Disasters Mixed with Beauty

“Unconditional Surrender” by J. Seward Johnson graces the waterfront park in Sarasota.
It is similar to the iconic picture by Life photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, but LIFE never
granted permission for its use by the sculptor.  As it turned out, however, there was a US Navy
photographer who took a similar picture that was in the public domain.

 We pulled our boat out of the water in Tarpon Springs on March 13^th and trailered south with our

Mark took this great picture of Salty Paws and
Tory and me in our dinghy going ashore for her
last pee of the day on Punta Blanca Island.

companion boat Pronto to Burnt Store, spending the night in the yard of our boating friend Mike Anderson.  Both Pronto and Salty Paws launched the next day, and we spent the next two weeks marveling at beautiful scenery and wonderful weather while also dealing with our boat problems and getting a small taste of Florida’s natural disasters.

Burnt Store was to be the site of this year’s Florida Rosborough Rendezvous but Hurricane Ian changed that plan.  It is a planned community of over 200 different condominium associations with housing of different shapes and sizes, all pretty much upper middle class or higher.  South of Burnt Store is Cape Coral and Fort Myers, and together they pretty much received direct hits from Ian and its 150-200 mph winds.  These two communities were south of the hurricane eye, however, and because of counterclockwise winds were overwhelmed with the tidal surge of 13 feet.  Communities like Burnt Store and Punta Gorda north of eye saw as much as 13 feet of water empty out of their bays and harbors  leaving boats on the sea bottom for several hours.

Homes on Captiva Key with the 
ubiquitous temporary plastic roofs.

All these communities were impacted by the winds.  Seemingly, Ian blew off more than half the building roof shingles, and most have been at least temporarily replaced with heat-shrunk plastic.  Roofing company signs dot the landscape in front of countless houses, and while most are legitimate, we have also read stories of some of the scams that have proliferated.  The scam involves contractors knocking on doors and offering roof replacement covered by the homeowner’s insurance.  The homeowner signs a document allowing the contractor to file the insurance claim, often at inflated prices for shoddy work, and thus far under Florida law the contractors are prevailing in court and can receive settlements many times the original claim.  Already 9 Florida insurance companies have filed for bankruptcy, and Florida homeowners are increasingly having difficulty finding coverage.  The Florida legislature is supposed to fix the legal loopholes before the next hurricane season that starts in June.

Some of the damage at Don
Pedro State Park.

We also saw extensive hurricane damage on islands we visited including Captiva, Cayo Costa and Little Gasparilla.  These islands as well as Burnt Store are made up of mostly well-off Floridians and are on the road to a relatively quick recovery.  We know some Floridians, however, where they have yet to get a settlement from their insurance company, and of course, we cannot imagine what is happening to the many hurricane victims who did not have any insurance coverage at all. 

Cayo Costa State Park was closed but Pronto, Pi & Salty Paws
were able to pull up to the beach on the key’s southern tip.

On top of all this, Florida West Coast has recently been hit by severe Red Tide, a harmful algae bloom.  Evidence of this natural phenomenon goes back to at least the 1500s as the Spanish recorded vast fish kills in Tampa Bay.  Red Tide does not show up every year, but it seems to be coming more frequent and has come much earlier than normal this year due to Gulf water temperatures being 5 degrees above normal right now, (74 degrees versus 69 degrees).

We occasionally have Red Tide in Maine but it usually comes down to no more than a warning not to eat shellfish.  In Florida it can be all encompassing from making the water brown and emitting airborne particles that can cause serious illness to people with respiratory conditions, causing skin and lung irritation to swimmers and more.  We talked to some locals who said it forces many people to stay indoors and air conditioner filters to turn dark brown very quickly. 

We saw many dead fish on most of the
Gulf beaches we visited.  

There have been thousands of fish killed along with marine mammals such as manatees. We saw a number of dead fish on beaches but nothing like the Sarasota area, which got impacted the most by the Red Tide.  Local newspapers displayed pictures of dead fish clumped together in water and piled up on beaches.  Conditions have recently subsided with cooler weather and changing wind directions, and Sarasota County is now using heavy equipment to gather up the dead fish and try to save their school break tourist business.

Our dinghy got swamped
while we explored Englewood. 

For the first few days of this segment of our cruise we also dealt with numerous boat problems, some successfully and some with the help of our Rosborough colleagues.  Here is a partial list – Lost cockpit canvas zipper, dinghy crane cable detaching, washdown hose (to take mud and sand off the anchor) not working, tear in the bottom of our inflatable kayak (Tory and I hit a shallow oyster bar, almost sinking us before we got back to Salty Paws), leaky sink drain, Tory’s one time incontinence (Red Tide impact?), electrical issues from batteries uncharged to solar panel and controller being knocked out, lost cockpit rug blown overboard from drying on the roof, cell phone dropped off the boat, our dinghy got swamped and more items that I have forgotten.

Molly is an EMT where we live in
Georgetown, and we much enjoyed
the seemingly multiple use of this
Vehicle for pizza delivery and ambulance calls.
Also the license plate reads “We ❤️ Beer.”

Despite these challenges, the Florida west coast included a number of wonderful stops, and we have posted some more pictures at the bottom of the blog.  Captiva Island was very enjoyable and would be a great place for a future family getaway.  We explored Cayo Costa and Little Gasparella Island,   and we also enjoyed Englewood and loved Sarasota.  Molly even said “I could live in Sarasota!”  Here we reacquainted with friends, walked around the city, enjoyed its art scene and restaurants.  

The last couple of days have been trouble-free, but just writing this I hope I have not jinxed us!  As for Florida’s disasters, there is another potential one on the way!  Off the Florida Keys there is a 5,000 mile long blob of seaweed floating toward the Gulf.  If it washes ashore, the decaying, rotten mess that will smell like rotten eggs!  Fortunately, for us, we are about to pull out for the 3^rd phase of this year’s Florida adventure – the St. Johns River.

With friends Dan Calendar and his wife Terri.
.

Met former neighbor Betsy Timm and her husband Ken Gray.

With Rosborough friends Peter Hornsby, Mike Anderson, Claudia Hornsby and Cathy and Mark Ugerri on Pronto in Punta Gorda.

Sarasota waterfront.

On the dock at Tween Waters on Captiva.

Enjoying the beach on the southern end of Cayo Costa.

Entrance to Rambler Hole off Don Pedro State Park.

Sculpture in Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art by Gaston LaChaise,
who lived in Georgetown for a bit.

This picture shows how large the sculpture is.

One of the many boats we passed that sunk from Hurricane Ian.  Boats totaled by insurance companies number in the thousands.

Tory was very interested in this crane.

There were many manatees in the manatee hole on Cayo Costa.

This bird stayed on our dinghy for a couple of hours one evening.

The sun has gone down on Captiva Island.  This one lonely tall tree survived Ian, but barely.

Tory at sunset on Captiva Beach.

Pronto from our boat in Schoolhouse Bay.