Jan 26, 2012
Welcome to Bob and Marsha's blog. As we start cruising on our 45ft Cabo Rico, Élan, we will post our progress on the resurection of the boat to its former glory. We look forward to our adventures as we embark on a journey to wherever the wind takes us.
Élan is currently located near Sarasota ,Florida, on E dock with lots of other sailboats and friendly neighbors. We borrow their cars, use their help docking, give them leftover provisions, ( I always buy too much), count on them to keep and eye on things when we are gone and enjoy their company at cocktail hour.
November 24, 2012 we made our maiden voyage to Marco Island to enjoy thanksgiving with friends. We sailed though the night, navigated by the stars, compass and paper charts. Not all electronics are working properly yet. We found that two hour shifts did not give us the sleep we needed, but it was a good experience. On the way back we purchased at dinghy with a 25hp motor that towed like an anchor. The weather, waves and wind were against us so we took the inter coastal waterway (ICW). It was a good learning experience with bridges and shallow spots. Our 5'6" draft was too much for some areas of the ICW, so we bumped along in style. The Florida weather was at it coldest and we had to dress in our winter woolies. Our stops along the way included, Tarpon Point Marina in Ft Meyers, Brunt Stove Marina in Port Charlotte, Boca Grande, we ran aground there in the incredibly narrow channel, and The Crows Nest in Venice. We had a scare as we started under the 65ft bridge in Sarasota, our mast is 63ft and it sooo looked like we were not going to make it........ we did, barely! We enjoyed the scenery on the way back to our Marina and arrived just in time for cocktail hour and a beautiful sunset.
Unfortunately the day before we left I had an accident and fell into an open hold. I had several bruises and skinned my shin down to the bone. I made a bad decision not to go to the hospital. It took me a week before I saw a doctor at home and by then it was too late. As of this posting, I have had surgery to reopen the wound but it is still not healing. So the lesson here is to close hatches, and don't be your own doctor.
Jan 8, 2012 we headed back to boat again and my sister joined us. She was my nurse for the week. ;-} We cleaned and then cataloged all the stuff on the boat. After making her earn her keep we did take a two day cruise to Jewfish Island. As we were heading to our anchorage we missed the channel and ran hard aground on a submerged island, at low tide the next morning it was clearly visible. After several unsuccessful attempts to power back off the Island, Bob decided to use the dinghy to bring the anchor to the channel and winch us off. Bye the way, the dinghy has no motor or oars, it has silly, small ineffective canoe paddles. I carefully and slowly dropped the anchor off the bow into the dinghy that Bob was trying to steady. The wind picked up significantly and was pushing us further into the island. It became evident that the weight of the anchor and chain were way too heavy for the dinghy making it impossible to maneuver. We hauled the anchor and chain back on board and Bob pulled the dinghy around to the stern to use the lighter anchor. Eventually this was successful, he winched us off the Island and we motored into channel. We anchored just in time for cocktail hour. 
We decided to stay the next day and see what the island hd to offer. We woke to a beautiful sunrise, had breakfast and then paddled the motor-less dinghy to shore. After touring the area and hanging at the beach for a bit, we had a leisurly lunch at a local restaurant. The weather had improved from earlier in the week and we enjoyed clear skies and warming sun.
Bob put up the chair swing just about the time the wind picked up. But, I was not deterred, I bundled up with a glass of wine and a good book and was quite comfortable.We spend the night and headed back to our Marina the next morning. The wind was strong and on the nose so we did not sail. However, it did make docking a challenge. Not only was the wind against us but it was dead low tide so we dragged along the bottom as we approached the slip. It took several attempts to get our bow to behave in the wind but with assistance from the neighbors we made in safe and sound.
