Still Chilly

The weather has remained about the same. One decent day last Saturday, and then it started to cloud over then rain the next day. We have had 3 cold fronts move through in just the past week. That means 50 degrees at night and maybe low to mid 60’s in the daytime with 20+ knot winds. That’s totally unusual for here. And since we have so many fronts moving through, it’s almost always blowing hard and almost always form the North. Our decision to get the trailer and truck was a good one – instead of having to sail north in these conditions.

Overall we did the local stuff as much as possible – listened to music one evening a - bit chilly with the heaters out in force. Ronnie’s boat fever drove her to give a successful yoga class. We went to the Saturday morning farmer’s market via the crowded dingy dock. Talking about crowded – I have never seen as many folding bikes parked in one place as in the marina parking lot.

On Saturday a lot of boaters had a nautical flea market – lots of stuff accumulates in a boat except ours , no room– but I got a $1 stainless carabiner for our dingy painter – a bargain. Our friends A.J. and Lisa on a Seawind 1000 managed to sell a lot of their stuff that they have been keeping in their car from their new used boat. As usual the wildlife around here is really nice. Pelicans, ospreys, etc. with a lot of natural beauty mixing with the boaters world.

Today was the highlight of the week. It’s PIG RACING TIME! I have included a clip for those who have not witnessed it before – including us. Pretty funny. Once a year they raise money for a good cause – this year a day care that got blown away 5 years ago in hurricane Wilma. All you can eat all day for $15, and lots of silly stuff to watch.

We’ve decided with the weather not really changing and our time shortening anyway, that weather permitting, we will haul the boat out at the end of this week. We’ve been invited to sail tomorrow – assuming it’s decent weather with our friends on the Seawind, something we have been wanting to do. Then we’ll at least know more about how it feels to sail a big cat. At the end of the week we’ll take all of our sails and canvas down, then finally the mast – offers of help from the other boaters here with our type of boat have been offered. Since we have not done it on the water before, advice will be happily received.

Next week this time we will probably be at Ronnie’s Mom’s for a few days visit before we head back North.

Talk to you then.

Truckin'

After planning out a place to haul the boat, a place to store the trailer and the method for retrieving our stuff, we rented a car, drove about 4 hours north, visited Ronnie’s Mom for a night, then continued up to Stuart, where we returned the car, hitched up our truck and trailer, and drove back down to Marathon – 5 hours to go 200 miles. Phew. Now we have the truck and will pull the boat here in Marathon when we decide to do that. Now we hope for better weather and the chance to do some things before we leave in a few weeks.

In the meantime the truck has expanded our horizons already. We put the bikes in the truck and drove to Key West for a nice pedal around town. Aside from the normal honky-tonk of Duval St. which was actually fun, with wild roosters and people everywhere, there were other interesting sights. We came across a display of bronze statues – lifesize or much bigger by J. Seward Johnson that were spectacular. We of course ended up at the southernmost point in the U>S> Altogether a really nice day, although the weather was a bit cool.

The next day we drove 35 miles the other way to a nautical flea market in Islamorada – big turnout, mostly crafts with some interesting, but unneeded marine stuff. First really nice day in 2 months – 75 degrees and sunny. Today, we plan on taking the dingy through the mangroves to a beach, where Ronnie plans on painting and Arnie will try some snorkeling. 2 nice days in a row!

On The Ball

Well the Superbowl was actually a good game, and about 100 people showed up at the Marina lounge to watch it on a big projector screen. We gathered with our new friends and had pizza and a good time - glad the Saints won.

We have had 3 cold fronts move through in the past 9 days. The first 2 were medium and minor, but blustery. We were at anchor at the far end of the harbor – about 1 mile from the dingy dock, showers, and where our bikes are tied up. We learned to love our BIG Fortress anchor as our storm anchor. It dug in and that was that. Learned that you can actually spin on 2 anchors and get away without getting tangled. Not like one of our neighbors who wrapped his anchor around his keel and ended up facing the wrong way while we spun. Yikes! Shortened our anchor line to avoid collision.

We have spent our daytimes checking out the surrounding area on bikes, eating lunch at various places and the checking out quality of their key lime pie. Burdines is the best so far. ( Arnie mugging with the mask). Lots of local color, people, dogs, even nature, which in fact is significantly better than up in populated areas of Miami and north.

Then on Wednesday evening, we got our long awaited phone call from the harbormaster. They had a mooring ball for us. After 8 days of waiting, we had arrived at the promised land. No more concerns about wind direction and strength or where the other boats were aiming. Only 5 minutes to the dock and showers. Halleluah! Just in time for the big blow on Friday evening – big black clouds at sunset. Lightning, wind and then more wind. All night – mid 30 knots, gusting to 52 knots recorded. Not much sleep – just too much noise and bouncing.

But then the other highpoint of the week occurred after the front moved through. Two Manatees, a mother and her baby swam into visit the dingy dock to say hello and receive a fresh water drink from the hose there. They even liked being petted, which both Arnie and Ronnie proceeded to do. They felt like a wet elephant, if you can imagine that. Big blubbery lips and beady little eyes. And very big. The mother probably weighed 2000 pounds, the baby a mere 300-400. Very neat.

The weather continues to be abnormal. It won’t even reach 70 this week, and nighttime is downright chilly with lots of wind. We are seriously thinking of staying another week in the hopes of better weather – we are pretty far south – and renting a car to bring the truck and trailer down here instead of sailing ( more like motoring into more Northerlies), and playing hide and seek anchoring in less than protected waters at night. We will check out the ramps and logistics of doing that in the next few days.

More next week.

Miami to Marathon

We managed to pry ourselves out of Miami, despite threatening weather reports for the next evening. We sailed down the entire length of Biscayne Bay, south of Miami, to the entrance to Florida Bay at Jewfish Creek, a distance of 45 miles. With the threat of a cold front moving through and in need of warm showers, we tied up to a dock at the entrance to the Bay. A very funky and appropriate entrance to the Keys, with loud music, friendly people and pelicans watching us on the dock.

After a downpour most of the night, which we had no problem with at the dock, the weather unexpectedly cleared by mid-day the next day, so we took off and sailed down Key Largo on the bay side. After an hour of sailing we realized that we were going to pass an old favorite motel and breakfast place where we spent about 10 winters with our kids, so using our boat GPS and a car gps that Arnie got for his birthday, we first observed a car driving across Florida Bay with the gps telling us to turn onto land, but when we didn’t, it told us the mileage and direction to Popp’s motel. With that and our binoculars, we found Popp’s and called them for permission to use their dinghy dock. The owner is now the 24 year old who used to play with our son Ben of the same age and he was happy to let us come ashore. The next morning we ate at Harriet’s ( the best breakfast in the Keys) and visited with the people at Popp’s – it hasn’t change much in 20 years – still a neat place. We even think that we saw a very old Great White Heron named "Snowbird" who has lived at Popps since forever.

From there we sailed on further to the first place where a sailboat can cross to the Atlantic side, since the winds were now clocking so that the boat would be in the lee of the Keys. We anchored just past the Channel 5 bridge, with only 1 other boat in about a 3 mile diameter “bay”. No lights, just stars. The next day we got up early and sailed out into Hawk channel, the Atlantic side, but calm because of the reef a few miles off the shore. It was a nice sail – took us about 4 hours to sail 22 miles or so, and we entered the harbor of Marathon. We knew that it was crowded, but boy is it crowded! The city of Marathon really has cleaned up its act. 10 years ago Marathon was a hole, with derelict boats and sleezy surroundings. Three years ago, the city took out the derelict boats, put in a 226 mooring marina with all kinds of facilities, including showers, wi-fi, TV, dingy docks, bike racks ( always full) and more. Adjacent is a city park with tennis, basketball, bocci ball, and just a nice friendly setting, where everyone says hi. Amazing transformation. Unfortunately, with the weather so crazy this year, and the increased awareness of this great facility, the place is full. We are currently #17 on the waiting list for a mooring ball and nobody seems to be leaving, but are now at anchor in another part of the harbor. The anchorage is full too.

Met a bunch of good folks, including 2 other Corsair trimarans like ours, who we’ve corresponded with via e-mail but hadn’t met until now. Lots of other cool people traveling in all kinds of boats in all kinds of ways. Tonight is the Superbowl, so the lounge will probably be hopping. We plan on going over with some new friends. The weather has improved, but still remains strange, with continuously clocking winds and fronts moving through at lest once per week. Last night was a big thunderstorm that thankfully mostly missed us.

We’ll probably stay here another 10 days or so, and then start sailing back north to where we launched our boat, about 200 miles away. But for now, we are just hanging.