Lots of "learning" while underway today. The docks only had pilings with no finger piers along the pilings so we had to clear off the swim platform in order to get on/off the boat. Thus, before entering the harbor we had to launch the dingy and remove the dingy davits in thankfully small 1+ foot waves, and then we had to tow the dingy into the harbor. All of this was new to us. Also, as I turned Lucky Us around to back into the slip, the Admiral had to walk the tow line for the dingy up to the bow to get the dingy out of the way while we docked. Then as we backed in the Admiral had to get both bow lines and the 2 waist (midship) lines on the pilings as we went by them. WOW, she was very busy. Somehow we managed to do all of this and end up about 1 foot from the dock. Then we could hand the stern lines to the very enthusiastic dock hand, which after that seemed kind of anticlimactic??? Unfortunately, free dock means no electric power so we then dashed to the indoor part of the restaurant.
This was our view at lunch, and with a little imagination you can see Lucky Us (blue canvas) in the left background. We were in heaven as the luncheon special was a Fish Fry with grouper (broiled for us).
The Admiral sure looks like a very satisfied customer... Then after lunch, we unloaded the electric scooters and headed for the historic lighthouse and the south end of the key overlooking Boca Grande Pass into Charlotte Bay.
Here I am with an antique cleat from the original dock here (the pass is in the background). The signs refer to the phosphate that was loaded onto ships. "Phosphate" is probably a more polite term than (bird) guano, but oh well... The phosphate was mined inland, and they built a railroad out to the end of the key. The railroad was completed
The lighthouse had been restored since my last visit here.
Here I am with the same old cleat and the Assistant Lightkeeper's house, as well as water tanks that stored rainwater for drinking. The region around Charlotte Bay has large natural areas preserved, including state and national park areas. One was specifically mandated by Teddy Roosevelt (like I said earlier lots of wealthy/important people liked this area).
On the way back into town we passed a range light for the main Boca Grande light. The main lighthouse is not very tall since it was on the coast while this range light sits over a mile north on the key, and it had to be tall to be visible over lots of vegetation.
Speaking of vegetation, sea grape bushes (?) are abundant, and they propagate by sending out long runners over the sand, This is a view of their flowers, which look kind of like a petunia to me???
We also rode through the old town with the restored train station, which must be all of two blocks. Here I am in front of the Gasparilla Inn. No kidding! The car waiting behind me to drive up was a Bentley convertible. The inn and the railroad station are both on the National Register.
Sadly, it was time to head back to Lucky Us and head out to a beautiful anchorage that the Admiral had charted just south of the Boca Grande Pass, which incidentally is known as the Tarpon Fishing Capital of the World, or so the signs say.
Along the way, our learning curve was to continue to grow. We (or rather the Admiral) were busy during the undocking. In fact, the lines are often harder to get off the pilings than they are to get on. We were able to get 4 of the 6 dock lines off before heading out so it was a little less frantic for the Admiral. However, once we cleared the last piling we still had the dingy tied to the bow so she had to walk it back to the stern. We had never towed the dingy behind Lucky Us so we rather slowly speeded up while watching the dingy. It turns out that our rear view TV camera is ideal for keeping track of the dingy. After a few miles, we reached the channel into the anchorage. It was plenty wide, but there were sand bars all around . Thus, the nautical charts, which are rarely updated, were not of much use since the sand bars move around all of the time. We made it about a mile in with water depths almost always at 5 to 7 feet (and sometimes less), and Lucky Us takes up 4 of those feet, especially after adding 180 gallons of diesel fuel and 100+ gallons of water. Somehow between the chart plotter, depth gauge and visual checks of water color, we safely reached a great spot to anchor.
After setting the anchor, we went below to start the generator and get the AC going. Do you feel like you are being led down the proverbial garden path? Well, you should because the generator would not start. Major bummer. I did what I could, like priming the fuel lines by hand, but nothing worked. I will be able to try more tricks tomorrow, but the heat in the engine room was just too much to work down there for more than a few minutes at a time. We hated to leave, but we loaded up the dingy, pulled up the anchor and headed back to our old friends at Burnt Store Marina... On average, it was still a very good day, but clearly we had hoped for a better final result. However, tomorrow is another day so we will wait and see how it goes.
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