I am not a hard tail

Thursday, April 2, 2009, Bird Key Yacht Club

We left Bradenton as soon as we had enough water under us to clear the club. We have been on bottom for the last couple of nights at low tide. We were trying to get out in a hurry to get to Sarasota as early as possible. We wanted to get to the Ringling Bridge as soon as we could. The longer we waited the higher the tide we would have to deal with at the bridge. It seems no one has a clue how tall the bridge is. Some of the charts show 60’ the latest chart you can review on line shows 65’. One of the yacht clubs told us 63’ another told us 67’ and another told us not to attempt the bridge. Our mast is 63’-10” to the top and we have weather instruments, lights and antennas above that. If you are into ham radio, you know the VHF antenna is 19” so doing the math we are 65’-5”. The antenna is flexible and we can blink it on the bridges and clear a 65’ bridge. 64’-6” we start loosing equipment. Most bridges have boards that tell you what the height is above water level. The Ringling Bridge doesn’t have one. It is the only bridge, I have ever seen, that doesn’t have one. Our pucker factor is high, no it is extremely high, like trying to insert the straight pin with a 20 lb sledge hammer. Did I mention the wind is blowing over 20 knots. Carole gets on the bow and I am steering with my head hanging out trying to see. There is a guy on the top of the bridge who is yelling we are going to hit. There are two guys in powerboats who have stopped to watch. There is nothing like being able to tell your buddies about watching a boat hit a bridge and the mast falling in the water. We inch up and the wind blows us off the center, which is the highest point. Hard reverse and try again. Have you ever tried to inch up a 30,000 pound boat. It would be like trying to bring a semi tractor-trailer up to your front door without hitting the house. Oh yea your tractor-trailer doesn’t have breaks. We try again. The guy on the bridge still thinks we are going to hit. The mast goes past the edge and nothing hits. One of the guys in the boat give us hand motions and tell us we clear by about 2 ft. We have a huge sigh of relieve and can’t even remember what we are supposed to do when we clear.

So the question is why did we even attempt this maneuver? The 20-knot winds have kick up some pretty bad seas outside. Beating into 20-knot winds on your nose with 6 ft seas would be a pounding we are not willing to take. It would have also been a 50-mile run, which would have put us 10 to 12 hours in that environment. We are just relieved to know we can get under the bridge with the tide reading 1.75 ft. It will make the trip back easier.

There was an old Cuban guy who was the night dockmaster at the Tampa Club. He had the graveyard shift and I talked to him for a while early one morning. He was an interesting person. He had been a delivery captain, had captain large yachts for owners and had been a charter-fishing captain. He told me for the next couple of weeks we were going to be having “Easter Winds”. He says for a couple of weeks before Easter the winds blow strong from either the west or south and create high seas. He said that Easter Day was sometimes the worst day of all. We decided it was just God’s way of telling you that you should be in church on Easter and not out fishing. We probably won’t be in church on Easter but I will send my contribution in so maybe the preacher will help me ask for 8 to 10 knots out of the east.

Let me back up and talk about the Bradenton Club. It is a pretty relaxed club with shorts and jeans allowed in the dining area. The 1st night we were there they were having a two-for deal. Two meals for the price of one. The next night they had a “Build-A-Better-Burger” night. The burger was a 10 oz on a bun, with slaw and fries for $9.00 and every topping you could imagine to add to it. Did I mention it was also $1.00 beer night? BYC may be the most inexpensive club we have visited. They also get the prize for the warmest water in the pool.

I took a bike tour in Bradenton of the state park. I think I am going to become a tree hugger. It is a neat park that is just a long finger of Mangrove trees along the side of the road. The whole island isn’t more than a hundred feet wide. When you look out in the Mangrove, there are plastic bags, plastic drink bottles, plastic cups, plastic forks, and plastic oil containers. It is the crap that blows out the back of some redneck’s pickup truck and is washed by rain into our streams, rivers and oceans. How many life times will it take for that stuff to deteriorate back into the earth. As a society we have to start being more proactive about how we deal with trash. We have hit plastic bags twice off the coast and had them wrap around the prop. We had to have a diver get one of them off before we installed spurs on the prop to cut them up. OK I will get off my soapbox and tell you I really can never be a tree hugger. Carole and I have 600 acres of trees that are part of our retirement plan. They only add to your retirement money if you cut them down. Beside how would you ever build a beautiful wooden boat or piece of furniture if you never cut a tree?

Our major mode of land transportation is the bicycles we carry on board. When I was growing up in Sycamore, I rode my bike all over the place. Sycamore was a great place to ride a bike back then. There weren’t that many cars and all the streets had wide sidewalks. Many of the cities in this area of Florida have nice bike paths. Many are old railroad beds and go on for miles. I guess there is still enough kid in me that I really get a kick out of riding a bike. I have not overcome one issue yet. My butt is sore. Were bike seats better in the 50’s? I have found out I am not a hard tail.