So many of my voyages have started with cold weather. It was mid-March in central Florida and the early morning 40° weather was not appreciated. The pilothouse offered some shelter but I had to keep the windows open because the condensation obscured my vision. A small heater would have helped a lot.
A mist rising from the warm spring fed Crystal River grew thick enough at one point that I stopped and drifted while I got the laptop navigation program going. With clear direction from Coastal Explorer, Mango Mama ventured slowly until we rounded the bend and the morning cleared abruptly. She retraced our course in reverse from a year ago but this time I would hand MM over to Whiteaker Yacht Sales in Palmetto.
This was my first time solo with Mango Mama. The only difficulty was preparing food and bathroom breaks. Out on the open Gulf I let her run ahead on autopilot while I took a few minutes as needed.
I planned to anchor behind Anclote Key. Early on, for some unknown reason, the navigation program estimated arrival around 9-10 that night. I pushed the engine up 3500 rpm to get the speed up to around 9 knots. I finally figured out a better estimate and dropped MM back to her sweet spot, 2600 rpm cruising around 7 knots with minimal smoke. Above 3000 rpm, these Volvos run inefficiently, wasting fuel and creating soot.
The rest of the day warmed up and was uneventful. A couple of dolphins came by but they seemed intent on food and had no time to play. When I neglected to dodge one crab pot float, the propeller crumbled it, but the Shaft Shark line cutter has not been challenged as far I know. Mama rolled a little on the part of the course parallel to the swell but she maintained her dignity and never got uncomfortable. My typical tall travel mug was fine today but tipped over a couple of times when we were waked on the next day.
Having made good time, we proceeded past Anclote Key and anchored in six feet of water just east of Honeymoon Island. Using the windlass clutch to lower the 88 pound Delta can be a little tense and noisy with the chain rattling over the gypsy but it’s easy to control (installing the two-way controller is one task I didn’t get to do). We settled down for a quiet night and watched the sunset over the island but it didn’t seem much like Honeymoon Island without my wife.
I woke at four for a quick trip to the head. It was cold so I cranked up the generator and turned on the heat pump before getting back under the covers. It was very comfortable when I had breakfast and fixed coffee later. I went over the charts for the ICW for the day’s run through Clearwater and St. Petersburg then across Tampa Bay and up the Manatee River.
The Lighthouse windlass made short work of retrieving the anchor. I let it drag at the water surface for a minute to wash most of the hard-pack mud away, and then seated it in the bow roller. We were underway. I lowered the mast and antennae before the first draw bridge to reduce our needed clearance to 16 feet. After the many delays experienced in my sailing days, it seemed strange to simply steam through the bridges without waiting for an opening.
Maneuvering the channels and avoiding other traffic took constant attention. The autopilot still did most of the work with occasional tweaks and switching to manual control when needed. There were the usual few inconsiderate skippers throwing huge wakes. I tried to angle across them when I could but there were some that rocked Mama pretty good. I spilled my coffee a couple times in the pilothouse but everything was fine down below.
The light chop crossing Tampa Bay was no trouble and only one course change was needed to avoid an outbound tanker. I had to watch the inbound current as it swept us up the Manatee River to stay out of the shallow spots. Ed Whiteaker met me at Regatta Pointe and there was a broker friend there who showed keen interest in Mango Mama. I’m getting pretty good at handling the single screw while backing into her new slip. The strong bow thruster really helps.
We had adjusted the lines and I was showing Ed around Mango Mama. This was the first time he’d seen her in person. He was impressed.
Then the light of my life arrived. I wasn’t aware of how much I had missed her. We’re off on another of our adventures. And Mango Mama is ready to help someone else find their adventure.
