Finally Bahamas Bound

After weeks of patiently waiting, all signs were a go. We have been disappointed before, but this time the signs were there, the planets aligned and Neptune was napping. The alarm went off at 5:30 AM and we fired up the computer and checked all four resources. Nothing had changed for 3 days and that was an excellent indicator that the weather window was correct and would hold for the distance we needed to travel. At 6:30 AM the light was more than sufficient for us to get down the canal from our friend's dock and head out into Cape Florida Channel.

The Waiting Game

We are often asked what one piece of advise we would pass on to those planning a transit that is weather dependent. My answer is always three words...Wait, wait and wait. Well, our resolve has really been tested waiting for a good window to cross over from Key Biscayne to Bimini. Yes, we have had a couple of one-day windows that we might have been able to at least make the crossing, but then we would be stuck wherever we landed in the Bahamas. Our options are to sit in an expensive marina in Bimini or hang out in Key Biscayne with some great folks and enjoy it. The decision is really a no-brainer. But this winter seems to be the windiest we have encountered in a long time and the windows are few and short. Everyone has asked us what we want for a good weather window. That's a good question.

Blackwater Sound To Key Biscayne

We fell asleep to the muffled tunes from our one-man band at the Tiki Bar ashore. It was not at all unpleasant and kind of added to the already peaceful tranquility of our anchorage for the night. If you can't have Jimmy Buffet sing you to sleep, this is probably a fair substitute. The next morning brought clear blue skies, calm seas and a short transit to Key Biscayne. This meant no rushing around in the morning to get the anchor up and get underway. We could relax, enjoy breakfast, Susan could check in on the Waterway Cruiser's Net and I could check all of the engine fluids and go through our pre-departure check list.

Gulf Side Of The Florida Keys

Marathon, Florida was our home base for 10 years. We have sailed between Marathon and Miami many times. But we always traveled along Hawks Channel because of our 6-foot draft and the reports of how shallow the waters on the Gulf side of the Keys are. Our experience on the Gulf side has been limited to the Middle and Lower Keys and day trips on small outboards. Finally being able to free ourselves from Boot Key Harbor, we vowed that we would explore more of the Gulf side this time since Beach House's 4-foot draft is ideal for exploring areas we could never consider on Sea Trek in the past. And oh man, were we impressed. I can't believe that in all of those years we missed the best part of cruising in the Keys. And a bigger surprise was the fact that with only a couple of exceptions, the ICW route is not all that shallow.

Return To Boot Key Harbor, Marathon Florida

It was June of 2008 when we last visited Marathon, Florida and Boot Key Harbor. We wrote about our feelings of returning to one of our former home harbors in our Sea Trek Blog, http://sea-trek.blogspot.com/2008/06/boot-key-harbor-marathon-florida.html and here we are again over 4 years later. Our observations are still pretty much the same. We are impressed with how clean the harbor has become and we applaud the efforts by the City and County to make it happen. But we're still reminded that Marathon is not interested in cruising boats that would prefer not to take advantage of one of the expensive marinas or pay for a mooring. The attitudes, although friendly, are pretty much, "this is how we do things and if it is not to your liking, see ya later."

Are you still in Marathon???

That's the question we are asked over and over lately, and the answer is yes, we're still in Marathon, and not because we love it so much, although we can't complain. Yesterday and last night the winds were howling, and buoy reports in the Keys were 19 to 27 knots from the northeast. That is the direction we need to travel. About a week ago, we stuck our nose out into Hawks Channel to see if we could move up the Keys to somewhere around Tavernier. We have a hard and fast rule - if we get underway and it's not fun, we turn around and stay put. That's what happened and we turned back to Boot Key Harbor and picked up a mooring. The winds have not let up a bit here, even though it has been much lighter on the mainland and in Miami. We just can't get there from here. The harbor here in Marathon is packed full because no one in their right mind is moving. When things do settle down a bit, it will look like someone pulled the stopper out of the drain. There are lots of other folks besides us that are waiting for the opportunity to cross over to the Bahamas. At some point, the wind gods will blink and we can make a run for it.

Tanks For The Memories

No matter how well you plan in advance to try and head off any possible problems or breakdowns, a boat will always find a way to surprise you. By definition, cruising is repairing your boat in exotic places. I don't know if I would classify Marathon, Florida as exotic, but we did find ourselves needing a fairly substantial repair. It all began as a casual check and prep for our move to stage at Key Biscayne for a crossing to the Bahamas. Climbing around in the engine compartment, checking fluids and giving everything a once over, I discovered a bit more water in the bilge than normal. We usually try and keep the bilge dry, but a little always finds its way in. Using the trusty wet vac, almost two gallons was extracted - way more than should have been.

What Works And What Doesn't

We're still sitting in Boot Key Harbor waiting for the winds to lay down so we can move north to Key Biscayne. That will be our staging point to cross over to Bimini in the Bahamas. While waiting, I thought it might be a good idea to comment on what equipment has been working well and what has not performed for us, since this part of the trip was to be a shakedown for all of the new equipment we have installed. Some has done extremely well, some has done okay and some has just been miserable. The really important stuff has worked as advertised and we're very pleased.

More Exploration Of The Middle Keys

After a couple of fun days anchored at Little Crawl Key, it was time to return to Boot Key Harbor. We had made a commitment to give a presentation to cruisers at the Tiki Hut located at the City Marina so we pulled up the anchor and headed back early on Tuesday morning. We really like the opportunity to share our experiences with other boaters and they always go away satisfied that they had just a little more knowledge than they came with. What a difference from our trip east to Little Crawl Key. Hawks Channel was flat calm and we had a pleasant motor back to the Harbor. It was one of those warm sunny days that remind us why we are here this time of year. In about an hour and a half, we were back at a friend's dock and tied up. So far we had tied to our friend's dock, anchored in the harbor and sat on a mooring for a few days. It's nice to try and experience it all. You can view our vessel tracklines for our last 2 cruises at, http://argus.survice.com/vessel_tracking/images/trackline-MarinaLife.html

Safety First

I know that phrase has been seriously over used. But it's the first thing that comes to mind when we're planning a project or preparing for a cruise. Sure there are the usual safety equipment requirements for your boat, but there are many other pieces of safety equipment that for us are cruise specific, depending on when and where we plan to travel. We have an entire category for safety on this blog. That's how serious we are about the issue. In preparing Beach House for our upcoming cruise to the Bahamas and the Great Loop, we had different safety considerations than our recent trips along the Atlantic ICW. Being in close contact to land and having had good VHF and cell phone coverage, our communications equipment was satisfactory at the time. Crossing the Gulf Stream, traveling alone across the Bahamas Banks, anchoring in remote areas or crossing the Gulf of Mexico will mean we need to be able to provide for ourselves without outside help for a period of time. It also means we will need to be able to communicate long range in an emergency.

Curry Hammock State Park

If you plan to use the Little Crawl Key anchorage and visit Curry Hammock State Park, there are a few things you need to know. When landing in the dinghy, please don't tie off to the mangroves. It damages the plants which are protected. If the dinghy has no motor and can be pulled up on the small access beach off the anchorage basin, it's not a problem. If the dinghy has the motor on, the Park requires that you drop an anchor to keep it just off the beach and wade to shore. There are fees to use the facilities that amount to $2.50 per person per day (payable at the park entrance a short walk from where you land your dinghy). The Park entry fee is free for life for disabled veterans. This gives you access to the beach, restrooms, picnic pavilions with charcoal BBQs and several faucets where water jugs can be filled. You can also walk around the park and rent a kayak if you're so inclined. But there's more.

Gunkholing The Florida Keys, Little Crawl Key

The forecast winds and seas had not subsided as we exited Boot Key Harbor via Sisters Creek. Once we were out in Hawks Channel, it was obvious we would have a somewhat boisterous ride for the 10 miles or so to our destination for the day, a snug anchorage at Little Crawl Key (see page 89 of The Great Book Of Anchorages, Norfolk to Key West). With easterly winds and southerly swells, we had a bit of a rolly ride for the next hour and a half once we left the channel markers for Sisters Creek. The multitude of floats from the fish traps also made the short transit a challenge, but it wasn't too uncomfortable. We just needed to keep a sharp eye out and weave through the mine field. The channel entrance into Little Crawl Key requires going past the entrance between the two Keys and picking up the private markers 1 and 2 (Lat 24.44.2813N 080.58.2811W) that lead into the doglegged channel. It's apparent that the markers lead around and behind some very shallow water. The sand bar did knock down the seas quite a bit as we moved towards the entrance. Just past the last set of markers, a shoal extends out from each side of the entrance.

Let The Cruise Begin

It's been four years, tens of thousands of dollars, cuts, bruises and a few curse words that have never been heard by human ears, but we're finally off the dock and underway. Words can not express the feeling as we headed out the channel from Goodland, Florida and watched the marina fade from view. The only thing that kept playing in our minds was "it's finally happening." We had been at Walker's Coon Key Marina for about a month while we finished the generator installation, the Argus system and a few other minor projects. Walker's hauled the boat, painted the bottom and replaced all of the zincs while we were in Maryland for Thanksgiving. When we returned, everything was ready and all we needed to do was to restock our provisions and turn in the rental car. We had dropped off both of our cars at a relative's until our cruise was finished. As we headed toward Gullivan Bay, we encountered a raccoon swimming across the channel and when we had barely reached open water, pods of dolphins began to cavort in our bow and stern wakes. We saw them off and on all the way to Marathon.

Do-It-Yourself Generator Install

For many, many, many years, our trusty Honda 2000 portable generator supplied us with 120-volt electricity when we needed it at anchor. On our sailboat, we used an inverter most of the time and our solar panels and wind generator kept the battery banks topped off. We made the decision early on to install a permanent generator on Beach House for our upcoming cruise to the Bahamas and the Great Loop. We likely won't have the wind conditions needed for a wind generator like we had in the Caribbean, and solar panels are not practical for us right now. We want to be able to run the air conditioner in the Bahamas and the heat in the Great Lakes when we need it, and an inverter would just not do. Generator options for boats are plentiful, and deciding which one would best suit our needs took a lot of research.

Installing Our Garmin GHP 10 Autopilot

After 17 years of sailing on our Mariner 40 Ketch, Sea Trek, we were really used to having an autopilot do most of the steering for us. With Beach House, we did all of the steering ourselves, until now. Both the trip from South Carolina to the Chesapeake and the return to Florida required us to steer every foot of the way. We often mentioned on those trips how much we would like to have had some electronic help. An autopilot has always been on our to-do list, but we decided to wait and install the latest model just before departure time on our upcoming cruise. The time is now.

AGLCA Fall Rendezvous

The reason we have been a little negligent in posting lately isn't because we haven't had much to post. To the contrary, the reason is that sooooo many things are going on that we have been hard pressed to sit down at the computer and get caught up. Some big projects have been completed, and preparations are coming down to the wire for the beginning of our next big adventure. Anyone that has prepared for a two-year cruise understands how hectic and stressful that can be. So, you ask, what does that have to do with an AGLCA Rendezvous? Good question...

Ice Cream Stops Along the ICW

By Susan Landry, Published in September 2012 Issue Cruising World Magazine.

How many of you will admit to planning your overnight stops along the ICW to coincide with your favorite ice cream shop? I know there are more than just the two of us who think about that creamy, delicious cone waiting at our next favorite stop. After cruising up and down the ICW for almost 20 years, we have definitely found some yummy temptations.

But first, some interesting ice cream tidbits. Although the Chinese have been making flavored ices well before the birth of Christ, the Italians and French claim to have made the first containing milk or cream in the 1600s. Ice cream’s first mentions in U.S. history were around 1700.

Also, have you ever wondered why the ice cream you get in parlors is so much tastier than anything you ever find at the supermarket? That is because many of those creamy concoctions never see the inside of a grocery store. Ice cream manufacturers, such as Greenwood in Georgia and Working Cow in Florida, produce their ice creams only for restaurants and parlors. But now, down to the business of identifying those special places to feed your cravings.

Relocating The House Batteries

The next big project will be the installation of an inboard generator. The engine compartment of a Marine Trader 34 is not known to be the roomiest, so a few modifications are needed to make space available. The most logical placement choice is a shelf on the port side forward where we installed the house battery bank when we first bought the boat. Even then, we knew they would eventually have to be moved to accommodate the generator. There was still some work to be done to clean up the wiring, so it was time to move the house bank and tidy things up.

Can You Sink a Boat for Lack of a One Dollar Bolt??

I suppose theoretically it's possible. But can you really repair a 30-year-old radar unit for $30.00? I am here to tell you that you absolutely can, if the problem is the same as ours. Not long ago, I fired up our Raytheon SL70 radar unit and it all started fine. Once it was going, however, the beam was doing the sweeps, but there were no targets on the display. An internal self diagnostic showed everything was working okay, but obviously it wasn't. This unit is long past its manufacturing date and it's highly doubtful if Raymarine will even fix these any more or if it's worth it. So trying a few things couldn't hurt.

Update After Tropical Storm Isaac

Unlike what the folks in the northern Gulf around Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing from hurricane Issac, tropical storm Isaac was pretty much a non-event for Beach House and her crew. This did bring our total named storms we have had to deal with to 17. By previous standards, this one was no worse than many afternoon thunderstorms we have encountered in south Florida and elsewhere. The difference being, it lasted for a few days rather than a few hours. But don't get me wrong, we are always extremely happy when conditions are less than anticipated, and nothing pleases us more than having to do all of the preparations and then not need them. As a matter of fact, we prefer that scenario to most any other. We did, however, have some wind and rain for a couple of days.