Stuart and the end of the world as we know it.

     On March 12 a group of 4 cruising boats left Old Bridge Village in North Fort Myers headed for Stuart. Our first stop on our leisurely cruise is the WP Franklin Locks and Campground, a very nice peaceful spot with 8 slips with electricity and water about 12 miles upstream from our village. The next day Donald Trump declares Covid 19 a National emergency and quickly life started changing.  

    After spending a relaxing evening at the Campground, we headed east for our next stop Moore Haven. On the way we passed through Labelle which has free city docks and on through Ortona Locks.  My bow got out from the wall a bit in the lock, I had to hang on with all my might to keep it from swinging around.

    To use the city docks at Moore Haven you just tie up and walk across the street to City Hall and pay $1.00 a foot. There is a park along the docks and a building with restrooms and showers across the street. The docks are old and very high. It was a bit of a challenge to get out of Cloud Nine and up onto the dock. The following morning we went through Moore Haven Locks and on to Clewiston and then across Lake Okeechobee to Port Mayaca. We had a wonderful crossing.

 

    We spent that night at Port Mayaca with the smaller boats rafted to the Camanos and the     Camanos tied off on the dolphins. The next day we headed on to St.Lucie Locks and enjoyed an uneventful passage. Before long we were looking for available mooring balls at Sunset Bay Marina.It would end up being home for a bit longer than expected.

    By the time we got here I was having battery problems. My friend in the Rinker was having issues with one of his engines. We got an uber into town and had the driver take us to several places and wait on us. He was great and got a good tip.

I purchased 3 new lead acid batteries. It was a lot of fun hauling them back to the boat on the dinghy. After much troubleshooting, I determined that my problem was actually my charger. One of my cruising buddies had a portable charger that I used to try to top the batteries off one by one.

This was a constant struggle the entire time we stayed there.

We would dinghy to the Marina every evening for happy hour with our friends. One evening we got incredibly lucky and the Marina was having an end of season dinner, it was a wonderful buffet. The next day as Wendy was stepping out of the dinghy, there was a see-saw effect and the front of the dinghy launched her flat onto the concrete dock.

    The fall had apparently cracked a couple of Wendy's Ribs. Needless to say she was ready to go home and almost called her brother to pick her up and drive her home.  We had a few days of less than desirable crossing windows for heading back, so we waited. We would take the Marina bicycles to Publics a mile or two up the road to buy supplies. That was a surreal experience, people were wiping down all the carts, the shelves were sparsely stocked and some people were wearing masks. We tried to social distance with all except our little group.  Fellow Rossi owner Bill Webster and his wife Molly were going meet us in Stuart after coming back from the Bahamas, but their next marina had stopped  allowing any boats that were not all ready in the marina to come in for anything but fuel. They went on to work their way up the coast. 

  10 days after we had started our trip, the wind was again perfect for a crossing.  On the 23rd we headed back to Port Mayaca.

Tied up again to the dolphins. This time we had an Alligator circling the boats. We also got to watch a couple of  sailboats heeling to get under a railroad bridge. That was quite entertaining, I am happy that I don't have to deal with that 

The next day we passed through the open lock and crossed Lake Okeechobee and on to Moore Haven for another night at the city docks. This time we had to call City Hall and give them a credit card. Between the 

lake and Moore Haven we met another cruising couple who were working their way back to Ft.Myers from the Keys. They had been booted from their marina in the Keys and were heading home. Luckily we all had fueled up in Stuart or Clewiston and didn't have to worry about stopping at any Marinas on our way home.

Lake O was smooth as glass for our crossing back and worth the wait, as it can get pretty ugly pretty quick. After another night in Moore Haven, we continued the rest of the way home to Old Bridge Village. When we got there, the clubhouse and pools were closed and signs were posted everywhere about social distancing. Hopefully this pandemic doesn't last very long 😞 Amazing how much can change in such a short time.

Burnt Store 2020 Rendezvous

     After becoming a moderator for the Yahoo\Groups.IO group and moving to South West Florida a few people in the forum expressed interest in a Florida rendezvous. Knowing that there are numerous Rossi's in the area in the winter, I suggested that we have one down here somewhere. 

I volunteered to "get the ball rolling" but advised that I would need help with "local knowledge" since I was new to the area. A couple of members stepped up and soon we had a planning committee in place. We were advised from planners of a previous Florida Rendezvous in Bradenton that this could take up to a year to get organized, we were confident that we could pull it off sooner.

    The first meeting of our committee took place December 17th 2019 at Bert's Bar in Matlacha, a fun little fishing village in between Cape Coral and Pine Island. Our group consisted of Mike Anderson and his wife Catherine, Peter and Claudia Hornby, Myself and wife Wendy and the photographer of this picture Rob Zivcovic. Rob assisted some with ideas and possible rig storage, but most of the planning was carried out by the group in this photo.

    Mike and Catherine at the time were living in Burnt Store and he suggested that the Marina would be a great place to have our rendezvous. He said Ranger Tugs have one there every year. We all agreed and our location was set. Mike became our "inside man" at the Marina.

    Peter and Claudia worked on possible cruising locations for after the rendezvous and on the itinerary for the rendezvous.

    Wendy and I worked on name tags and signage. I worked on getting people from the Facebook and Yahoo\Groups.io group signed up. Burnt Store Marina did not want individuals contacting them for a slip, I worked on getting accurate counts to have Mike take to the Marina office. We set the dates for  February 24th and 25th after some predicted weather issues that would have created problems for several boats coming down from Tampa and above.

Boats started arriving on the 23rd, we arrived on the 24th by means of Matlacha Pass. If you have never heard the expression "skinny water" Matlacha pass from the south is the embodiment of it. The channel is winding and very shallow. We could see the bottom in the channel and the water isn't clear. We would follow other boaters who passed us to make sure we wouldn't touch bottom. 

By the time all was said and done we had 24 boats that attended as well as several people who flew in or drove just to share in the fun. 

After check-in, some boat tours and a group running over to Cayo Costa for a couple of hours, we had a Happy hour at the Pavillion and then Dinner for 60 at Cass Cay restaurant. The staff pulled off a fabulous job. Great food!

The next day we had discussions about various different subjects ranging from AirHead composting toilets to what wind app we you on our phones. 

The Goldmans gave a presentation on the great loop in a Rossi. 

We ended after a potluck\cocktail hour with silly prizes being awarded for furthest trailered etc.

The next day most of the boats headed for home, 5 headed to Cayo Costa, Cloud Nine among them. The winds were coming straight from the south and intensifying. I was unable to get a good anchor set in the crowded anchorage so we continued on back to North Fort Myers.

The waves going home were 3-5 feet, more than I had ever been in before. We were heading straight into them and it was actually fun. It got a little trickier after we turned east to head up the Caloosahatchee. We made it home safely and before dark.

Hopefully there will be another rendezvous soon, this one was a blast. For anyone interested in the groups.io forum, here is the link to join.

https://groups.io/g/rosboroughrf246owners

Groups.IO

 In the summer of 2019 we purchased a house in North Fort Myers Florida. We spent several months working on our Ohio house to get it ready for sale. As a long time member of the Rossi Yahoo group and someone with an IT background I threw my name out there when the moderators asked for volunteers. 

Heading South

Just as we were about ready to drive down to Florida, I got a call from one of the moderators asking me if I would join them, I accepted and  by the time we got to Florida I was assisting in transitioning the Yahoo Group to Groups.IO as Yahoo was phasing out their groups.

Our new house is located in a 55 plus community in North Fort Myers, on the Caloosahatchee river. The village has its own marina which is now Cloud Nine's homeport. My first boat project down here was to replace my disintegrating door slides. I purchased 4 1.5" thick lengths of Starboard from another group member.  I used a table router to mill the slides and followed directions from another Rossi owner on how to do the replacement.

Starboard is relatively easy to work with using regular woodworking tools. My hot tub seems to be my work bench these days 😁

To replace the Port side slides I removed the cooktop and the refrigerator. Half of the screws are behind a plywood bulkhead. The screws were evenly spaced so I measured the approximate distance from one to another  and used 2 different hole saws, one with a pilot bit and another without to make sure I didn't drill into or through the hull.  

I used the old rails to mark the location of the screws and drilled pilot holes. I thought this would be wise as the old rails were all cracked where the screw holes were. It was really nice to not have to worry about losing my doors anymore. 

Between the Facebook group and the Groups.io Forum you meet a lot of people who feel like friends whether you have actually ever met them or not. So when the Websters, who were doing the loop mentioned how bad their rails were, and that they had been in contact with Rosborough USA for new rails, I told Bill to have them shipped to me and we can replace them in our Marina. Bill thanked me for the offer and before long the rails had arrived followed by the Websters.  Bill and I worked like a seasoned pit crew and  had them back in business by the end of the day. My wife Wendy described their rails as held together by duck tape and a prayer 😁  

The next day they were back on their way out to the Gulf , the Everglades and on to the Bahamas.

2018 Upgrades

 After several years of replacing hoses and various other head parts and finally determining that the holding tank was the source of the never ending stench, I pulled everything out. I after lots of comparison reading purchased an AirHead Composting toilet. If it works as advertised, it should end the stench as well as give us much more available time on the hook. Typically we would need to find a pump-out after 5 or so days.

 

After viewing a YouTube video on making a futon for a Van I decided to make one for the boat. So I pulled out the dinette and relocated the house batteries to the bilge. I routed the vent hoses out to the cockpit.

  I also ordered rear sliders from Bomon in Canada. It was lots of fun removing the old windows and creating templates for Bomon. I used Debond Marine Formula to soften the caulk and picks to pull it out. 

When I finally got the new windows I still had to trim the opening some. Better to have to trim vs. fill somehow. The sliders make such a difference when it is hot out. 

I reused the drawers from the dinette so I wouldn't lose any storage space.

I actually gained usable storage by building this lift out drawer. 

Folded out all the way it is the width of a double bed. Folded up it gives you more walking room in the cabin and is more comfortable to sit on then the twin mattress that the previous owner had installed.

The air conditioner was mounted above the helm station and we had to use a dyer vent hose to get cool air down to the v-berth. I found 14" hatches on Great Lakes Skipper. I cut a new hole over the 1st mate's seat and installed the 2 hatches and cut another centrally located 14" hole for the AC unit. The AC now blows air down into the V-berth and we have more ventilation when we aren't running it.

 

Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley

July 2017 we towed Cloud Nine 450 miles to Paris Landing state park on Kentucky Lake. I had previously called to verify that we could leave our rig parked there for 2 weeks while we cruised. When we got there the dock master advised us that we had been misinformed. After discussion he let us disconnect the trailer and park it and the truck right out in-front of the Marina Office. We spent 1 night at Paris Landing Marina and started our cruise the following day.

Once we got going, one of the first things we saw was this huge empty barge that looked like it was the size of a Cruise ship.  I couldn't figure out what it was until we had gotten closer. There was lots of wildlife and beautiful scenery

Some of the views from our various anchorages were amazing. Sunsets on the water are always beautiful. Our first anchorage did not disappoint

About halfway through out cruise we stayed at Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. They had very nice air conditioned bathroom suites that were a great pleasure after many days on the hook.

It was so hot while we were there that the entire town lost power. We were almost ready to leave and anchor out so we could run our generator when the power came back on.

Another beautiful sunset from the next anchorage we stayed at. 

Lake Barkley\Cumberland River unlike Kentucky lake has a much narrower meandering channel and can go from 50' to 1' in depth very quickly.  Most of the safely accessible anchorages on Lake Barkley are on the opposite side from the "Land Between the Lakes"

Early morning leaving from Prizer Point Marina for a 75 mile run to Clarksville. We had been wanting to take up to 2 weeks on the cruise, but the temperature and humidity were horrible so we decided to do a long run to our next marina stay in Clarksville. Tried to close up the boat and run the generator in the cockpit so we could run the ac but we only got a few miles before both of our CO detectors went off😞

There are lots of bluffs as you get closer to Clarksville. Don't think they have to worry much about flooding all the way up there. 

Our Last stop was Clarksville Marina, it is a brand new top notch facility. Clarksville is my original hometown and I was very happy to see them build this Marina. After a little more than a week and approx. 150 miles on the water, my niece who lives in Clarksville drove us the 50 miles by land back to Paris Landing to retrieve my rig. Would love to do again sometime when it is not quite so hot. 

We found the anchorages that we used with ActiveCaptain, what a great resource.

I created the map below showing our route and anchorages. 

Spring 2017 Modifications

One of the members of the Yahoo group came up this idea for extra storage. I modified his idea and built this storage cabinet. This uses what is essentially  unused space and provides a good deal  of extra storage.

Any extra storage on a boat is always a plus. The angles were pretty fun to match. The louvered doors were available online. The lower shelf is also very useful and is easily removed to access the anchor locker

We replaced our kitchen sink and faucet. I decided to replace the short galley faucet with the long gooseneck. It sure makes it a lot easier to wash dishes.

I found NMEA 2000 cables that connect directly to the twin Yamaha's. They send information from the outboard's computers to the NMEA 2000 network and allow me to use our Garmin 5212 to view fuel flow, alternator output, water temp, speed, hours, rpm etc.

Bought a king size 8" memory foam mattress and used the existing v-berth cushion to layout a pattern to cut the foam. Used a cheap electric knife to actually cut the foam. Apparently I should have bought a less "cheap" knife as I burned out the plastic gears. Sailrite sells all you need to do a much more efficient job, all it takes is money.

This should be a whole lot more comfortable than the existing cushions.

Got sick of not knowing how full our fresh water and black water tanks were, so I installed the Sensa Tank II level sensors and display. The black water tank was pretty easy to mount the sensors on. The fresh was a bit more of a challenge. Reaching down through the access hatch and attaching the sensors would be easier with longer, skinnier arms. Sure is nice to be able to check the levels, so you don't get a rude surprise.

Bought a hotel style safe at Harbor Freight and mounted it above the hanging locker. Great for stashing wallet, boat registration, SD cards for the chartplotters.

The previous owner had painted the Armstrong brackets with Copper based bottom paint. Unfortunately this can cause major corrosion and had started some serious pitting. I stripped the brackets to bare metal, sprayed with zinc chromate and then primer and topped off with white enamel.

We will see how it holds up.

I did some tailoring of our 2 shower surrounds to make our privacy surround more aesthetically pleasing and functional.  I was quoted over $2000 for someone to make a surround for us. I made ours for under $300. Leaves me money for other boat projects 😁