Wednesday April 29: Safe Cove Storage

On Monday morning, Plan B won out. Go directly to Safe Cove - do not pass GO. Thunderstorms predicted for Tuesday and today.

So we traveled along the green path from Englewood to the storage yard near Punta Gorda. 50 miles worth as we had to make a large swing around Cape Haze to avoid the shallow areas.

Steve made the most of his last fishing opportunity - alas no takers again.

Which was ok with me since we had just a few nights left on the boat and still had a fairly full fridge.

Charlotte Harbor is really a surprisingly large body of water. It seemed like we would never get to the north end of it!

And even once we made it to the north end and the entrance to the place where Safe Cove is (red X on the picture right), it was another hour and a half to get actually to the place!










The whole area is a slow zone so that makes it take that much longer ....

A new experience for us though: a self operated lock! It was almost a non-lock as the "lift" was all of a foot at most.



First step is to stop at the dock on the lower end and push the START button.

The lower gate slowly opens and a recording tells you it's safe to enter the lock. So we did!

Once inside, Steve pulled and held the chain - which made the front gates open about 6 inches. This allowed the water to flow into the lock.

The same recorded voice said it was ok to proceed out of the lock - but please be sure to stop at the top dock to close the door behind us!







Easy enough! Time to keep following this waterway around to our destination. But first, we had to avoid the wild pig that thought crossing our path was a good idea! I literally could have run it over had I continued in forward!

Only the second swimming pig we've seen on our travels - the first was on the Little Marco River near Marco Island.

Swam pretty fast, too! Especially for just having hooves instead of feet or flippers ;-)

Also spotted around the boat after we docked was a cute baby alligator! Maybe a couple of feet long.

Didn't seem to be afraid of us though - it must be used to people being around.


Some of the area we passed by on the way in was a housing development. It seemed that all of it was supposed to be homes - guess there weren't enough takers for all of the lots available.


This person added a bit of art the the side of his home.

Maybe it reminded him of the keys, who knows - but fun to see.










The work to get the boat ready to be stored for 5 months began in earnest yesterday - after the rains stopped.

Dinghy engine; run the fuel out, change the lower unit oil.

Honda generator; drain, run the fuel, change the oil.

Mast: take it down and store on the flybridge.

Inside of boat: put anything like pillows, blankets etc into garbage bags, pack everything that goes to Guppy (including new cushion covers) into the suitcase we used to bring the material down last fall.

Clothes: pack what we need for the next 5 months in Ohio/Guppy/summer travels.

Tomorrow; haul out at 11:00 am. Pick up a car, pack up and go!  At least that's the plan .....