Tied To Dock. 26°52.3529′N 082°14.0032′W.

This was a "Sphincter-Clenching" day.

We started by deflating Scout and removing the head sails. Easy things to do at anchor when there's not a breath of air moving.

Anchor Drama

The Rocna anchor would not spin into position very nicely today. When it's caked with mud, it tends to hang funny. CA fussed with it and fussed with it to try to get it to come up facing the right direction (arch-side up, plow-side down.)

It would not.

And when she did finally get it right, the shackle jammed against the roller.

And when she tried to let out a few inches to free up the shackle...

It all poured out. All 200' of chain siphoned into the Myakka River.

Ugh. That had to be pulled back in. Which is a job and a half.

Then we could try again to get the anchor right side up and onto the bow roller. I had to resort to "Big Muscle." I put on the safety chain and the brake, and wrestled the damn thing into the bowsprit.

I'm not normally allowed forward, but, the anchor would not cooperate and CA had run out of patience with it.

The South Gulf Cove Boat Lock

This was new to us. The lock is tiny. It fits one Red Ranger. On a relatively busy day, boats are going in and out all the time. We circled around for a long time watching other folks navigate a fairway into the river, wait for the lock we couldn't quite see, and vanish into the mangroves.

We'd see a burst of boats come out of the lock, so we got a sense of how traffic was flowing.

See https://www.charlottecountyfl.gov/departments/public-works/maintenance-operations/south-gulf-cove-boat-lock.stml

Eventually, we saw a gap in the action, and motored down there. We can't pause for long -- we drift fairly quickly -- and the fairway is narrow. Really narrow.

There's a control panel to open the lock, if you're the first boat up to the gate. Since it was a busy day, we watched a gaggle of boats come out. They left the gate was open for us, meaning we could motor straight in.

Once in the lock, one person holds the boat.

The other person pulls a big chain on the control panel on the starboard side. Lights blink. A recorded message tells you what's going on. You watch all the gates close, then the bay side gate "cracks", then "opens".

Don't let go of the chain until the gate is fully open.

You can't really keep your boat in position by holding the chain. You have to have a (separate) good grip on the ladder's hand-rails for the minute or so when the water is flowing in.

When the lock is fully open, release the chain, push off the wall, and out you go.

Then comes a 1.5 nm canal through the mangroves, then Interceptor lake, and then a canal past posh canal-front homes.

It helps to come through close to high tide. We started in about two hours prior to high tide so we would have a rising tide in case of problems.

The canal

The folks at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage provide some detailed directions. We'll summarize them here.

Going to Safe Cove.

1. Coming through the lock, keep to port for the first few hundred feet.

2. You'll transit a narrow, natural canal for about 1.5 m.

3. At the intersection, turn left into the dredged channel.

4. You'll transit a wide bay for about 0.5 m. The Interceptor lake entrance will be on your port side, past a "go slow" sign.

5. The waterway makes a tight turn to starboard. An obstruction has been reported mid-channel. 26°55.1366'N 082°11.8025'W.

6. About a mile into Interceptor Lake, there's an island. The channel is on the east side; leave the island to port as you're heading south.

7. About 1.9 miles further is the end of Interceptor Lake. Turn to starboard into the Santa Cruz Waterway. Take the turn very, very wide. A "Slow" sign and Red #2 must be left to your starboard. Stick very close to the port (south) side of the channel.

8. At Red #6, the canal has sea walls on the starboard (north) side. Shift to the starboard side of the channel.

9. At the fourth "Slow" sign, shift to the center of the channel.

10. At the fifth "Slow" sign, shift to the port (south) side of the channel.

11. Take the final turn wide, staying close to the Safe Cove docks.

This is scary because it's shallow all the way through: 6 to 7 feet most of the way.

We ran aground briefly near step 5, the mid-channel obstruction. We were advised by local experts to hit full power and push through whatever little sand mound we found.

We landed at the Safe Cove dock at about 15:30.

The wind was pushing us off, making it a bit more difficult than it needed to be. Fortunately, someone from the boat in front of us grabbed a line, saving us from having to figure out how to go around for a second try in the narrow waterway.

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