Last week we strolled downtown with visiting friends Frank & Peg to check out the old cars. Frank recognized most of them. Something about parking in his youth? Me, not so many unless I read the vanity license.
While Frank & Peg were here we took a ride out to Captiva Island to visit Frank's nephew Sean Kelly who runs a small charter fishing operation on the island. Our intent was to meet him and go for lunch somewhere on Captiva. Sean had other plans. Before we could object (yeah, right!) we were in his boat and heading towards Cabbage Key for lunch. We cruised over the shallow water of Pine Island Sound and around North Captiva Island before arriving at Cabbage Key.
We had a great unexpected day on the water. Sean kept us off all of the shallow spots on Pine Island Sound where the average depth is only 4.5 feet! If you need a guide for the area Sean's your man.
While Frank & Peg were in town we visited the Shell Factory in N. Ft. Myers. Interesting is the best I can say. I've seen a million of these tourist traps and this ranks right up there with the best of them. I will say that lunch at their restaurant was good but I think we were there over an hour before I saw a shell.
Before our guests left town we got cleaned up to head downtown and have dinner with some of Frank's relatives.
One of the nice things at Legacy is the annual appreciation party put on by the marina. This year it was a western theme with an assortment of barbecued meats, baked beans, and salads. Needless to say a good time was had by all.
All too soon it was the weekend again. Saturday morning started early since I had to take Pam to the airport to catch a flight back home for an Oscar fix.
Once Pam was through security I headed back to Legacy to go with Donnie inland to Turkey Creek to pick up his brother's boat and bring it back to Ft. Myers Beach. The boat fired right off and we departed around 9:30 a.m. but not before my back decided to go out when I bent over to pick up a dock line.
The wind was picking up but locking through wasn't a problem. It was an uneventful ride across the Caloosahatchie as we passed through 2 locks and only needed one bridge to open for us. We passed by Legacy after lunch and we noticed the wind picking up in intensity. The boat was running good and we continued on towards the gulf and Ft. Myers Beach. As we passed under the Sanibel bridge we were feeling good about the time we were making and started calculating exactly what time we would arrive at the dock. At the same time the wind on the open water was kicking up 2 to 3 footers with occasional 4's. Still no problem since we only had a few miles to go before we would duck in behind Ft. Myers Beach.
Oops! Half way between the bridge and Matanzas Pass the engines quit. Now we quickly became a cork bobbing around in the open water. We both figured it must be a fuel issue and went down to investigate. Of course by now we had turned broadside to the waves which tossed our 37' boat from side to side. To gain some stability Donnie went forward and let out the anchor (not as easy as it sounds in these conditions) which quickly set and pointed our bow into the waves. Somehow he then crawled into the engine room and managed to change the racor filters. Meanwhile I'm getting in touch with TowBoat US to arrange a tow if needed. Fortunately one of the engines fired and we were able to pull in the anchor and limp towards Matanzas Pass. I called TowBoat again and advised them that we were underway. We made it into the marked channel and were feeling good about our chances to make it all the way when the engine sputtered and died again. Crap! This narrow channel is busy and no place to be floating powerless. To complicate things the local Pirate Ship was heading our way. Donnie went back to the engine room while I hailed the Pirate and advised them of our situation all while we were drifting towards the edge of the channel and very shallow water. After bouncing off the "Resume Normal Speed" sign we quickly dropped the anchor to keep from grounding. At least it was calmer in this spot and we were now out of the channel.
Donnie worked on the problem with no success and I reacquainted myself with the TowBoat dispatcher. We waited and watched as boats came and went through the pass.
The TowBoat captain did a great job of getting us to our destination and in spite of the wind was able to get us into the dock without bouncing us off the dock. The unlimited towing feature on my Boat US membership came in handy as there was no charge for this tow. Without it the cost would have been in the hundreds of dollars.
Pam made it home safe and sound too making it a great day!
Been there, done that. This is how I fixed the problem on Drift Away.
ReplyDeleteFirst, we had the tanks cleaned. This got rid of most of the crud, but not all of it, and I still had problems with clogging filters. We lost both off Sandy Hook in rough waters, so I sympathize!
I bought two sets of Filter Bosses, one for each engine. This allows me to flip from filter #1 to filter #2 if the clogged filter alarm goes off. The pickup tubes for the FBs is about 3" off the bottom of the tank.
I set up the old Racors with their own pickup tube about 1/2" off the bottom. I run this as a fuel polishing system when underway and it picks up all the gunk and any water. So far, we've traveled almost 1,000 miles with no more trouble. Details on our blog, or have Donnie email me.