Annapolis to Key West
28 October 2013 | Safe Harbour Marina, Stock Island
Monk
We're off!
After 25 years of preparation and procrastination, it was finally time to take in lines and cast away cares. Or at least cash in one set of cares for another.
Well provisioned by Mark and Francesca Green, we slip away from our dock in Arnold Md for points south. Leslie Heins and Michael Miller (with us since before the beginning) also joined Julie and I for the premier leg of this journey. Motoring down the Bay into a light wind gave the new engine and propeller a good workout--and no complaints were had then or now.
By midnight we are schoonering at a pleasant clip with a west wind. But it did not take long for our first casualty to manifest itself--the jib sheet caught the lip of the mushroom vent on the aft dorade box, and the whole assemble is tossed overboard. Oh well. Another Jimmy Wray project when we get to Key West.
Through the Bay Bridge Tunnel shortly before dawn, and into the Atlantic. Rolling down the Carolina coast, gybing around Diamond Shoals, being passed by the Schooner America as she heads shoreward towards Morehead City, dancing with dolphins, catching tuna and wahoo (fresh sashimi anyone?), lifeline to pulpit parting off Georgia, triatic stay (between the masts) coming loose as we near Jacksonville, playing bumper boats with the traffic in and out of Port Everglades, wing and wing south of Miami, gybing our way (more than desired!) for the turn to Key West, inside the reef prior to Marathon (little less sporty!), up the Stock Island channel at 4:30 in the a.m., finding our slip occupied (fortunately! Might have been on the challenging side to park without the dinghy as push boat), and over to the fuel dock at the new marina to await the dawn. Drinks and showers for all, and needed rest. Over to Safe Harbour later that morning, greeted by all the old friends still on the docks where Mistress made her home for so many years.
We expect to stay here in the marina for a couple months, then onto the mooring for a couple more before continuing on to the Pacific. Plenty of time to fix and hone all the little, and not so little, items which need to be addressed--but there will always be something to address--just like life.
Be well, and Thrive!
Monk