Our Sunday Funday on Party Key! (Sunday, March 25)

Early this morning we decided we should head out and get some miles under our belt. The weather forecast is for high winds in a few days and we didn’t want to get stuck here for too long and miss seeing other places. We decided that we would try and make it as far as we could today to make up time if we get stuck somewhere. We headed for Fiesta Key and had Marathon as a backup if the weather didn't cooperate. It was forecasted that there would be isolated thunderstorms with gusts up to 25. We showered and packed up the boat. We said goodbye to our Northern friends and headed back the way we came in. As we were motoring out Scott and I happened to be looking in the same direction and saw a fin. We both looked at each other excitedly and fearfully. Scott asked if it was a dolphin or a shark and we waited. It came up again and we saw more of the animal this time. It was a dolphin! Finally we had seen one, if only for a brief minute. By the time we had the camera it hadn’t come up again near us. Hopefully we see more soon.

The breeze was pretty light so we motored about 20 miles. We crossed under the 7 mile bridge and continued up the gulf side of the keys. I wasn’t feeling all too hot so I went down below to get out of the sun and take a nap. I arose from the dead about the same time the breeze filled in. We shut off the motor and sailed the last 20NM. It was pretty light breeze still, around 5-10knots. Waves were basically Lake St Claire chop, which was comforting. We cruised all the way up to the harbor entrance at Fiesta Key RV Resort and Marina. We found a wall and parked for the night. We had a nice dinner, showered (again, bonus! Two in one day), and worked on laundry. While we were searching for the change machine (the washing machine took quarters), I found the book swap shelf. Scott was running around like a chicken with his head cut off so I scooped up a Stone(s) Barrington novel and another chick novel for myself. When Scott was less flustered, I told him what I had found and oh happy day! He was delighted, having not yet read the one I found him. 

Tomorrow we are not exactly sure of our plans but we are still headed up the Keys.

Squeaky clean,

Lauren & Scott

No Wonder it's One of the Top Ten Beaches in Florida (Saturday, March 24)

 

I woke up a little earlier than Scott so I explored a bit. I walked around on the beach and took a few early morning pics. I found a little crab that I ended up catching. When I brought it back to the boat I woke Scott up to tell him what I’d caught for him. To his dismay, it was so small it looked like a spider; totally not edible. His morning started and we had Key Lime Pie for breakfast, followed by breakfast burritos that we made at the boat.

We hung around the boat for a bit and then decided to walk over to the old highway. We walked along the outer beach and then back around to the highway. The beach was beautiful! There were a ton of people lying in the sun and wading but it was still not too crowded. The old bridge had amazing panoramic views. I ended up taking a video and tons of pictures because it was so beautiful.

After we worked up a sweat on our walk we decided to go for a swim. We went to the beach between the bridges because it was deeper. We watched our new Nova Scotia friends snorkel and we cooled down a bit. Scott spotted an Island Packet anchored in the harbor and wanted to take a closer look. We kayaked out to see it and the owners were relaxing in the cockpit. We chatted with them about their packet and what their plans were. They were recently retired and had sold everything (house and cars). They were living on the boat that they brought down from Maryland in the beginning of December. They told us that they had a mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor for a month and they were taking a few days to check out Bahia Honda as well. After hearing more about how happy they were with their boat, we headed in to get out of the sun. Back at our boat a manatee came to hang out for a bit. I waited patiently and took a few pictures each time he came up for a breath.

The day was almost ending and I wanted to show Scott the little beach I found in the morning so we walked over. It was low tide so there were a lot of rock bottom tide pools. Scott immediately found Lobster between rocks and ordered me to retrieve lobster catching gear. Armed with gloves I reached between the rocks for an antenna. The lobster wriggled loose and it made me pretty jumpy. Scott grew angrier each one I grabbed but couldn’t keep hold of so I told him to put on the gloves and stick his hand into the dark gap. He did. Allegedly by the time he went to grab them they had all receded into hiding, but if I hadn’t scared them he would have gotten one. We later found out they don’t have claws but that they have thorny whips to defend themselves with.  

Since we were unable to catch any lobster we had to settle for a chicken dinner. We don’t have a solid plan for tomorrow but we think we are going to get back on the move and head further up the keys.

 Winner winner chicken dinner,

Lauren & Scott

My Kind of Place; Bahia Honda State Park (Friday, March 23)

 

In the morning  we checked the weather forecast for the day and found that it was supposed to lighten in the afternoon. We hoped this was the case so we decided to wait until about 1100 to leave. We had a relaxing morning tied to the dock. We tidied up around the boat to get ready to go before taking a morning stroll. We walked down the overseas highway to Big Pine Restaurant for breakfast. The food was good and the service was great! We later found out that this was the best place in town.

Around 1200, the wind had substantially lessened. We made our way out of Newfound Harbor and headed for Bahia Honda State Park. We had a really nice upwind sail. The waves were a little too big for the breeze because the ocean had gotten worked up the past few days when it was honking. We cruised upwind at about 6-7 knots.

When we approached Bahia Honda’s beach, I knew that I was going to like this place. It was beautiful here! The big beach was really shallow for a long distance so you could see the bottom through the water. We sailed right through the old railroad bridge/old highway (there’s a gap in it to do so) and then started the motor. Inside of the harbor (between the railroad highway and the overseas highway), there was another little beach that had a swim area which was sealed off by ropes. The water was a little deeper at this beach but so blue.

We pulled into the State Park Marina and found ourselves a spot. When we went to check in the dockmaster was so friendly! He enlightened us that we had showers, bathrooms, water, power, internet, one bag of ice each day, and a cup of coffee per person each day! The hospitality of the park continued like this the whole time we were there. It really made it a nice place to stay. Everyone must be happy because they have such nice views all the time!

After we got settled in Scott wanted to hose the boat down. We had seen manatees in the middle of the harbor and we were so hoping they would come over and say hi. As soon as Scott turned on the fresh water to rinse off the boat one manatee sped over to see us. Seriously though, this thing moved. It was not the slow going seacow Floridians talk about. He came right over and slurped the drippings off of the boat. When the boat dried off he went back to the center of the harbor with his friends. Later that evening the boat behind us was hosing off themselves, after a salty day, and the manatees came to visit them as well. Pretty neat animals to see so closely. I finally got to see manatees; this is my kinda place!

In the evening, Scott introduced me to another couple that pulled into the marina on a Telstar 28 trimaran (he had talked to them earlier while I was putting things away on the boat). This couple was from Nova Scotia and had trailered their boat down to Florida. I guess we don’t win the award for the longest drive. Did I mention that they towed this boat with a Jeep Liberty Diesel?!  We chatted for a bit, comparing boats, describing where we would be going next, and where we had been.

It was getting cooler out when Scott and I realized that we needed to find something to eat. How did we come to realize we needed to eat? We were getting pretty nasty to each other (again we ate breakfast at 1000 and it’s now nearing 1900). We thought about heading to Marathon but a $50 round trip taxi fare was a bit much. We decided to go the other way and headed back to Big Pine Restaurant (which was recommended by the dockmaster) via public bus. The Key West Connection is a bus that runs from Marathon to Key West. It was only $4 to ride it, unless you’re a student or senior citizen, then it was only $2. There was a stop right outside of Bahia Honda State Park so we hoofed it to the highway. We jumped on the bus, which was 20 minutes late to our stop, and we were dropped off right in front of the town’s favorite eatery (mind you it’s like the only eatery on the key).

We had massive meals, feasts really, and then called a cab to get back. While we were waiting for the cab, Scott spotted some Key deer 30 feet from us, behind the restaurant. I decided to call them over and Scott laughed at me. Slowly but surely, my clucking and kissing brought one over. He was very curious and eager to see what was in my hand. I got a little freaked out because of the horror stories you hear of people getting hoofed to death.  I was up on the picnic table calling him over until I could really see how little he was. By then I was a little less intimidated. I got him to come over about 6 feet away from me and the taxi pulled up. We hopped in and headed back to Bahia Honda for the night. 

Loving this place,

Lauren & Scott 

A Comedy of Errors (Thursday, March 22)

I don’t even know how to begin to describe the day we’ve had.

We left Saddlebunch Harbor, and our Gemini friends, behind to head out into the Atlantic. It was still honking at 0630 so we waited three hours until deciding it wasn’t getting any better. With a full main and the little jib, we began the 25NM beat. The breeze had clocked a few degrees so that it was around East/SouthEast. It was forecasted that the wind would be 15-20 becoming 15. The forecast was wrong. Scott and I never saw 15 knots. However, we did see the East wind build all day, gusts to 25, and 4-7 foot chop.

Ten miles into our upwind workout, the GPS lost satellite and never regained consciousness. Scott was sight navigating and I continued to drive. Our short tack had us headed off into the ocean but going at high 8s (knots). Our long tack saw the range of 6-8 knots depending what the wave series were. Sometime during the sail, Scott looked back and noticed that we had lost our valve regulator on our Magma grill. The kicker was that it was so stuck in there Scott couldn’t get it out the previous night so we figured that it wouldn’t go anywhere. We figured wrong. We continued sailing having had the ocean burial of the regulator.

We stuck it out, pitching and pulling in the waves, until we noticed our sidestay turn buckles were beginning to spin off. We were not very pleased by this, as we decided when raising the mast that they would not spin. I went down below in search of ring dings and found it practically raining inside our boat. Well, our boat leaks, whatever; all boats leak. Fixing the rigging malfunction took some time as there were spurts where I felt zero gravity while cruising down the backside of waves. When we got it squared away, we decided this kind of sucks and dropped the main to reach in with the jib.

We had just passed Newfound Harbor and decided to doubleback and stay there for the night. Bahia Honda was not in the cards taking into account the beating we were getting. Cruising into the harbor with only the little jib was an excellent idea. The best we’ve had all day. Coming in at 7 knots, we quickly realized the harbor was not very protected. Contrary to what our cruising guide seems to think. We cruised over to the back of the harbor to set up shop. We had previously been told we could not enter the only marina in the harbor because we were too wide for the canal. Allegedly, the rule says you can’t go through the canal if you take up more than half of it. Anyway, we tucked up in the corner and attempted to set our anchors. Our anchors were not sticking worth crap. This obviously worried us because we needed to run into shore for groceries and a pharmacy. We finally got them stuck and reluctantly left the boat. We paddled the kayak up a canal to Sea Center. Sea Center was a dry marina but had a spot for us to put the kayak while we ran our errands.

By this time of day, Scott and I are really beginning to become ornery. I’m getting irritated that we can’t steer the kayak in a straight line and in return Scott stops rowing. We later realize it was because he, nor I, has eaten all day. Our 0800 Tuna fish sandwiches were well digested and our stomachs were empty. I’m sure both our families know how we get when we get hungry. The only upside to this story is that we both do 180s when we get food in our bellies.

On our way up the canal lined with private homes we admired the boats up on lifts and also the very nice seawall dock space. We joked about offering a homeowner rent for the wall space for a night, which would actually really help us sleep better. We were almost to the Sea Center when, low and behold, Scott says good afternoon to a couple walking around their balcony. He jokes with them asking if our boat is still anchored out in the harbor and we soon find out they are sailors as well! We tell them we are trying to get to a pharmacy and a grocery store (both desperately needed) and these wonderful people offer to drive us there. With my encouragement, Scott completely imposes and asks to rent their dock for the night. Fortunately, we ran into the right people. The lovely couple was renting the house for a month. They not only let us stay there for the night, but they drove us to the grocery store and back, and invited us in for a shower and a glass of wine! Our last real shower was in Key West, Monday morning…so it was time. We offered several times to buy them dinner but they wouldn’t have it. “Helping out fellow sailors” they said.  Our day went from being by far the worst and most stressful day of the trip to one of the very best days, all because of the kind generosity of these two people. I’ll tell you what, after their hospitality, it is definitely our turn to pay it forward!

The couple is from Connecticut and own an Island Packet 370 (hull #2) that they cruise. From the sound of it, they’ve cruised some pretty cool places and their next is a two week cruise around Nantucket, Hyannis, and Martha’s Vineyard (some of my favorite East coast cities).

 

After the longest day of the trip, we were both drained mentally and physically. Not only was the boat put to the test (and man are we happy that she held up), but we put ourselves to the test getting the crap kicked out of us by the ocean. We are heading for Bahia Honda tomorrow morning, with lighter breeze being forecasted in the afternoon.

Getting a good night’s rest,

Lauren & Scott

The Day Our Ice Melted (Wednesday, March 21)

We woke up a few times in the night to rain. The morning yielded scattered showers as well. We decided we weren’t going to go anywhere because it was still too windy. After we put our sleeping quarters away and opened up the “galley” (by opening up the galley, I merely mean we made the cooler accessible), we noted that our ice was melting fast. We decided that we absolutely needed to leave for civilization tomorrow. That means we needed to get to Bahia Honda and bypass Newfound Harbor. Bahia Honda is about 25NM from Saddlebunch Harbor.

We took inventory on what we could eat (specifically the contents of the cooler) and Scott made us grilled cheese. Heaven forbid that our cheese supply goes bad before consumption. After breakfast we noticed that the chicken bones that I had set out the previous night were bare. We basically dropped everything to set up our fishing gear. 

Scott tried first with just a lure and they were interested but not totally buying it. Scott recommended putting on hot dog to really get them going. What the heck, the ice is melting anyway! They loved the hot dog but kept stealing it off the lure and hook. We switched to a smaller hook (which turned out to be the key) and put hot dog chunks on it. Scott passed off the rod to me and within seconds I had a fish on! It really was the hook though; I’m not trying to take credit for catching the first fish (although I’m sure my dad would argue otherwise since fishing is in my blood).  We caught three more little fish (Ceasar Grunts, I think) and released one. We used the other two for crab trap bait.

Scott took the honor of chopping it up and putting it in the crab trap. I couldn’t stomach hitting it over the head with a winch handle to knock it out. Scott periodically checked his crab trap to make sure the bait was still in there. One time he brought it up for a check and a large shadow came up with it. He had attracted a nurse shark that was sticking her nose in the cage and latching on. She wanted that fish head! She came almost to the surface before seeing us and speeding off back to the bottom. Eventually something took the crab trap bait without setting it off and we used another grunt. The day ended with no crab caught. 

In the evening Scott called me up from below to see the craziest thing. Schools of fish were leaping

through the air near the mangroves. We’re talking hundreds of fish, all in synch. We assume they must be running from something bigger than themselves, underneath the surface.

We’re planning to make it to Bahia Honda tomorrow before we starve!

Checking out of Saddlebunch Harbor,

Lauren & Scott

Sitting Ducks (Tuesday, March 20)

 

The wind howled all night long. We woke up early this morning to check on our wind situation and found the ocean angry. The overcast skies made it look pretty treacherous out so we decided to stay in Saddlebunch another day. We figure it’s either here or another anchorage, only the location is the difference. After a relaxing morning inside the boat, we decided to start the day and have hot dogs for brunch. We noticed our harbor neighbor, the Gemini, was also still with us. This little fact made us feel better about our decision to forego the upwind beat.

Later in the day when we saw that the couple was out on deck, Scott decided to say hello. We launched the kayak and paddled over. After a half an hour of sweet talking, Scott got us ANOTHER boat tour. Their boat was a 2002 and was a pretty good looking boat cosmetically. After the tour, we thanked them and headed back to our own boat.

This afternoon I also came to the realization that I am quite afraid of the ocean. I’m not sure if it was my childhood naivety that allowed me to go swimming carefree, or that I was daring. But here, I am having such trouble getting the nerve up to jump in the water. The water is pretty clear when the sun is shining so I think the snorkeling would be good, but I can’t seem to want to jump in. I suppose it doesn’t help that before I get set to go in Scott tells me he’ll stay on the boat to watch for sharks. The fact that he always makes me jump in first makes me feel a little less dumb knowing he must be afraid too.

Today, Scott and I have finished our books. It’s also been discovered that we didn’t pack a deck of cards. The good news for me is that I’ll read anything, so I’ll read his books next. The bad news for Scott is that he probably won’t be reading my books next after he sees the chick romance novels I brought along. Guess we’ll have to resort to keeping each other company and actually conversing for the rest of the time (that is until we go to shore and buy more books).

We had chicken drumsticks on the grill for dinner. After dinner I bunched the bones together to drag behind the boat to see what we attract. We’re chumming up sharks in case our quality bookless time doesn’t go well. We plan to leave tomorrow, windy or not, just to see how it goes. We figure if it really is too bad we can sneak right back into this harbor and anchor again.

Hoping for not such a windy night,

Lauren & Scott

Sucker Punch (Monday, March 19)

We left Key West around 0800 and set sail for Newfound Harbor! As soon as we got past the cruise ships and rounded the island it hit us: 20+ knots on the nose. Luckily Scott had a double reef in the main and we planned to sail with the little jib to get the most point out of the boat. Waves were pretty large in the shipping channel. Scott and I would definitely argue that we crashed into some 6-7 foot standing waves. They receded in size a bit once we got further into Hawk Channel, but still pretty variable and around 4-5 feet. We were expecting something resembling ocean waves, not hugely oversized Lake St. Clair chop.

My bibs saw the sun for the first time this trip. I was getting soaked and the sun wasn't warming me up fast enough. Scott lasted all day in just his swim trunks (and a lifejacket; I called for lifeys when we reefed the main). It would have been a sail of a lifetime if we were headed in any other direction than the one we were going in. The sun was shining and the water was an amazing blue. I keep hoping to capture on camera the colors that we see, but I think the polarization of our sunglasses create the most vivid colors for our memories alone.

We had a lot of ocean company, while still in the shipping channel, we had two big fishing boats blow by us. We also saw a big coast guard boat. Later in the day we were passed by two big Beneteaus (Bene-slows), both chugging, plowing, and motoring through the waves. They didn't look anymore comfortable than us.


The majority of the morning we discussed turning around and heading back to Key West. My mom and grandparents were headed down for the day,but unfortunately it was after we had planned to leave. We decided we didn't want to give up the headway that we had already made. After zig-zagging upwind for 35NM, we made it up the keys to Saddlebunch Harbor. Saddlebunch is only 15NM from Key West. This stop is about halfway from Key West to our initially planned Newfound Harbor destination. The beat had us zigzagging nearly 20 extra NM. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, our VMG was less than optimal. Lesson learned: a double reef in the main means tacking angles are an extra 20 degrees apart.

We tucked into a corner and anchored. Later in the afternoon we took the kayak for an exploration trip so we could check out the shallow spots around us. The water is pretty clear here and the depths are all over the place. We are currently right on the edge of very shallow water and about 80 ft from the mangroves. Excellent protection from the angry winds on the Hawk Channel.

We've discovered that the tidal currents are very quick when they change. The boat tugs on the port anchor and then within seconds tugs on the starboard anchor. The current is so strong that the water just boils around the hulls. We find it really interested watch how the boat is affected by both the wind and varying currents at it lays at anchor.  It is surprisingly unpredictable. It really seems to change by the minute. After we anchored, I saw a huge fish come up to the surface and decided I wouldn't be going swimming here. Later in the evening we were joined in the harbor by a Gemini105Mc that had ducked into the anchorage to get away from the feisty weather.

We are hoping to get an early start tomorrow morning. We plan to sail up the the keys another 15NM and arrive in Newfound Harbor, but we'll see which way the wind blows us.

Waiting for the breeze to calm,
Lauren & Scott