La La Land

Greetings from La La Land in the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) somewhere between Sarasota and Venice, FL. Again, we didn't haul anchor until after 10a and we have now anchored for the night at 130p! Sure beats doing 6 locks in one day because there is no place to anchor on some of the midwest rivers!

The First mate started the day by trying to remember how to work the overboard wash down system.  Let's see, white hose in the water, green hose on deck.....WHY isn't there any water coming out of my hose??!  Oh!  White hose end popped up above the water....

Foot on the up switch.....nearly finished getting sand off.....about to yell at the Captain to stop taking pictures!

We went under several high bridges but then this one came along.

The chart said 18 feet clearance...but yesterday when the chart said 20 it turned out to be 18...so what would the “story” be on this bridge? Looks close.

      We made it!  Captain looking happy as he waves at me.

The next one was a swing bridge....beginning to open for us.  Bridge tender in orange in middle of bridge.

The info said to call the bridge tender early as he would have to walk to the middle of the bridge to operate it. Walter called and the man didn't sound too excited about opening it.... and when we saw it we were surprised as it was not very wide...a short walk to the center.  However, the man was older...ahh!  We understood!  He was quite nice waving to us as we went by past.

Yes, the water is very shallow just outside the ICW.  This man is fishing standing on the bottom near the channel.

Some of the pretty houses we passed.... we liked the tower on this one.  That's a sail boat parked in front and just out of sight behind the trees.

I liked the bell shape on part of this roof.

Pretty!

Love the whimsy of this one...a sea horse on the dock and a giraffe in the garden.

Across from our anchorage.

And how about this one out on a point of land all by itself...just off the channel.  It is obviously just finished...new landscaping...how would you to decorate it...window treatments???

A closer look.

It was time to anchor so I went on deck and released the anchor chain...then the Captain began letting it down from the bridge. You know, West Marine is surely missing our calls as nothing has broken down in a long time. Yep...something was wrong with the windlass. This is the thing that turns pulling the chain up from the chain locker down in the V-berth...the forward cabin.  It was turning way too slow...I was ordered on deck to step on the down switch behind the windlass. But it wouldn't release the chain any faster! As a matter of fact it stopped completely just after I began this operation. The Captain came out on deck but that was not the magic needed as it still would not work.....so he began pulling it by hand and lowering it down.

Tomorrow should be interesting...even if my bad back would allow me to pull it up I am sure I don't have the strength for this.  But wait...perhaps I'm saved from this labor!  After we were anchored securely, further investigation by the Captain found that the circuit breaker for the windlass was blown!  Hurray...maybe we will be able to haul the anchor by a powered windlass......but what went wrong to throw this switch??? …..hoping to find this out AFTER we have the anchor up & stowed tomorrow.

This is our anchorage with a small beach just big enough if you need to dinghy your dog ashore.  No puppy here....just two happy sailors enjoying this Grand Adventure!