Stump Pass, Englewood

A mere 2.5 miles from our last anchorage, Stump Pass is our new favorite anchorage. This image is from a website describing Florida anchorages. At the bottom is the ICW, the Gulf at the top and we are anchored where the dotted line turns to the left.

We dinghy'd across the pass to the beach on the right to search for shark's teeth. We'd heard they wash up on this beach and we (ie. Steve mostly) found 15 of them. Lots of shells found here too.

It looked like a great place to view a sunset over the Gulf, so we returned later in the afternoon. Photos are inadequate to see the full beauty so I took a one minute 360 degree video, which I'm going to upload at the end of this blog.

The full blue moon over our anchorage was beautiful.

At the end of a perfect day on the Loop, what could be better than a nice hot shower? Unfortunately, one of the water hoses leading to the nice hot shower had a slight aneurysm that decided to rupture right in the middle of the nice hot shower. I had to rinse with water heated up on the stove and a coffee cup. Have you heard the definitions of extended cruising as "Fixing your boat in exotic places"? Dunno if Stump Pass qualifies as exotic, but the next day Steve began pulling hoses out of the bilge to replace the ruptured section. Crucial sections were tie wrapped and screwed to the bulkhead beneath the dashboard. Steve could not get to them, so I donned my headlamp and went in. I had to lie down next to the engine to cut the ties and toss out the bad sections. Oh, it's good to be useful.

Next challenge, find new hose. After calling 3 nearby marinas and being told they don't have boat parts (?), we found an Ace Hardware in Englewood that appeared to be near the Gulf. The internet is essential during these missions. They had the hose and off we went in the dinghy. We parked at a dock for one of those dry storage marinas and found the Ace right across the street. They had a wonderful marine section. We got our hose plus a fishing net (in case we have to rescue Lucy), a new flag pole for the AGLCA flag, a floating key chain for the boat door key (duh!), and 2 collapsible 5 gallon water jugs, which we promptly filled at the dry storage place. Holding only 40 gallons of fresh water is an inadequacy of our boat, but we've not wanted to carry extra jugs. We've managed so far by filling up at every opportunity, but we are on an extended anchoring binge, and had spilled a few gallons into the bilge when the hose broke, so thought we'd give it a try. Did you know that a gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds? Those extra 83 pounds in the dinghy made it impossible to get up on a plane for the return trip with our little 9.9 hp motor. After a slow ride back, Steve had the water system back up and running within the hour.

Today is New Years Day, and it was raining off and on for most of the day, so we stayed put and have managed to entertain ourselves. Steve got chewed up by sand fleas on the beach. Benadryl capsules are the only thing keeping him from scratching like a madman, so he's pretty much joined Lucy in an all day nap.

The rain has stopped, so we'll stay here tonight and move on tomorrow for more adventures in 2010. Hope everyone had a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year !!