Sailing Key West to Marathon

Although we were only supposed to spend a week in Key West getting things squared away with the boat from the Gulf passage, we ended up spending 10 days there due to strong winds keeping us from sailing north to Marathon.  On Friday, the winds finally looked favorable for a passage.  It is about 56 miles from Key West to Marathon, which could be done in a day; however, with this being our first sail on our own, we decided to split it into a 2-day sail.  We left Key West at 8:00 am and headed out the channel in progress to sail Hawk Channel up to Marathon.  From looking at the charts, a good stopping point for us would be Big Pine Key; specifically, New Foundland Harbor Key.  When we hit Hawk Channel, we found favorable winds from the Northwest at 15-20 knots.  This allowed us to make good time on the sail and arrive in Big Pine Key just after 1:00 pm.  One major obstacle that slowed our sail time was dodging the lobster/crab pots.  Some would be in a straight line, which we could sail against.  Others were scattered, which affected our point of sail.

 

 

New Foundland Key turned out to be a beautiful anchorage that was 6’ deep and well protected, but being that we had never used the anchor nor even set the anchor on this boat, we were two nervous little ticks in a flea bath. Thankfully, we set the anchor, let out the rode, and it held. But, being unsure of the holding power, we decided to sleep in the cockpit that night, in which we froze our butts off. Waking up to a beautiful sunrise, we made way at about 8:00 am. Hitting Hawk Channel, we found favorable winds again; however, even more lobster/crab pots this time. We did make good time to Marathon and pulled in before 1:00 pm.

 

  

X marks the spot...Marathon

Marathon has a terrific mooring ball field, which is very cruiser friendly and the lady on the other end of the VHF was quite colorful while directing us to our mooring ball. 

 

 

 Now, we are all settled in for 2 weeks of relaxation and final boat work.

Community Park Lighting Ceremony

A Week in Key West

After being tethered to the boat for 10 days, we have now spent a week in Key West regrouping and making repairs to the boat and are now officially on island time…make a repair, go to Mallory Square to watch street entertainers and the famous sunset…make a repair, have dinner at Salute’s and attend a reggae concert at Higg’s Beach…make a repair, head to Hog’s Breath Bar for fish & chips, beer and a live band…make a repair, tour the Shipwreck Museum and have another beer…make a repair, shop Duvall St. and people watch…make a repair, take a nap.  This is living!

Sunset at Mallory Square

Key West Museum of Art & History

 

Shipwreck Treasures Museum

 

Welcome to Mallory Square

  

Conch Harbor provided us with most everything we needed including great entertainment and dining, but nothing is cheap in Key West.  The nearest grocery store is miles away, over a bridge, so you must take a taxi to grocery shop.  As we opted to dine out instead of hailing a $25 roundtrip cab to the grocery store, we found this to be a nice vacation spot, but it did not fit well in our cruiser’s budget.  We had what we were told to be the best fish sandwich around…$13.00 for a Mahi Mahi sandwich with mayo, lettuce and Cuban bread.  No fries, no chips. Other than the price, nothing was outstanding about the sandwich. We did have a Cuban Pulled Pork sandwich at the Cuban Queen Coffee Shop that was outstanding and leftovers made a great frittata for breakfast the next morning. At $5.95, we should have stuck with that.  But, then again, we were in beautiful Key West.

Let us not forget we were only 90 miles from Cuba standing in a long line to have our picture taken next to the famous Southernmost Point buoy marker.

While we waited our turn, we were serenaded with Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" by a talented acoustic guitar player who turned to Jim and said, “Have you heard of Don Quixote?”  How ironic was that?  Our sailboat is the Dulcinea, so named after Don Quixote’s imaginary love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMA-_ElvKsk  

 

 

Great Moments Along the Way

With all challenges there are always great moments.  Amongst the many great moments on our passage were when we saw a pilot whale and her baby swimming beside the boat, watched an incredible meteor or comet (not sure which) as it burned through the atmosphere (An AMAZING SIGHT!), saw a lot of flying fish which I found very interesting especially when I awoke to find our boat covered in them and Jim was being pelted by them as he steered the boat...LOL. One of the most magnificent had to be as the boat went through the bioluminescent plankton, the water literally looked as if it were covered in millions of beautiful diamonds. The harvest moon was wicked and deceiving as it appeared each night, looking as if it were a ship on the horizon; however, not appearing on our radar.  Two nights while I was on watch, I woke Jim because I saw vessels on the horizon that did not appear on my radar...both times it was the moon rising. While all alone on night watch, the millions of stars are a beautiful site to take in.

Overall, having a great time and looking forward to getting the boat repaired. Hoping it will not take too long to get her put back together.

Crossing the Gulf

After 10 challenging days of cold fronts with high winds and lots of rain, we are now in Key West, Florida.  What a beautiful place to be! 

Day 1 - While still in the Galveston Ship Channel, we were hit with what we deemed a bad storm. We anchored so as not to hit larger vessels. After the storm, we found our rudder to be entangled with a line.  Jim donned his snorkeling gear and jumped into the cold water to free us.  We were back on course.

Day 2 - A “light” norther caught up with us 1-1/2 days early that hit us with 45-50 kt. winds, waves that swamped our cockpit in a matter of seconds and rain so heavy we could not keep our eyes open to see. The nose of the boat went up in the air and twirled as if it was going to drill us into the Gulf.  Scary as hell!

Days 3, 4 & 5 - All 3 days we were blessed with 6-8 ft. seas.  Made some good time sailing.  We thought we were good to go the rest of the way…NOT!

Days 6, 7, 8 & 9 – Four full days of 10-15 ft. seas with easterly winds of 20-30 knots. This was more than the auto pilot could handle, which forced us to hand steer every minute.  We tried unsuccessfully for the last 3 days to get back on top of the Continental Shelf and eventually ran out of diesel.  Tow Boat US and the US Coast Guard teamed up to safely tow us some 180 miles (26 hours) to safe harbor in beautiful Key West, Florida.

Day 10 - Arrived in Key West, Florida to catch our breath and assess the damage.  The boat appeared to be trashed; however, upon closer examination, yes there are many repairs to be done, but not as costly as we initially thought.

Here are some video's taken while enroute.

 

 

 

Two Houses and a 5th-Wheel on a Boat

Two houses and a 5th-wheel will not fit on our boat!  As cruisers before us have found, there is very little storage on a boat and what there is has vent hoses and wiring run through it and is NOT square.  Four days before we set sail and we find ourselves with half a storage unit of stuff we really don’t need, but haven’t found the heart to depart with.  Yes, I am still trying to squeeze my Cuisinart Food Processor onboard.  Thankfully, we have family that like quite a bit of our belongings.  Consequently, we feel quite at home when we visit them.

Bon Voyage Party

Our wonderful and best friends decided to throw us a Bon Voyage party this weekend. Not only did they provide us with a great party, they surprised us with some incredible going away gifts. The thought and care that went into these presents make us smile to the core. We are blessed and so grateful for such amazing friends.

The Motley Crew!

(Jim, Nick, Sherry, Stephane, Steve, Dave, Anna, Melanie, Mike,

Kim and Brian....Ian & Glynis missing, but in our hearts)

 

Jim, Steve, Melanie and Mike

 

Sherry, Jennifer and Kim

 

The Cooking begins!!

 

Brian and Jim

 

Sherry thanking Stephane for the bottle of Champagne

that we will drink leaving the dock as we head out.

 

 Our friends got us a beautiful sextant so that we can always

find our way back home.

 

They even provided books to make sure

we know what we are doing.

(I think they forgot I can't read)

 

The Booty!!

 

And to make sure we always follow our dreams,

the sextant had a beautiful engraved plaque to remind us.

 

What amazing friends we have... We love you guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





More Boat work

As the old saying goes, what does B-O-A-T stand for? Break Out Another Thousand...that is ringing very true these past few weeks. With projects getting finished and needing to be finshed, West Marine has become our unwanted but very needed friend. Here are a few of the projects in the works or getting finished.

Rigging: The boat is without mast, sails and a boom. The folks (Kevin) at Stix N Rig'n http://stixnrign.com/index.htm have been tasked with putting the rod rigging through its check out. While the mast is out, we are doing a few other projects as well. The mast tricolor light now has LED bulbs, there is a new anchor LED light added and a new VHF antenna. Oh, and a Windex wind indicator added so we can see where to point the boat.

The Radar arch is finally complete and looks AWESOME!  Simon Hameka at Custom Yacht Carpentry & Service did an amazing job, as he was on time and on budget. Thats the way we like things done. We also added the lifting block and tackle for the dinghy.