A Musical Mystery

April 17, 2017

I am very sensitive to sounds on the boat - a new pitch in the engine, a creak or a groan from the hull, the water pressure pump, the cycling of the refrigerator or freezer. For a while I have been noticing two musical notes that sounded somewhat like a flute.   They alternated at irregular intervals,  one of them more prevalent and pronounced than the other and they were a major third apart in pitch.  I never heard them when we were under way - way too many other noises.  As soon as we anchored or picked up a mooring ball I would hear them.  At first I thought they might be coming from a channel marker with a bell. But after the same two notes became part of every place that we stopped I eliminated that as a possibility. 

Last night the winds were particularly strong and after a dinghy ride into town when we were bringing the dinghy up to tie it down for our last stretch of sailing, I heard the tones very distinctly.  After looking around at the dinghy davits, I found that one of them had a hole in it, about 3/8 inch across.  So I blew over it - like we used to blow over coke bottles and there was my sound!!  I have not yet discovered the second one, but I am rather amused that my dinghy davits are a two note "flute"!!

We are at the end of our "on the water" time.  The last week at Ft. Myers was longer than planned and a bit boring. We were waiting for a part to deal with a gas leak in the outboard motor.  It took a week to get there (!) and we were hesitant to use the motor much so we were pretty much stuck on the boat except for a few necessary trips to the mainland: pay the bill, laundry, showers, grocery shopping and of course sampling key lime pie!! 

Finally the part came in!!  Took all of a half hour to fix after they used their monstrous forklift to get the dinghy out of the water. Afterwards we enjoyed supper at the Parrot Key Carribean Cafe.

Dinghy on forklift - overkill?

Parrot at Parrot Key Caribbean Cafe

Key Lime pie at Parrot Key

The next morning it was not a boring day sailing in the Gulf up from Ft. Myers Beach to Cabbage Key.  We had beautiful winds, sunny pleasant weather, turning to no winds, turning to stormy and rough water, wind direction changing to the wrong direction, motoring and finally light rains!! Tucking into well protected Cabbage Key was a welcome relief.

Our momentary beautiful sailing

We headed up to Punta Gorda the  next day where we spent two days at anchor. Very bouncy.  I hate to be too picky, but it seems to me that I have a love/hate relationship with the wind.    It is hard to get it just right!! It is either too strong, in the wrong direction or not enough. And then there are the waves....I won't go there - not much love in that relationship.

We spent an afternoon at Fisherman's Village on the north side of Punta Gorda. It is a rather touristy area, but pleasant.  We went ashore for lunch and a walk around. As we motored through the marina looking for a dinghy dock we happened to see some friends from Regatta Pointe Marina who are now living at the Fisherman's Village marina.  Fun to chat with Robert and Joni!   We were amused that there was no dinghy dock but there was a "jet ski" dock.  We used it!!

Jet ski "parking lot"

The Fish Market at Fisherman's Village Mall

Key Lime pie at the Fish Market - what else?

After a few hours ashore we headed back to the boat in bouncy seas for our last sail back to Hog Island where we were staging for the return to the boatyard.