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Day 3 – Leaving Euphoria…I mean Useppa Driving away from this special island left us both with the hope that we will some day soon return to enjoy the pleasant hospitality and warmth. Yet we have places to go and people to see.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the same if our departure was without incidence. I didn’t mention that yesterday upon entering Boca Grande, the place with the mammoth hammerhead sharks, we did so without Trim Tabs. For my mom, and those who may not know, trim tabs help us to keep the bow from sitting too high in the water, or too low. They also help us when steering. I just learned about these myself when we lost our steering capabilities, and Richard was able to steer the boat with only the trip tabs. So we navigated our way into Useppa without Trim Tabs. This morning Captain Richard donned his wet suit again to see if he could find the cause of our problem. He emerged with a piece of rope that was entangled around the prop. It’s amazing how many crab pots are in the Gulf. We try very hard to steer around them and at the end of the day, feel confident that none were disturbed, but somehow we caught one this time. So we headed south toward Marco Island, through the channel that when turning left, leads one east through Okeechobee to reach the Atlantic Ocean. This was where we learned how important it is to read the charts as well as watch the fancy schmancy Garmin. Only one u-turn and we were back in the Gulf, with an easy day of steering south.
We discovered a marina where we were greeted warmly by dockhands to tie up our boat – they even let us pull into the slip nose-first, that brought sighs of relief for both Richard and me. He’s really a good captain but backing into the slip can be bumpy. Once here, Greg, the local mechanic resolved the trim-tab issue, we hope. We’ll know for sure tomorrow, as we’ll be heading out at first sun-up. After settling in and feeling good about our adventures and our mini-yacht, we turned to see what was causing the shadow over our boat. As Richard described it, “We suddenly felt like a pair of flip-flops in a room full of tuxedos.” (see photo of big yacht) Our new neighbors were just stopping in for 14,000 gallons of fuel for their trip to Mexico. We gladly wished them Bon Voyage as they departed – see deckhands working away onboard.
As the evening drew to a close, we walked across the way to a dockside bar, where we enjoyed Grouper Fingers, which Richard says were really snapper-fingers. There is no grouper outside of Yankeetown. ;-) We’re off to sleep and then off to Key West. Stay tuned for photos of our arrival in the keys and our adventures across the open waters!
Love,
Leslie & Richard |
