The Sheriff and Manatees Both Call on Us

 

Molly meets Manatee

Our trip south included our first passage
over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel,
American's 4th longest bridge. 

Our Georgia stop with Liz and family included
lunch with Charlotte at her school.

2,000 miles, stops with family and friends and temperatures rising from below freezing to the low 80s brought us to our launch site, Anclote River Park on the West Coast of Florida.  We arrived in the Park at dusk with the intent to spend the night and launch the next day. 
 

Here we are just before the Sheriff
came by.

Soon, we were visited by the Sheriff.  Here is the dialogue.

Sheriff: “Sir. Did you know you are trespassing? This park is closed from 6:30 pm to 6 am.  Let me repeat, you are trespassing as this park is closed from 6:30 pm to 6 am.  Do you understand that?”

Us: “Yes, sir.”

Sheriff: “What makes you think that you can defy the law and spend the night here? I could technically arrest you.”

Us: “A friend of ours told us the rangers were okay with someone spending the night in order to launch the next day.”

Sheriff: “That is not the case.  Do you understand?”

Us: “Yes, sir.”

Sheriff: “I insist that you launch your boat as soon as you deem it safe to do so.  I want to make sure that you understand what I am saying – I insist that you launch your boat as soon as you deem it safe to do so.  I do not want to find your boat here tomorrow.  Do you understand, sir?”

Us: “Yes, sir.  We will launch as soon as it is safe to do so and no later than dawn tomorrow morning.”

Sheriff: “Again, I want to make sure that you are clear that you are trespassing and must depart as soon as it is safe to do so.  My name is Will and my phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.   I live right across the street from the park entrance and suggest that you store your truck and trailer under one of the lights as a safety precaution.”

The Sheriff proceeded to talk for the next 15 minutes about various nefarious and heinous acts that have occurred from drug dealings to a suicide hanging to go-cart racing to naked teenagers in cars.  Overall, he indicated, that it was a pretty safe area!

With that, Molly prepared dinner while I prepared the boat for launching.  We were in the water at 6:30 am the next day!

Here we are anchored up to the sand bar, and Molly is tossing the ball to Tory.

We launched at Anclote in order to attend a Rosborough Boat Rendezvous scheduled for 2/27 and 2/28 at nearby Caledesi State Park.  We had two nights to spend elsewhere before the gathering and decided to go Anclote Preserve State Park.  As we approached our planned anchorage, the island never appeared.  Successive storms over the years had swiped out much of the island and what was left was a sandbar only exposed at half tide.

After sunset Jupiter and Saturn were bright 
enough to light a path across the shallow bar,
pictured here at high tide.

As dog friendly options were limited, however, we decided to anchor off the sandbar and ended up spending two days there.  We felt like we were auditioning for Waterworld II!  At high tide the bar had roughly 2 feet of water over it, and the tide schedule worked out fine, particularly after Tory demonstrated the ability to do her thing in water, as long as she could still stand.

Rosborough boats filled Dock C on Caledesi State Park.  We met many old friends and make new ones.

After two days we motored down to Calesdesi State Park for the Rosborough Boat Rendezvous.  There were 18 boats from all over the east, and it was great to reconnect with boating friends, many of whom attended the Rendezvous that we hosted last summer in Maine. 

At the conclusion of the Rendezvous four boats made of Pronto (Mark and Cathy Uggeri), Sabbatical (Dan Evans and Jeremy Scouten), Pi (Mike Anderson) and us on Salty Paws cruised 85 miles up the coast to Crystal River.  We had so wanted to visit this town when we did the Great Loop three years ago, but the weather did not cooperate.

Crystal River is in the mold of old Florida.  The town and river are famous for being the winter home to hundreds, if not thousands, of manatees.    No buildings are higher than 4 stories, and there are several good restaurants and kayak and tour companies catering to visitors.   

We finally remembered to
took a picture of our seafood
boil after we had half eaten it.

Tory, Molly, Cathy, Mark, Mike and I at the Crab Plant.
Jeremy took the picture, and Dan and Rufus were seated
at a nearby table.

We anchored near the town center for the first night and enjoyed the Crab Plant’s boiled dinner that included virtually every type of seafood in the area including mussels, crayfish, little necks, shrimp and more.   The next day we moved to the free wall in front of Plantation, a large old-style resort with shuffleboard, horseshoes, beach volley ball and croquet (none of which we participated in). 

Our four boats - Sabbatical, Salty Paws, Pi and Pronto
at the Plantation.

My birthday celebration began with my dropping my old iPhone 7 in the water.  I took a rest after two hours of looking and my fingers feeling the bottom of rock, grass and sediment. 

Bill looking for his phone!

We kayaked in the waters near the
Plantation.

Fellow boater Dan found it with his two feet in just 10 minutes!  

A Verizon store was nearby, and I ended up with a new phone for my birthday. We stayed an extra day due to weather, and finally got our private manatee tour on Saturday, 3/2, beginning at 6:15 am! 

Molly has not done well
with the Florida no-see-ems.

The tour was fantastic, and we learned so much about the area and the amazing manatee.  Crystal River has several fresh water springs that flow at a constant 72 degrees year-round.  When the Gulf gets cold, manatees swim up the river into fresh water and may congregate at one of the springs by the hundreds.  Much of the area is a National Preserve for the Manatees, and much is being done to return their habitat to what it used to be and to educate the public on these majestic mammals that can weigh 3,000 pounds.

As this manatee approached Molly, our tour guide was ready with his GoPro.

They are about to go nose to nose.

Nose to nose it is!

There are regular manatee censuses taken by air, and last winter there were 1,100 manatees counted.  On our tour, however, because of the warm winter, there were only 36 manatees detected.  Our great tour guide found 7 of them in two different sites, and the pictures tell of our wonderful experience.

Manatees survive off eating sea grasses.  Grasses are begin replanted throughout Florida as starvation has been a leading
cause of manatee deaths, particularly on the east coast of Florida.

Not sure about the table manners here, but he/she seems to have gotten a good mouthful.

We swam up in the Three Sisters Springs.  The water is crystal clear and a constant 72 degrees.  Total volume according
to our guide is 20 million gallons per day!

This picture was taken 3 feet below the surface of the water.

I tried to swim down to the bottom of
this spring but the buoyant wetsuit
and lack of flippers made it impossible,
This equipment is by design for the
better protection of manatees..

The Crystal River cruisers were joined by
John Edwards, Jacquie Francis and her friend
Ann for a Greek meal in Tarpon Springs.

Now we are back on the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs, home to many Greek immigrants and famous for sponges.  Tomorrow we will the pull the boat of the water to trailer it south and the 2^nd chapter of this year’s Florida adventure.

2022 Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous

17 Rosboroughs anchored off Birch Island in western Penobscot Bay.

            Our boat was an RV in the           
Osceola National Forest.

We trailered from Maine last February with most details finalized and registration full for the Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous.  Our last blog post in May 2022 had us pulling Salty Paws out of the water in Daytona Beach after an almost 2-month cruise along much of Florida’s East Coast, the Abacos and North Eleuthera.  Fellow Rosborough owner Dennis Robbins was kind enough to let us store our truck and trailer at his business.  We then used our boat as an RV coming back to Maine, staying in parks and with relatives, arriving at our Maine home on Sunday, May 22^nd.

Baby alligator in the Nat'l Forest.

You may remember that Molly broke her left wrist on our last day in the Bahamas, but now she was only a week away from having the cast removed.  Unfortunately, on the 2nd of her daily walks back in Maine she made the mistake of letting our dog Tory bring along a tennis ball.  While stopped to talk with a neighbor, Tory dropped her ball and proceeded to chase after it, pulling on the leash and causing Molly to tumble down an 8-foot embankment and hit a tree with her head.

I took our family minus Molly
 to Sequin Island in July.

Now she had two broken wrists, a concussion and two broken vertebrae in her lower back.  While a picture is worth a thousand words, she did not give me permission to post my picture of her in the ER.  Over the next several weeks Molly kept her spirits up and did her OT and PT, and I did a lot of cooking and dishwashing! 

 The 4 group leaders looked quite official-
Jeff, Otto, yours truly and Mark.

By August Molly was well enough to go on our boat again.  That was fortunate as we would soon be hosting the 2022 Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous for the last two weeks of August.  Fellow Rosborough owner Otto Cuyler oversaw the registration and finances and led one group of boats. along Jeff Beam, Mark Ugerri and I led the other three groups.  Cathy Ugerri arranged for all the Rendezvous leaders to be decked out in our own monogramed shirts!

At the Maine Maritime Museum.

     Getting the welcoming bags ready.     

18 Boats, some trailered from as far away as Michigan and Florida, and 65 people attended from all over the East Coast.  We took over the Maine Maritime Museum and Bath City Dock for the first three days, having a private tour of the Museum, a banquet, a talk by the Executive Director of Maine Island Trail Association, a 

workshop on cruising the Maine coast and lobsters and clams on the beach in front of our house. 

Bath City Dock

Lobsters and clams cooking on our beach.

The workshop addressed all the reasons one might not want to boat in Maine – tides, fog, cold water, rocks, and lobster pots, and more than a few boaters attending might never had ventured to Maine on their own.

We had a private tour guide at the Museum.

Melissa Read and Laurie Calagna cleaned
the clams with a little help from Tory.

The first three days went surprisingly well except for the surprise of the rushing Kennebec River current for the 7 boats at the Bath City Dock, where at times it sounded like a freight train.  All survived, however, and on Wednesday, August 24^th, 17 boats, split into 4 groups left Bath and began our Down East cruise.  Nightly stops varied by group and collectively included Boothbay Harbor, Damariscove Island, Witch Island, Port Clyde, Camden, Bucks Harbor, Northeast Harbor and Little Cranberry Island. 

We all gathered on beautiful Birch Island.  I can identify most people and dogs in the picture, but not all.  If you can do so,
email me and I will update the caption with everyone's name!

The third night out we all gathered at the anchorage between Birch Island and Hog Island off the Muscle Ridge Channel on the western shore of Penobscot Bay.  Molly and I got there first, and I spent most of the afternoon in our dinghy welcoming arriving boats and suggesting where to anchor and how much rode to put out.  [I must say that I was relieved that seas were calm, and, except for having to relocate one boat in the evening, everyone got through the night just fine.]

Dinghies on the beach at Birch Island.

          After a beautiful clear evening we awoke to Maine fog.           

That night featured cocktails on the Birch Island beach and a cookout.  It was a beautiful, starlit evening, and my favorite gathering of the Rendezvous.  True to Maine’s changing weather, we all woke up the next day to heavy fog. In fact, over the course of the cruise we collectively experienced all the reasons that can challenge Maine cruisers, including fog, tides, lobster pot tangled in a prop, rough weather and rain.  

We also had two unplanned dips in the cold ocean.  Molly was a key participant in both dips, and I blame that on her concussion.

After Birch Island, half the group went to Camden and the rest of us went to
beautiful Bucks Harbor.

This is a picture of the Little Cranberry Island Harbor with Mt. Desert Island in the background.  5 boats moored off Little Cranberry and everyone else was at a slip or floating dock in Northeast Harbor where we all gathered for dinner one night.

This is an unbelievable rock and pebble dune on the
open ocean side of Little Cranberry Island.

Rocks we gathered off the dune.  My
backpack got quite heavy!

Our boat, Salty Paws, was on a mooring off Little Cranberry Island, and we took our dinghy alongside the Dockside Restaurant dock.  Before I had a chance to secure the dinghy, Molly attempted to exit our little craft.  She fell into the water up to her waist as the dinghy moved away from the dock.  I struggled to grab the dock while her grip was on the dock was beginning to slip.  Fortunately, after a couple of cries of “Help, Bill!”  I was able to reach the dock, jump out of the boat and pull her out of the water.

Tory was one of 9 dogs in attendance. 
 They got along great.

   We saw numerous Guillemots on the cruise.    

We spent two days in the shadow of Mt. Desert, and then began our three-day, two-night trip back Bath.  Again, nightly stops varied by group, and we spent one night in a cove near Tenants Harbor and our second night in the Damariscotta River.    The Tenants Harbor anchorage was off Clarke’s Island, which has an excellent trail but a difficult shoreline to access.  Dan Evans and I and our two dogs were enjoying the walk when I got a call on my handheld radio “Man overboard!”  Then I was asked by Mark Ugerri, “how do you operate your stern ladder?”  I quickly instructed him how, figuring that he and Kathy had ended up in the water.

Dan and I were a good 15 minutes away from our dinghies, and as we hurried back I didn’t know what we would find.   The excitement was mostly over by the time of our arrival except for Mark trying to right his capsized dinghy near the shore.  Then I learned that Mark had contacted Molly to go ashore and had came over to pick her up off Salty Paws in his Pudge, a unique plastic dinghy.  Mark eased his boat alongside Salty Paws, and Molly proceeded to place one foot on its gunnel and then the other while Mark was attempting to assist her into the boat.  The Pudge immediately flipped sending both into the water.  Mark’s life jacket instantly inflated, almost strangling him in doing so.  [Lesson learned – know how to deflate your inflatable lifejacket!]  Molly clung to the capsized dinghy, and eventually got back aboard Salty Paws after Mark figured out my stern ladder.

On the last full cruising day we led a
caravan of 7 boats through the reopened
swing bridge to Barter's Island and went
up the inside passage to Oven's Mouth.
In the Mouth the current was racing and
Jeff Beam had to go through twice.

Molly and I explored Hodgson Island in
the Damariscotta River with Dan Evans,
Sharon Bennett and Mark Ugerri. 
Bill Bennett was the photographer. 

Our last open water cruising off Pemaquid was rough, but
everyone was relatively comfortable because we were in a group.

     Last night's pizza buffet.     

The last night was at Robinhood Marine Center, our home port in Georgetown.  The evening featured a pizza smorgasbord on the lawn in front of the Osprey and great stories and camaraderie developed over the almost two weeks in Maine.

Last night of the Rendezvous.
First row - Rufus, Dan Evans, Otto Cuyler, Terry Traver, Tyler, Laurie Calagna, Tory, Cindy VanHouten, Sid VanHouten,
Sharon Bennett, Bill Bennett and KayTee.
2nd row - Jeremy Scouten, Anna Cuyler, Mark Ugerri, Cathy Ugerri, Jeff Beam, Jessie Bollinger, Molly Webster, Bill Webster,
Dennis Robbins, Lois, Tiedeken, Mike Richards, Beverly Watson and Gordon Watson.

Below is a listing of all who participated in any or all parts of the Rendezvous.  What a great community we have!

Derelict Boats, Rocket Launches and Manatees

The launch of the Skylink satellite lit up the pre-dawn sky.

We last left readers with Molly in a broken arm in a beautiful purple cast.  She is doing great, except that the cast can not get wet, and I have to do the dishes every night.  The cast comes off on May 27^th.  What we didn’t mention is that in the initial rough passage on our trip back, one wave knocked our boat around and Molly flew off the couch, breaking a big toe in the process.  Not much you can do about a toe fracture, but she is healing there nicely as well and is still able to go on walks, albeit a little slower than her normal pace.

Melbourne Beach Fish Pier.

 One of our anchorages was Manatee
Pocket, Port Solerno.

Because we took advantage of a limited weather window, we returned from the Bahamas at least two weeks earlier than our original plan.  So, the time to cruise from West Palm to Daytona Beach, where we will pull out of the water on May 9^th, is now three weeks, not one week.  We have used that time to go slowly, and stay multiple days in the same marina or anchorage.  We have visited West Palm, North West Palm, Port Solerno, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne Beach, Indian Harbor Beach, Cape Canaveral, Titusville and Canaveral National Seashore.

Our dinghy motor conked out in Indian Harbor Beach, but I was happy to row and get the exercise. 

We anchored off a spoils island in Cape Canaveral, which is a major cruise ship port in addition to being home to the
Kennedy Space Center.

We enjoyed our three days at Melbourne Beach, and here we are having cocktails on the bow while awaiting for a 5:30 pm
space launch.

All the beaches in Brevard County are closed to dogs, but many locals including someone in one town office said go ahead.
Tory had quality beach time in Melbourne Beach, Indian Harbor Beach and Cape Canaveral National Seashore.

We met long-term friends Rod
and Sheila Geant in Port Solerno.
Their friend Chris also joined us,
and she had a cast on just like Molly!

Returning from the grocery store in Vero
Beach.

We anchor out more than 50% of the time, but it can be a challenge at times as shore access is often limited (we need it for Tory!) and many otherwise desirable places are overrun with derelict boats.  Old Boats are dirt cheap and sometimes abandoned due to storm,

only to be purchased or commandeered

This boat hasn't moved in a while..   The
liveaboard has added tarps for
additional living space.

by, typically, single males looking for cheap housing.  They flaunt local anchoring limitations, put out every anchor they can find, and stay put for months, if not years, unless their fortunes change.

This boat was likely swamped here by
Hurricane Erma in 2017.

Such boats likely number in the thousands, and the cost of removal and disposal of just one boat, I have read, is as much as $500 per foot.  This means that a typical sailboat might cost up to $20,000 to remove.  The Florida legislature has recently allocated $12 million, but it will require millions more and increased enforcement to truly rid Florida of derelict boats.  Even then, it might only be good enough until the next major hurricane.

Contrail from day-time launch.

One of our bucket list items for this trip was to see a rocket launch. 

While we were able to anchor right off Cape Canaveral, no launches were scheduled at that time.  Earlier, we did see a daytime launch from 25 miles away, interesting, but not too impressive. 

Later we had the chance to witness a 5:42 am launch from the Kennedy Point Marina, about ten miles across the water from the launch site.  It was spectacular although the pictures don't do it justice.  

Shortly after the rocket broke through the clouds it seemed to change projectory, and we could hear the rocket engines for the first time.  Then a large white fireball become visible and grew immensely as the rocket accelerated away.  We speculated that just prior to this, the rocket's first stage broke away, but we later learned it was the sun reflecting off the spent fuel.  Our final picture (these were all taken by Molly!) shows the fascinating contrail visible some minutes after the rocket had disappeared.

 Those of you who grew up in the 60’s will, no doubt, remember the assassination of President Kennedy.  Shortly after that tragic event, President Johnson issued an Executive Order to change the name of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy, in honor of the President who had set the goal of landing on the moon.  This was reversed in 1973 by the State of Florida and Cape Canaveral once again was Cape Canaveral.  The Space Center, however, continues to be called the Kennedy Space Center.

Not sure if you will be able to view this video showing manatees slurping fresh water at the top of the salt water.

Another bucket item on our list was to once again see some manatees.  These strange, large mammals are also called sea cows, although there was a time when sailors thought they were mermaids.  Full-grown manatees typically weigh 800-1000 pounds and swim very slowly.  They live their entire lives in shallow, coastal waters, coming up for air every 5 minutes or so.  They are constantly feeding on aquatic vegetation of all types, often consuming plants equaling 5-10% of their body weight every day.

We were watching some manatees thrash around in the water when a tour boat operator came by and told us that they
were mating.  A bull manatee will typically have 6-8 females with him.

While the bull manatee is doing his thing (upper right), the female appears to be either resting or waiting her turn.

Because of the heat we ended up staying at the Kennedy Point Marina as they have a great pool, and we found it a great
place to view a space launch and watch manatees.

The white marks on this manatee were caused by a boat motor propeller blades. 

Manatees are defenseless creatures except they are protected from alligators by their size and ability to hold their breath for up to 15 minutes.  Humans are their biggest threat.  The State of Florida has many protections for manatees as they were on the Endangered Species List until 2017.  These include low speed and no wake zones in known manatee areas and the recent cultivation of new sea grass beds.  There are an estimated 7,500 manatees in Florida.

We have now returned to Daytona Beach, and tomorrow we pull Salty Paws out of the water and begin our slow trip back to Maine with more visits to friends and family.  It has been quite a journey, and time will tell if this was our last trip to the Bahamas.