April 17 – Another day to push 49 miles – final destination Ft. Pierce. We made contact with Gerry and Joanne Buckley who were also headed to Ft. Pierce. We planned on cocktails aboard Starlight Express. Diane was hell bent on getting a haircut and took me along since I had not had a haircut since before Christmas. We were both able to get excellent haircuts for $14 for me and $18 for Diane.

Along the way from N. Lake Worth to Ft. Pierce we traveled with a Sabre 43 named Comotion. As we were walking down the dock at Ft. Pierce we introduced ourselves to the captain and crew of Comotion and were invited aboard for a cocktail. Another couple, Fred and Deb joined us and Gerry, Joanne and Hinkley the dog came in by dinghy and suddenly we have a party. Isn’t cruising fun?

April 18 - Tried to get away early the next day but we chatted for over an hour with Fred and Deb. Then we wanted to find our friends Irv and Alice from Wisconsin whom we met on the way down. Finally got away at noon with the intention to get as close to Cocoa as possible. The wind began to blow and we were concerned about finding a protected anchorage. I wanted to anchor off Melbourne Beach but it turned out to be too unprotected for SE winds so we anchored just North of Melbourne Bridge which turned out to be a good decision.

We hauled anchor early the next day to get to Cocoa Village Marina as early as possible. We wanted time to hang out with Bob and Liz Hammond, who are back after a trip home and getting ready to head north. We also made contact with Geoff and Betsy Wadsworth who are back from the Bahamas and heading north on the ICW as well. They are a day behind but we think they will come to Cocoa Village Marina as well.

The Marina was booked for a club event so they put us on the south docks. With the wind it was very rough but Bob and Liz helped the harbormaster get us back into the slip. We met Bob and Liz for cocktails on their boat and decided on dinner at the Tai Restaurant. Gerry had contacted us on the radio that day and raved about the food there. He was right; we had a wonderful dinner there. It was also great to share stories with Bob and Liz.

More Later

OK it is time to get serious about recording the rest of our trip. I will save our trip to Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas for later. For right now I will summarize our trip from Stock Island Key West to our current location downtown Savannah, GA.

We left Stock Island on April 7th heading out to Hawk Channel. We noticed that we had a little vibration in the shaft and I am thinking the mechanic should have done a shaft alignment. Another issue to deal with when we get to Miami. I called the mechanic to advise him of the issue.
Strong winds out of the east made the trip very unpleasant and hard on the boat. Motoring and pounding into heavy seas is not picnic. Decided to go inside at Marathon and possibly stop at the Marathon Yacht Club again. But with predicted strong winds out of the northeast that night caused us to drop that idea and continue on for as long as we could. We made it to Shell Key, a very quiet and nice place to anchor. We stopped here on the way down.

April 8th - We decided to get an early start at 7:00 am to make sure we had a rising tide going through Steamboat Channel near Cotton Key. This is where on the way down we had to wait for the tide to rise just to get through. We also wanted to see how far we could go. Diane is getting anxious to head home. We ran hard aground again at Cotton Key at a confusing set of marks. Just as we were getting ready to call Tow Boat US, a small power boat came by leaving just enough wake to free us. I was ready and hit full reverse just as the wake got to the boat and voila, we backed off without a hitch. Fortunately we did not lose much time. I am not sure I would call that the kindness of strangers but perhaps it was divine intervention. We got to Biscayne Bay early enough to set sail and had a beautiful sail to one of our favorite stops, Boca Chita which is part of the Biscayne Bay National Park. This is the first time in over a month we have been able to sail. We were one of two boats spending the night. Sheer delight.

April 9th - The next morning we took just enough time to enjoy the scenery and Boca Chita before heading to Dinner Key Marina in Miami, a short three hour sail. Notice I said sail instead of motor and a beautiful beam to broad reach it was. We had made arrangements with a mechanic to align our shaft so I thought we needed to get to Dinner Key by 11:00 AM. Well he mechanic never showed. One nice plus was that our bikes were still right where we left them two months ago. Remember we left them to make room in the forward cabin for our guests. One bike had a flat tire and there was a little rust but overall they are in good shape. We also connected with our friends Rick and Susan who we met in Norfolk on the way down.

April 10th and 11th - Our plan was to get the mechanic to align the shaft and head to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday to hang out with my swim team while they compete in the YMCA National Swim Meet. The weather was still not great for the short offshore passage from Miami to t. Lauderdale. But once again the mechanic did not show due to a family emergency but he arranged for another mechanic but he could not get to me until 9:00 am the next morning. On the positive side, our freezer died and with the extra time in Miami I decided to call a refrigeration mechanic. He just happened to be driving by the marina on his way to another job so he decided to take a look to see if it was something simple. I thought it just needed refrigerant so that is where we started. It turned out that the refrigerant had become contaminated so he had to evacuate the system and recharge it. It worked like a charm and he only charged my $125. We also got to spend time with Rick and Susan and had another fabulous dinner at Calamari's with them that evening.
The mechanic finally showed and was able to align the shaft. We are still not sure if that is what was causing the vibration in the shaft but at least it is aligned. He only charged me $100. Diane took one of my shirts that I had torn to Susan's boat. She actually has a sewing machine on board. We spent the rest of the day getting ready to sail to Ft. Lauderdale the next day. I also did taxes.

April 12 - Sail from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. We delayed our trip by one day but were still able to maintain our reservation at the Hall of Fame Marina, right next to the Hall of Fame Pool where the YMCA National Swim Meet was being held. The plan is to hang out with my swim team until Sunday and leave on Monday. The sail was pretty ugly with SE winds 15 - 20 knots and 4 - 6 foot following seas. Diane was most concerned about the inlet into Port Everglades. It was rough but we had the tide with us going in and we made it without a hitch. Somehow we missed a turn on the ICW on our way to the marina and ended up on the New River, a very narrow high traffic channel. Nothing hurt but my pride but we sure did surprise one of those paddle river boats when he saw us doing a U-turn as he was coming around the bend.
We arrived at the Marina at about 2:30, had a mojito at Coconuts, made our grand entrance at the swim team meeting, and attended the Y Nat'l Social at the pool. We spent the next two days with the team.

On Saturday a thunderstorm interrupted the meet, I found and fixed a leak on the boat, and we attended the team dinner. On Sunday the coach Nancy Brown and Geoff Revitt along with four other team members joined us on Starlight Express for rum punches. We had so much fun we decided to stay an extra day just so we could have another dinner at Coconuts.

During the swim meet there was a major music festival happening on the beach with Kenny Chesney and other famous artists. We did not buy tickets but the town was going crazy and we could hear the music from the boat.
April 16 - We decided to go as far as we could in one day which required going through 18 bascule bridges, 2 fixed 65 ft. bridges, and one bascule bridge under construction, a very long day. At the first bridge we saw 4 -5 manatees. The bridge tender was warning all boats to keep a lookout. We made 49 miles and anchored in North Lake Worth, a beautiful quiet anchorage.

Slowly catching up - more later

We are at anchor just north of the Memorial Bridge in Daytona waiting for the tide to go down for the International Speedway Bridge. As we approached the bridge the clearance marker read just over 62'. We need 63'4". It is a very peaceful place to anchor on a Wednesday.

Since the last update we had to haul and spend the night on the hard at Robbie's Marina to replace our dripless stuffing box. What was supposed to be a turnkey operation, while we hung in the sling for the repair turned into an overnight stay on jack stands in the marina. Robbies is where all the old boats go to die. There was an abundance of wooden boats in various degrees of repair and a underground population living on those boats, all of which were our of the water. Some had been there so long that they ahd built scaffolding to get on and off the boats. There was even a submarine for sale.

The job was finished that afternoon and all that neede to be done was test it in the morning after we launched. However the new shaft stuffing box required water through a tube to cool the shaft while underway. Turns out that the mechanic tapped into the exhaust instead of a raw water source so he needed to be re-run the hose. By the time that process was done, checked out by the head mechanic, and the bill paid it was 3:30, too late to go anywhere. So....we motored about ¼ mile and took a slip at the Stock Island Village Marina.

If we thought Robbie's was interesting, it paled in comparison to this marina. It was Mediterranean docking with a mooring ball off the bow. The marina sent a skiff out to meet you to run the line to the mooring ball. Behind the boat was a place to park your car and put all your junk and I mean junk. There were makeshift Tiki Bars with lights, old equipment, stuffed lounging chairs, etc. Some of the boats with live-a-boards had not been moved from the docks in years. Next to us was a home built wooden boat from Russia with two couples living aboard. In order to protect the boat from the wood worms found in the warmer climates the owner covered the boat with fero cemment. It was quite a sight (see picture). Then there was a 140' sailing vessel without a mast allegedly was owned by the man who stated Mastercard. The boat lost its mast in Hurricane Wilma and the owner never replaced it. The dockmaster said the new mast would cost $12 million.
Some bad weather passed through so we stayed three days.

One day we were walking to the showers and saw some commotion near the entrance. There were four police officers with M16 rifles and there was a man with his chin on the ground in handcuffs. There was an SUV with two kids in the entranceway and the police had blocked anyone from going in or out of the marina. There was an amber alert involving the kidnapping of two children by two men on a 26 foot sailboat. This hit national news and the Coastguard was announcing on channel 16 every 15 minutes for several days. It turns out that this was a case of mistaken identity. Diane heard the policeman tell the kids that at least they had a good story for their grandmother.

We did discovered a local favorite restaurant called the Hog Fish Bar and Grille. The menu had a great quote "if you found this place a local must have told you". The sign over the bar read "#1 Locals Spot". We had the local favorite Hog Fish sandwich which was excellent. The weather finally cleared so we were ready to leave. Unfortunately, the winds were from the east dead on the nose. They don't call it Key West for nothing.

I finally have a good internet connection. For whatever reason my Verizon hotspot is suddenly working. Maybe it has something to do with moving from Downtown Key West to Stock Island Key West.

I have several blog entries to load so you will see several updates dates before this update. I will also try to upload some pictures but no guarantees.

We are here because we had a mechanical problem relating to a leaking dripless shaft stuffing box. They are not supposed to leak and if they do they need to be replaced. That experience will require another blog update for another day.

I will also be updating my position so you can see our progress home on the map to the right. Sorry for the long time between updates for anyone who has been checking.

More updates from Key West

I have lots of good pictures but the internet connection here is weak and usually kicks me out when I try to do anything with a lot of data.
Having the experience with shallow water behind us, we decided to depart the ICW and sail to Marathon via Hawk Channel. The winds were perfect for a fast trip outside and Hawk Channel is protected by a reef further out in the Atlantic to slightly dampen the seas (Diane might disagree). So we departed at 7:00 AM for Marathon. We motored through the 65' fixed bridge at channel five and set sail with strong but manageable winds. We discovered Marathon Yacht Club in the books and decided to get a slip there. I called the club and they invited to their fish fry. The only hitch was that they were on the Gulf side of Boot Key which added about seven miles to our trip. Rick, our navigator, made a few calculations and determined with the existing winds we could get there by mid afternoon. When we arrived and finally found the Yacht Club's little harbor, I called them on the radio. We were assigned slip three and I told the harbormaster, Bob (who was an unpaid club member) I wanted to back into the slip. After a detectable pause he tentatively said OK. Once in the harbor I understood his hesitation. There was just enough room for me to spin the boat and back into the slip. There was a powerboat docked at the bulkhead next to slip three to add a little more challenge. There was absolutely no room for error and just about every member of the Yacht Club were there to greet us and witness any docking disasters. I know what you are thinking but somehow we managed to have a perfect docking. It turns out that the club had just completely replaced their docks and installed a pump out system for pumping out your holding tanks at the dock. Their commodore also challenged the club with an objective to be as friendly/hospitable as possible to all transient boats. The club had truly met that challenge which made our stay there most enjoyable. Even the cook came out later to lament that she had missed our arrival.

We departed at 9:30 the next day for either Newfound Harbor or Key West depending on wind, weather and current. As we motored out toward Seven Mile Bridge I heard the thump of a lobster pot as I ran over a float I did not see. I was convinced that we had something on the prop so we anchored and I went over the side to check it out. The water was again "take your breath away" cold but I found nothing on the prop. We either spun it off or I was imagining things but at least I knew. That took about 45 minutes. Even so we were able to sail and motor sail to Key West arriving at about 4:30PM.

Rick treated us to two nights at the Gallion Marina which sits right on Front Street in downtown Key West. Very nice! Rick also treated us to dinner at A&B Lobster upstairs which is one of the best restaurants in Key West.

We did as much as you could expect to do in Key West in two days which included eating great food, catching a sunset at the Tiki Bar drinking a "bucket of love" with 6 different kinds of rum, and provisioning the boat. We did have a cabbie experience. We were waiting for a cab from Friendly Cab Service which has mostly pink cabs. A white cab showed up and when we asked him if he was from Friendly he said yes. He drove us to Publix and complained the whole way about all the tourists (damn customers) that come to Key West in February and slow traffic to a crawl. He also gave us his political views about how the government is taking care of people who don't want to work. It turns out he was infamous on the Island. He was steeling customers from the other cab companies using a scanner to cherry pick the fares he wanted. Needless to say we did not call him for the ride back to the boat.

We were now ready for an early departure (6:30 AM) to the Dry Tortugas, about 70 miles from Key West. More later

Another update from Key West

Well I have been waxing way too long and somehow we are still in Key West. Not a bad place to be and it does make it easier to update the blog since there is not much to write about when you stay in one location for so long.
Back to our trip getting here and our trip to the Dry Tortugas. I forgot to mention in my last update that we grilled steaks ashore at Boca Chita while I was working on the coconut. Yum!

We left Boca Chita on February 20th for Tarpon Basin. It was a long but uneventful day on the ICW. We did see a Morgan Out Islander 40 run aground. He was right on the magenta which is where we would have been had he not been in front of us. Lucky again. Tarpon Basin is a beautiful spot surrounded by mangroves. It is about three times the size of Shaw Bay on the Wye River only shallower. We launched the dinghy for the first time since Dinner Key and explored the mangroves. I always enjoy exploring in the dinghy. It was a quiet night with only about five other boats.

The next day turned out to be our biggest challenge of the trip so far in terms of shallow water. The waterway did a lot of winding and the depths were very shallow. We got used to 5'10'- 6' depths that would scare the hell out of you on the Chesapeake Bay. We draw 5'5" so it became a matter of inches. The difference is that the bottom is very flat. That said the navigation was very confusing and there was no room for error. As the day went on and the tides got lower so the inches between the keel and the bottom became even less. There was one section that I strayed slightly from the channel and ran hard aground. Because the bottoms are so flat when you do run aground it is much harder to get off. Amazingly enough a power boat came by with twin Mercury 300s and he pulled us off. Both he and his girlfriend were experienced boaters and knew what they were doing. She was very excited to see us get off. Once again we were very thankful for the kindness of strangers.

Keep in mind that the tide is still going out and did I mention that the winds are building out of the north. As we approached Cotton Key and Steamboat Channel the depths started getting less and less until the depth sounder was reading 5'6" and bump, we were aground right in the middle of the channel. I tried backing off but that did not work since the bottom is so flat and there was no good water to be found. Then a mobile pump out boat came by. We asked him where the channel was and after thinking for a long time he thought it the deeper water was to starboard, the exact opposite of where we thought it was. As he attempted to drag us to the so called deeper water my depth sounder showed less water. He finally gave up and we dropped the hook to figure out what to do.

Just as we dropped the hook we found ourselves in the middle of a major powerboat/viceboat race with waves of 10-12 boats flying by an undeterminable speed. Fortunately their wakes were minimal so we only bounced a little bit off the bottom. After the waves of powerboats went by, the wave after wave of powerboats came back the other way. Since the dinghy was in the water I decided get in and sound the channel with an oar. As I was rowing to what I thought was the channel, the end of one of the oars fell off and sank. Once I determined that the end of the oar was not broken but merely fell off, I decided to get in the water (cold enough to take your breath away) to retrieve it and sound the channel in full snorkeling gear. Diane pointed me in the right direction so I was able to retrieve the end of the oar. I was also able to determine that the water depth was the same all around the boat.

We then called Towboat US on channel 16 to ask if there was any good water where we were or did we simply have to wait for high tide. We were told that we would have to wait for high tide which they said was after 7:00 PM (not what my tide chart app said, it said high tide was earlier). I asked what the tidal range was in this area and he said about 8 - 10 inches; as I said it is a matter of inches. In about an hour we saw a Catalina 445 sail by at great speed. We made radio contact and to ask for his depth sounder reading. Of course he said his depth sounder was inaccurate. We began to notice that it felt like we were floating again. In about 15 minutes we hauled anchor, bumped a few times on sand ridges created by the current and pushed on to Shell Key. The Guide book said there were two public mooring balls but we never found them. As a matter of fact we have never found any mooring balls mentioned in the guides. Shell Key was a quiet little State Park out in the middle of nowhere. Since mangroves were all around we encountered some of the nastiest mosquitoes on the trip.