.--- Roosevelt Channel & Jensen's "Twin Palm" --
...........--- Sat./Sun./Mon. - Dec. 4th, 5th, 6th ---
Day's Starting and Stopping Points:
Saturday's Starting Waypoint = 026°30.491 N -- 082°11.158 W
Monday's Ending Waypoint = 026°31.249 N -- 082°11.279 W
Sat./Sun. Anchorage: Roosevelt Channel between Buck Key & Captiva Island
Anchorage = 026°30.491 N -- 082°11.158 W
Monday: Slip at Jensen's Twin Palm Cottages -- Location = 026°31.249 N -- 082°11.279 W
Saturday-Sunday: As I had mentioned on the last page the night before we had anchored using a Bahamian Moor for the first time. Well during the night there was this really loud "TWANG" that woke both of us up. I got up and checked things out and everything seemed fine, so went back to bed.
Well what happened was I didn't leave enough slack in the two anchor rodes evidently and the boat swung around during the night and was trapped for a while by one rode until it finally was able to pass over it and I think the sharp part of the boats bottom by the bow plucked it like a large guitar string. The rest of the trip I left a little more slack in the rodes to prevent this and the problem never arose again.
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Above you can see that when the boat swung around that the rodes were now not on the side of the boat where they came off their respective bow rollers and crossed. Since we were suppose to get a substantial north wind and to correct the above I....
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... let the claw anchor's rode out and pulled us down to above the Manson and pulled it up. The open rode bags are a real benefit doing something like this and dealing with two rodes and not ending up with a big mess on the deck. Just drop the rodes into the bags and it comes right back out when needed. The left arrow points to two pieces of tape that tell me I have 50 feet (each piece is 25 feet) of line out with 30 feet of chain after that for a total of 80 feet of rode. This is in about 4-5 feet of water. Add the 3 feet or so the bow is off the water and you can see we are about 10 to 1 on the scope. More than the recommended 7 to 1. We have never drug on anchor and if I have the room I'll put out more rode than recommended. Beats getting up in the middle of the night and dealing with a bad situation.
With the Manson up I pulled us back up to the claw and dropped the Manson there and brought the claw up. Then Ruth backed us back down the channel with the outboard and I put the claw down and then pulled us back between them. This all went real smooth and now you can see that the rodes aren't crossing the bow. Later I figured out a way to easily move the rode to the side of the boat so that they wouldn't be crossing if the boat had swung and they were crossed.
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With that taken care of we enjoyed the view on the other side of the channel. Above was a nice looking boat and just down from it....
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... was another that was very similar. We probably should of gone out that day and tried to sail, but we were lazy and didn't. The other lakes we had been on prior to this, you just move off anchor a couple hundred feet and started sailing. That isn't true in this area of Florida for the most part. Down in Roosevelt Channel you had to motor about 2 1/2 miles out to get into deep enough water for us to have the centerboard down. This was also the case other places. I often wondered why people talk about motoring so much in some area of Florida and now I knew.
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Anyway we just stayed put on Saturday and Sunday before going to Jensen's on Monday. In the picture above you can see we did have the anchor sail up (top arrow) and the bottom arrow points to how I had the line going to the clew tied lightly over to one of the shrouds to keep it off the corner of the pop-top when it was up. Again I'll be interested to see how the sail works in winds over 20 mph if it is attached further down the backstay.
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Later that day the clouds starting coming in with the next cold front. The arrow points to two boats rafted together that seemed to be permanently anchored there. A third and fourth boat would come and go. I never did figure out if people were actually living there full time or not.
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Later in the evening after dark the winds picked up with the front, but we had no problems and slept just fine.
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Monday: Monday morning was windy, but not terribly so but the wind was suppose to increase, so we pulled the anchors up about 10 am and motored the mile up to Jensen's. There we had a minor disaster. When we stopped on the way past to make reservations I handled the tiller getting to the dock and there was a guy there to catch our line. I didn't like the way I had come in though with the wind behind me.
When we got there no one was on the dock and I told Ruth you will be fine on the tiller and outboard, just follow my instructions. So for what follows I'll take the blame. We came up to the outside fuel dock with its tall pilings at an angle with the dock to our port and the wind coming in on the bow on the starboard side. The plan was to come in at an angle and then slow and turn away from the dock and the wind would push us back against it gently.
Well that didn't happen. I had her coming in too fast at too sharp of an angle and the wind didn't slow us as much as I thought it would. When I had her turn to starboard it was too late and the bow was headed right towards a tall piling. The turn started, but we ran the port bow roller with the claw right into the piling going way to fast. The boat hit, bent the bow roller fairly bad and the starboard one some as they are connected. I hated to look down and see if we had actually fractured the hull. We seemed to of hit that hard and there was no sliding along the dock as we had hooked that piling and had come to a quick halt. Well I did look down and didn't see any real damage to the boat so that was good.
I can't remember exactly what happened next, but we then successfully did finally get docked. In 57 days on the water in the prior year and a half, our total sailing careers, this was actually only the 6th time we had come into a dock as we always anchor out (we're pretty good at that now).
I thought I had a hand sledge hammer on board, but couldn't find it so went and borrowed one from Jensen's boat guys and spend 30-40 minutes banging the bow rollers back pretty straight. They would of still worked bent, but I hated to look at them that way. Sorry, but I didn't get any pictures of the carnage.
We unloaded what we wanted to take to the cottage and then I maneuvered the boat off the dock and around....
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... into a slip. This was a first also tying the boat into a slip with just pilings off the stern on both sides. By now an employee had come and helped us tie the lines to avoid any damage to the boat when the tide came in and went out. Everyone at Jensen's was very helpful and I should of just called for their help when we came in earlier. We needed 4 dock lines, but we only had 2, so had to use 2 of our shore lines that we used at Lake Powell. Before the next trip there will be at least 2 more dock lines on the boat.
It seemed strange to have the boat in a slip as the only other time it had ever been in one was to have lunch on Priest Lake, Idaho.
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This is a view leaving the boat and going down the dock into Jensen's.
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When this picture was taken the tide was out (arrows). At high tide the water will be up to the wall there.
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I didn't feel good about leaving our dinghy (arrow) tied to the back of the boat as I was afraid that it might swing around and get trapped between the boat and a piling or the boats next to us. I paddled it around using the kayak paddle and the guys there helped me drag it up on the wall were we left it while there.
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Here is the main office and store. Very nice and has that warm lived in feeling that is missing in so many places now. I'm not into souvenirs much, but we bought a couple things here that were nice and they have other supplies also.
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A view back out to the docks. You can also see that we are the only sailboat.
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A handy little sign at the docks.
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One thing we really liked about this place is that it isn't all paved over. The driveway like the beaches here is a lot of shells. This place just feels good and comfortable unlike so many places you visit now that try and wow you.
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When we stopped a few days earlier they showed us a one bedroom cottage and that was what we were suppose to get, but upon arrival they said they had a two bedroom open for the next couple days and moved us into it (arrow) at the same price. We didn't need the extra bedroom, but I think the living area was larger.
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Above was our cottage. These cottages are not new, I don't know when they were built, but....
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... they are very clean on the outside (porch above) and.....
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... on the inside. Above is the second bedroom that we didn't use. I didn't get a picture of the one we did use with a nice queen bed but it was nice and large.
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The kitchen area that was stocked with everything you needed to fix meals if you so desired.
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Part of the living room. The cottages had been renovated inside, but still didn't loose....
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... their charm to us by over modernizing them. We loved the place, the staff and the brothers and would recommend it to anyone. I searched high and low for a place in the Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Boca Grande and Fort Meyers area where we could put in and slip the sailboat and also stay at and that would be accessible by road for someone who might want to fly in and visit with us for a day or so. This was the only one that I found that met that criteria and low and behold it proved to be a great place. Be sure and check them out ( HERE ). As you will see on the next page the location is great for walking around Captiva Island.
