Final thoughts from First Mate Mari
30 March 2014 | Key West
Mari
It is hard to believe, our final day on the boat has come and gone. But what a final day it was. By morning the wind hadn't stopped but had calmed a bit. The best sailing was saved for our final day. We left Key West Harbor and headed out to Sand Key, another great snorkeling spot. The water was an amazing turquoise color. We stopped to snorkel and Dave went to check things out for us. He saw a nurse shark and some very large Barracuda so Kilian and I decided to pass on the snorkeling! We continued sailing all afternoon, back to our marina on Stock Island, and it was a great way to end the trip. But actually, it just made us want to stay longer.
All in all, the experience was wonderful. It was more wild and rugged than we might have imagined but that ensured that each day was an adventure. The sunshine and beautiful water made us all want to go back. The forecast is looking good for next week . . . Let's go back!
Mari
Landlocked for a couple days
28 March 2014 | Key West
Kilian
Hallo Hallo
Key West is a good place to be landlocked. It started Tuesday when we came back from our trip through the storm and we decided to hang out one day at the dock because of some pretty rough winds. So we spent Wednesday in Key West and explored the city some more. We had a great time there and discovered some really nice spots in Key West. The next day was similar. We wanted to go out sailing but the winds and the sea was just too rough and so we couldn't get out of the marina. So we figured out a new plan and just drove up the Keys with our car and asked locals for nice places, beaches and other scenic spots. We found a great beach, some old roads which are now pretty much totally covered with mangroves and trees. You had to know that it used to be a street to find it out. We just saw some amazing places in the less crowded parts of the Keys.
The men dressing up like women were some of our favorites ;)
Today we finally could go out, sailed around Key West and are now tied up to a buoy in front of Key West and we are expecting a really nice sunset from here.
Tomorrow will be our day to get back, start packing up our stuff and we'll have to leave Sunday morning, which I am a little sad about. I do like Bend, don't get me wrong on that ;)
Uf Wiederluege
Kilian
No longer Landlocked
28 March 2014 | Key West, FL
Mari
Sadly, we've been landlocked for a couple of days due to high seas and unfavorable winds. On the positive side, we already had planned to be back in Key West to wait out the weather, so we got to see some of the local color and more great sunsets, which Kilian was anxious to do. :-). We explored some of the other Keys, walked Duvall Street, etc.
Dave was pretty disappointed to let the boat sit at the dock for 2 days, and I was feeling pretty bad, feeling responsible for holding us back. But today we got out on the water, with considerably smaller seas and lighter winds than yesterday, and it was still more than enough for me, so I'm not feeling so bad now! I think we made the right call.
The sail to the Key West Harbor was good, but still with big waves and heavy winds. This made the anchoring especially difficult, and fortunately we found a mooring buoy to tie up to. We tied up early in the day instead of sailing and exploring more due to the heavy winds. After settling in to our spot, we enjoyed a dolphin show right out the back of our boat. We watched the dolphins for hours, and they were so amazing!
We spent Friday night in the Key West Harbor, where the winds were supposed to diminish, but instead they seemed to get stronger and stronger as the day and night progressed.
I must admit, after many days of really strong winds circling around our boat and making the wind generator "whirl", day and night, I was ready for the wind to stop. I just didn't want to hear it any more! I couldnt' take it any more! (And I needed some sleep). I'm the worrywart of the crew -- checking the lines, our position, the anchor alarm all night.
That's all from First Mate Mari -- I'll turn the writing back over to Kilian.
Back to Key West "safely"
25 March 2014 | Key West
Kilian
Guete Abig
Today was another very interesting day; well it started last night at 1:30 in the morning. We all woke up in the middle of the night; not because of a government ship, because of a storm. The boat was rocking and the rain was splashing down on our boat, and on Dave's pillow through the window ;) We checked everything and figured out that everything was alright and we just had to sleep and wait until the storm was over. Having a tall mast while lightenings were striking, didn't make me feel more comfortable to go back to sleep, but I didn't really have a choice.
We woke up in the morning and the storm wasn't totally gone yet, but the weather was good enough that we decided to leave Bahia Honda with one working engine, aigainst the wind, in a storm, for getting back to the safe harbor here in Key West. To get the boat under controll - because we had only one working engine - Dave had to speed up and we motored through the narrow cut in the bridge with high speed which wasn't as scary as the high waves in front of us. So we motorsailed along the cost for nine hours with one engine and the wind just blew harder and harder. But we finally made it! At 6:30 in the evening we arrived in our harbor safely and tired. The person owning that marina, fixed our second engine in 2 minutes, which didn't really made us feel a lot better... ;)
Now we're all tired, had dinner, are looking forward to the night and our day tomorrow on land in Key West.
Guet Nacht
Kilian
One down, one to go
24 March 2014 | Key West
Kilian
Hallöchen Zusammen
Today was a great day with a lot of sunshine and some exciting adventures. Early in the morning, we left our spot in Newfound Harbor and went to Looe Key again where we snorkeled yesterday and we snorkeled there again today. We saw a lot of very colorful fish and had a great time snorkeling there. It was a lot less crowded than yesterday, which was really nice. We were looking for all these kinds of fish in the internet and tried to indentify the different species we saw.
After snorkeling there in the morning, we went to Bahia Honda, a beautiful island with sandy beaches and turqouise colored water. We anchored there, or to be honest we tried it. One of our two engines quit working and so it was difficult to move the boat at all. But Dave luckily got the boat under controll and so we are now tied up the the NOAA buoy and just hope that no government ship tries to tie up to our buoy tonight ;) We still had a nice evening, explored the island, swam and ate dinner while we were watching the sunset.
Tomorrow we will try to get back to Key West with only one engine...so it might be interesting to read our next blog entry ;)
Kilian
Out on the water
23 March 2014 | Key West -> New Found Harbor
Kilian
Guete Abig
We woke up today and it was just a beautiful day. No cloud in the sky and the sun was shining. After getting the last things ready, we left the dock and entered open waters. The morning was really calm, so we motored to our first location, Looe Key. On our way, we saw a sea turtle and a dolphin. We spent the early afternoon there, snorkeled and saw all kinds of fish. We had a great time there but weren't by far the only ones. It was busy, but we still got some amazing snorkeling in.
We left that place and sailed without any help of the engine to New Found Harbor, where we anchored, ate dinner, watched the sunset and spent the evening on the boat.
Tomorrow we're heading to Looe Key again and we're gonna snorkel and explore some more. It is supposed to be another great day in the Florida Keys and we're looking forward to spending it on our boat.
Guet Nacht und liebi Grüess vom Katamaran!
Kilian