Wayne's World Excellent Adventure

June 10, 2019

Well, waiting for all the above things to get done made me a little depressed while at Ft. Pierce and I just didn’t feel like doing any writing, so here goes.

After Ft. Pierce, left May 12th, it was too late in the year to go to the Bahamas, so I’m on my south to the FL Keys.
The motor-sailing down to Ft. Lauderdale was interesting as I’ve now entered the Multi-Multi Million $$$ Mansions country. Wow, some of them are kinda plain looking, some so big & fancy you think they’re a condo complex with great landscaping!

After Lauderdale I kept going through Miami and on to Biscayne Bay, 43 miles long & very calm. I say two racing catamarans of some class racing south at a bout 60 mph, awesome. When I finally got to the end of the bay I was at Key Largo and their famous Tiki Bar, the biggest Tiki Bar in all of FL. Had a beer and started looking for some parts to fix my anchor roller. Found the part in Marathon the next large key in the FL Keys. It took two days to get down there and get the shaft and have it machined to replace the failed roller shaft. Best thing that happened there was I had a good hit on Crew Finders.com, and after talking to him he met me and turned out to be a great crewman. Leo is a 27-year-old Brazilian who is an oil platform mechanical engineer who decided the corporate life is not for him, so he wants to do some sailing while he thinks about what to do with his life. In the meantime, he’s turned out to be a great crew for me on Apollo.

From Marathon we went to all the reefs and good diving spots on the way to Key West, the southernmost point in the contiguous US. Very interesting town, lots of rich history and the home of Mel Fischer, the diver that found & salvaged the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, the richest Spanish galleon that has ever been found. Home of Ernest Hemingway and hot spot of the FL Keys.

Saturday the 8th we left for The Dry Tortugas, a national park 75 miles from Key West and a great diving area. On the way into the harbor while I was furling the mainsail, I was thrown from the cabin top by an unexpected roll into the lifeline stantions and got my shoulder and back pretty well banged up. The Ranger at the fort on the island recommended I go back to Key West to have X-rays and see a Doc. So I hitched a ride on the Ferry Boat and went to the Urgent Care, got pills and a sling and brace for the cracked rib and bone bruised shoulder. All is well and I’m on my back to the Dry Tortugas tomorrow.

So far everything is working great on the boat and we had a really super sail from Key West to the Dry Tortugas. The boat is all that I had hoped for and then some.

Next stop is St. Petersburg via all the interesting places on the FL west coast to haul her out for the summer Hurricane season and come back in October to continue sailing in the Gulf of Mexico stopping at Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and any other place that looks or sounds interesting.

When I get home, I’ll have a “Coming Home Party” to celebrate, tell stories and show pictures.

Till then, Live Life to Its Fullest!

Wayne

PS pictures to follow when I get a chance to download & send them.