KEY WEST, land of 3 happy hours, cruise ships, real local flavor and general debauchery. Spent a week there, 2 nights on a mooring ball, 3 nights at a Key West Bight Marina and a few nights on the hook. Siyasinana hasn't seen a dock since last Nov. 15, 2009 and we felt like we were on vacation. My niece Denise was in town to marry her man Jessie. A great time was had by all. Ceremony on a boat, poolside lounging, reception on Siyasinana and we took everyone out for a great sail. Caught 2 nice king mackerel simultaneously on hand lines drug astern. Took my brother John and wife Patty out to the backside for a few nights. They had a real thrill, as did we, as soon as the storm blew in while underway. When sh-- happens, it usually happens in 3's. One can always survive the first and often the second thing to go wrong. First bad thing: because we were only going about 10 miles I was hugging the shallow windward shore in 10 ft. only 1000 yards off the 2 ft. bars. Second bad thing.... Storm squall blows in...wind to 40 knots on the beam (blowing us towards shore) and torrential rain, zero visibility. OK, we can handle this...just drop the sail and motor into the wind and into deep water until it passes, 45 minutes max. Third bad thing: at the same moment we drop the sails and cranked on both engines, we snag a big double lobster trap and some netting on the starboard (shore side) engine. We have to shut er down. Then the fun starts. The port side engine, alone wasn't enough to power Siyasinana into the wind towards safe deep water because the lobster trap is dragging off the starboard hull or rudder or prop...we don't know. Hmmm. Cant see anything so I check the compass and the chart plotter. I can see via plotter, we are being blow quickly into very shallow water. The seas have kicked in considerably. Next best option, drop the hook and hope it grabs. Lisa heads to the bow, kind of like riding a mechanical bull, and is driven to her knees by the marble sized wind driven giant rain drops. The anchor of course does not grab. Three strikes! So now Lisa, me, George the dog, Siyasinana the boat and my brother and Patty, expecting a sunset cruise with martinis, are in peril. Our last option turned out to work the best...dumb luck! As we began moving backwards, the traps and netting, ropes and buoys just fell away. Fire up the starboard engine, no more drag from the traps, and motor just fine straight into the wind until all is well to enter the skinny, tricky Jewfish Basin. Lessen learned: keep your ass well offshore when the blow is coming because your engines might fail at the exact moment you need them. With enough sea room, we could have kept her offshore with a super reefed jib, even without the engines. We have been sailing all over the ocean since Nov and Siyasinana can handle serious waves and wind so I guess we got complacent for such a short trip.
Thanks to some of our readers for the emails and comments. If any of you out there have any thoughts or questions about our travels, about the Admiral catamaran, life on board (man vs. woman perspective, daily grind, tricks of the trade) etc., just let us know.
Currently: we are back in Jewfish Basin. The wind has been 20-30 knots from the east, right on the nose. We bashed for 5 hours to make 6 miles to the good and bailed out here. That was yesterday. Today we wait. Tomorrow we try again. The mission is from here to West Palm Beach and from there to Beaufort SC in 2 gigs. A few overnight sailing shifts required. Right now the sea state looks very rough, so we will see what she brings come Sat, Sun., Mon. At the moment...just finished painting the bathroom floor, getting ready to replace the jib sheet that parted in the blow, making water and electricity and getting hungry.
For the cruisers: we really loved taking the backside (the ICW route) from Marathon (Mosher Channel) to Key West. Its only about 40 miles, (longer than the Hawk Channel) but beautiful and quite. Don't do it however unless you can spend at least 3-5 days doing it or you miss the reason, i.e.; the countless anchorages, great scenery and awesome fishing. Next report will be from offshore. I report on conditions in the Gulf Stream, always an area to respect.