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