Bella Bella Labelle

Labelle, Florida

26.7606 N 081.4392 W

According to Libby and i, this tiny city of 4.570 people is the most charming place we know in all of Florida. It can't compete with Marathon as a haven for cruisers, but in pure charm it wins. Consider a few of the following facts.

Lavelle offers free docks with electricity and water for boaters. Those docks were completely rebuilt and modernized last year.

I'm writing right now from a coffee shop one block away from the dock.

The sidewalks in Labelle detour around the roots of live oak trees instead of cutting through the tree's space.

Labelle is the home of the best restaurant in America (according to us). It is The Log Cabin BBQ. I started salivating just thinking about that as we passed through Fort Myers. We ate there last night, and will again tonight. I'm thinking about lunch.

The speed bumps in Labelle have signs that say "Traffic Calming Area"

The air conditioned library is only 100 feet away from the dock.

The town fills up with hoards of Mexican agricultural workers on some days. Numerous local businesses cater to them. It's like a vacation trip to Mexico.

Labelle hosts the Swamp Cabbage Festival.

Consider the dress and attitude. The picture above shows a man in the coffee shop. He was a tall man, with a ten gallon hat, big boots, a middle aged belly, and red suspenders. In Texas he would have been an LBJ lookalike and quite an intimidating presence. In Labelle, he wore short shorts and his legs looked like Flamingo legs. That makes quite a different impression.

A nature trail a few blocks away leads down to the river. It compares with Cumberland Island as a nice trail.

We can buy mangrove honey here.  This is the only place in the world we know of to buy that.

The approach to Labelle is on the Caloosahachee River. Life along the banks of that river appear to be the best that Florida offers. I compare it to the charm of Otter Creek in Vermont.

Ok, I confess. It was the desire to visit Labelle that made us choose this indirect route to come north from the keys. We will cross Lake Okechobee to reach the East Coast after leaving here.

Great Start

At Sea, 25 50.351 N 081 45.478 W

 

Monday, April 14, 11 AM

 

It has been a while since we were at sea. Last night was a great start.

 

We are sailing from Marathon to Fort Myers Beach. A distance of about 110 nautical miles (117 statue miles). The winds are light and we are motoring while sailing.

 

We departed Marathon Sunday around 5 oclock. (I miss Marathon already!!!) That gave us about three hours of light to get out of the harbor, under the bridge and on course. We chatted with our friends Bob and Sandra on Carpe Diem. They were anchored at Coconut Key for the nighgt. They and we appeaered to be the only vessels in Florida Bay. Amazing. The sky was clear blue and the water turquoise.

 

As an added treat, we had a nearly full moon. Libby and I love sailing at night with a full moon. It's really beautiful. The moonlight competed with the phosphorenct light in our wake. At first I thought we would be treated to a sight we've never seen before; a lunar eclipse while at sea. But I misread. The eclipse is tonight, not last night. We'll probably be sleeping tonight at 2AM.

 

Right now, we're passing Marco Island. We should arrive in Fort Meyers Beach after dark. That could be a problem. We may decide to put in at Naples instead because we could be there in daylight. But we've never been in Naples harbor before. We'll see. Tomorrow afternoon might be stormy. We don't want to be exposed then.

 

One bit of bad luck. We snagged a lobster trap. It must have happend after I went to sleep around 4AM. Libby didn't notice. She turned on the engine, pushed up the throttle and continued. When I got up around 7, I immediately saw that the speed was too low and the engine was laboring too hard. Something was wrong, and I suspected a lobster pot.

 

So, we stopped the engine. I stripped naked, put out the boarding ladder, put on my mask and snorkel, deployed the boarding ladder, grasped a sharp knife in my teeth and dove in the ocean. Romantic huh? The water was warm which I appreciated.

 

I checked the propeller and shaft. It was clear. I checked the rudder. Aha! We did have a trap and its line was jammed in the 1/2 in gap between hull and skeg rudder. We have a metal tab that crosses that gap to prevent lines from getting in there, but sometimes it happens anyhow.

 

During the day, we keep an eye out for lobster traps and avoid them. At night, we can't do that. Many cruisers refuse to sail at night because of that risk. But they have fin keels, spade rudders, and exposed propellers. The likelyhood of them snagging a trap is higher and the severity of the damage is more, than on Tarwathie.

 

If my memory is correct, this is the fourth time in 9 years and 45,000 miles of cruising that we snagged traps. The worst was in Maine where I nearly succumbed to hyperthermia while cutting it free.

 

I dove down and cut the line. It only took five seconds. (Having an extremely sharp line-cutting knife on board is very important.)

 

That fixed, the problem. Speed and engine power returned to normal. I estimate that we must have dragged that trap 15-20 miles. I'll have to train Libby to be on the lookout for such events. But in this case we would have had to wait until daylight to dive. I never would have spotted that black line in the water in the dark.

 

Ready To Leave. Maybe

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

 

I really don't want to leave here. It is so nice. But summer and hurricane season approches. Sigh.

 

I was planning on leaving Monday, and heading for Fort Myers and the Okechobee Waterway, just because we like that. But weather forecasts said it would be better to leave today.

 

• Solar panels stowed Check.
  
• Go up the mast and inspect the rigging. Check.
• Test run the engine after the recent work we had done on the alternator. FAIL!
• Tell the cruisers net that we are leaving. FAIL!
• Put the Honda generator away and bolt down the cockpit floor for sea. Check.
• Retrieve my bicycle and check out from the marins. Pending.
• Put the dinghy on deck. Pending.
• Re-clean the bottom and prop. Pending.

But wait, what about the two fails? I found a wiring mistake. The alternator lead was hooked to the wrong side of the current measuring shunt. That means it worked OK, but was not measured correctly. If fixed that.

 

The cruiser's net failed because of some problem with the power wiring to the VHF. It is intermittent. I rewired it a month ago, and it has been working fine until this morning. I'm going to have to rewire it again before leaving. If that doesn't work, we'll have to cancel today's departure.

 

Gotta run. More work to do. We can leave anttime before dark. By the way, there should be a beautiful full moon tonight. That will be very nice.

 

If we do leave today, next blog won't be before Tuesday.

 

Protecting Yourself from Heartbleed

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

I was about to be stampeded into changing all my passwords, when I got the following information from Lookout Mobile Security.  As you can see, changing passwords too fast may work against you.

How can you protect yourself?

Look out for communications from the services you use. As companies patch this vulnerability and secure their own systems, some may send emails or other communications to let you know. Not all services will be communicating about this vulnerability, but you can always contact them to ask if their systems are secure. Get a new password ready. If you receive communications from any of your service providers telling you that their systems are secure, this is the best time to change your password. Changing your password before a system is secure could actually make your new password easier to intercept. Download Lookout's Heartbleed Detector. The OpenSSL vulnerability also impacts some Android devices. Although the likelihood that you will encounter an exploit is low, our Heartbleed Detector app will let you know if your operating system is affected by the Heartbleed bug and if the vulnerable behavior is enabled. You can download the app in Google Play now.

Revenge on Murphy

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

 

Like all engineers, I'm a big fan of Murphey's Law. If anything can go wrong, it will. I even like to speak as if Murphy was some kind of God-like super being looking down at us and laughing. But another thing that I'm fond of saying is that Murphy's law also applies to Murphy himself; its recursive. Ha ha LOL.

 

So, it is with particular pleasure that I can report having bested Murphy when finishing my recent deck painting project. In this case, I bought a quart of very expensive Interlux topside paint for $49. I also had a quart of naptha, and a top quality $15 paint brush.

 

In normal circumstances, the project would require 1.25 quarts of paint and naptha and the brush would harden halfway through. That's Murphey's law. Not only would I be forced to buy more stuff, but I would be forced to carry the leftovers in my paint locker on board the boat for years.

 

But in this case, I finished the job with less than one ounce of paint and less than one ounce of naptha remaining, and the brush was just beginning to get hard. I was able to trash all three with a good consience. No leftovers for the paint locker.

 

The mere fact that Murhpy wins 90% of the time makes it more delicious when we win the other 10% of the time.