Easy Passage
30 March 2014
Wiley
While we were at Coconut Grove we became more and more concerned that our youngest son Sean and daughter-in-law Tesia would be arriving in Key Largo in a week or so, and we still didn’t have a place for our boat where we could comfortably stay. At last an old friend, Ron Barkley, who lives in Vero Beach with his wife Mavis, was able to come up with a place after we had been in contact with them through email. It was at a marina at Tavernier, which we thought would be about 4 miles south of where Sean and Tesia would be staying. The marina would give us easy access to Hawk Channel, so we would have easy access to Hawk Channel, and take Them out to the reefs – Sean is a newly-certified SCUBA diver and was eager to get underwater. The marina which charges $2.00 per foot per day, which is still expensive to us, but we called and learned that a slip opened up and other than the slip the marina was full. So we made a reservation.
We made a plant to depart early in the morning and sail to an anchorage at Old Rhodes Key, where we would spend the night, and then to Tavernier the next day.
We left our morning at 8 o’clock and by 8:24 had cleared Dinner Key Channel. Once we were in Biscayne Bay, we began seeing lots of Portuguese Man-O-War drifting on the surface. They look like blue bottles floating in the water. We were forced to conclude that it would be a really good idea to wear a wetsuit, or at least a dive skin when diving, snorkeling, or swimming down here. At 9:38 we cleared Biscayne Channel, and sailed out into the Atlantic. We could see “Stiltsville” to the north – houses built over the water on high pilings. Only seven of them remain, and the owners are at constant war with the National Park Service, which controls the Key Biscayne National Marine Sanctuary. It was amazing to learn that the “waterworld” houses have survived numerous hurricanes, including Andrew.
Of course, the wind dropped to 4.9 knots. Les Miserable at 10,500 pounds displacement, is heavy for her class of sailboat, and does not do well in light winds. It seems like whenever the old girl has to get us someplace on a schedule – in this case, to meet the kids in key Largo – we get one of three kinds of wind: no wind, or wind too light to sail in; or great howling gusts of wind coming from exactly the direction we have to go.
Still, it was a sunny beautiful day, temperature in the low 80s – 65 degrees warmer than in Chicago. With our new engine Tim McGee running like a Swiss sewing machine we had little to complain about. In fact, we felt so good about the day that we decided to motor right past Old Rhodes Key, which is open to the north, east, and south and therefore lousy, unprotected anchorage in even the most benevolent weather.
Once we were off Key Largo, we called Sean on the cell phone to tell him – we were right off our “island of dreams,” where we had spent happy times with Brad and Sean when they were little – along with their Grandma. Sean said he could hardly wait to get there!
At 7:15 we lowered the anchor off Rodriquez Key, only two miles from the entrance to the Key Largo canal. There were 4 other boats in the anchorage. I dove the anchor and found that it was set in a sand and grassy bottom in 8 feet of water – mediocre holding, but good enough on a clear, calm night.
We could see the lights of Key Largo across the water. After an absence of more than 20 years – we were finally back in Key Largo.