Kaimusailing

After rounding Cape Canaveral I hit a nasty South breeze and choppy water. I angled the boat in toward shore into a manatee critical habitat. I wasn't sure I should be there, but I saw other boats after a while, so I continued. I tried to get closer to shore because the breeze was slightly offshore and it would be smoother near the beach. At sunset the moon was out, almost a half moon overhead. I was headed for Sebastian Inlet, assured by an experienced delivery captain that it was "perfectly navigable".
It got dark and I was a little nervous about entering a strange inlet after dark. A couple of fishermen said to follow them in. There was a strong tide outflow and I purposely matched my speed so that I was barely crawling. The problem was that the bridge looked way too low and I already had learned not to trust anything, even my own two eyes. When I was almost at the bridge and convinced I wouldn't make it, one of the fishermen said, "No way". I backed off and faced a dilemna, I was on a coast with no harbor, it was dark, there were strong waves coming on shore, I had been up for 36 hours, again. I decided to anchor right off the beach. Fort Pierce was about 25 miles away and I'd get there in the wee hours of the morning, but iff I took a little snooze, then set out, I could time it so that I arrived in daylight.
I anchored with the engine idling and the nav lights on. I fell asleep right away but awakened what seemed like just a few minutes later. It was around 2:30 in the morning and a big wave had just rocked the boat. Then there was another with a big roar of surf and I got my clothes on in a panic. Things had fallen off the shelves and I was afraid the boat had got loose and was going on the beach. It was just that the surf was larger now and breaking on a reef to seaward. I had the engine in gear and the anchor up in no time. I went out to sea at an angle to miss the reef and get offshore a bit. I went out to a mile offshore and followed the coast south to Ft. Pierce.
I did get there in daylight and it was nice weather. I saw a Morgan Out Islander at anchor and went to that cove and anchored nearby. I tidied up things a little bit and took a nap until mid afternoon.
I had plans to take the dinghy ashore with the bicycle and look for stores. Also I was expecting a call from contacts who might have a place for me to tie up for a few days. I saw the dinghy from the Morgan on the beach with what looked like a beach bum fiddling around with it. I wanted to yell at him and chase him away. Where was the owner? out shopping? Then I realised the beach bum must be the owner when I saw that he was repairing the dinghy. I decided to keep my things on board and go ashore another time. A Scandinavian boat anchored in the cove for the night. I made some pasta again and settled in for the night. I found a local radio station that carried a UFO program that was idiotic enough to put me to sleep.
In the morning I got underway after finding the local city marina and a market online. I got fuel, orange marmalade, water, and rinsed out some bedding that had been soaked with seawater, which won't dry out no matter how hard you try. I decided to continue on the intracoastal to St. Lucie inlet and then decide whether to go offshore or continue inside.
When I got to the inlet it was still early and not time to anchor yet. I went out into the ocean and found a nasty south breeze and big chop to greet me. I could only make about 2 1/2 knots against it without causing mayhem on the boat and wondered if I should go back and anchor. I kept going.
The sun went down and I celebrated with a Key West Ale. I was almost finished with it when a snap roll of the boat knocked it off the shelf and it spilled on the laptop's keyboard. The power cable began getting hot, so I shut everything down. Now I had no electronic chart, no GPS, no tide prediction. I also had no trip log and I had no paper charts of this area. I had no idea how far Miami, my next stop, was. It was something like 54 or 84 miles. I had gone over all the charts of the trip just a short time before, and I was sure that there was nothing jutting out from the beach on my way, probably.
I continued running along the beach, with the idea that I expected to see Miami in the morning. However my estimates were made at 5 knots and my speed varied from half that to around 6 knots. When day broke I could see large buildings along the beach. Could this be Miami? There was a large beacon and aircraft coming and going. As I ran along I tried to get the computer going again. It kept coming up with a "stuck key" error. That must be from the beer.
Finally it fired back up and I found I was near Pompano Beach and Miami was quite a way ahead. But at least I knew where I was now. When I got off Miami's South Beach there was a bombardment of power boats. I was so angry at them that I could have shot them if I had a gun. One went by 3 times. They seemed to be trying to create the largest wake possible. Finally there was a wake so large that the computer was knocked off the shelf. That was the end of that. It wouldn't respond at all now.
I took a guess and entered an inlet and groped my way around the channels of Miami. I got gas at a marina near the Rickenbacker Causeway and asked if I could buy a chart kit for the Keys. They had complimentary charts for the Keys, no charge. What a break!
I continued in the afternoon into Biscayne Bay and promptly ran aground near the inlet from Florida Cape. I had confused the signs for the inlet with the signs for the intracoastal heading south. I had towing insurance with Sea Tow now, and it came into good use. It was high tide and I'd be aground for 12 hours unless they could get me off. They showed up quickly and I was on my way to Shoal Point to anchor for the night. What a day, what a 36 hour trip, again.
After running aground near the channel of Florida Cape in Biscayne Bay I went west-southwest to Shoal Point. I was intrigued by the name, ironic place to go after getting stuck on a shoal. It was a downwind into the setting sun, then setting the anchor near a mangrove shore. No more 36 hour marathons, I would be in the intracoastal for another two days, and anchoring at night, just like every one else.
My navigation before the computer died was quite easy, the computer gave me my course and speed, I could scan a chart or even a future chart many miles away. Wherever I put the cursor I would get distance and true bearing to that point from my current location. I could plan a route and make sure there were no obstacles for a destination that might be more than a day's distance away. The GPS always gave me the actual course made good over ground, which included any drift from current or wind. My compasses which were never permanently installed would give a magnetic heading, but they hadn't been "swung" yet to give correct bearings. It didn't matter while using the GPS and computer, I could just make a note of whatever heading the compass was on and stay on it.
All that changed after the computer died. Now the computer display of the GPS was gone and I had to shift to my backup GPS unit. It would give me latitude and longitude, course and speed, but there was no chart display, no scrolling ahead to check my path. I had to use old fashioned paper charts and carefully plan my trip, looking out ahead with the binoculars for markers. After a while I was proceeding as safely as before, maybe even safer. I noticed on the paper chart that the area around Florida Cape was shoal water, but on the computer chart it looked like the whole entrance to Biscayne Bay was navigable. I probably would have had some trouble if I had used the computer display to proceed in from the ocean around Florida Cape as I had originally planned.
The weather continued to be beautiful, up in the 80's during the day and down to around 70 at night. Puffy clouds and an easy run of about 60 miles during the day, then anchor near Cotton Key at night with a trio of other boats. Up at dawn and continue down the keys, islands linked by a system of bridges and a roadway that continued on to Key West.
My destination was Boot Key Harbor. It was recommended by Rob, the delivery captain, as an excellent place to park a boat for a while to work on it. To my surprise it was also the town of Marathon, which was where a TV headhunter was located. I had planned on going to Marathon eventually anyway to get my job search going again. What a coincidence!
On my way I saw I had to go past Boot Key and take a channel to the other side of the Key West highway, then back track into the harbor. I was getting excited as I approached Boot Key. I was nervous about having anything going wrong at this point. Not to worry, I entered the harbor and tied up at the first gas dock I came to, and not for gas, they had a "Tiki" bar and restaurant and I was eager to have a burger and a cold beer. It was wonderful, no charge for docking, yes, this was a good place to anchor and work on your boat, directions were given along with another gratis chart and I was off and into the harbor to anchor and invited back for dinner and sunset, plus they had live entertainment. What could be better.
After anchoring I got the inflatable dinghy and its motor organized and took a loop around the harbor. There must be 300 boats here and many of them neglected, but many others in fine shape. There were a few wrecks that had sunk at their moorings. I was anchored next to a huge catamaran with a french name that obviously needed a lot of work. I continued back to the restaurant as the sun sunk lower and quickly tied up and had beer and shrimp.
I noticed the patrons were all retirement age and the entertainment was a horrible one man band trying to imitate Johnny Cash and other country and western singers. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. At least I wouldn't have to cope with cold weather for the night.
The next day I found the library had internet access, there were hardware and marine stores, a place to do laundry. I rented a spot at the city marina to park my dinghy. It looked ideal to continue the work on the boat.

So I've come to the end of this voyage. I learned to take my time a little bit and in the long run it might prove more efficient. I also learned my capabilities both in getting into difficulties and getting out of them. Soon we'll have a sailing rig and it will be time to go out and test it, then it will be time to go back to sea and sail the boat, not motor along. It is after all a sailing vessel and needs to make passages under sail. Maybe I'll have the computer fixed by then.