Cat-driven delay having shortened our weather window, nature also closed it down from the other end (i.e., the winds picked up again faster than forecast). So we did not have time to make it across the Gulf Stream before they came on strong and directly against the stream: exactly what is not recommended in Van Sant (and more to the point, we have direct experience of what wind-against-current does on the Gulf Stream, and we will wait for weather). Plan B: stage up to Marathon and wait for the next decent window to either slip farther north to Molasses Reef, or scoot across to Bimini if the next weather window is slightly longer.

Of course, this gave me some time to work on the mosaic (started by previous owner Margaret, John's wife, before her illness; so much love went into that that we had to keep it and finish it up) on the counter opposite the nav table. The tiles are all mounted now and only require grouting and the final pour of clear plastic to seal them in and flatten the surface (like those thick-covered bar tables with corks and other interesting objects embedded). Derek also helped by silicone-caulking the sides and back of the countertop to prevent the liquid plastic from leaking down onto his tools in the cabinet beneath. Here it is, waiting for grout:


See the masking tape along the top of the craft paper shield? That's what the cat was eating that made her sick. We are still working on getting her well. We will watch anything she might chew on much more rigorously after this!

A closeup (with flash) of the center section. The flamingo's tongue shell is from Grant's qualifying dive in St. Thomas, the other shells are mostly from a great shelling beach Grandma led us to about a year ago when we visited Sarasota!


Grouted behind the stove, too:


We made good time up from Key West to Marathon. We were running both engines since we had chosen light winds for our departure, and we wanted to do a shakedown since we'd had the starboard engine repaired in Key West by Mark de Jong (Mark's Marine Diesel at Oceanside Marina). It was gray out, of course, as we were riding the funky wind direction that follows the passage of a front. Soon the wind went a bit farther N rather than NE, and perked up, and we were able to pull out the jib and motorsail close-hauled. That raised our speed to 5.7 - 6.3 kts (faster as the wind strengthened later in the day).

Everything went well, both engines seemed to be performing well, the starboard engine certainly sounded a lot better than it had when it got weird on the way down to Key West. The autopilot worked, crab pot floats were dodged as we took watches. By 4:30 in the afternoon, we were outside the entrance to Boot Key Harbor. We called the City Marina, which controls the mooring field, but all of their mooring balls were taken. There is a daily "show up in person to be put on the waiting list for a mooring ball" routine, so if we want one, we have to go to the office in person and get our boat on the list. Over the phone, they told us we could anchor near the former bascule bridge.

Outside the harbor entrance, we turned into the wind to take in the jib. I brought the engine revs down so as to simply hold our face into the wind without making progress in that direction: a current was running so I could hover and still have steerageway. Just after I brought the revs down, the starboard engine started to make a strange noise, kind of like the noise of ice in a blender. Not good. I put it in neutral and told Derek, who was taking in the jib. I had thought to leave stbd in neutral and just use the port engine, but the starboard engine started making the noise again even in neutral, so I shut it down. We still had the port engine, so we proceeded into the anchorage.

After we anchored, Derek found that the fresh absorbent pad that he'd placed on the floor of the starboard engine compartment was soaked through and the transmission fluid was empty. It had been full up when we started this morning. He had two bottles of tranny fluid in his spares cabinet, so he refilled from one, and worked the shift lever back and forth a bit with the engine off -- it seemed to get easier to move. He tried restarting the engine in neutral, and it sounded better at first but then started making the bad noise again and he shut it down. We called Mark de Jong (Mark's Marine Diesel). We were hoping he had a colleague in Marathon he could recommend to do diesel repair.

Um, no. His suggestion was to have TowBoatUS tow us back to Key West. We do have TowBoatUS coverage, but there are a number of problems with doing that. First, we would have no place there to stay (the NAS Boca Chica marina is highly oversubscribed this time of year). Second, we just made all this effort to get up here. Third, didn't we just pay Mark to diagnose and fix that engine? It ran less than seven engine hours between the "fix" and this. If he'd said, "Hey, I'll look at it and if it's something we should have caught when we fixed your starboard engine the first time, we'll take care of it," well, that would maybe justify going all the way back. But this is different... Derek is pretty upset, can't remember what having equipment work as it's supposed to even feels like anymore. It could be seals (there are three), it could be something worse. Yet more money??? It seems like every time we go anywhere, that engine has some problem or another. We'd hoped the magic of actually paying a professional mechanic to figure out what was wrong and fix it would mean we could go on this family voyage after all, and we paid more than we could afford to do that -- now it looks like if we want to voyage, it's pay more again for the same engine: for someone else, or the same someone, to look at it and maybe -- this time, again -- it will stay fixed, or maybe the problems will still not all be found. That's what really has him down.

It's very peaceful at anchor here in the popular Boot Key Harbor anchorage:


Derek has adopted another catamaran cruiser's recommendation and rigged a bridle from the two bow cleats that hooks onto the anchor chain about 10 feet along. The resulting pull on the bridle is very light even in today's 14-kt breeze, but my new sewing project is chafing gear to protect the bow's finish from the rub of the line we might expect in a really strong breeze:


Being a catamaran, we have a shallow draft, so we can anchor close to the destroyed bascule bridge: