Boating with Jack and Julie Davis

We rendezvoused with Jack and Julie Davis just south of Miami (they flew into MIA) at the very lovely Dinner Key Marina, when they arrived we took a shore leave and went into famous Coconut Grove for dinner, then out to the boat .  The trip out to the boat was a bit of a challenge, because of the number of people and the luggage it required two trips, each a total of a 1 mile row, with the outbound leg requiring some strong arms.  The wind had piped up to about 15 knots, so Geoff's arms were a wee bit tired after two round trips, the dinghy loaded to the gunwales for both trips.

We left the next morning from Dinner Key and after a few hours on the water stopped for the night at a wonderful Florida State Park called Boca Chita.  It is accessible only by boat, and since it was a weekday there were only a couple of boats there with us, so we had a great time snorkeling, swimming and strolling around the island.    The photo above was shot by Jack Davis during our stay.  We missed the tour of the light house, so we will have to go back on our trek north in a month.

The next two days we puttered south, stopping along the way to explore and anchor for the night.  The Davis's treated us to a great dinner on Tuesday night at a wonderful waterfront restaurant, Wednesday we spent the night on the anchor at Lignumvitae Key, off the ICW.

Although Patty and I were starting to get the hang of most of the routine duties aboard our lovely trawler, we were still finding anchoring somewhat hit or miss.  The boat came equipped with a very nice looking all stainless steel, 35 lb hinged plow anchor, often called a CQR, plus a second lighter 22# Danforth anchor.  I replaced the original main rode (the rode is the anchor chain or rope, or combination of the two that connects the anchor to the boat) with 75 meters of brand new 10 mm chain, which works well with our electric windlass allowing us to effortlessly raise and lower the anchor with minimum fuss, at least in theory.  After several dozen different attempts at anchoring with the plow with different bottom materials (sand, mud, weeds ,and coral) I was less than impressed with the anchor.  With such an anchor, I should be able to set the anchor and then test it by engaging reverse gear for several minutes, during which time the anchor should sink deeper into the seabed due to the pull exerted by the engine.  However, with this particular anchor, in most cases reversing on the anchor resulted in the anchor dragging across the bottom, the signal to me that our anchor was not prepared to hold us against any strong winds that might arise during the night.

We tried different techniques, different bottoms, we switched anchors, one time I even snorkeled over the anchor while Patty engaged reverse gear, I watched the anchor but still could not determine why it was unable to sink into the seabed.  I talked with the broker who sold us the boat, and others who knew the boat but could not see the problem.

Thursday night we had another lovely evening, we anchored just off the shoreline of Grassy Key in anticipation of an evening ashore for Valentines Day dinner.  But during our anchor drill we failed to achieve a solid set ( I attributed that in part to the poor character of the bottom, a thin layer of sand over old coral, which allows the anchor a light set in the sand but because of the underlying hard coral, the anchor can never achieve deep penetration).  Patty and I stayed with the boat during the afternoon and Jack and Julie headed to shore, when they returned Patty and I took our dinner break ashore.  We all started heading to bed early, but luckily Jack and I were still up talking when things went wild.  Jack had just finished saying, "what a lovely evening this had been", when the wind went from 8 knots from the southwest to 35 knots out of the North.  Before we could even start to think about the consequences of the sudden and violent wind, the force of the wind had wrenched the front of the Bimini top completely free from it moorings and had it flailing about our heads.  We did the only thing that seemed logical at that moment in time, we grabbed the Bimini in an effort to keep the wind from wrenching it completely from the boat.  Within 15 seconds it was obvious that something more sinister was afoot than a wrecked Bimini, the anchor had let go without a whimper and we were well on our way to shore, and at a rapid clip.  Luckily the entire crew had there collective wits about them, Jack and Julie continued to wrestle the Bimini while Patty took the helm, engine racing, and steered us towards deeper water.  I struggled with the anchor, trying to wrestle it aboard while Patty fought the violent wind, trying to keep the bow headed into the wind.  I managed to get almost all of the anchor chain aboard, but to my consternation the retrieval came to a sudden halt before the anchor came into view..............the anchor had been trailing the boat during the wild ride away from the beach, and now it was caught on the boat itself.  I was unable to retrieve it any further until Patty slackened the throttle and brought the boat to a stop, allowing the anchor to drop free of the boat once I loosened the chain.

So here we were, clawing our way slowly off a lee shore, the wind HOWLING away, the Bimini flailing overhead, blindly maneuvering in a sea of crab pots (if we picked up a float line with our prop things would have gone quiet very suddenly, and we would have been in a real pickle), with our main anchor hooked to the underside of the boat.  My main worry was straightforward, if in an effort to retrieve the anchor, the chain or anchor hit the prop, or snagged the rudder, we would be in big trouble, so I elected to continue motoring at minimum power, just keeping on enough forward speed to hold the bow on course.  After over an hour of Patty's steady hand at the helm, we were away from our lee shore by over a mile, I rigged and dropped our back-up anchor in sand and had Patty bring the boat to a stop.

Our luck held, because the back-up anchor held perfectly, and once the boat was stopped and I slackened the main anchor rode, the  plow anchor dropped free of the boat and I had it aboard in a jiffy.  We finished the night in comparative comfort and safety, but the rain and wind continued to pelt us until sunup.

We gratefully limped into Marathon, where we picked up a mooring ball at the City Marina and celebrated our good luck with a trip to solid ground for another FABULOUS dinner with Jack and Julie.     

Southern Florida

2/6/13

Dear Family and Friends,

Geoff and I are anchored near Lantana, West Palm Beach Florida.  I am not sure, but I think there may be MORE than 1% out there.  We have motored by amazing homes, mansions, and YACHTS!!  These things are HUGE.  I was so scared today.  I actually piloted us up to the fuel dock AND backed us away with 100 foot yachts all around and I didn’t even hit one!!!  My knees were shaking when I was done though.  I was proud that I said I would do it.  I almost chickened out but Geoff had faith in me.

I was also scared yesterday.  Geoff left for a dinghy ride at 5:45PM(sunset 6:07) and didn’t return until 7:50 PM.  It was pitch black.  I guess I thought he would be gone for an hour.  Tim, I was about to call you and ask what I should do.  Luckily, Ben happened to call and talked me down and confirmed what I had been trying to convince myself, that Geoff usually knows what he is doing.  I was happy that he had so many no-see-um bites though after the worry he caused me.  Okay, any psychology book would say that I only caused the worry for myself…what a bunch of hoowee.

It has been incredible weather.  We are headed to Ft Lauderdale tomorrow for another walk on the beach and prep for our friends Jack and Julie Davis to meet us on Saturday in Miami.  So far I am enjoying this adventure and Geoff and I are getting better at not bumping into each other on our sweet little boat.  Bye for now, Patty

2/7/13

In Ft. Lauderdale

MANATEE SPOTTING TODAY!!!!! The manatees are getting a poor deal here in South Florida, they are rather slow, docile creatures (they are usually compared to a swimming cow) but to find the food they need they must co-exist with gigantic boats that are allowed to travel at speeds of up to 25 mph.  Most of the canals, which are often less than 300 or 400 ft wide, allow the boat traffic that is traveling the main channel to crank along at 25 mph- at which speed the skipper has zero chance to spot a manatee in his path-while at the same time limiting boats outside of the channel to “idle” speed (about a walk).  We have been in the channel for almost 150 miles and have seen numerous manatees only boat lengths away from our path;  since we travel so slowly, we can see them swimming near us and can easily avoid them.  Every time a boat goes screaming by us, I understand just a little bit better why 90% of the manatee deaths are from propeller strikes. I am glad we have a slow boat.

Again today Patty took the helm and with ice water flowing in her veins, piloted us to our overnight mooring buoy without mishap.  We decided to moor in Ft Lauderdale, which is a very busy section of the Intra-Coastal Waterway, in a small mooring area tucked in tight to a bridge.  Not only was the space tight, there was a 2 knot tidal current rushing through the mooring field, requiring a deft hand on the helm and throttle to keep us out of trouble.  Patty needed a sedative after we managed to snag our chosen  mooring ball, but she handled all of the maneuvering with aplomb.  What a woman  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crossing the Okeechobee with the wind on the bow

   We awoke at first light with Lake Okeechobee waiting for us in the early morning gloom.  I left it up to Miss Patty: do we take route #2, the longer route that skirts the edge of the 26 mile diameter lake; or do we take route #1, the shorter route that takes us straight across the lake and out of the sight of land?

   Patty awoke full of confidence, after listening to the official marine weather broadcast (which promised winds on Lake Okeechobee 10-15 knots from the North with light chop) she gave the thumbs up for the direct route, straight across the Lake.  She didn't think that losing sight of land was a problem.........but what exactly did "light chop" really mean.  Soon we found out.

First, we had to work our way through a few canals just rocking with BASS BOATS.  The local town, Clewiston FL, was sponsoring a huge largemouth bass fishing tournament and there were scores of high-powered bass boats screaming down the channel before sunup.  These were the bass boats of bass boats, lots of power, and big.  They roared off into the dawn with lots of noise and WAKES, but they hugged the weedy shoreline, looking for the lunkers.  We were the lone boat headed out into the main body of the lake. We soon left them behind

The day went well but the wind built to 15 knots,as predicted, the waves went from calm to light chop, right on through to moderate chop within an hour and stayed there for the remainder of the trip.   I had plenty of time to play with the radar, the chart plotter (this was the first time we were actually required to plot a course and maintain a heading without several channel markers within easy sight) and the auto-pilot. Patty broke out our auto-inflating PFD's (life jackets) for the first time since we bought them, and we actually wore them.  Water was breaking over the bow and running down the side decks in dirty little creeks of water ,but the boat was taking it all in stride, the engine purred along just like it always does. 

After 4 hours plus we arrived at the other side of the lake, gratefully listening to the lockmaster tell us he was going to open the lock chamber  doors for us, so we could exit the choppy lake and re-enter the canal, where the water would be calmer and the wind softened by the trees along the canal.The lock only dropped us one pitiful foot (Patty wondered- one foot? Why even bother?) but it put us back into a boating world we were more accustomed.

For the first time in ten days, we docked at a marina, instead of anchoring out, so we could take a long bike ride and enjoy some solid ground for a while.

Tomorrow we plan to sleep later, relax at the dock for a bit, get out water tanks filled, our holding tank drained and then push on the remaining 29 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.