In Steinhatchee, FL

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January 8-15, 2023: The Jolliet crew reunites and I meet another solo Looper on a boat even smaller than mine.

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(continued from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee, FL)

I had originally planned on spending just 3 to 4 nights at Steinhatchee, but that stretched out to a whole week due to weather on the Gulf. Although I thought the crossing was the only time weather would be a serious issue, it turned out that Steinhatchee was still quite a distance from where the Florida Gulf ICW continued. I’d have to go out into the Gulf two more times to get back into protected water.

So I waited.

Steinhatchee treated us to some pretty awesome sunsets.

The Other Arrivals

A few hours after we arrived at Steinhatchee Marina at Deadman Bay, the rest of the boats that had left Carrabelle for Steinhatchee arrived. Remember, Kim, Ted, and I had no qualms burning dinosaurs to put on the speed to shorten boring rides. Most other folks cruised at 6 to 10 knots so they all came in after us.

Kim and Ted knew a lot of the new arrivals, having run into them at various other parts of the Loop. Because I was behind most folks and pretty much in a rush throughout December, I’d missed out on a lot of socializing. The fact that I liked to go to out-of-the way marinas and anchorages didn’t help with my socializing efforts. The dock hands squeezed all these big boats into slips as well as they could. They actually asked Ted to move Pony out of its slip to make room for a bigger boat.

Here are some of the boaters on the dock late that afternoon after everyone had arrived. My boat is on the far left in this photo; I’d backed in. The slips in the foreground were very short — too short for any of us. I don’t remember all the boats that arrived, but I know that Yellowstone, Dream Maker, and Child of the Sun were three of them.

The Reunion

The most anticipated event of my stay in Steinhatchee was the reunion of the three boats that had first (and last) been together in Jolliet, Illinois — back on the very first cruising stop of my trip — Kim and Ted in Pony, Connie and Michael in La Principessa, and me in Do It Now.

I’d been texting pretty much daily with Kim and Connie as their boats advanced on the Loop while I was home in November and then as I began to catch up, little by little, on my return after Thanksgiving. Pony was in the lead for while, but Kim and Ted took breaks for the holiday that delayed them enough for La Principessa to pass. Heck, even Do It Now managed to pass Pony back in the Destin area.

Connie lived in Steinhatchee so she and Michael were at her home while La Principessa was docked nearby. They showed up that first afternoon for docktails — which somehow managed to be on my boat! — and dinner at a local restaurant.

They left the next day on a trip to Ohio and returned in time to say goodbye a week later.

Kim and Ted also got to reunite with Nagui, another solo Looper in a Rosborough 25 named Boundless. Slightly smaller than my boat and with an outboard motor, Nagui had also begun his Loop on the Great Lakes. I can’t remember where Kim said they’d met up with him. He arrived the day after we did and was parked next to Pony.

Here’s Boundless with Pony parked beyond at the dock in Steinhatchee.

Life at Steinhatchee

There wasn’t much to do at Steinhatchee in the way of chores, mostly because I’d done what I needed to at Panama City. It was certainly a good thing that I’d done all my laundry there because neither the marina nor the town seemed to have laundry facilities.

The town, in fact, didn’t have much of anything within walking or biking distance of the marina. There was Maddie’s Market, a sort of convenience store/supermarket where I could buy milk and other basic items. I did bike over there a few times.

I also biked over to the Ace hardware store, which was a bit farther down the same road. It had the most amazing selection of knives, all in a brightly lit glass case, that I have ever seen.

On the way was a food truck called Coastal Cantina with an eclectic mix of menu items. I stopped there for lunch the same day Kim, Ted, and Nagui walked to and from the market so we joined up and had lunch there. I had curry tacos and they were amazing.

Coastal Cantina is a food truck offering Mexican and Asian food.

We also went out to dinner one night at a Kathi’s Krab Shack. One of the marina employees dropped us off on her way home from work. It was a neat place where a lot of locals ate. I made the mistake of ordering the mullet special. I learned that mullet is an extremely bony fish that I never have to eat again. My Bloody Mary was a meal in itself. After dinner, we started the long walk back to the marina on a side street and, by some miracle, another marina employee saw us walking and offered us a ride back. (Honestly, I think they were looking for us.)

The scene at Kathi’s Krab Shack.

Dream Maker

Sometime during my stay, my bike developed a flat tire caused by running over a small nail. I had no way to repair it and there was no bike shop in the area. Someone suggested filling the tire, which had a tube, with that green oozy stuff that stops leaks from the inside. A great idea, but it was a long walk to the hardware store.

Enter the folks on Dream Maker, a very large cruising boat parked at the end of the dock. Ann and Frank knew of my dilemma and were walking to the hardware store. They offered to pick up some of that green stuff for me if the hardware store stocked it. A while later they came back and gave me a little bottle of the stuff and refused to take my money.

(I’m starting to suspect that people in large boats look at me in my little boat and think I’m poor. In reality, my little boat, being only 4 years old and loaded to the gills with navigation equipment, probably cost more than a lot of these older, bigger boats did.)

The next day, Monday, Dream Maker left the dock early. I’m not sure, but I think they were headed to Tarpon springs — a cruise of about 100 nautical miles. I didn’t actually see them leave, but I noticed around dawn that they were gone. I also noticed, a while later, a boat just outside the river channel that seemed to be anchored out there. For hours.

I later discovered that the boat out there was Dream Maker and it wasn’t anchored. It was grounded. On rocks. Unfortunately, the tide had been going out when they left and was pretty low. If you recall from my previous post, the way into the Steinhatchee River channel zig-zagged. They missed one of the turns, drove out of the channel, and got stuck on rocks.

They came back to the marina a while later, when the tide had come in and they could float again. We all had sympathy for them, but there was nothing any of us could do. They hired a diver who confirmed that there was damage to the hull and one of their props.

They did have some luck. Apparently a guy who lived farther up the river had his own boat lift that could accommodate their boat. He offered to pull it out of the water for them so repairs could be done. So, a few days later, they departed again, but in the opposite direction.

I haven’t seen them since, but according to Nebo, they’re in central Florida now, taking the route through Lake Okeechobee.

The flat tire, by the way, was fixed by one of the marina guys who had a compressor. He got the green goop into the tire and reinflated it. I haven’t had a problem with the tire since. (I wish I could say the same for the rest of the bike, but that’s a story for another blog post.)

A view looking out toward the Gulf. It was foggy on Wednesday morning. On Monday, when Dream Maker grounded, you could see the top of it just past that stretch of land.

The Packages

The reason I’d originally planned to stay so long in Steinhatchee is because I was expecting Amazon packages. Amazon tracking claimed the package would be delivered Wednesday, which is the day I hoped to leave.

It also turned out to be the last day in a weather window.

Of course, the package didn’t arrive until about 4 PM on Wednesday, which was too late to leave. The weather window closed and that’s why I had to stick around.

(I also got a Chewy package with dog food. That arrived right on time on Monday.)

Anyway, the Amazon package included the airtight storage containers I’d ordered to store all of my dry goods: flour, oatmeal, sugar, cream of wheat, cereal, granola, crackers — you name it. I spent one afternoon storing and reorganizing these foods. Somehow I managed to order more containers than I needed or that would fit in my pantry cabinets. I can use them at home but I’m not sure how I could get them there.

I also got two hook sets that worked with adhesive to put hooks on one of my back windows. A hook on the outside for my life jacket. A hook on the inside to store my sweatshirt and rain jacket. Living in a small space is all about staying organized. I was doing what I could to make that happen.

Taking the Dinghy Out

For the first time since leaving Orange Beach, AL, I launched my dinghy. I was planning on doing more anchoring out and it was vital that the dinghy was fully operational. So I dropped it in the water, installed the motor, started it up, and took it for a ride.

I needed to figure out the seating position. I realized that I needed to sit in the front half of the boat but I couldn’t reach the throttle/steering handle when I was the far forward. The answer was to get an extension. The marina’s store had an extension, but it was a very fancy one made out of carbon fiber. It was $180. I certainly didn’t need that.

So I loaded my pups into the dinghy and took it for a ride up river to the next marina, which also had a shop. I went up and and asked about an extension handle. They didn’t have one. So I motored back empty handed.

But now I knew what I needed to make the boat work. I got online and went to the West Marine website. I ordered a $30 extension handle and had it delivered to the store in Tarpon Springs. When I got there, my problem would be solved and my dinghy would be completely dialed in.

The Shelf Rail Fix

One of the things that had been driving me crazy about my boat almost since moving onboard was the shelf in my galley, which Ranger Tugs had installed stupidly. I’m sorry, but there’s no other way to say it.

In my galley, right below the window, is a wooden shelf with a wooden lip on it. Attached to that shelf is a metal rail that prevents things on the shelf from falling over when boating through rough water.

Sounds good, right? Well, it wasn’t. The trouble was that the metal rail was installed too close to the wall, decreasing the usable depth of the shelf. That meant I could only put very narrow things on that shelf — despite the fact that there was plenty of space on the shelf for wider things. This was driving me nuts. I don’t drink a lot but I wanted to put my alcohol on this shelf and I could only fit two or three bottles.

The metal rail was installed with three bolts that went through holes drilled in the shelf and were fastened with nuts beneath the shelf. I could access two of the three nuts; the third one was near the narrowest part of the shelf and was behind a wood panel I could not easily remove. But I figured that if I undid the other two bolts, I could pivot the metal rail to be wider on the other end. I could then drill new holes in the shelf bottom and fasten the bolts there.

So that’s what I did. I took out my tools, including my drill, and made some sawdust. When I was done, the shelf was far more usable — and it fit all my booze.

You can see one of the two vertical posts I moved on the right side of this image near my martini shaker. Before fixing this problem, I could only fit two bottles on that shelf; the depth was just too shallow to fit most bottle sizes.

(My wine, by the way, has its own wine cooler; you won’t find it on this shelf.)

More Chores

I did other boat chores while I was there. I vacuumed the whole boat. I rinsed it off with the wash brush and fresh water. I topped off my fresh water tank. Twice.

I also made Swamp Soup for the second time. I made it primarily for Kim and Ted since Kim doesn’t really cook.

Other chores I took care of while in Steinhatchee? Blogging. My records show that I wrote and published six posts for this blog in the seven days I was there. (I was still nowhere near catching up.)

And the other thing I did that week was get my fishing poles set up. I had two rods with reels with me and I brought them up to the marina shop one afternoon. The guy who works there — and I’m really angry because I don’t remember his name! — checked them over, replaced the line and lubricated the workings on one reel, and advised me about fishing in the area. He spent about a half hour working with my equipment and gave me a lot of good advice. I walked away only $30 poorer with everything I needed — including artificial bait — to catch what they were catching in the area. Although I did go online and get a Florida fishing license, it wasn’t until I got farther down the west coast that I actually fished.

The Captain’s Meeting

Finally, by Saturday, it looked as if there was a weather window coming up. It was narrow — only two days — but it would be enough for me to get to Crystal River and then to Tarpon Springs.

We had a captain’s meeting on Child of the Sun, which, believe it or not, could fit 12 of us inside its salon. We talked about the weather and where we were all going. Kim and Ted were going all the way to Tarpon Springs. Nagui and I were going to Crystal River, which was on the way to Tarpon Springs. Everyone else was going to Cedar Key, which was on the way to Crystal River.

Captains and crews inside the salon on Child of the Sun. Even Connie and Michael attended; they dropped by to say goodbye just as the meeting was starting.

The meeting broke up and we all went back to our boats. By then, it was getting dark. At the marina’s restaurant, a band had set up instruments and was playing something resembling music. I took my pups for one last walk and retreated onto my boat to watch a movie.

A look back at the marina and its boat storage facility on Saturday night before turning in.

Leaving Steinhatchee

The next morning, we were all up and around early. The goal was to get out of Steinhatchee before the tide went out. All of us remembered what had happened to Dream Maker and none of us wanted that to happen to us.

One by one, we pulled out. Pony may have been first. Boundless was right behind me. It would be a long day to get to the Crystal River anchorage.

(continued in Steinhatchee to Crystal River, FL)