Away from Safe Cove/All American Boat Storge

Well today was the day to finally move away from All American Boat Storage.

One final trip to town to get the last things for the trip, water and another one of those wonderful LED lighting strips. The first one looks so good that now the lighting in the salon is off balance and we need the second strip for the other side.

The trip started with the normal "drag your keel down the canal" manouver followed by the "find the log with your keel" experience. We went through the manual lock and performed the "dig a foot deep furrow" for a couple hundred yards in the bottom of the Myakka River before Surona found enough water to stand up straight without performing the "real time depth sounder" routine.

The wind was cool enough for the skipper to don a hat.

Frightening, Peter operating manual lock.

All kidding aside when the people at C&C built this boat they sure combined a lot of great qualities into her. This old girl has taken us through wild waves crossing Lake Michigan loud banging noises in Long Sault and Blind River, hurricane-like winds off Hope Island and in the Benjamins and this little Yanmar powered machine closely reminds me of the Energizer Bunny. That's not enough we make her cultivate a new channel for the Englewood Chamber of Commerce.

Cheryl on deck in the manual lock.

Peter said this was a boat we could probably get really cheap. Always hate to see this when travelling. This was along the canal on our way out of All American Boat Storage.

So once again as she tastes the early swells of the Gulf of Mexico I don't know if it is Synthetic oil, Yanmar engineering, the people at C&C or a combination of all the above but it is a good sensation being at the wheel.

We had to race against the setting sun to get to our anchorage. Cutting it a little close, but we made it just as the sun was setting. We just dropped the anchor in Pelican Bay and tomorrow on to Fort Meyers Beach.