Citizens of Steinhatchee?

Nice downwind sail from Crystal River to Cedar Key. Dropped anchor off Atsena Otie Key near where we last anchored here before the winter. Later in the afternoon we were accidentally beached by changing wind and low tide over a spit of sand that wasn’t there during our last visit. No problem though, we used the opportunity to clean the bottom. Kedged off around midnight and re-anchored. A rather uncomfortable night with choppy conditions and little protection.

Early morning sun reflecting off the Crystal River channel markers

Shrimp boat returning to Crystal River after a night out working

Beached at Atsena Otie Key off Cedar Key

We departed Cedar Key at daybreak on a stiff south easterly. A little rough but achieved good cruising speed. Nice nature sights too – a huge manta ray got airborne near the boat soon followed by a good sized loggerhead surfacing right in front of us. With a clean bottom and good wind we made good time to Horseshoe Beach. The entrance to Horseshoe Beach is long and well marked with very shallow areas on either side. There were lots of shorebirds on the spoil islands that dot the way in. There is very little space to anchor once inside and the holding is poor in very soft, very smelly, muck. The forecast was for light wind so we dropped a second anchor and stayed overnight.

Sunrise at Horseshoe Beach anchorage

Departing Horseshoe Beach. A shrimp boat is returning down the channel

The channel is quite narrow!

Birds and guano on the spoil islands along the Horseshoe Beach channel.

Birds perched on a channel marker.

Left again at first light on a good southerly breeze. A beautiful morning and a fast run up the coast to Steinhatchee. We had planned to cross Apalachee Bay overnight but a lively storm system was approaching from the west so we decided to hang out at Steinhatchee until it passed. Dog Island just east of Carrabelle was our next destination.

Sea Hag Marina on the Steinhatchee River

Steinhatchee (from Esteen Hatchee - meaning people's river in Seminole) is a great place for sailboats. There is a deep, well marked, channel leading into the river and a nice sheltered anchorage with excellent holding less than a mile upriver. We anchored and planned to head over to the Sea Hag Marina the next day for showers, fuel, and water but when we called they told us the rate was only 50c/foot so we went right over and booked 2 nights! A nice marina with wonderful staff and a store with just about anything you could need for your boat. There is also a good grocery store nearby. The only downside here is that the no- see-ums are second only to the Everglades! Bad news for people like us who prefer to avoid using DEET.

Steinhatchee anchorage. 

Sea Hag's boat storage

Refreshed and restocked after two nights at Sea Hag we headed out as early as we could to try to make the crossing before nightfall. Learned a good lesson while departing the dock in a strong current! The current was from behind but also pushing us onto the dock. I thought I could get enough forward speed to steer away but not! I realized this was not going to work and hit reverse. We managed to recover without hitting anything and backed out like we should have done in the first place! The wind was calm and we motored out with the current keeping the speed up. Shortly after rounding the last marker and setting heading the engine made a brief tappit noise and shut down. Obviously something mechanical had failed and our choice now was to, either continue under sail and try to make Apalachicola for repairs, or turn back against wind and current to Steinhatchee. Turning back seemed the safer option and we decided that Seatow sailed better to windward and gave them a call. They towed us back to Sea Hag. It turned out that the engine had had a fairly catastrophic mechanical failure, unusual for a good quality engine. A bit disappointing with this new Yamaha having less than 20 hrs of run time.

Local cool dude going to work

Steinhatchee River

Delicious raisin cake and a sweet potato cooked in the solar oven. Temp at 230!

As this was now a warranty issue it had to go through a Yamaha dealer. Not so easy from Steinhatchee. Firstly our phone did not work here and neither did our mobile internet device. Sea Hag however, was extremely helpful. They diagnosed the problem (paid of course) and supplied photos, made several phone calls on our behalf, and let us use their telephone whenever we needed to get things going with Yamaha. The nearest dealer, Big Bend Marine, was about 35 miles away and they were no help at all. They said they would not even look at it for 5 weeks! Next we got on to Yamaha customer service who put us in contact with Cedar Key Marina. Just happens to be where we bought the engine and they are now dealing with it. A long story short, 2 weeks have passed and we are still at Sea Hag Marina waiting for Yamaha to return our repaired engine.

Broken Yamaha engine

Next - Comment on Yamaha service quality..... I hope I like them!