LABELLE, CLEWISTON, STUART

BACK ON MEANT TO BE

 

He Said: After 5 ½ months of no blogging, the English major has returned.  Pat and I had a terrific summer but now begin the second half of our world of boating. We flew into Ft. Myers and spent the nite at a hotel near the airport.  Our flight did not get in until after midnite so it was about 1:00AM when we finally got to the hotel.

The following day we headed to Moore Haven to reintroduce ourselves to Meant To Be. The drive is about an hour and the last 15 minutes are what I would call Hillbilly Haven.  MTB was doing just fine, but 5 months of the hot Florida summer had MTB looking a little beat-up.  We spent the following 5 days working our asses off getting ready to toss MTB into the water.  Most of my time was spent with my new buffer - lots of work but the boat looks mighty nice.  While I was busy shining for a few days, Pat was just as busy cleaning the inside of MTB - lots of work also.  At the same time we had our bottom dude taking care of the bottom of the boat – cleaning barnacles and other crap that had traveled with us for a year.  They did a great job cleaning and painting the entire bottom of the boat.     

 

MTB before she was bottom painted

MTB after bottom painting

On Monday Nov. 3 away we went to LaBelle where we got the deal of the day. We spent the following 3 nites on a nice city dock with no charge - even the 50 amp was free.  The town was cute and a short walk away, different from Moore Haven which was 16 miles to a flipping Circle K.  We met our friends Mike and Lori for dinner and of course had a terrific evening. The rest of our time in LaBelle was spent just kind of killing time and hanging out.

 

At the free city dock in LaBelle

Following our departure from LaBelle we headed to Clewiston at a very famous bass fishing type of marina. We pulled up to a long face dock, but the dockhand moved us about 100 yards stating that the karaoke tiki bar can get a little loud.  Of course, we headed to the bar and had dinner and listened to some pretty good ol’ boys sing some pretty good ol’ cowboy music.  We met the owner, and she is very famous in the bass fishing world.  I liked her a lot because she said that she knew me from when I was with the Beach Boys - how about that!!  We had a blast and headed back to MTB.  We could still hear the tunes until about 11 or so. 

The following morning we left for the fine little city of Stuart, we spent time here on our last trip so it is always fun to go back to a city that we are familiar with. We spent Friday thru Tuesday on the ball and had a fun time. Stuart is very cool but the weather was a little damp. We, of course, found some great happy hours and some fun food.  On Saturday, I found a bar to catch the Buckeyes vs. Michigan State game.  For the first time in maybe 45 years of watching the Bucks there was not 1 OSU fan in the bar so Pat and I headed back to MTB for the 2^nd half.

 

Relaxing on MTB - Stuart

On Monday our good buddy Tim from Seattle arrived and our plan is to cross the big pond (Atlantic) in the next few days. We left Stuart on Wednesday and we are anchored in Riviera/Palm Beach waiting for a weather break. Tim has about 5 days remaining so we hope like hell we can cross while he is with us.  The shitty news is that the north winds are not being very friendly in the Gulf Stream - we don’t like northern winds due to the collision with the stream which travels from the south.  The combo of N winds and S Gulf Stream can easily create 5 to 10 ft. waves - we will not travel in those conditions.

 

We will keep you posted as the weather is always changing.  We may have to push our Bahamas trip back a week and travel without Tim - we hope not.  If we can’t leave we may hang our hats in Ft. Lauderdale for a while and wait it out.  That’s it for now. 

Take Care,  Jack

 

 

She Said:

Departure for MTB was finally upon us.  We arrived in Ft. Myers around midnight, picked up our rental car, and checked into an airportS hotel for a quick night’s sleep.  We were up early the next morning and made the 50 mile trip to MTB, outside LaBelle, FL.  Enroute to LaBelle, we texted our friends Mike & Lori to see if they were in Ft. Myers.  We were delighted to find out they were, and we made plans to meet for drinks that night. 

 

We got to Glades Boat Yard and were pleased to find that MTB had been moved from the storage yard to the working yard, AND, most importantly, we had 50-AMP.  That meant we could live aboard MTB while she was being readied to go back in the water.  The only thing we didn’t have was heat/AC – no problem.  We checked out MTB (the inside was in better shape than we expected – the dehumidifier worked out great, but the outside was a disaster), we adjusted our shopping list, and headed back to Ft Myers.  We had a great visit with Mike & Lori before settling into three grueling days of getting MTB back in shape.

 

We spent a fortune at Wal-Mart stocking MTB with food, general supplies and tons of cleaning products.  While we were doing that, the bottom of MTB was being stripped and repainted.  I took the car into LaBelle to do laundry and more grocery shopping (I was so focused on stocking up for the Bahamas, I forgot to buy food for the next few days!) while Jack started on the outside of MTB.  This was our last day with the car, so we had dinner in LaBelle then caught a ride back to the boat yard (20 minutes away).  All of the lifting, cleaning and steps on MTB (along with the ladder we used to get on and off) took their toll on us, so we popped some Aleve and were off to bed early.

 

Climbing up and down that ladder got old really fast

We awoke the next morning to a record setting low of 42 degrees.  We turned the space heater on that morning and barely turned it off all day.  In addition to the low temps, the winds were gusting at 40 MPH.  I worked inside all day while Jack toughed it out outside – I don’t know how he did it.  The mechanic was on and off the boat all day checking out all the mechanical stuff – better to do it now than run into problems down the road, especially in the Bahamas.  It was another early night accompanied by more Aleve.

 

Our last day “on the hard” was just as busy as all the others.  Things were in pretty good order, so I was able to help Jack buff and wax the boat.  I was quickly comfortable back on MTB, but I haven’t quite gotten used to the compact space – I’m going to be a bruised mess until I remember to turn sideways when walking around.  Other than that, we are really looking forward to getting back on the water.

 

The day finally came to put MTB in the water.  The morning was busy, but uneventful.  As MTB was lowered into the water, I had to go on board to check for leaks – that was a bit unsettling, but everything was good.  We were now on our own!  We’re at the dock getting ready to leave and, I’m not kidding, Jack looked at the electronics and didn’t know how to turn them on.  This was not a reassuring moment.  We planned for a short day – we wanted to take it slow and get our sea legs back – and the LaBelle City Docks were only 10 miles away.  The city of LaBelle offers the docks for free, but there’s no dock assistance to catch our lines – this had us a bit nervous.  Fortunately, there were 3 boats docked when we arrived and they helped out.  Unfortunately, there was a catamaran in the only 20’ foot slip, so we had to make our first docking into a 15’ slip (we’re 13’9”), stern in and with an audience.  Jack backed us into that slip without touching a pylon.  It was amazing, especially after our rocky start!

 

Since we spent the last few nights in the middle of nowhere, we were excited to head into LaBelle for dinner.  We were surprised to find that Beef O’Brady’s, where we went to eat, closed at 9:00pm, so it was another early night.  The next night we met with Mike & Lori at Forrey Grill, a short walk from MTB, for a great pasta dinner.  We always had a great time with them and hope our cruising paths will cross later this season.

 

After three pleasant days in LaBelle, it was time to head east.  We had three locks and handled them like pros.  We spent the night at Martin & MaryAnn Roland’s Marina in Clewiston.  If you’re into bass fishing, you’re familiar with this place.  MaryAnn was the first woman to grace the cover of Field & Stream magazine back in the early 70s. Tim McGraw was here recently to kick-off a big bass fishing tournament.  For us, it was a fun karaoke night (we listened, didn’t sing) night at the tiki bar. 

 

We were up early the next morning to make the 30+ mile trek across Lake Okeechobee (the 2^nd largest fresh water lake entirely in the U.S.).  We ran our twin-diesels at 2000 RMPs/16MPH for 30 minutes.  We typically travel at a much slower speed for fuel economy reasons, but our plan is to make a quick crossing from FL to the Bahamas so we wanted to make sure MTB was up for the task.  Thumbs up!!  We ended the day at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart.  We stayed here last year and it’s always nice to come into a familiar marina.

 

Back in familiar territory - Sunset Bay Marina, Stuart

 

 

We stayed on a mooring ball here last year and decided to do the same.  It was like riding a bike and we picked up the mooring ball on the first try.  We remembered there was a nice restaurant/bar on site, Sailor’s Return, so headed up for happy hour before having dinner on MTB.  We used the marina bikes to run errands on Saturday, and then Jack settled in for college football.  It was drizzling as we walked to Duffy’s Sports Bar for dinner and it didn’t stop raining all night.  Jack watched the Ohio State game at Sailor’s Return and I hung out at the marina’s lounge.  There was a break in the rain so we dinghied back to MTB and Jack watched the end of the game aboard. 

 

Great sunset at Sunset Bay Marina, Stuarat

Our Seattle sailing friend, Tim, arrived on Monday – we are hoping to make the crossing to the Bahamas with Tim.  Checking numerous weather sites and talking with other boaters it looked like we might have a couple options in the next week.  On Wednesday I got up at 6:30am to listen to the forecast of Chris Parker (a weather guru for the Caribbean) – he said our best bet looked like Thursday or Sunday.  We decided to try for the Thursday crossing, so we quickly got MTB ready to go and we headed to the Lake Worth Inlet where we anchored for the night.  We’re going to bed early tonight hoping to depart tomorrow.  Will keep you posted on our progress.