July in the Keys

7-3-08 The alarm woke me at 6. I usually prefer to get up around 9. But time and tide. I packed up the last minute items, bread, breakfast roll that will not be going in the refrigerator and filled a cooler with ice and drinks for the first day and a few frozen items I missed yesterday. It is so nice to have a refrigerator and freezer on the boat all packed ahead of time and not to have to worry about running the engine to keep it cold.

I loaded the food and the dingy motor in the car and headed for the boat. After loading the last supplies and washing the boat, I headed home at 8:30 and walked back to the boat. The bridges are closed for rush hour until 8:30 so a 9 AM departure sounded just about right. Of course when I got home I found a few more things that I had forgotten, I need to update my cruising checklist, I almost left without the cell phone charger!

Pulled in the lines at 9:15 and headed down the river with a strong incoming current. Listening on the radio I heard a trawler going through Davie Blvd bridge and slowed down so I could get behind him and let him open the bridges for me. Another larger catamaran was waiting at the 17 St bridge which I can get under except at extreme high tide. The bridge opened just as I went under and he passed me going out the channel. Outside the wind was light from the SE. He went out a little further and we both started sailing South. With the engines pulled up I soon left him behind, a good feeling.

11:30 The wind is getting a bit stronger, doing 3.5-4Kt on a reach and the other catamaran is catching up. He must have turned on his engine.  With all the rain we have had lately, I notice that the sail cover has trapped a bunch of water. I climb on the cabin and shake it out. It cascades down and soaks my hat and towel in the cockpit. I rig a preventer to keep the boom from swinging about in the waves. Not many boats our for such a nice day.

12 Noon, A monohull is coming up from behind. He may force me to rig the screecher. I put a fishing line out and as he gets closer I pull out the screecher which has been resting in the forward port berth since the delivery trip. The last time I  carried it from the front tramp, around the cabin, down the stairs and foreword to the berth. Now I am smarter, I just opened the front hatch and pulled it out. It went together without a problem and worked fine for about an hour until the wind shifted more South and I rolled it up and rolled out the jib.

1PM The wind dropped more and I started motor sailing on the Port engine, 1600 RPM doing 4.4Kt. The autopilot does not work as good as it used to, keeps a larger error and does not move the rudder much. I put in the boat builders recommended settings but I may have to go back to the factory settings.

3PM After passing Government Cut the wind comes back and I am sailing again, doing 4-5Kt. This sure beats the last time when I had to do all the steering. I had a good lunch, checked out the head, sat on the front tramp, did suduko and even put on suntan lotion without the boat turning 50˚ off course a moments inattention.

5PM Entered stiltsville, there are a lot of boats anchored behind Key Biscayne. The fireworks barge went out stiltsville pass shortly after I went in. I was intending to anchor at Key Biscayne but the number of boats persuaded me to head for Elliot Key. That place would be a madhouse after the fireworks. I hit 7.5Kt with the screecher on the way down Biscayne Bay. I anchored just as the sun was setting. A few mosquitoes buzzed around so I put up the screens and had dinner while watching fireworks from a dozen different points in Miami and Key Biscayne. It was a quiet night with a nice breeze. I slept on the front tramp for a while

Saturday Slept late and woke to rain clouds all around. It rained off and on all day. One storm had strong winds and the anchor dragged a bit before catching. I put out more chain, 100' in 9' of water. With an anchor bridle the boat stays pointed into the wind and does not sail around on the anchor much. Even when the anchor dragged it went straight backwards. It does not give the same signals as a monohull when the anchor drags which may not be an improvement.

In preparation for the trip I emptied the water tank and refilled it. The water was the original from the delivery trip, the tank lasts a long time but it had taken on that new boat smell. I ran the pump for a long time and I think the overtemp feature kicked in and limited its operation. Afterward it did not operate the same, the pressure was much less. After puzzling over this for quite a while I had an inspiration and unscrewed the faucet aerator. It was full of gunk from the bottom of the tank and cleaning it got the water system back to normal.

6PM  The batteries are down to 11.8v, not much sun today so I run the engines for a half hour and hope that gets the frig through the night. Beautiful sunset.

Cooked filet minion and rice for dinner. the grill gets very hot and does not have a low setting. I turned the grill on and off a few times. It keeps hot for quite a while. The steaks were slightly burnt but very good. I switched the batteries to BOTH to keep the voltage up overnight.

Sunday A very quiet night except for a few mosquitoes. I got a number of them in the head and a couple bothered me in bed. I did not put up all the screens, just closed the companionway and put the screens in the center and aft hatch. This provided plenty of cool air.

I cleaned the solar panel and moved the boom so they would get maximum sunlight. I switched back to battery 1 which is at 12.2v.

Had breakfast at 7:30, OJ and a blueberry muffin. Another cloudy day with a bank of clouds to the NE.

Shaved and took a swim and shower. Cleaned the waterline and had a nice shower. Then watched rain clouds approach. At 9:45 the rain started with a real downpour. The saloon is a great place to watch the rain come down in perfect comfort.

Another quiet night with no mosquitoes, a nice breeze an a light show upwind to the E but it never came in.

Monday Slept late again, finished the breakfast roll and cleaned and tidied up. The wind is SE at 10-15Kt.

10:30 Pulled up anchor and headed S for Barnes Sound which is supposed to have a soft mud bottom for better anchoring I hope. This is where Dave and I started on the delivery trip 2 weeks ago. I charged the cell phone, maybe work will call but I hope not. Doing 4.5-5Kt with just the jib. The sailing is easy.

4PM Anchored in Barnes Sound.

Meet another boat going the other way at one of the winding mangrove passes in the upper keys.

7/10/08 After 6 days on the boat it is time to get ashore. I anchored just off the channel with several other boats just south of Gilberts in heavy weeds. I dragged the first time and put the anchor further into the channel the second time and it held. A number of boats are anchored on the East side of the channel, some live aboards and some long term storage. It was just a short row to Gilberts so I did not bother with the engine. I had a nice dinner and a few beers and then walked across the old bridge to check out the other side and had a few drinks at a bar on the other side. Gilberts seems to do a fair business but the other side is almost dead. Both sides have advertisements for the time share that Gilberts is supposed to become. This has been going on for several years. I like Gilberts the way it is. In this economy they probably will not be tearing it down anytime soon.

Back at Barnes Sound I try out the dingy motor for the first time. It was in the shop for my last trip to Elliot Key, they said it sat too long between uses. This gives me incentive to go boating more often.

7/12/08 Back at Elliot Key, I dingy in to the ranger station to stretch my legs. Not much has changed here in the last few years. They have put up a few solar panels. The nature walk is still not open but there were enough mosquitoes that I was not really interested in taking it anyway. The walk across the island was enough communing with nature for me.

7/16/08 Unfortunately the boss called, the contract is signed so its back to the grind for me. I spend 1 more night at No Name Harbor  at Bill Bags Park on the S tip of Biscayne Bay. There were 4 other boats anchored there but plenty of room for me. The Boaters  Grill has great food and after lunch I took a long walk around the park until storm clouds started to roll in. A number of storms swept over followed by complete calms. The boats would line up during the storms and then swing around in all different directions when the wind dropped. Everything calmed down at night and there were not even may mosquitoes.

Anchored in front of the Boaters Grill

Cape Florida Lighthouse

They renovated the lighthouse a few years ago. I guess when they put it back together they had a few pieces left over.

7/17/08 There was absolutely no wind when I woke at dawn. I slipped quietly out of the harbor. It was so flat you could see any disturbance in the water a long way off. I could see several groups of dolphin breaking the water. I raised the main but mostly to get it dried off. there were occasional ripples on the water but nothing good for sailing.

Going past Key Biscayne I saw something ahead like a coconut or a crab trap float but it disappeared, then reappeared 30 seconds later and the disappeared again. As I got closer to the location I could see ripples in the water. Going past, it was a crab at the surface waving its arms at me. Very weird. I saw several schools of bait fish and dragged a line but did not get a hit.

Around noon the coast guard announced they would be holding a live fire exercise. I did not catch the location but I don't think it was right off the beach where I was sailing.

After lunch, around Hollywood beach a coast guard jet zoomed right overhead and then curved out. I noticed a vessel a ways off shore, possibly coast guard or military. When the jet was over the vessel it dropped a package on an orange parachute that the vessel appeared to pick up.

Later several boaters reported a boat on fire a ways off shore. I looked around and found a cloud of smoke on the water. The coast guard reported that the jet had dropped some flares as part of their exercise.  Your tax dollars at work.

As I got closer to Port Everglades the wind finally came up but too late to help much. As I went up the river one of the big party boats announced over the radio that it was leaving the dock so I circled in a wide spot until it went passed. A tow boat hauling a 30 footer headed up river and I fell in behind. I heard a several large boats headed down river calling to 7th Ave bridge and figured they would get to Andrews about the same time as I would. I called for 3d Ave just as they were opening Andrews and we all got through both bridges on the same opening. After that the rest of the way was a piece of cake.