Wayward Sun Sailing

Well as planned we left the marina on Sunday, Jan 6th and anchored in the Manatee close to Snead Island. Got moving Monday morning around 7 am and headed out the channel. Wind behind us and a good current running out so we flew out towards Passage Key and into the Gulf of Mexico doing 7 knots motor sailing. Nice wind in the Gulf and we shut down the iron genny and had the sails up doing about 6+ for a couple hours until the wind died out... so back to motor sailing. Beautiful day on the gulf so could not complain too much. Sun set a little before 6 so we started our shifts of 2 hours on 2 hours off. Me (Margi) taking the first shift from 6-8 since I have a strange habit of wanting to "adjust" to the darkness as it sets in and set in it did, it was pitch black and couldn't see anything ahead. Moon was a sliver and set around 7 pm, so no moon at all to light the way. Stars were out and Orion was in clear sight, which is another strange hangup - I like to see Orion while we are sailing at night. It's only been 8 months or so since we last went to the Bahamas, but still don't like the night sails and this time it was hard to adjust to, esp. since there was some creepy haze all around us right after the sun set. As luck would have it, the winds finally kicked in again on one of Dave's (Capt'n) shifts so plans were to start sailing again. Then.. as luck would have it, the winds went from behind us, to on the beam, to heading us, to right on the nose completely eliminating our chances of sailing and then died in the morning. Besides having to motor sail through the night, the trip went relatively well. Made it to the Little Shark River around 1:30 pm and got anchored, but not until after Capt'n went a little too far in. Well we didn't run aground, tide was up 1.6 and we saw 6'8", WS draws about 6'2" fully loaded so luckily the tide was up. So backed her up and got her into about 10' and anchored there. Had a wonderful anchor beer, Capt'n pictured above with his. Only boat in the anchorage and it was beautiful - another boat did come in later and anchor, but a good distance away.

Up at dawn the next day to get an early start for Marathon and hopefully beat the cold front in. Out of the anchorage, rocking and rolling a bit on the water blowing about 15-20, which was great for a downwind sail. Sailed for about an hour or so until the wind AGAIN died, couldn't believe it as the forecast was for 10-15 and to pick up to 15-20 with the front. So we motor sailed again in order to get to Marathon before dark and hopefully pick up a mooring. The Gulf of Mexico is loaded with crab pots and even 25 miles out we were seeing them here and there. Getting close to Marathon they are all over the place and we are very diligent to miss them. Got about an hour out of Marathon and was ancy about calling and getting a mooring as there are no reservations in Marathon, but you can call a little out and get one and we have never had a problem. Called and to my dismay they were full - leaving us thinking we had to anchor outside of Marathon and with the high NW, N winds predicted it would be very rough out there. Dock master suggested anchoring, inside - I'm like you're kidding right. He said no, it's wide open, but wide open to one is definitely not wide open to another. My question was what about the locals - that area was always loaded with derelict boats and locals packed in tight together, I would never try it. He said Irma got rid of most of them and for us to just to check it out. OK, but this will never work! In the meantime, Capt'n had upped the rev's to 2600 to get us moving as we seemed to be losing speed. I get back to look and they are at 2400 - what's up with that??? So, he goes to up them again, puts the throttle down and nothing - no increase in revs. OH GREAT - no mooring and now we have engine problems! Capt'n runs around checking everything and nothing wrong with the engine we can tell, water temp good - oil good, fuel good, wt? is going on? I did remember friends telling us when the picked up crab pots the speed would slow drastically, but didn't remember anything about the revs. So I suggested Capt'n call our cruising friend Bob on Caribbean Soul and see if he could tell us what happens (he's picked up a couple before) and if we did indeed pick something up. We could not see that we were dragging anything, but something was definitely wrong. Well Bob suggested putting the engine in neutral, I'm steering and I'm like NO - I'm afraid to, thinking we might not get any revs back. Reluctently I did so, held it there a few secs and put the throttle down and yes, we are getting more revs now, wow! So, next was to put it into reverse for a 10 seconds or so to see if we could shake what was on there. That seems to work, we were back to normal and we definitely owe Bob some wings and beers!!! Never have we picked anything up like that, but next time we will know what to do, although hopefully there will never be a next time. Capt'n still has to go for a swim when it warms up here, just to make sure there is nothing still wrapped on the shaft. So, anyway, we get under the 7 mile bridge and the front moves in blowing like stink, I'm watching boats go into Marathon and telling the Capt'n they are going to take the last anchor spot - that is normally my luck. Well we got to the southern anchorage, before the mooring field and AMAZINGLY we squeezzzzeeedd in between a couple boats right off the channel. Closer than I would like, but both people were on their boats and didn't complain - so okay this will have to do & could not believe we found a spot as it definitely wasn't wide open. We are at least protected in here from the waves and it's so nice not to be outside the harbor as it was pretty ugly out there in the anchorage when we were heading in. We got on a waiting list for a mooring since the moorings are $22 a night and include your dinghy dock fee. The dinghy dock fee for anchored boats is $22 a day, go figure on that one. Nice night, but winds definitely picked up throughout the night and are still howling as I type. Checked a few times during the night and we were holding well, which is good since we could only put about 75' of chain out with the limited room, still reasonable scope, but not what we would normally do with a front coming through. Our neighbor was not so lucky; he was sideways close to the mangroves this morning and must have just missed another boat while dragging back. They must have slept through the entire thing as they weren't up on deck trying to do anything until around 8am. We were just about to get into the dinghy to see if we could help them, when they luckily got the boat moving. They are anchored beside us again - a little closer than before, but I'm not saying anything as it's traumatic enough when your boat drags on anchor and we anchored close to them to begin with. So plans are now to wait out this cold front and we are hoping to get a break to head to the Bahama's this coming weekend, most likely Sunday if we get South winds to cross the Gulf Stream. We don't need a ton of time just a day's worth to get across the stream and onto the Bahama banks. It is another overnight-er and we will cross the banks in the dark, but after that none until we head back in the spring. Hopefully, there's a bit more moon out for this one and last longer than 7 PM before it sets!

As usual - long winded, but that's just the way it is - I just can't seem to type a short and sweet blog, oh well...