.90 + tax.

Sarasota, FL to Ft Myers, FL, Monday, August 2, 1999

     We left Sarasota on Monday, August 2, by way of Big Sarasota Pass, which was fine until the end, where it was very shallow.  We ran offshore to Redfish Pass and made a fine entry there.  We eased into South Seas Plantation to see the place.  It was nice, smaller than I thought based on the advertisements I had seen.  We ran out their channel to the ICW and followed it to the zero mile marker.  The beginning of the ICW was the end of the 152-mile Okeechobee Waterway, which has its beginning at Stuart, FL, on the east coast.

     The approach to Ft Myers is up the Caloosahatchee River, and our marina was at mile 135 or 17 miles inland from the ICW zero point.  This was a confusing area, with some very narrow spots and very little water outside the channel.  Then the river widened out at the city. 

     We stayed at the City of Ft Myers Yacht Basin, which offered discounts for dockage and fuel to Boat US members.  The $1 per foot slip rate was reduced to $.75, but then they added $5 for electricity.  Fuel was $.91 per gallon after a 10% discount.  Six percent sales tax was added to both charges.  We covered 85 miles in 6 hours.  It was hot; the wind was behind us for a lot of the day.

     I could tell the main engine Racor filters were needing changing as we neared Ft Myers, so I changed all three of them after getting fueled and into our slip.  To try and prevent the diesel spillage we had experienced on the last filter change, we closed the valves from the fuel tanks to the filters.  I didn’t add diesel to the main engine filters, but I did fill up the generator filter before screwing it on.  After turning on all the fuel valves again, I ran all three engines for several minutes and checked for leaks.  Everything looked fine.

     We ate dinner on the boat, and I’m glad we did.  A bad storm came up with rain and winds of 50-60 mph.  It seemed like a rope might break, so we added another line to be safe.  We were tied along-to the transient dock, so the wind pushed and pulled us against and away from the dock.  The storm raged for about an hour.  We retired early to be ready for our crossing of Lake Okeechobee the next day.

Lay Day, Ft Myers, FL, Tuesday, August 3, 1999

     A boat from Stuart had come in and told us about their crossing in 7 hours.  They were faster than us, but we figured we could make it in one day if we started early enough.  I got up at 5:30am and started the generator at 6:15.  It ran for a few minutes and then died.  I could not restart it and did not want to make the crossing without it.

     I located a mechanic who worked on it at two different times during the day.  I also changed the oil and filter, the fuel filter, and the air filter, which I don’t like to change because it is so hard to remove.  I removed and replaced the main engine air filters, and Angela cleaned them in soap and water. 

     The mechanic followed up on a lot of bad leads, but basically we had air in the lines.  He got the air out of the fuel supply line and bled the system of any air inside the generator’s  fuel system.  Then it ran fine.  We had no problems with the two main engines.  I had not had this problem with the generator before. I was glad to be at the Ft Myers dock and not at South Seas Plantation, which was on an island and possibly remote from a mechanic to help us.

    I checked the water level in the batteries and added water to the main engine batteries.  The mechanic opened the generator battery and said the water levels were fine, but the battery needed to be jumped sometimes to start the generator.  Beginning the next day, the generator battery always needed a jump to start the generator (new battery needed).

Ft Myers, FL to Port St Lucie, FL, Wednesday, August 4, 1999

     On Wednesday, August 4, we left the marina at 7am and headed upstream on the Okeechobee Waterway.  Three locks led us up to Lake Okeechobee, which was 13 or so feet above sea level.  This lake is a major source of water for cities in south Florida.  It is 33 miles long north to south and 30 miles wide east to west.  We took the shorter of two routes across the lake, and the water was glassy smooth and calm.  In fact, it was hard to see where the sky and the water met at the horizon because they looked the same.  It was hot and hazy.

     On the east side of the lake the first lock (Port Mayaca) lowered us only 6 inches; all the remainder of 13 feet or so occurred at the St Lucie lock.  We got there about 4pm and waited 20 or so minutes for the water to rise in the lock.  These locks were slow.  They did not appear to have any valves to drain the lock chamber.  The procedure was to open the door a few inches and let the water flow in or out through the doors.

     At 4:30pm we were in the lock chamber going down when the sky opened up and the rain poured down.  We had not taken the time to waterproof the canvas bimini top, so we got very wet at the helm.  I held a waterproof cover over the instruments to keep most of the water off of them.  Angela opened one zipper in the plastic windows to tell me what she could see.  The radar was useless in picking out the bouys.

     We ran about 10 miles like that, at reduced speed and with extremely poor visibility.  We had heard the shoreline contained some impressive homes, but we didn’t see the shoreline.  The rain was heavy for 1 hour, then not as heavy for another 30 minutes.  We passed the new Highway 1 bridge at Stuart, FL and proceeded up the North Fork of the St Lucie River.  We pulled into the Club Med Sandpiper at 6pm.  We had covered 135 miles and 5 locks in 11 hours.

     My uncle, Jim Magill, lived a couple of miles from there.  He picked us up at 7pm, and we went to eat with him and his wife, Mable.  After a good meal and a nice visit with them at their home, Jim dropped us at the marina and we turned in.

     We had started to have high temperature readings on our port engine, similar to the problems we had in 1998 on the starboard engine.  The cure then was to remove the heat exchanger and acid flush it and clean out the system.  That item was added to our growing list of maintenance items to be done.

Port St Lucie, FL to Melbourne, FL, Thursday, August 5, 1999

     On Thursday, August 5, we left the St Lucie River and Stuart area and went north to Melbourne, FL.  We pulled out at 11am and tied up at Melbourne Harbor Marina at 4pm, covering the 85 miles in just over 5 hours.  It was a nice run up the ICW, which was much wider and nicer than the west coast ICW.  At 3pm we had another rain shower, which we handled like the storm the previous day; but this one was not as severe.  We filled up with fuel at $1.04 per gallon, paid $5 for a pump out, and paid $1 per foot for dockage. 

     The marina was cute; I liked it.  It was small and compact.  Our friends, Willie and Michele, lived in a condo at the marina.  They kept their boat there, and Willie could walk to work from the marina.  They collected us at 5pm, and we walked to the Chart House restaurant, which was on the premises.  We had a fine meal except for a screaming kid at the table next to us.

        

    Angela and Michele went to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean and then returned to their condo while Willie and I visited and saw his office.  Then he and I went to the condo and looked around the area.  Everything was very nice, neat and clean and compact.  Willie walked us back to the boat, and we bid each other a farewell.

Melbourne, FL to Ft Lauderdale, FL, Friday, August 6, 1999

     We left Melbourne on Friday, August 6, at 7am.  Willie saw us from his condo, where he had a telescope set up to watch the boats on the Indian River, where the ICW was located.  The weather was hot and humid, but with a cooler breeze than we experience in Houston.

     We ran down the ICW to Ft Pierce, where we took the “inlet” (they never called it an outlet) to the Atlantic, 45 miles south of Melbourne.  While in the ICW we were stopped by the US Coast Guard.  Four guys were in an orange inflatable with a large outboard engine.  They made us turn around and go back and read a sign that said we were in a manatee zone and must maintain slow speed.  Signs like that are all over the place, but most of them say “ICW channel excluded”, or “slow speed outside the channel”, or “manatee zone in the 50 (or 300) feet out from the shoreline”, etc.  They all looked alike, so it was necessary to read every one of them, which we had not been doing.

     We saw the Florida Marine Patrol, the Coast Guard, and the Sheriff’s Department, all in fast boats, and all apparently trying hard to give the pleasure boater a ticket.  We knew what was important in Florida, manatees, that’s what.

     We went outside at Ft Pierce, and it was a choppy ride.  Most of the inlets shown on our charts had a note to not use them without local knowledge of all the navigational hazards associated with the inlet, which was constantly changing due to shifting sands, etc.  So we elected not to use any inlet without the chart’s blessing.  This meant going inside at Palm Beach and taking the ICW down to Ft Lauderdale, or going to Port Everglades and coming in and going back up the ICW to Ft Lauderdale.  We chose to go in at Palm Beach, or Lake Worth, 55 miles south of Ft Pierce.

     We then spent almost 5 hours going 45 miles further to Ft Lauderdale.  We encountered many more signs which all looked the same, saying “safe boating area, slow speed (or no wake)”, or “wake limited to 15 inches”, or “manatee zone, speed limit 30 mph Nov-May, 25 mph other times”, or “speed limit 25 mph weekends and holidays only”, or “slow speed, minimal wake, ICW channel excepted (or Included)”.  All of these signs were in black letters on a white background with an orange border on the sign and a large O in the center of the sign.  It seemed they could have a few types and make them certain shapes and colors to help the boater, but they had not done that.  Instead it appeared that the intent was more confusion than clarification.

     We  crossed under or went through 21 bridges in that 45 miles.  At least 10 had to open for us, even with our antennas down.  One was 9 feet above the water; one was 10.  Some had regular opening hours, such as every 20 minutes or every 15 minutes or every 30 minutes.  These tended to strictly follow their timetables.  Others opened on demand.  A lot of boats at high speeds passed us and rocked the side walls of the channels with their wakes.

     We did accomplish our goal of seeing some of the posh places along the waterway, however; and there were plenty of those.  Most of the money in the world seemed to be in South Florida, particularly around Ft Lauderdale.  We heard on the television news that night about one house being sold for $23 million-unbelievable.

     We also accomplished another goal, to spend the night at Pier Sixty Six Marina.  Angela and I had been there several times to eat and to see various large boats docked there, so it was a real pleasure to stay there one night on our boat.  Dockage was $1.10 per foot plus $6 for electricity plus tax.  Diesel was $0.959 including sales tax.  The per foot price for annual dockage there was $1.10 per night, which would have been $18,000 per year for our boat, without electricity.  We were currently paying about $2,500 per year in Houston, including electricity.

In Ft Lauderdale, FL, Saturday–Monday, August 7–9, 1999

     Hyatt Hotels bought this landmark hotel from the Phillips Petroleum, and it was a fine property.  We had dinner at the hotel and shopped for some shirts there.  The next day, Saturday, Angela did our laundry while I arranged for our transportation to the Miami airport and phoned around looking for a slip for our boat.  The prices were all shockingly high in that area.  The typical rate for staying in a marina was $0.75 per foot per night, even if you wanted to stay several months.  And then the prices went up in October or November because that was when they expected the majority of tourists to arrive.  Those people seriously wanted your money.

     After lunch we left the marina and proceeded up the ICW to the New River.  We motored slowly up the river, alongside some of the most beautiful and opulent homes I had ever seen.  The grounds were beautiful.  The river was 10-20 feet deep, and some very large boats had managed to make it around the sharp turns and bends in the river to their berths, usually along the sides of the river.  One “dinner cruise” boat was four decks high and at least 100 feet long.

     We had put our antennas down on Friday, so we could get under the 5-6 bridges we needed to pass to get to our destination.  It was surprisingly cool on the river, if you could feel the breeze.

     I read that there were 200-300 miles of canals in Ft Lauderdale and at least half of those were navigable by large cruising boats.  That area was very interesting to see.

     We made arrangements with a couple who lived on the river, with a canal on one side, to rent dockage space from them on a month to month basis.  We paid the first month’s rent and visited with them a little while.  They seemed to like us and offered us the use of a car, which we borrowed to run a couple of errands.

     On Sunday, August 8, we cleaned the boat, Angela inside, and me outside.  Also, I changed the oil and filters on the two main engines.  I removed the generator battery and found it to be dry, not full of water as the mechanic in Ft Myers had told me.  So I filled it up and reinstalled it.  That was a mistake, because the battery charger and the other batteries all started trying to charge that one battery.  When I removed it the second time it was blowing off steam (I thought it had ruptured, but this type of battery had a vent on the side).  There was no way to isolate the battery from the battery charger except to remove it, which I did.

     Peter, son of Dave, our landlord, said it tested “weak” and said I should charge it, so I hooked it up to my little automotive charger.  It took so much current I turned it off.  I didn’t want to ruin our battery charger trying to charge a bad battery.  We kept throwing the circuit breaker at the dock, too.  It was hot, and the air conditioners were drawing almost 45 amps.  The circuit breaker tripped at 50 amps total, so we could only use 5 amps on one side if we were going to draw 45 on the A/C side.

     We experimented with spring lines and fenders.  The tide there was 2-3 feet.  A couple of tour boats moving up and down the river would cause a large movement of water into or out of the canal, causing us to move forward and then backwards.  Fenders would ride up and over the dock or get turned around, etc.  It was interesting to work out.  A large apartment complex on the other side of the canal also had boats lined up on the canal, so there was a fair amount of traffic. 

     Peter and his wife had just returned from Bimini (in the Bahamas) where they had been for the past ten days.  They said it took 3.5 hours to get there, and the seas were glassy smooth.  His dad, Dave, who we had dealt with on Saturday, broke his hip during the night and was in the hospital.

     While washing the transom from the swim platform, I accidentally kicked the bucket of soapy water and brush into the canal.  I was hot and sweaty anyway, so I jumped in after them.  The water was hot!  By diving down about 8 feet I could see the shiny chrome handle on the brush.  So both items were easily retrieved.  Later I dropped a sponge and went in again for another swim.

     I took the time to waterproof the canvas top over the flying bridge.  We packed up, threw away, used up, ate up, etc to get ready to return to Houston, which we did on Monday, August 9.  It was hotter in Houston.

Statistics for the TX to FL Cruise:

     Miles: 730 Trip 3, 1,575 total for the 1999 cruise
     Fuel: 2,740 gals for the 1999 cruise
     Fuel Cost: $2,323, or $0.85 per gallon
     Gallons per Mile: 1.74
     Running Hours: 55 Trip 3, 119 for the 1999 cruise
     MPH: 13.3 in Trip 3, 13.2 for the 1999 cruise
     GPH: 23
     Generator running hours: 43 in Trip 3, 127 for all of the 1999 cruise

     Oil changes for the generator at 113 hours and for the main engines at 119 hours.  Racor fuel filters changed twice; engine fuel filters changed once, all engines.  Air filters cleaned once on each engine.