Marquesas Keys and Dry Tortugas

Last week, we enjoyed our time with friend Andra.  Fortunate enough to again have the use of her rental car, we drove to Key West, the beach and did a big grocery shop in town in preparation for our trip to the Dry Tortugas.  It was a great few days.  We enjoyed a fun meal at Keyviche' in Key West, toured Crane Point, over 60 acres of hardwood hammock and mangroves right here in Marathon, walked on the beach and enjoyed meals at the local tiki bars.  It was great to share time with Andra.

Andra and Sharon on Sombrero Beach

Greg and Andra walking the trails at Crane Point

The Florida Bay from Crane Point

Andra said goodbye mid-day Friday, March 11 and we dug into chores in preparation to leave early Saturday morning.  Our kind dock neighbors showed up at 6:45am on Saturday to help us leave the dock and off we went.  Setting a course due North and then turning West, we pulled out the big genoa, then hoisted the mainsail and sailed the entire 80 miles to the Marquesas Keys.  With the wind on our port quarter and waves behind, we were pushed all the way and dropped the hook off the beach at 6:25pm.  It was a banner day and so delightful to be sailing again!

Sunrise at the Marquesas Keys

Captain Greg

Sailing to the Dry Tortugas

With the start of Daylight Savings Time, we got a later start on Sunday, pulling the main up, bringing up the anchor and heading West at 272 degrees.  Once again, it was a great sailing day, and shorter than the previous day. This day we covered only 40 miles.  We had a couple of turtle sightings and a bunch of baby and full-sized Portuguese Man O'War.  We finally made our way into the Dry Tortugas National Park around giant Fort Jefferson by mid-afternoon.  It was a treat to see Cutter Loose already sitting at anchor as we entered the small harbor.  Cutter Loose had sailed from Marco Island, Florida overnight to arrive by early morning.  (You can click on their boat name to see their blog if you're interested and any of the other hot-links underlined in the copy for more information.)

The Dry Tortugas National Park, a cluster of seven islands, sits out at the west end of the fourth largest living reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Apo Reef in the Phillipines, and the Mesoamerican Reef off Belize. Starting up around Key Largo, the reef protects the Keys all the way to Key West and 70 miles beyond to the Dry Tortugas; a total of 221 miles.  First named Las Tortugas (The Turtles) in 1513 by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, the reefs soon read "Dry Tortugas" on mariners' charts to show they offered no fresh water.  By 1829, the United States knew it could control navigation to the Gulf of Mexico and protect Atlantic bound Mississippi trade by fortifying the Tortugas.  Fort Jefferson construction started on Garden Key in 1846 and continued for 30 years but was never finished.  During the Civil War the Fort became a Union military prison for captured deserters and also housed four men who were complicit in President Lincoln's assassination.  The Army abandoned the Fort in 1874.

In 1908 Bird Island, now joined to the main island, became a wildlife refuge to protect the sooty tern rookery.  The National Park Service has resident staff occupying small areas in the Fort as well as some outbuildings on Loggerhead Key, two miles NW of the fort.  There is ongoing research above and below the sea.  Each day, a large ferry boat arrives from Key West bringing 175 tourists who want to experience the local snorkeling and tour the Fort.  Seaplanes come and go twice a day bringing a few passengers, landing and taking off only 50 yards from the anchorage, providing a really fun sight.  There are eight camping sites right in front of the Fort that were full of small tents And a couple of dive boats came and went while we were there.  The harbor is small and deep and we shared it over the three days we were there with no more than eight other boats.

The area reminded us very much of the Caribbean and the Bahamas.  There is beautiful clear blue water, white sandy beaches and lots of aqua and blue colored sea beyond.  There are all kinds of tropical fish to be seen below the water, warm water lobsters, and plenty of healthy and unique corals.  The sooty terns and brown noddies were in residence and very active.  There is also a nurse shark nursery, but it was off limits, and we did not see any nurse sharks this trip.  The only turtles we saw were floating on the water as we made our way out and back.  You have to keep a sharp eye out and get lucky to see them as once they see you, they dive deep.  The Park is a beautiful and remote spot.  We felt very fortunate to be able to travel there on our own boat.

Click on any photo to enlarge and zoom

Fort Jefferson 

Dream Catcher on the left and Cutter Loose on the right

Looking East

Ranger Mike conducting a Moat Tour

Inside the Fort

Replica of one of the Cannons

Greg and Eric

Sharon, Pat and Eric

Magnificent Frigate Birds

Day One was a late afternoon swim and adult beverages aboard Cutter Loose.  Day Two included a Fort tour, Moat tour, a $7 lunch aboard the Key West Tour boat, and a snorkel around the fort walls.  Day Three involved a two-mile dingy ride to Loggerhead Key, snorkeling and walking the beach.

Loggerhead Key

Beach on Loggerhead Key

West end  

When we took the Fort tour, we learned that only a couple days before our arrival to the Park, this boat arrived with 19 Cuban refugees aboard after being at sea for a week due to high winds and seas.  We were unaware of the "dry-foot" privilege these immigrants aspire to.  If a Cuban refugee can get one foot on US soil, he can stay and begin the process for legal immigration.  Cuban immigrants are the only ones in the world who enjoy this preferential traetment.  This is a result of decades of immigration from Cuba and the US decision to welcome rather than return these people.
South Florida is a haven for Cubans.  Over one million Cubans now live in Florida and another million in other parts of the US.  Cuba's population is under 12 million.

We all agreed that one has to really want to get out to travel with 18 others across 100 miles of ocean in this homemade tub and hope to land in a remote area, counting on the good graces of the Coast Guard to be kind enough to transport you back to Key West to enter the immigration system.  We also saw abandoned, broken up boats on the shores of the Marquesas Keys. We've heard and read that between one forth and one half of those who attempt to cross the Florida Straights from Cuba to the US die on the way - very poor odds indeed!

This is a handmade boat with an old marine engine; called a "Chugg" for the noise the engine makes when underway.  

We finally got a chance to try out the GoPro underwater and here is what we were able to capture.

Sharon enjoying the giant fish tank!

Squirrel Fish, Parrot Fish

Blue Headed Wrasse

Blue Tangs

These were with the regular camera.

Dream Catcher and Cutter Loose at anchor in the Dry Tortugas

These guys were hanging out underneath Dream Catcher on and off for a couple days.
They are "Jewfish" each was about four feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds.  They are in the Grouper family.  

Though we would have loved to stay for a week, we checked the weather and saw a cold front approaching by Sunday, bringing stronger north winds. We knew it was risky to stay much longer.  So, by 8am on Wednesday we had the anchor up and were on our way.  We motor sailed with the full main up and made our way East, the 40 nautical miles to the Marquesas Keys.

Before we left for this trip we asked many others if they had any advice.  The most common reply was that the trip to the Dry Tortugas is often OK, but the trip back can be awful because the dominant winds are from the east - the way back to Marathon.  Many bash for two days to get home.  We even heard stories of people giving up sailing as a result of a very bad return trip.

We got incredibly lucky with weather. We had a beautiful downwind sail to get to our destination and easy and flat seas returning.  We were were very fortunate to have the conditions we did.  We took our time and spent a night at anchor in the Marquesas, and a night at anchor off Sawyer Key, just 25 miles from Marathon.  The snorkeling at Sawyer Key was really different.  Unique corals of varying colors, lots of barrel sponge, a four foot Barracuda (!) and a southern stingray.  Too bad we didn't have the GoPro with us!

Our last day out, we had very flat seas and motored our way back.  Check out Cutter Loose's blog for additional info and photos of the trip together.  Here is a last shot of them as we motored similar paths back to Harbour Cay Club, Marathon, FL.

In two weeks, we leave for Cuba onboard Cutter Loose.  Very exciting!  'Til then -

Land week again in Marathon at Harbour Cay Club

After reading our friends' Hayden and Radeen's Island Spirit blog, and Maris and Linda's Amekaya blog, we feel like slackers sitting here in a slip at Harbour Cay Club in Marathon, Florida.  But - we have had family and friends visiting, so we are making the best of our land time.

Greg's mom, sister Pam and brother Jay joined us for a week.  The club boasts a very spacious and well-appointed apartment above the clubhouse.  This was home for Shirley, Pam and Jay (though Jay slept on board with us) for the week.  It was great for us to share meals and TV(!!) with them all week.  They also kept us running as they wanted to take in all the sights and sounds of the area.  First day was a ride up to Islamorada to visit the Islamorada World Wide Sportsman store (now a Bass Pro Shop) where you can go aboard a replica of "Pilar", Ernest Hemingway's boat.  After some great shopping, we enjoyed a meal outdoors at Islamorada Fish Company.  Next day was a ride the other direction to Key West.  A stop at the Southernmost Point, a stroll down Duvall Street and a yummy meal at Old Town Mexican Cafe, our tired feet climbed back into the car for the hour and a half drive home.

Greg's sister Pam, brother Jay and Mom Shirley 

The chicken tostada at Old Mexican Cafe, Key West

Pam and Shirley walking Sombrero Beach

Greg, Pam, Shirley (Mom) and Jay

It was a treat having the availability of a car, so we made numerous runs to the grocery and hit the beautiful Sombrero Beach a few times, enjoying a swim in the beautiful blue water.  The three of them visited the Turtle Hospital, but we missed it due to work commitments.  We hope to get there before we leave town.

A second day in Key West included a Glass-bottom Boat Sunset Cruise.  A large glass-bottomed boat takes you out to the reef to see the fishes and coral.  It was great fun on a gorgeous day.  We saw lots of tropical fish and healthy coral.  The commentator did a good job identifying the species and telling us the history of the reef.  Though the sun went behind haze and clouds before it hit the horizon, we learned that they call this a "High" sunset in Key West.  There were no less than 20 boats filled with tourists just outside the harbor for their own sunset cruise.

Shirley, Pam and Greg on board the glass-bottom boat

Since we have been here, we have struggled with the direction - direction of the wind, direction of the roadways, which is south, north, east or west.  Part of this confusion comes from always having lived where the water is always to the East.  Here water lies to both the East and the West.  Also, once you leave Biscayne Bay and head south the Keys start to turn toward the West the further you go, rather than South.  Thus, the name "Key West".  So, though we think we are in a land of North/South like the rest of Florida, we are really sitting in and East/West region. It's very much like sailing or driving "down east" in Maine where the same sensation is reversed.

Thursday meant a long trip to Boca Raton to see Courtney and Paolo's new home.  It was a treat for "Grandma, Auntie Pam and Uncle Jay" to see Courtney's house and meet "Gus", their labrador retriever.  Gus loves the pool in the back yard and will fetch for hours.  Another treat was lunch at JB's On the Beach in Deerfield Beach A walk around Mizner Park shopping area allowed Courtney to show off what is now her "home" town.

Courtney, Greg and Pam (see any resemblance here?!)

Friday was another delightful beach day and a chance to grill dinner once again.  All in all, it was a wonderful, sunny, perfect weather week and we all enjoyed our time together.  It was sad to say goodbye and watch them head back north on Saturday.  So glad they got a chance to visit and enjoy the warm for a bit.

While we were out playing last week, we had the folks from "Carnival Canvas" make us a sunshade for the stern (the one place we didn't have one) and "Barnacle Bill" scrubbed the bottom of the boat for us.  Between the knowledge of the slip holders here at HCC and a location filled with boats and fishing vendors, there is anything you might need related to life on the water.  And when Greg needed to rent a car to get to Coral Gables to get his broken tooth fixed early Monday morning, upon his return of the rental, he called "Bob Narley" taxi to get him back to the boat.  Bob's taxis sport a picture of Bob Marley on their doors and the Rasta colors. There is a great cast of characters here in the Keys!

The other really cool thing about this area is the plethora of fish and seafood.  Though there is very little "fine dining" to speak of, you will find fresh tuna, all types of fish, as well as stone crab and lobster on most every menu around.  There are lots of "tiki" bars and restaurants that are all open air and by the water.  Add the fresh seafood as well as each unique take on "Key Lime Pie" and you can't beat it for yummy.

A tuna martini

Today, our friend Andra flies in from Boston to spend a few days.  We will see what trouble we can get into.  Then, we provision and plan for our trip to the Marqueses and Dry Tortugas - remote islands  70 and 100 miles further west of Key West.  We look forward to the trip, being away from it all, getting in some snorkeling and meeting up with our friends Pat and Eric aboard Cutter Loose.

'Til next time -

Bike Rides, Key West and Heat Exchanger Flushing

We've had a good first week or so at Harbour Cay Club in Marathon.  The weather was pretty good, sun was mostly out, wind was manageable and it wasn't too hot or too cold. Nice! We've met lots of new friends, shared a few happy hours at the Tiki Hut and participated in a potluck dinner, and watched the movie Martian with a group of fellow sailors in the clubhouse.

We rented big people bicycles and rode 20 miles up to Grassy Key (just North of Vaca Key where Marathon is) a of couple times We've sampled "Burdine's" (touted as the best burger and fries in the area), took the bus to Key West for a day, lunched at Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville", toured Hemingway's House, and did a good bit of work-work (the work we get paid for).

Hemingway's House in Key West

This really cool sculpture garden dedicated to those who had a large influence in Key West over the years

"The Wreckers" a bronze sculpture of the men who salvaged the wrecks on the reefs surrounding Key West

We have no idea why this is "done up" as it is, but pretty wild! 

The last couple days have been dedicated to boat projects.

The canvas that enwraps the mainsail when it is not in use has been wearing thin in one or two places. So, Sharon bought some really nice Sunbrella with a vinyl backing from a local canvas shop and set to work on the cabin top with her trusty sewing machine. She was able to add patches to the mainsail cover in two heavy wear areas with great results.

Here is Sharon hard at work (disregard the sunny day, blue water and palm trees in the background!)

We need to add a picture of the finished product! She did a beautiful job! And it was warm and sunny on deck all afternoon! A happy day.

Greg's project was to clean the diesel's heat exchanger (this is like the radiator on your car engine). What fun! The boat next door just had it's generator heat exchanger cleaned, and Greg thought it was a great idea to do the same for our main engine as it's been over ten years since it has been tended to. In order to do this he had to build a small pump system that would circulate water and an acid mixture through the heat exchanger into a bucket. He happened to have an extra water pump and added extra wire and a cigrette lighter plug so that it could be operated anywhere there was a cigrette lighter receptacle (that would be like your 12-volt plug in your car where you plug in your phone or other devices). He bought clear hose from the hardware store for the pump. And he happened to have another run of larger hose that fit the heat exchanger to pump assembly perfectly. Often the most difficult part of boat projects is the planning and gathering of parts. This turned out easier than most!

Pump assembly

First task, test the pump in the sink to make sure it worked.  Then he found two five gallon buckets to use for the acid mixture and later the clean water final flush. Denny Mills, across the dock on the IP420 True North, helped out. Denny's boat was the one that had the generator aboard that was cleaned...and the inspiration for this project. So, once Dream Catcher was done the boys moved to True North to clean that heat exchanger.

Running the system - black water!

Denny caught off guard!

Disregard those running sox!

The solution is brown as a result of organics being killed and flushed

After the initial acid flush a soda flush neutralizes the acid

Here are all the details modified for our current and future use.

Heat Exchanger cleaning using an HCL acid bath:

Hydrochloric (HCL) and Muriatic Acid are the same. But the concentrations available in stores differ. Most are 20 – 50% concentrations. All are OK to use, but it’s worth knowing what you’re using as you add HCL to the water mix so that you can add at a more or less aggressive rate. My bottle is 39% HCL. Rydlyme (sold by Mack Boring marine diesel distributor) is essentially a 5-9% HCL solution. See their technical specs: http://www.rydlymemarine.com/assets/1/7/RYDLYME_MARINE_SDS_0301151.PDF

Wear eye protection.

Open all hatches and ports so that the area is well ventilated. The process temporarily generates strong gases.

Have extra rags, paper towels and plastic bags handy to keep the area as dry as possible.

Prepare your motor:

Close engine seacock valve.

Cover starter, alternator and any other electrical devices with plastic, paper and towels to keep them dry.

Open heat exchanger raw water drain, if equipped, and release as much raw water as possible.

Disconnect both raw water hoses from heat exchanger.

Connect pump hose and exit water hose to heat exchanger.

Flush system:

Add three to four gallons of clean water to each of two buckets.

Circulate clean water through the system and check for leaks. If none, proceed.

Add a small amount of HCL to bucket, perhaps 2 cups. It will fizz when in contact with water, which means it is interacting with the base/organic material in the water. The organic material is algae, barnacles, and other plant or parasitic marine life growing in the heat exchanger.

The water will change color to dark brown as organic material is converted and exits the system.

Monitor solution in circulation bucket for fizzing and bubbling. When it no longer reacts add more HCL. The water should continue to turn dark brown or black as a result of flushing the organic material out.

When adding new HCL has no more fizzing effect in the bucket run the pump for another few minutes and then stop the process. 

This means there is no more organic material in the system.

Flush the system with clean water for a few minutes while adding backing soda to the mixture to neutralize the HCL. Do this very slowly, as this will cause more bubbling and fizzing as the water in the heat exchanger enters the bucket. Continue adding soda until there is no more bubbling or fizzing, then run the pump another minute or two.

Remove the soda bath bucket and add another fresh water bucket, insert the hoses into this bucket and flush again with fresh water for a few minutes. This should eliminate most traces of acid or soda and fill the heat exchanger with clean water.

Carefully empty the water from the hoses into the bucket, disconnect them from the heat exchanger, reconnect engine hoses and remove the pump and equipment from the engine area.

Clean and dry engine and engine room. Open seacock. Run the engine. Make sure you have good water flow. You’re done!

From E.B White

OK, who among you has or has not been commanded to use the infalible "Elements of Style" as a young high schooler? Face up! If you have, you are most certainly better of it. What is curious about this basic English language text is that the author was E. B. White, who also wrote famously about boats. 

I thought this piece would be fine to read....E. B. White's famous treatise on boats! I hope you enjoy it!

"WAKING OR SLEEPING, I dream of boats - usually of rather small boats under a slight press of sail. When I think how great a part of my life has been spent dreaming the hours away and how much of this total dream life has concerned small craft, I wonder about the state of my health, for I am told that it is not a good sign to be always voyaging into unreality, driven by imaginary breezes.

I have noticed that most men, when they enter a barber shop and must wait their turn, drop into a chair and pick up a magazine. I simply sit down and pick up the thread of my sea wandering, which began more than fifty years ago and is not quite ended. There is hardly a waiting room in the East that has not served as my cockpit, whether I was waiting to board a train or to see a dentist. And I am usually still trimming sheets when the train starts or the drill begins to whine. If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble. If it happens to be an auxiliary cruising boat, it is without question the most compact and ingenious arrangement for living ever devised by the restless mind of man - a home that is stable without being stationary, shaped less like a box than like a fish or a bird or a girl, and in which the homeowner can remove his daily affairs as far from shore as he has the nerve to take them, close-hauled or running free -parlor, bedroom, and bath, suspended and alive.

Men who ache allover for tidiness and compactness in their lives often find relief for their pain in the cabin of a thirty-foot sailboat at anchor in a sheltered cove. Here the sprawling panoply of The Home is compressed in orderly miniature and liquid delirium, suspended between the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky, ready to move on in the morning by the miracle of canvas and the witchcraft of rope. It is small wonder that men hold boats in the secret place of their mind, almost from the cradle to the grave.

Along with my dream of boats has gone the ownership of boats, a long succession of them upon the surface of the sea, many of them makeshift and crank. Since childhood I have managed to have some sort of sailing craft and to raise a sail in fear. Now, in my sixties, I still own a boat, still raise my sail in fear in answer to the summons of the unforgiving sea. Why does the sea attract me in the way it does: Whence comes this compulsion to hoist a sail, actually or in dream? My first encounter with the sea was a case of hate at first sight. I was taken, at the age of four, to a bathing beach in New Rochelle. Everything about the experience frightened and repelled me: the taste of salt in my mouth, the foul chill of the wooden bathhouse, the littered sand, the stench of the tide flats. I came away hating and fearing the sea. Later, I found that what I had feared and hated, I now feared and loved.

I returned to the sea of necessity, because it would support a boat; and although I knew little of boats, I could not get them out of my thoughts. I became a pelagic boy. The sea became my unspoken challenge: the wind, the tide, the fog, the ledge, the bell, the gull that cried help, the never-ending threat and bluff of weather. Once having permitted the wind to enter the belly of my sail, I was not able to quit the helm; it was as though I had seized hold of a high-tension wire and could not let go.

I liked to sail alone. The sea was the same as a girl to me I did not want anyone else along. Lacking instruction, I invented ways of getting things done, and usually ended by doing them in a rather queer fashion, and so did not learn to sail properly, and still cannot sail well, although I have been at it all my life. I was twenty before I discovered that charts existed; all my navigating up to that time was done with the wariness and the ignorance of the early explorers. I was thirty before I learned to hang a coiled halyard on its cleat as it should be done. Until then I simply coiled it down on deck and dumped the coil. I was always in trouble and always returned, seeking more trouble. Sailing became a compulsion: there lay the boat, swinging to her mooring, there blew the wind; I had no choice hut to go. My earliest boats were so small that when the wind failed, or when I failed, I could switch to manual control-I could paddle or row home. But then I graduated to boats that only the wind was strong enough to move. When I first dropped off my mooring in such a boat, I was an hour getting up the nerve to cast off the pennant. Even now, with a thousand little voyages notched in my belt, I still I feel a memorial chill on casting off, as the gulls jeer and the empty mainsail claps.

Of late years, I have noticed that my sailing has increasingly become a compulsive activity rather than a source of pleasure. There lies the boat, there blows the morning breeze-it is a point of honor, now, to go. I am like an alcoholic who cannot put his bottle out of his life. With me, I cannot not sail. Yet I know well enough that I have lost touch with the wind and, in fact, do not like the wind any more. It jiggles me up, the wind does, and what I really love are windless days, when all is peace. There is a great question in my mind whether a man who is against wind should longer try to sail a boat. But this is an intellectual response-the old yearning is still in me, belonging to the past, to youth, and so I am torn between past and present, a common disease of later life.

When does a man quit the sea? How dizzy, how bumbling must he be? Does he quit while he's ahead, or wait till he makes some major mistake, like falling overboard or being flattened by an accidental jibe? This past winter I spent hours arguing the question with myself. Finally, deciding that I had come to the end of the road, I wrote a note to the boatyard, putting my boat up for sale. I said I was "coming off the water." But as I typed the sentence, I doubted that I meant a word of it.

If no buyer turns up, I know what will happen: I will instruct the yard to put her in again-"just till somebody comes along." And then there will be the old uneasiness, the old uncertainty, as the mild southeast breeze ruffles the cove, a gentle, steady, morning breeze, bringing the taint of the distant wet world, the smell that takes a man back to the very beginning of time, linking him to all that has gone before. There will lie the sloop, there will blow the wind, once more I will get under way. And as I reach across to the black can off the Point, dodging the trap buoys and toggles, the shags gathered on the ledge will note my passage. "There goes the old boy again," they will say. "One more rounding of his little Horn, one more conquest of his Roaring Forties." And with the tiller in my hand, I'll feel again the wind imparting life to a boat, will smell again the old menace, the one that imparts life to me: the cruel beauty of the salt world, the barnacle's tiny knives, the sharp spine of the urchin, the stinger of the sun jelly, the claw of the crab."

And there you are!

:)

Hawk Channel and arriving in Marathon

After leaving Matheson Marina in Coral Gables we had a delightful time hanging around Biscayne Bay and it's surrounding bays and islands.  After enjoying a quiet anchorage on the western side of Card Sound on our first evening we looked for a spot to protect us against a Northeast wind coming the next evening.  Traveling only 6 miles south, we nosed our way into shallow Barnes Sound and tucked up into the northeastern corner where we were the only ones around for miles and quite comfy.  Each day warmed a bit more and we enjoyed some bright sunshine by Friday.  

With the prediction of light and variable winds Friday night, we headed back north to Card Sound, east through Angelfish Creek (off the northern tip of Key Largo) and out into Hawk Channel and the Atlantic Ocean.  Hawk Channel is a deep-draft boat (that would be us) cruisers' highway along the eastern side of the Keys.  The barrier reef of coral protects the waters of Hawk Channel from the large sea swells and allows a lovely sail either north or south along the Keys in most weather.  We had two gorgeous days with bright blue skies, sunshine and light winds.  The first night we found a spot to anchor behind Rodriguez Key (just East of the southern tip of Key Largo) with protection from the northerlies and eastern sea swell.  It was delightful.  

Greg took the opportunity to replace the zinc.  For you non-boaters, the zinc is a hunk of sacrificial zinc that fastens around the propeller shaft. The metal is less noble than any other metal in the boat's drive train, including the prop, shaft, transmission and engine. So, when the sea water creates electrolysis (rust and corrosion) the least noble metal goes first. In this case it's the zinc, which saves all the other components from rust and corrosion.  A very important item on every boat! But, you have to change them about every six months....under water with mask, fins and snorkel. Greg actually likes this job as long as the water is clean and warm. Ahhh, Florida!

Transiting Angelfish Creek - just north of Key Largo

Look at the base of the mark's pole to see the current against us

The second day gave us 12 knots of wind on our starboard quarter (that's the back right hand side of the boat) We were able to unfurl the big genoa and the staysail and sail quietly down the channel.  Twice we were visited by dolphins. They were happy to see us and played around our little bow wake for awhile.  Because we were going so slowly, they just lazed about with us.  It was really fun!

Sailing Hawk Channel

Crossing under Channel Five bridge just north of Long Key, we headed West into Florida Bay, hoping to get some protection from the north and east winds that were coming that evening.  We found a small cove and tucked in among the hundreds of crab and lobster pots.  The nights have still been cool, so we hunker down inside while the cabin is still warm from cooking dinner.  This night, we didn't get tucked into the cove far enough and felt the waves and wind overnight quite a bit.  Plus, we dragged anchor a bit as well, awakening at 4 in the morning to a crab pot buoy banging against the side of the hull. Dragging anchor is a very big no-no. And we are very careful. But, in this case we dragged some distance and were able to see the scope of our error in the morning when we fired up the chart plotter with our track recorded from the previous day. The only good thing to say about this is that we anchored about a mile from land in any direction!

After messing with the anchor and the nearby annoying crab pots, we headed southeast down Florida Bay.  Once clear of the shallow channel and surrounding banks, we again pulled out the genoa and sailed downwind with a brisk 20 knots.  It was another sunny day and just beautiful.  Two loggerhead turtle sitings and lots of dolphin visits later, we dropped the hook just west of East Bahia Honda Key It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  With a very distant view of the "Seven Mile Bridge" we looked south and west and saw only tiny islands and water.  We were probably about seven miles from the bridge and the larger Keys. We positioned our boat SW of the little island to protect us from the evenings predicted NE 18 knot winds. It was a perfect spot to be away and a beautiful night.

A Loggerhead Turtle - once they see you, they dive deep - this was a lucky shot!

Note the water color change from Hawk Channel (above) to Florida Bay here.  Florida Bay is mostly grassy bottom, not sure if that is the reason for the color? 

The interesting thing about the Keys is that the water is mostly 2 to 10 feet deep.  Often it is not possible to snug up to the islands to anchor due to very shallow water surrounding them.  This last anchored night we were still 100 yards from the island. We brought the anchor up in the morning for what was to be the last time for awhile, hauled up the mainsail and let out half the genoa and headed Southeast, close-hauled (that's all sails pulled in tightly so you can sail as close to the wind as possible), toward the "Seven Mile Bridge".  It was a "brisk and windy" sail with lots of spray over the deck. Our sail plan was set for wind up to about 18 knots. But, we saw 22 and 23 knots often enough and the boat flew. After tacking a few times we finally dropped the sails and headed into Harbor Cay Club, our home for a few weeks in Marathon.

A party of several dock mates were there to assist us in docking maneuvers.  It was a friendly bunch, willing to have lines tossed over their shoulders and use their muscle to help us first dock bow in, then slowly turn us around so that our stern is now in - making it more comfortable to ride out the northerlies that will soon arrive.  After settling in, a much-needed two hour boat wash, three loads of laundry and a delightful land shower, we headed off on foot to "Porky's Bayside" right around the corner for some yummy barbecue!  This area is what we term "old Florida" and reminds us a lot of the Caribbean.  Low, flat buildings, lots of palm trees, orchids growing in Live Oak trees, and Tiki Huts and beach bars all around.  Should be fun to explore.

'Til next time -