A Dream Fulfilled
30 April 2014
Wiley
I would class the anchorage at Rodriquez Key as “fair weather only,” but in nice weather it is beautiful. Our plan was to sail to Tavernier Key, anchor for the night, and go into the marina the next day. Because it is only about 5 miles from Rodriquez Key to Tavernier Key, it would be an easy day. We lingered over breakfast, went for a swim, and at our leisure got underway.
Tavernier Key proved to be an even nicer anchorage than Rodriquez, and with better protection from weather. Like Rodriquez, it is uninhabited, with nice stands of mangrove trees.
We decided to take Dimples to the marina where we would be staying. It is on the lower end of Key Largo. The marina is located a long way up a canal, and having never been there before, we found that locating the entrance and going in the canal was a little tricky. There was a lot of shoal water, but of course we knew this from the charts and it was no problem for our dingy Dimples, which needs only two feet of water for her outboard to clear the bottom. We brought our hand-held depth-finder to “scout” the entrance for later, when we brought Les Miserables in. It was a good strategy, and would have made taking our “big” boat in later a much calmer experience.
The canal seemed very narrow, because it was tightly packed with boats on both sides. We found the marina, and the slip we had reserved for two weeks. It wasn’t hard – it was the only empty slip. However, there was a huge problem. Merry has had some still undiagnosed problem with one of her knees for years in spite of multiple trips to local doctors. Last late fall, during a four mile run, Merry’s knee “went out,” and she came limping back in pain. Now she had a noticeable limp and experiences some pain in her knee. The marina had no “finger docks” – just a row of pilings on each side of the boat as you pulled in, and a walkway wall in front of the boat, with cleats for mooring lines. You had to clamber from the bow of the boat down the walkway to get off the boat (or from the stern if we backed in), and for Merry this would be impossible.
We walked around the marina, and were shown great hospitality by some people who live on boats there. The area is full of very small houses, and mobile homes – some right on the canal. There is a gas station you can walk to that has a few food items. There is nothing else. We have no car and no bikes. This place was not going to work. Our plan was in ruins. We had no place to stay with the boat – and Sean and Tesia were arriving in four days. YIPES! We motored back to Les Miserables trying to come up with a new plan.
Back on the boat, we dined handsomely on pre-made packaged sandwiches we had purchased at the gas station, accompanied by a nice French wine. A nice sunset turned into a beautiful starry night.
By the time we went to bed, we had a new plan. Merry called the marina in Tavenier to cancel our reservation and call Marina Del Mar even though we knew it would be an expensive stay. In addition we had originally decided not to stay at Marina Del Mar because Merry thought that I would be a constant nervous wreck going in and out of the place. The canal is like the one at Tavenier, but much busier. The cruising guide warns that during the day, large “excursion” fishing boats, dive boats, big sailboats that take people out to snorkel, and even a big glass-bottom boat makes constant passages in and out. If a large boat is docked just past the jetty at the entrance to the canal, you may not be able to see a vessel coming from the other side of it. Further up the canal, it makes a 90 degree turn. At that spot, you cannot see what is coming from the other side – it is truly a “blind corner.” To make it worse, there isn’t enough room for two vessels – unless one or both are small to pass each other. It’s like a blind corner in which a two-lane road turns into only one lane through the turn. It is aptly named “crash corner”! To add to these navigational features, the channel at the entrance of the canal is only 4 feet 6 inches deep at low- low tide. If we ever came in at low tide we would have only inches between our keel and the channel bottom. Thus, we had decided earlier to not stay there because of the expense, my nerves + blood pressure, and getting the boat in and out to go diving on the reef would be a challenge.
However, we were desperate.
We got up the next morning, put on our wetsuits, and snorkeled over to Tavernier Key. We spent time among the mangrove roots on the edge of the island, in two or three feet of water. We knew that mangroves are the “nursery of the reef,” and this is certainly true at Tavernier Key. We saw huge school of tropical reef fish – only they were all little babies an inch or less long. Merry also saw a school of tiny barracudas – babies eating babies!
After we got back to the boat, Merry called the marina in Tavernier and explained the reason we would not be able to commit to our reservation. She offered to pay for canceling the reservation, but the lady who owned the place declined. She could not have been nicer. She then called Marina Del Mar. The guy at Marina Del Mar was also very friendly, told us we would not have trouble getting in, and so Merry reserved us a slip.
I was nervous finding the channel into the canal, and making our way into the marina. Merry checked tide tables to make sure we weren’t going in at low tide. We followed proper procedure. As we approached the jetty, we called: “Security, Security, Security (pronounced “se cure a tay”) sailing vessel Les Miserables inbound Port Largo Canal at the jetty. Will stand by on 16 (channel) for concerned traffic”. We did the same thing when we approached “crash corner”. The idea of course, is to warn vessels coming the other way. They can then call you on the radio, and you “negotiate” who passes the jetty, or crash corner, first. This seems to work very well, and I have been told there hasn’t been a crash since everybody started doing this. After the first couple of times, going in and out of the Port Largo Canal it because a usually easy and comfortable routine.
I quickly ceased to worry about the cost. After all, being here and having Tesia and Sean fly down to go diving and snorkeling at John Pennekamp Coral Reef Park off our sailboat was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thus, its not a normal expense it has to be amortized! The math works as follows: THE LARGE EXPENSE OF STAYING AT MARINA DEL MAR is divided by 77 (the total number of years I will live if my life is of average life for a male in the US), producing a number which is in turn divided by 365 (the number of days that I’m alive each year) proving that the expense of staying here is, IN FACT, ONLY PENNIES PER DAY.
The slips at Marina Del Mar have two pilings on each side to secure the boat to, - and two cleats on the face dock for bow or stern lines (lots of boats back in to slips here). This is the best possible set-up for keeping the boat safe if there are high winds, because the lines to the pilings on each side can be used to “center” the boat and keep it from hitting pilings on the dock. There are also “finger docks” so that you can board the boat from the side (the usual arrangement). Merry happily found that she was able to get on and off the boat.
The owner of Marina Del Mar also owns the Holiday Inn, which adjoins it and the Marriot – as a result we have access to three beautiful swimming pools. One pool has a waterfall and Tikki Bar. One is very large – u shaped and big enough to swim laps. They offer free towels, free ‘continental breakfast’ and even free bags of popcorn in the afternoon. The showers and laundry room are for the exclusive use of boaters and they are maintained like the rest of the hotel – they are spotlessly clean! Brian the Dock-master, as well as the entire staff could not be nicer. The only marina we have ever stayed at that I liked more was the Hopetown Inn and Marina in the Bahamas.
There are also a dozen good restaurants within easy walking distance, along with dive shops and Divers supply a huge “discount” scuba store that also fills scuba tanks. There is a big Publix grocery store two miles up highway A1A. The place is perfect.
For me, it is also a place of dreams. The first summer that we were married – the summer of 1972 – Merry and I had watched the old movie Key Largo, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, at our first apartment. We thought the movie was very romantic and we liked it a lot, and the experience of watching it is etched in my memory. Later, we loved Bertie Higgin’s song – Key Largo: “We had it all – just like Boggie and Bacall – Sailing on to Key Largo (poor Bertie’s only hit).
Years later, we drove down here twice with the kids and stayed at the Marina Del Mar Hotel. We went out on the “snorkel boats” with the kids, and I remember Sean and I chasing a 2 foot barracuda until it got mad at us and “turned” as if he was going to bite! Merry and I also bought a package of dives on a small dive boat and spent a lot of time underwater on the reef while the boys grandma, Merry’s mother, took the boys to the pool and played cards.
Most of all, I remember having a great romantic dinner at a wonderful restaurant, and then walking with Merry along the canal, looking at all the boats – especially the sailboats. There was a beautiful young couple who owned a big old sailboat, and there was a homemade sign by the boat, advertising “day sails, snorkel trips, sunset cruises and weddings”. I used to think, “imagine what it would be like to live on a sailboat at Key Largo! It must be wonderful beyond words.”
Now we are here, and when Merry and I sit in the cockpit of our beloved Les Miserables in our slip at Key Largo, drinking wine or having dinner, and couples stroll by, I wonder what are they thinking?
Is it “imagine what it would be like to live on a sailboat at Key Largo?” Will they have a dream come true like mine - Or, if they are a young couple is it, “ look at the two old people on the sailboat. I can’t imagine what it is like to be old like that!”