Miami
06 May 2010
Lori
We had another great overnight sail from Key West to Miami. We think the boat sails faster after cutting off the wings from the keel. We stayed ahead of the Amel 54 and only turned our motor on to enter the cut. The Biscane Key Park was pretty cool, we motored through the narrow channel between some of the remaining slilt homes. As the shallow flats are now a national park the cottages that are built on slilts are not allowed to be repaired and after each hurricane less and less remain. After a long night of sailing we were lucky to get a spot in the crowded anchorage as a boat had just moved to tie up to the wall.
Within a hour of anchoring, the anticipated storm arrived early and the fun really started to happen. As usual we had laid out at least 100 feet of chain and backed down to 2000rpm to set the anchor. We were waiting to see where the boat would settle before taking up some scope if needed. Of the ten boats in the small harbour five were to drag. The Amel 54 whom we had been traveling with was one of the first and I think they were either relaxing or sleeping after their long sail. People were screaming and I radioed over (on both 16 and our buddy boat channel) that they were dragging. At one point another cruiser was trying to fend off their stern and then fell over the life lines and from our view looked like he was going to get impaled. Then four more boats in their back corner of the anchorage started to drag. After the Amel realized his steering wheel was tied off, he motored at full steam backwards, black smoke billowing out of the exhaust trying to avoid the rest of the boats. Two boats collided without serious harm. With the wind blowing 40 knots plus the five boats were powering through the anchorage just barely missing one another. Those of us on the five boats which were holding firm stayed in our cockpits with the motor idling in case our anchors broke free as well. After unsucessful attempts to re-anchor three of the boats went to tie up to the wall. One boat kept driving around the anchor with their anchor dragging in the water, he would try to anchor but would drive ahead and pull the anchor out again. We could also hear the lady on the next boat screeching at the top of her lungs for everyone to stay away. All in all a quite exciting morning.
A few hours later it was all calm again and even more boats started to arrive and anchor so close they would swing with mere inches. We checked the weather again and only stayed the one night before moving on to a place where people knew what the heck they were doing.