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

More of Key West (Sunday, March 18)

No need to set an alarm clock in this harbor. This morning we woke up to the horns of the Key West Express Ferry, leaving for Fort Myers. Fortunately, the boat’s departure wasn’t as early as the rooster’s (of Mallory Square) wake up call. We did hear them clucking around this morning too though. We’ve mostly taken our time running errands this morning. We’ve been in and out of West Marine 3 times before noon and we’ve added another cooler to the boat. We went to the grocery store to grab more water, groceries, and Pepsi, of course. And we’ve been walking around looking at boats since.

We’ve successfully invited ourselves on to 3 other sailboats in the marina. In two cases Scott simply told the owner how badly he wanted the boat they had and they invited us on. We walked over to check out a Gemini so that Scott and I could consider our next cruising boat. Dreaming big already! We ended up talking to the couple for at least half an hour. Just talking about improvements that have been made over time and things they had added onto their boat. They had two dogs and they’ve taught the dogs to use the front deck as the poop deck. Both dogs were very friendly and pretty big animals. But they all seemed to fit pretty well on the boat and had a ton of storage or guest space. I think that that boat is very reasonable for two people to live on majority of the year. The design is very suitable for two people, however the speed would obviously be a major trade off. Good thing we’re cruising this boat until it falls apart!  

So the second boat that we invited ourselves onto, was a Hylas 54. Beautiful boat. It’s a good thing that Scott knows his boats because there was no way I would have enough to say to get invited onto this boat. This couple was new to sailing and it was their first trip in the boat. They brought it over from Tampa. The couple had kids that were more my age (still in college) and pegged Scott and I for college students. They were from Oklahoma and the husband was in the oil business. He even ended up jumping in after one of Scott’s flops that he knocked off the dock, very amiable people.

In the last situation, we were invited aboard a Leopard 44 that we’ve been eyeing since they pulled in late yesterday.  They have not spoken a lick of English near the dock and Scott kept telling me he wanted to approach them. The only foreign language I know is French, and I am nowhere near fluent. I had my “lost in translation” experience in Paris when I was yelled at by a Parisian artist for taking her picture. Scott never got around to going up to them (he said he cheated 4.5 years of his 5 year Spanish career anyway). Today the 4 men on the Leopard were on the dock taking pictures and Scott offered for me to take their picture, so I did. We found out they were from Chile. Here are the rest of the facts: they don’t know how long they have been sailing, they came to Key West to buy “something,” they were going to sneak into Cuba and they told us that they were “pensioners” and then laughed. After listening to them chat on their back porch for a while we picked up that they knew at least a little of three languages; French, Spanish, and English. They are either in the drug cartel or the mafia. But anyway, they had a really nice boat. It was really cool they invited us on to check it out. The yacht even had a front porch!

Checklist for the ocean life that we’ve encountered: I’ve wanted to see manatees since we tied up in MYC because I overheard one of the members say that they were in the harbor. Finally, today, Scott and I saw one. Scott saw it first and pointed it out to me just in time for me to see its big tail. We went to a tarpon feeding, which was really just a feeding for the pelicans. Although the tarpon seemed to know what was going on, they hung out and we saw some massive ones. We saw a nurse shark in the harbor, I pointed that one out (I’ve been wearing polarized sunglasses and HOLY COW do they make a difference). Scott also thought he saw a dolphin in the harbor today, but he only saw a fin for a quick second, so he’s not sure what it was. 

This evening we met up to say hi to an old Spartan sailing friend of mine, Alex Piku. He’s in town for his spring break from Wayne State and staying with his grandparents, Frank and Cheryl. Scott has a short history with Frank. They’ve sailed together on Velero.  Frank has sailed with both Doug and Maggie on Velero as well. While we were talking we got onto the topic of fishing and Frank told us exactly what we needed to know. He used to run a fishing boat down here. He told us that we needed to drag a line while we were sailing; get a yellow jig or a cedar plug, shock line, and 80 pound test. Apparently this is a sure way to catch Tuna. They’ll chase after it no matter how fast you’re going. Then you just put the line around a winch and reel ‘em in! Scott and I would really like to try this, but we are going to head to somewhere a little cheaper (further up the keys) to get everything we need.

Next stop, Newfound Harbor! 30 mile beat up the Hawk Channel.

Ready to leave Key Weird, 

Lauren & Scott

Another Beautiful Sail (Saturday, March 17)

Coasting down waves and making 14.4 knots look leisurely. Made for a quick ride into Key West. 

We had another awesome sail this morning. It started off pretty light out and we did some motor sailing out of the Kemp Channel. When we knew we were good for at least 7 knots, we put up the screacher and shut down the engine. The breeze was building although probably only around 10 mph for the first few hours of the sail. Out farther from land the waves really started to build up, and being that the boat is so darn light all you have to do is turn her bow down and she’ll surf. Once the breeze piped up to about 15mph, it was definitely easier to get her up on the waves though. We saw 8-12knots of boat speed but the closer we got to Key West the windier it got! The rollers shrank in size but the gusts were still present. We ended the day rolling into Key West with 14.4 knots as our top speed. It was a really fun ride. I can’t wait to get the “calmer” video up, it still looks like it was a wild ride.

Although we have not seen any dolphins thus far, we have had plenty of ocean life action. I have caught numerous crab traps, majority of them were painted black, for who knows what reason. We have seen the largest fish EVER in the Key West Bight Marina as soon as we pulled in. The tarpon swimming around in this harbor are big enough to make you never want to go in the water again. Absolutely zero exaggeration, I’ve seen fish as big as Scott, that’s six feet of shadow beneath you. While the fish won’t give you the time of day while you’re in the water (my dad fly fishes for them every chance he gets) they are extremely intimidating in size.

Oh, Happy St. Patrick’s day, Key West! Scott and I have had no concept of time since we got on the boat, but we were gently reminded of St. Patrick’s day with all the tourists buzzing around the island dressed like leprechauns. But really, a sea of green and of all kinds. Old people and college spring breakers. After we tied up and got settled, we took a stroll down the board walk. We found dinner at a grocery store and then walked to Mallory Square to watch the sunset. It was pretty cloudy so we decided to head back to the boat to eat and save the sunset celebration for tomorrow. 

Not catching crabs on Duval street,
Lauren & Scott

Tarpon Rolling in Kemp Channel (Friday, March 16)

So far, we’ve had our typical rollercoaster of some stressful times among the fun. And you might roll your eyes imagining what we can possibly stress about while cruising the keys for a month. While there is a certain level of “romantic” in cruising the keys with your significant other alone, there are some things to be worried about as well. For instance, there are only two people responsible for everything that happens to the boat (mostly Scott considers himself responsible because he’s “in charge” but I’m often left with the blame). But we both have to know how to perform every task possible on the boat, without the other person, just in case.

 

I know I worry about some strange things, but this trip worrying about pirates and melting ice seem like okay things to worry about. Scott worries about the batteries running out and running out of money. This morning I woke up just as it was getting light outside to shut off the battery. It was pretty neat to be awake with the splashing of fish all around me. Yesterday, my dad has told us how Cudjoe key was a magical place to fly fish and that there would be tarpon rolling in the morning. Here I was, taking it all in: light breeze and smooth water, and I could hear the tarpon rolling around in the shallow spots. Tonight we are going to try a solar powered walk way light as an anchor light.

After banana bread for breakfast, Scott and I discussed things to be done differently. We definitely need to invest in a better cooler. Preferably one that has two half doors so that we don’t let so much cold out while grabbing snacks. The worst case is that all our perishable food goes bad and we have ramen until we go to shore. We decided we also need to invest in a better solar panel to recharge our battery, right now we aren’t exactly sure how well ours works. In the future, when the larger purchase of a new outboard is made, we would look into one with an alternator to help recharge the battery. You can tell Scott really frets over the battery, I’d like to think it started when he acquired his iphone, which has terrible battery life compared to his humble blackberry.

After our brief discussion it was time to sort a few things out- mainly the jib. I made a makeshift bosun’s chair and Scott (who’s afraid of heights) hoisted me up to the top of the rig to work out the problem. What a stunning view! Halfway up I really wished I would have thought to grab my camera.

After that task was completed, we tried fishing. Yesterday we tried lures but to no avail, we quit early. Today, however, we noticed Scott’s stockpile of beef jerky had gone moldy (7 pounds of meat before dehydration). So, let’s feed it to the fish! We got nibbles but nothing stuck. We also set up the crab trap and baited it with jerky. We went for a short kayak up and down the mangroves and Scott found a starfish. Later in the afternoon we went for a swim. The water we are anchored in is about 3-4 feet deep with a muddy bottom. It’s basically too shallow to snorkel in and pretty murky when you’re in the water. But it was a nice swim and Scott scrubbed the hulls while I tried to catch bait fish.

Dinner was a meal to write home about (the fish and birds would agree). We had two beautiful steaks that Carol had helped me pick out while we were provisioning in Punta Gorda. With the steaks we had mashed potatoes and rolls. We used our scraps to fish with. And when we were done fishing with the scraps we tried to chum them into our crab trap but nearby birds came and snatched them!

It really was pretty amazing how easy the day went by. Tomorrow we plan to leave bright and early to spend a few days in Key Weird (West). 

Heading for civilization,
Lauren & Scott