Miami to Pensacola
09 March 2016 | Pensacola
Rolf / 10-20 knots, clear skies.
Too long between postings, much has happened. I added an album with pictures for the Miami to Pensacola legs.
We (Pete V, Andy F, and I) departed Miami (Dinner Key Marina) on Saturday March 6th and sailed across Biscayne Bay to NoName Harbor, the jumping off point for many boats headed to the Bahamas. What we discovered is that on a Saturday night it is also a popular destination for the Saturday night power boat party crowd. The Harbor, which is listed as accommodating about 15 boats, had over 50 anchored out and tied up along the wall overnight. There was also a parking lot and popular restaurant at the head of the harbor. A busy place, but with earplugs and an older party crowd, we easily crashed early for our 5:30 wake up call.
NoName to Lower Matecumbe was our longest single daylight leg of 70 nautical miles. We left at sunrise and arrived at sunset after a beautiful and uneventful broad reach down the Hawke Channel, the stretch of water between the main islands of the Florida Keys and the offshore shoals, islands, and coral heads. This stretch is relatively shallow but very well marked and is inside the racing Gulf Stream which moves north just outside this shallow shelf of underwater protection. We had 15-20 knot winds and moderate 2-4 foot seas the entire trip.
Once in Lower Matecumbe, we passed under the first high bridge south of Biscayne bay and into the Bay of Florida on the west side of the keys. We anchored just off a key by the bridge and slept well, without alarm. At one point in the middle of the night while on deck for a nightly, I noticed that the boat was pointing beam on to the wind. The snubber line appeared covered in weeds and I worried that the keel was tangled as well, but we were rocking slightly to the chop in the bay, so I decided that morning was a better time to deal with it and returned to sleep. In the morning we decided that there must have been a strong current pulling us across the wind and so the boat lined up with the current instead of the wind. Another lesson on the journey for us current-less Great Lakes sailors.
We decided to do at least one overnight passage for the next leg as the weather was with us. We left motoring in the morning and followed the shipping channel up the "coast", which really meant we were able to stay away from the masses of crab pot bouys for awhile. Further north we got under sail and for stayed within the boundary waters of the Everglades to avoid the crab pots. Then we headed West, hoping to get to deeper waters and away from the pots. As the day drew to a close, we were getting out to the clearer deeper part of the Gulf and we slowly began the northward turn. As time went on, we realized that the weather and the winds were with us, and we continued all the way to Clearwater, Florida, having departed Matecumbe on Monday morning at about 9:00 and arriving in Clearwater on Wednesday morning at 11:00.
We visited quite a bit with two other Morgan owners in Clearwater, one just down the dock from us. It has been great to see other Morgans on this trip, but more so, to meet their owners and share stories of our relationships with our boats. John H and Lee and Rose N were the highlight of our days in Clearwater.
In Clearwater, Andy visited his brother and then flew home to MN, and Mike B flew in to join Pete and I on the last leg. By Sunday March 6th the weather indicators were pointing to a one-leg passage and we left Clearwater about 11:00am on Sunday against steady Northeast winds. The winds were supposed to move East and eventually South over the next two days. During the next 50 hours, we put 10 hours on the motor, 2 of which were just for charging the battery Sunday night. Overnight on Monday we ran out of wind (5 knots abaft) so we ran the motor and pointed straight at the Pensacola entrance. In the early morning the wind had picked up and we polled out the jib and ran downwind under jib and HydroVane for a few hours, then turned straight North and with the third reef in the main and 100% jib, we balanced easily for the HydroVane for a long rolling run to Pensacola.
In Pensacola Bay (a huge deep water port) we were again in flat water and with the 3rd reef in the main and 100% jib we sailed right past a 3-barge tug pushing upwind on the Gulf Intercoastal channel. The Bay seems like a great place for day sailing.
We arrived at the Marina at 1:00pm (East coast time?), called Richard and wandered around somewhat confused about what to do next, though eventually we packed up our clothes, battened down the boat, and went to the house. At 5:45 on our watches we took off for Joe Patti's for shrimp and calling from the car about their hours, we discovered we were an hour ahead and their doors closing at 6:00 would be at 7:00 our time. Shrimp and salads with Richard (pork chops) put me completely under, as I hadn't had coffee since daybreak and completely forgot this in the excitement and bustle of arrival. Good to be "home".