| GALVESTON TO THE FLORIDA KEYS |
Galveston back to Tampa (November 2006 - December 2006) - We left Waterford Harbor marina the third week of November 2006.
Our first destination was Tampa because we had a few minor warranty items to take care of. We had been monitoring weather very closely
for a couple of weeks in hopes of going direct to Tampa (about a five day trip). Even though we were mildly concerned about the oil platform
stuff, we had plotted a course to take us due south about 125 miles then basically due east from there. Unfortunately, the weather did not
cooperate. On top of that, the week before a strong cold front blew a lot of water out of Galveston Bay and left about half the boats in
Waterford Harbor sitting on the bottom.
Our departure was four in the morning with the goal of making it to Taylor Outfall Canal (not much winter daylight). The departure day was
determined based on water coming back in the Bay (we were floating) and before the next strong cold front. The front was due later that
day. When we pulled out of our slip it was dead calm with patchy fog. About 20 minutes later on the Bay, the wind had picked up to 10 to 15
and about 45 minutes later (as we were entering the Houston Ship Channel) the wind was howling at 25 to 30. Another missed forecast. The
front blew through about 18 hours early. Even before daylight there was a lot of ship traffic in the ship channel which made our start towards
Tampa very interesting. Even in good conditions, travelling in Galveston Bay at dark thirty is not for the faint of heart. There are derelict
oil things (old platforms, what amounts to pipes sticking out of the water, etc.) everywhere. Also, the bay is only 10 feet deep or so. When
the wind picks up, the bay is not a good place to be. To make matters worse I had been having trouble with the auto pilot hydraulic drive and
it gave up the ghost about an hour after we got into the ship channel. It was not fun having to hand steer in all that wind and wave stuff.
About daylight we at least made it to relatively calm water of the ICW and we motored in relative comfort, albeit cold, throughout the day.
By the time we made it to Taylor Outfall Canal, the winds had died and by morning it was essentially calm. Ellis spent a couple of hours in
the dark spaces aft, where the hydraulic drive was hiding.
This time we did not go out Sabine Pass (the lift bridge was working) and stayed on the ICW until the nice oxbow anchorage south of Lake
Charles. While anchored here, Ellis essentially traced the hydraulic drive problem source to a faulty solenoid and permanently rigged it until
we could pull the whole thing out and send it to Raymarine. Fall was nice on the Mermentau (still one of our favorite anchorages) and the
day after that we stopped at Morgan City (not enough daylight to make it to Bayou Black). There is a city dock at Morgan City between
two bridges (the first we could get under the second we could not - not that it mattered). The dock was really just a few pilings. We backed
in our designated spot and promptly ran aground about 10 feet from the dock. Oh well, there was no other place to go, and besides, it was
just soft mud with no real tide. We tied up to the pilings and were off early the next morning. The stay was free (it's not expensive even if
you have to pay for it) because we couldn't get to the dock or get the dinghy in the water. Oh yeah. Not getting the dinghy in the water was
not a problem because we had trained the dogs to go on a piece of astro turf on the swim platform. Offshore, we have a piece of astro turf in
one of the showers. Our lives are much better now.
The next day or two was uneventful and before we knew it we were back in Houma. We ran aground in soft mud close to the docks. We
basically backed up a bit and got to enough water to move over some and tie up. We met a couple in Houma who had made the ICW trip
many times and we followed them the next day into Lafitte and tied up next to an abandoned dock rafted up to them. They knew there was
just enough water for the tie up in that one particular spot. We plowed through a bit of mud but made it relatively unscathed. We were only
15 miles from Harvey Locks. The next day went quickly and we made it all the way to Rabbit Island. The trip that day was not without
incident. While in Harvey Locks I used the bow thruster a couple of times to keep from banging the side while the water was coming in and
sucked something very hard into the bow thruster. We would later find out that we broke off two of the three blades on one side of the
thruster. There's always something.
Rabbit Island (it's not Mosquito Island in winter - no bugs) was true to form. We ended up anchoring three or four times because tugs kept
coming in and dropping barges right over our anchor. We were up most of the night fending off barges and we were able to get away about
daylight. Rabbit Island is a nightmare.
We were lucky again with weather during the crossing of Mobile Bay and had a perfect anchorage all to ourselves on one of the barrier
islands.
We then had an easy day to the Wallace Bay area with the backdrop of a strong cold front due on the following day. Ingram Bay is basically
around the corner from Wallace Bay and is even nicer and better protected. We stayed for several days until the bad weather died down
then left in early afternoon to go offshore all the way through Port St. Joe to an anchorage off the Apalachicola River with the plan of
arriving at the anchorage late afternoon the following day. The anchorage at Saul Creek is known as the local hurricane hole which was
what we were looking for since another strong cold front was on its way. We spent a couple of days waiting on the next weather window in
perfect protection.
We left at dawn planning to spend 30 hours underway to Tampa. The temperature was 28 degrees - it was cold. The forecast was for a
steady fifteen knots out of the northwest all the way to Tampa which would give us a beam reach. The forecast was right on until early
afternoon and we had been sailing at seven and a half to eight knots. It was great for a while. Then things began to change. The wind
picked up to 15 to 20, then 20 to 25, and by late afternoon was 25 to 30. As a result, our nice three to five foot waves had turned into
something a bit bigger. The Gulf is notorious for steep-sided waves because it is so shallow. We were only in a hundred feet of water and
were probably 60 miles offshore. That means you get slammed really hard when the waves get up to 8 or 10 feet. Bam. Bam. Bam. Hour
after hour. To add insult to injury our wind direction had turned more southeast which made our point of sail about 50 degrees true off our
bow. Contrary to what you will hear from braggarts, no boat sails well at 50 degrees. Leta never gets seasick, but she stayed in the cockpit
flat on her back the entire time and just groaned when a particularly large wave hit us. Neither of us wanted to go below even to relieve
ourselves. It wasn't because the waves were necessarily big, it was squareness of them. We tried every possible speed and sail combination
to ease the violence to no avail. It was impossible to sleep (well the dogs slept fine). We were just hanging on for the ride. The worst came
when we were about half way. Another 15 hours? What were we going to do? Turn back? We just sucked it up and finally made it to
Tampa mid-morning the next day. We (including the dogs) and the boat made it just fine. We were never concerned about the boat, even
when we were knocked over particularly hard with the rail disappearing into the water on several occasions. The weather did not let up until
we were well into Tampa Bay and we pulled into Twin Dolphin early afternoon and promptly went to sleep The next day Leta decided we
could keep the boat. We learned a lesson too about interpreting NOAA forecasts. If it says 10 to 15 with 3 to 5 foot seas; it means 20 to 30
with 6 to 10 foot seas. It's easy. Just double it.
Tampa to the Florida Keys (December 2006) - We stayed at Twin Dolphin for a week or so. The reason for the length of stay was that
we had to send our Raymarine hydraulic drive to Raymarine for repairs. It had worked fine since Ellis beat it into submission back in
Louisiana, but the solenoid needed replacement. We left the marina at the end of the first week in December and anchored in our old
staging area at Emerson Point. We were getting front after front and offshore was no place to be, especially since the wind was coming from
the direction we wanted to go. Even though we did not like the prospect of the ICW we could make progress south. Besides, the ICW only
went as far as Fort Meyers Beach so we wouldn't be stuck in the rut too long.
So, off we go. The ICW between Tampa Bay and Sarasota is very narrow and shallow. About half way to Sarasota I apparently got a bit out
of the channel and promptly ran aground. I saw what was happening before it happened and had the boat almost stopped when it really
stopped. So, it was a simple matter of reversing off the shallow spot. The crystal clear water in this particular area also helped because I
could see exactly where the deeper water was. That night we dropped anchor in front of the Sarasota municipal marina with another 30 or 40
boats. Not our picture of the best anchorage, but hey, we made progress south.
The next day we made it to Useppa Island and dropped anchor on the lee side a couple of hundred yards from the ICW. It was a good
anchorage in easterly winds.
After Useppa Island was Fort Meyers Beach (not the city of Fort Meyers, which is up river, but the city of Fort Meyers Beach, which is on
the coast). There are no good anchorages around if the wind is up, which it was. The only real option was the city run Matanzas Harbor
mooring field. We needed a couple of days to wait for the howling wind to subside because our only option from here was to go offshore (no
more ICW).
The entrance to the harbor was easy enough, except that when rounding the island there were several floating channel markers (a sure sign
of shoaling and a shifting channel). From there, it was easy to get to the mooring field a couple of a couple of miles away. We were
disappointed as soon as we got inside the mooring field; some of the boats had clearly been there for years and most of them were much
smaller than ours (read shallow). We were coming in at high tide so I carefully watched the depth to make sure I could get out at low tide. It
was shallow, but I thought we could just make it. We picked up our assigned mooring ball with a bit of concern because the moorings were
not well maintained. After watching things very closely for a couple of hours, we settled in for a couple of days until the weather broke.
We left the mooring field a couple of days later at dawn for our destination at Indian Key at the mouth of the Barron River (Everglades City
is up river a few miles). It was low tide. To make a long story short, we ran aground at least four times trying to find the deepest water to
get out. I was being very careful, so it was more like sticking my nose in one direction until I nudged the bottom, then sticking it in another
direction until I found deeper water and so on. We finally made it out, but when we got to the tip of the island (where the floaties were) a
shrimp boat was hard aground maybe 10 feet out of the channel. Great. Those guys go through here every day and should know where the
deep water is. Anyway, I took it slow and made sure I stayed exactly in the middle of the channel, as marked, and never touched bottom;
the shrimp boat crew glaring at us the whole time. We hope we never see the place again.
The sail was pretty good and we made to our destination late in the day. The tide is about 5 feet around here, so the current is very strong,
especially in the mouth of a river. Once inside the river the water was plenty deep and we made sure we had plenty of chain in the water.
Holding was good, so we didn't need two anchors since "big dog" (75lb CQR) is heavy and the shank pivots. I set the anchor alarm anyway.
The anchor was up at daylight and we headed towards Little Shark River. It was a bit breezy so we had a good sail even though we got
bounced around a bit. Crab pots are a constant problem on the west coast of Florida, but once we got close to the Everglades National Park
(yesterday) they seemed to start multiplying. I would not go through here at night unless I was well offshore. After dodging crab pots all
day, we dropped anchor in the mouth of Little Shark River. The entrance was very shallow and winding, so much so that we turned on our
tracking function so we could follow the route back out exactly as we went in. We were glued to the depth gauge for about 30 minutes. Once
inside, there was plenty of water. Little Shark River has the oddity of 40 to 50 foot high mangroves along its bank. Just looked like tall
trees to us. We stayed two days waiting on weather.
Next stop was Marathon. Marathon was more or less due south and once we passed Cape Sable it got really shallow (we're talking 7 to 9
feet, maybe 10 occasionally). It's not really a problem, because as long as you miss the well marked and sporadic reefs, the bottom is flat,
fine sand. It turned out to be a motoring day and if you looked back you could see our track for miles due to the churned up sand. Really
weird. By mid-afternoon, as we were approaching Seven Mile Bridge, the weather turned a bit nasty. We knew the weather was going to
get really nasty the next day, so this must have been a preview. As a result, we had made arrangements to stay at Marathon Key Club.
Leta wants to make sure that you know it was way over priced and had a nasty-assed laundry. Other than that, it was okay. Anyway, once
we got under the bridge we had about a five mile motor directly into a 25 knot breeze. Additionally, we were now on the Hawk Channel side
of the Keys and we had nice big waves coming from 90 degrees off the wind. It was a fun hour.
We stayed in the marina for about a week, because once we got tied up the weather was so disagreeable we really couldn't get out. We
could have gotten out of the slip fine, but the closest reasonable anchorage was about 25 miles towards Key West at Pine Island. The
prospects of that sail kept us where we were. Another option would have been to anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Boot Key Harbor was only a
mile or so away and all the cruising guide comments and pictures look pretty good. The guides also say there is a cable with a 65 foot
clearance over the channel before the bascule bridge as you enter the harbor. Another sailboat with a 65 foot height stopped by the marina
for fuel after leaving the Harbor at low tide and told us that the top of his mast scrapped under the cable. We also took the dinghy into the
Harbor and found it to be full of what we call derelict boats. Lots of them had been there a while and there were some serious unmarked
shallow areas (according to our hand held depth meter). Boot Key Harbor, however, is very protected and we would have probably gone in
had we not had the cable problem. But it was not an option for us.
After about a week, we wanted to get out of the marina but another cold front was on its way. We chose to sail to Pine Island to weather the
front. The wind was only about 20 knots ahead of the front and it was a downwind sail. It was Christmas Eve. Once we got into Hawk
Channel the wind turned out to be 25 knots or so and even though the sail was nice it was a bit rolly. The outer reefs block some of the
waves in Hawk Channel but not by much. Well, Leta goes below after a couple of hours and comes back up with a horrified look on her face
with tears in her eyes. Turns out that she did not secure the dog food below as well as she normally does and an almost full 20 pound bag fell
over. The old dog Buster doesn't do much anymore except eat and sleep. He can't see anymore, but he can smell a morsel of food from
about a mile away. He's also the king of down below. It didn't take him long to find the spill and he promptly tried to eat himself to death.
He looked like a bowling ball with dog feet. We found the anchorage okay and then turned our attention to Buster. Long story short, it was
Christmas Eve, no vet to be found and Buster had a look on his face that said he knew he &%$%#@ed up for maybe the last time. Leta
called Dr. Dan, our brother-in-law, who initially said that it didn't look good for Buster. Dan found his vet at home and relayed the message
that the odds were with Buster as long as we gave him plenty of water and helped him poop it out. Glad we had the astro turf. Leta stayed
up all night with Buster and cried the whole time. He wore that turf out. When I woke up the next morning (Christmas Day), it appeared
that we got our Christmas present. Buster looked like a new man. He was even hungry which is his normal state. We haven't talked much
about Buster yet, but he puts cats to shame. He used up the first nine lives long ago and is still going strong.
We turned our attention to the approaching front. The anchorage at Pine Island is wide open with no wind protection but is protected from all
sides from waves. We were in about 10 feet of water with lots of swinging room. The front was supposed to be a doozy so I put out "big
dog" with 200 feet of chain (a bit of overkill but it doesn't help if it's in the chain locker). During the next few days two fronts came through
and the winds clocked around twice. We were fairly comfy the entire time.
I can't remember exactly why, but we decided to go back to the marina for a couple of days. We had been waiting almost two weeks for the
right weather to cross the Gulf Stream to get to the Bahamas. By now we had made arrangements to be a sponsoring vessel of Cris Parker,
so we were listening to his forecast every morning and receiving his forecast by email a couple hours later. If you so chose, you can also
talk to Chris during his forecast about your specific location and specific route. Chris' service is an invaluable tool and we think it's a must
have if you are venturing far afield.
We had our weather window on New Year's Day.
Our first destination was Tampa because we had a few minor warranty items to take care of. We had been monitoring weather very closely
for a couple of weeks in hopes of going direct to Tampa (about a five day trip). Even though we were mildly concerned about the oil platform
stuff, we had plotted a course to take us due south about 125 miles then basically due east from there. Unfortunately, the weather did not
cooperate. On top of that, the week before a strong cold front blew a lot of water out of Galveston Bay and left about half the boats in
Waterford Harbor sitting on the bottom.
Our departure was four in the morning with the goal of making it to Taylor Outfall Canal (not much winter daylight). The departure day was
determined based on water coming back in the Bay (we were floating) and before the next strong cold front. The front was due later that
day. When we pulled out of our slip it was dead calm with patchy fog. About 20 minutes later on the Bay, the wind had picked up to 10 to 15
and about 45 minutes later (as we were entering the Houston Ship Channel) the wind was howling at 25 to 30. Another missed forecast. The
front blew through about 18 hours early. Even before daylight there was a lot of ship traffic in the ship channel which made our start towards
Tampa very interesting. Even in good conditions, travelling in Galveston Bay at dark thirty is not for the faint of heart. There are derelict
oil things (old platforms, what amounts to pipes sticking out of the water, etc.) everywhere. Also, the bay is only 10 feet deep or so. When
the wind picks up, the bay is not a good place to be. To make matters worse I had been having trouble with the auto pilot hydraulic drive and
it gave up the ghost about an hour after we got into the ship channel. It was not fun having to hand steer in all that wind and wave stuff.
About daylight we at least made it to relatively calm water of the ICW and we motored in relative comfort, albeit cold, throughout the day.
By the time we made it to Taylor Outfall Canal, the winds had died and by morning it was essentially calm. Ellis spent a couple of hours in
the dark spaces aft, where the hydraulic drive was hiding.
This time we did not go out Sabine Pass (the lift bridge was working) and stayed on the ICW until the nice oxbow anchorage south of Lake
Charles. While anchored here, Ellis essentially traced the hydraulic drive problem source to a faulty solenoid and permanently rigged it until
we could pull the whole thing out and send it to Raymarine. Fall was nice on the Mermentau (still one of our favorite anchorages) and the
day after that we stopped at Morgan City (not enough daylight to make it to Bayou Black). There is a city dock at Morgan City between
two bridges (the first we could get under the second we could not - not that it mattered). The dock was really just a few pilings. We backed
in our designated spot and promptly ran aground about 10 feet from the dock. Oh well, there was no other place to go, and besides, it was
just soft mud with no real tide. We tied up to the pilings and were off early the next morning. The stay was free (it's not expensive even if
you have to pay for it) because we couldn't get to the dock or get the dinghy in the water. Oh yeah. Not getting the dinghy in the water was
not a problem because we had trained the dogs to go on a piece of astro turf on the swim platform. Offshore, we have a piece of astro turf in
one of the showers. Our lives are much better now.
The next day or two was uneventful and before we knew it we were back in Houma. We ran aground in soft mud close to the docks. We
basically backed up a bit and got to enough water to move over some and tie up. We met a couple in Houma who had made the ICW trip
many times and we followed them the next day into Lafitte and tied up next to an abandoned dock rafted up to them. They knew there was
just enough water for the tie up in that one particular spot. We plowed through a bit of mud but made it relatively unscathed. We were only
15 miles from Harvey Locks. The next day went quickly and we made it all the way to Rabbit Island. The trip that day was not without
incident. While in Harvey Locks I used the bow thruster a couple of times to keep from banging the side while the water was coming in and
sucked something very hard into the bow thruster. We would later find out that we broke off two of the three blades on one side of the
thruster. There's always something.
Rabbit Island (it's not Mosquito Island in winter - no bugs) was true to form. We ended up anchoring three or four times because tugs kept
coming in and dropping barges right over our anchor. We were up most of the night fending off barges and we were able to get away about
daylight. Rabbit Island is a nightmare.
We were lucky again with weather during the crossing of Mobile Bay and had a perfect anchorage all to ourselves on one of the barrier
islands.
We then had an easy day to the Wallace Bay area with the backdrop of a strong cold front due on the following day. Ingram Bay is basically
around the corner from Wallace Bay and is even nicer and better protected. We stayed for several days until the bad weather died down
then left in early afternoon to go offshore all the way through Port St. Joe to an anchorage off the Apalachicola River with the plan of
arriving at the anchorage late afternoon the following day. The anchorage at Saul Creek is known as the local hurricane hole which was
what we were looking for since another strong cold front was on its way. We spent a couple of days waiting on the next weather window in
perfect protection.
We left at dawn planning to spend 30 hours underway to Tampa. The temperature was 28 degrees - it was cold. The forecast was for a
steady fifteen knots out of the northwest all the way to Tampa which would give us a beam reach. The forecast was right on until early
afternoon and we had been sailing at seven and a half to eight knots. It was great for a while. Then things began to change. The wind
picked up to 15 to 20, then 20 to 25, and by late afternoon was 25 to 30. As a result, our nice three to five foot waves had turned into
something a bit bigger. The Gulf is notorious for steep-sided waves because it is so shallow. We were only in a hundred feet of water and
were probably 60 miles offshore. That means you get slammed really hard when the waves get up to 8 or 10 feet. Bam. Bam. Bam. Hour
after hour. To add insult to injury our wind direction had turned more southeast which made our point of sail about 50 degrees true off our
bow. Contrary to what you will hear from braggarts, no boat sails well at 50 degrees. Leta never gets seasick, but she stayed in the cockpit
flat on her back the entire time and just groaned when a particularly large wave hit us. Neither of us wanted to go below even to relieve
ourselves. It wasn't because the waves were necessarily big, it was squareness of them. We tried every possible speed and sail combination
to ease the violence to no avail. It was impossible to sleep (well the dogs slept fine). We were just hanging on for the ride. The worst came
when we were about half way. Another 15 hours? What were we going to do? Turn back? We just sucked it up and finally made it to
Tampa mid-morning the next day. We (including the dogs) and the boat made it just fine. We were never concerned about the boat, even
when we were knocked over particularly hard with the rail disappearing into the water on several occasions. The weather did not let up until
we were well into Tampa Bay and we pulled into Twin Dolphin early afternoon and promptly went to sleep The next day Leta decided we
could keep the boat. We learned a lesson too about interpreting NOAA forecasts. If it says 10 to 15 with 3 to 5 foot seas; it means 20 to 30
with 6 to 10 foot seas. It's easy. Just double it.
Tampa to the Florida Keys (December 2006) - We stayed at Twin Dolphin for a week or so. The reason for the length of stay was that
we had to send our Raymarine hydraulic drive to Raymarine for repairs. It had worked fine since Ellis beat it into submission back in
Louisiana, but the solenoid needed replacement. We left the marina at the end of the first week in December and anchored in our old
staging area at Emerson Point. We were getting front after front and offshore was no place to be, especially since the wind was coming from
the direction we wanted to go. Even though we did not like the prospect of the ICW we could make progress south. Besides, the ICW only
went as far as Fort Meyers Beach so we wouldn't be stuck in the rut too long.
So, off we go. The ICW between Tampa Bay and Sarasota is very narrow and shallow. About half way to Sarasota I apparently got a bit out
of the channel and promptly ran aground. I saw what was happening before it happened and had the boat almost stopped when it really
stopped. So, it was a simple matter of reversing off the shallow spot. The crystal clear water in this particular area also helped because I
could see exactly where the deeper water was. That night we dropped anchor in front of the Sarasota municipal marina with another 30 or 40
boats. Not our picture of the best anchorage, but hey, we made progress south.
The next day we made it to Useppa Island and dropped anchor on the lee side a couple of hundred yards from the ICW. It was a good
anchorage in easterly winds.
After Useppa Island was Fort Meyers Beach (not the city of Fort Meyers, which is up river, but the city of Fort Meyers Beach, which is on
the coast). There are no good anchorages around if the wind is up, which it was. The only real option was the city run Matanzas Harbor
mooring field. We needed a couple of days to wait for the howling wind to subside because our only option from here was to go offshore (no
more ICW).
The entrance to the harbor was easy enough, except that when rounding the island there were several floating channel markers (a sure sign
of shoaling and a shifting channel). From there, it was easy to get to the mooring field a couple of a couple of miles away. We were
disappointed as soon as we got inside the mooring field; some of the boats had clearly been there for years and most of them were much
smaller than ours (read shallow). We were coming in at high tide so I carefully watched the depth to make sure I could get out at low tide. It
was shallow, but I thought we could just make it. We picked up our assigned mooring ball with a bit of concern because the moorings were
not well maintained. After watching things very closely for a couple of hours, we settled in for a couple of days until the weather broke.
We left the mooring field a couple of days later at dawn for our destination at Indian Key at the mouth of the Barron River (Everglades City
is up river a few miles). It was low tide. To make a long story short, we ran aground at least four times trying to find the deepest water to
get out. I was being very careful, so it was more like sticking my nose in one direction until I nudged the bottom, then sticking it in another
direction until I found deeper water and so on. We finally made it out, but when we got to the tip of the island (where the floaties were) a
shrimp boat was hard aground maybe 10 feet out of the channel. Great. Those guys go through here every day and should know where the
deep water is. Anyway, I took it slow and made sure I stayed exactly in the middle of the channel, as marked, and never touched bottom;
the shrimp boat crew glaring at us the whole time. We hope we never see the place again.
The sail was pretty good and we made to our destination late in the day. The tide is about 5 feet around here, so the current is very strong,
especially in the mouth of a river. Once inside the river the water was plenty deep and we made sure we had plenty of chain in the water.
Holding was good, so we didn't need two anchors since "big dog" (75lb CQR) is heavy and the shank pivots. I set the anchor alarm anyway.
The anchor was up at daylight and we headed towards Little Shark River. It was a bit breezy so we had a good sail even though we got
bounced around a bit. Crab pots are a constant problem on the west coast of Florida, but once we got close to the Everglades National Park
(yesterday) they seemed to start multiplying. I would not go through here at night unless I was well offshore. After dodging crab pots all
day, we dropped anchor in the mouth of Little Shark River. The entrance was very shallow and winding, so much so that we turned on our
tracking function so we could follow the route back out exactly as we went in. We were glued to the depth gauge for about 30 minutes. Once
inside, there was plenty of water. Little Shark River has the oddity of 40 to 50 foot high mangroves along its bank. Just looked like tall
trees to us. We stayed two days waiting on weather.
Next stop was Marathon. Marathon was more or less due south and once we passed Cape Sable it got really shallow (we're talking 7 to 9
feet, maybe 10 occasionally). It's not really a problem, because as long as you miss the well marked and sporadic reefs, the bottom is flat,
fine sand. It turned out to be a motoring day and if you looked back you could see our track for miles due to the churned up sand. Really
weird. By mid-afternoon, as we were approaching Seven Mile Bridge, the weather turned a bit nasty. We knew the weather was going to
get really nasty the next day, so this must have been a preview. As a result, we had made arrangements to stay at Marathon Key Club.
Leta wants to make sure that you know it was way over priced and had a nasty-assed laundry. Other than that, it was okay. Anyway, once
we got under the bridge we had about a five mile motor directly into a 25 knot breeze. Additionally, we were now on the Hawk Channel side
of the Keys and we had nice big waves coming from 90 degrees off the wind. It was a fun hour.
We stayed in the marina for about a week, because once we got tied up the weather was so disagreeable we really couldn't get out. We
could have gotten out of the slip fine, but the closest reasonable anchorage was about 25 miles towards Key West at Pine Island. The
prospects of that sail kept us where we were. Another option would have been to anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Boot Key Harbor was only a
mile or so away and all the cruising guide comments and pictures look pretty good. The guides also say there is a cable with a 65 foot
clearance over the channel before the bascule bridge as you enter the harbor. Another sailboat with a 65 foot height stopped by the marina
for fuel after leaving the Harbor at low tide and told us that the top of his mast scrapped under the cable. We also took the dinghy into the
Harbor and found it to be full of what we call derelict boats. Lots of them had been there a while and there were some serious unmarked
shallow areas (according to our hand held depth meter). Boot Key Harbor, however, is very protected and we would have probably gone in
had we not had the cable problem. But it was not an option for us.
After about a week, we wanted to get out of the marina but another cold front was on its way. We chose to sail to Pine Island to weather the
front. The wind was only about 20 knots ahead of the front and it was a downwind sail. It was Christmas Eve. Once we got into Hawk
Channel the wind turned out to be 25 knots or so and even though the sail was nice it was a bit rolly. The outer reefs block some of the
waves in Hawk Channel but not by much. Well, Leta goes below after a couple of hours and comes back up with a horrified look on her face
with tears in her eyes. Turns out that she did not secure the dog food below as well as she normally does and an almost full 20 pound bag fell
over. The old dog Buster doesn't do much anymore except eat and sleep. He can't see anymore, but he can smell a morsel of food from
about a mile away. He's also the king of down below. It didn't take him long to find the spill and he promptly tried to eat himself to death.
He looked like a bowling ball with dog feet. We found the anchorage okay and then turned our attention to Buster. Long story short, it was
Christmas Eve, no vet to be found and Buster had a look on his face that said he knew he &%$%#@ed up for maybe the last time. Leta
called Dr. Dan, our brother-in-law, who initially said that it didn't look good for Buster. Dan found his vet at home and relayed the message
that the odds were with Buster as long as we gave him plenty of water and helped him poop it out. Glad we had the astro turf. Leta stayed
up all night with Buster and cried the whole time. He wore that turf out. When I woke up the next morning (Christmas Day), it appeared
that we got our Christmas present. Buster looked like a new man. He was even hungry which is his normal state. We haven't talked much
about Buster yet, but he puts cats to shame. He used up the first nine lives long ago and is still going strong.
We turned our attention to the approaching front. The anchorage at Pine Island is wide open with no wind protection but is protected from all
sides from waves. We were in about 10 feet of water with lots of swinging room. The front was supposed to be a doozy so I put out "big
dog" with 200 feet of chain (a bit of overkill but it doesn't help if it's in the chain locker). During the next few days two fronts came through
and the winds clocked around twice. We were fairly comfy the entire time.
I can't remember exactly why, but we decided to go back to the marina for a couple of days. We had been waiting almost two weeks for the
right weather to cross the Gulf Stream to get to the Bahamas. By now we had made arrangements to be a sponsoring vessel of Cris Parker,
so we were listening to his forecast every morning and receiving his forecast by email a couple hours later. If you so chose, you can also
talk to Chris during his forecast about your specific location and specific route. Chris' service is an invaluable tool and we think it's a must
have if you are venturing far afield.
We had our weather window on New Year's Day.
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| Ellis and Bogey trying to stay warm on the ICW |
| Anchored at Emerson Point on the Manatee River |
| Useppa Island, Florida |
| Florida Keys Wildlife |