Ride up from Miami to Fort Lauderdale

Miami to Fort Lauderdale - February 27, 2013

Ride up from Miami - out in the ocean - was uneventful except swells. Then when approaching Fort Lauderdale the rain began so that as we entered it was pouring. Pouring! 

Encountered a huge (I mean huge) power cruiser astride the channel at one point, blocking the whole channel - and it is 200' wide at that point. Took a while to figure out what they were doing and when they were going to do it. Current was against us. 

Then confusion of where our slip in the Las Olas Marina was. Dockmaster mistook us for our buddy boat which is 40 ft long. I asked specifically the location of our dock and slip. So we get there and a boat is where I think we are assigned. Back out as current is grabbing the boat. Back into the channel. Another conversation. Clarify where we are to go. Oh, not the floating dock but the high fixed dock on the opposite side of the fairway. Will someone help with the lines? NO. It is raining outside. Don't have any rain gear. (?? Really - you work at a marina and no rain gear?) But he does come out and handles lines for us. Really needed his help. We are about 4-5 feet below the fixed dock surface. We climb out of the boat with no ladder at low tide [almost broke out the Bosun's Chair for disumbarking. High tide is a little better. A little better than being at a mooring ball. 

Then helped our buddy boat, Utopia, come in. Used very extended boat hooks to direct [push, pull] them into their slip. 

Cocktails on board later. Too tired to eat out. Dinner on board and early to sleep.

Weather looks like cold [60s] and rainy for the next few days. Well, we are docked, warm, dry, and well fed.

South Beach - Miami Beach

Wonderful couple of days ashore (by dinghy) at South Beach.  Lots of sidewalk cafes, Art Deco buildings, rich locals and tourists.  Rented bikes fort $5/hour - check out, check in at places on the street every few blocks. Some dinghy rides up the canals and off/on our boat.  Warm daytimes - hot and humid actually, but cooled off nicely at night.

Leaving tomorrow, headed north. Slowly.

Moving through Miami

Today we moved from the Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove, to an anchorage inside of Miami Beach.  Met up with our buddy boat (Frank & Diane) at the dinghy dock, then walked through Miami Beach / South Beach - nice ritzy pedestrian mall filled with sidewalk cafes and (of course) stores, then on to the beach.  Very hot.  Back on the boat for tonight on the hook.

Coconut Grove to Miami Beach

Another norther is coming in midweek, so our plan is to hang out here tomorrow (Monday), then make a run for Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday while we still have southerly winds (maybe a good sail on the outside if the winds are not too strong).  That should get us safely back into the Las Olas Marina Tuesday evening, a great place to hang out and reprovision until the weather makes traveling possible again.  Bound for Stuart (meet up with the Kimmets and their new boat), then Indiantown (where we plan to leave our boat for the summer), then return home to Minnesota as soon as it is inhabitable again.
Or not - our mileage may vary ...

Short Trip

Coconut Grove - from mooring field to marina slip

What's up? Dock?

Yeah. At a dock in Dinner Key Marina. Not bouncing for the first time since Tuesday. The mooring field is out in Biscayne Bay and the wind has been S/SE at 10-15 for the last two days. Beautiful out there but....

Yesterday we took the dinghy ashore from the mooring field, then had brunch in Coconut Grove (another Florida Coast ritzy town), and spent a few hours at the wonderful Barnacle Historic State Park, right on the water in the middle of the Grove.  Malts in town, then groceries at the Fresh Market, only 1/2 mile from the marina - this place is a little like Publix (the usually-better grocery chain down here), crossed with Trader Joe's (i.e. they have specialty stuff mainly, not what you want or need).  Restocked the beer though; but couldn't carry too much in backpacks and dry-bags (the dinghy, remember?)

Today at the dock: Laundry. More groceries. Fill up the water tanks (some docks here don't provide water, since they can't charge for it!). Maybe a bike ride.  Some rest.

Tomorrow, we plan to try to get to Miami Beach - only 7 miles, but a nightmare of closed and scheduled bridges.  Might have to take the 15-mile detour.  We expect to reconnect with our buddy-boat (s/v-Utopia, the Albanis), who we haven't seen since we arrived in Marathon with strong winds and seas, and we got a slip (30' boat) and they didn't (40' boat).  It's been a few weeks now.

We are slowly on our way back to Stuart, where we will meet Jim & Peggy Kimmet, who just bought a 28' Mariner there and will be sailing her in that area.  Then April, Indiantown, and home for the summer.  We think ...

At last!  An entire day of pure sailing.  East winds 8-12 knots, waves < 1 foot, protected by the keys on the east side of Biscayne Bay.  Very little motoring - just for the departure, approach, and as a safety through two short, narrow passages.  It's been a long time since we have been able to sail, enjoyably, without having to rush to make the next port.

February 21, 2013 - Biscayne Bay

Bob enjoying a whole day of sailing
Auto is doing the steering
Bob is standing (well, sitting) watch

Full sails, no motor - all day!

Dinner Key Mooring Field
Thursday evening, 2/21/13
Coconut Grove (Miami), Florida

We're on a mooring ball here for a few days.  Some winds, on-shore, but surrounded by shoals that are only 3 feet down, so the waves are no worse than you see here.  Might be a wet dinghy ride if the winds pick up tomorrow; or there is always the water taxi.  Should be a lot to do here in Coconut Grove.

This is the same marina that we sailed out of several years ago on s/v-Dilly Dally, helping the Brooms move their newly-purchased 46' Morgan Ketch from here to North Carolina in the Gulf Stream.  Fond memories.

Headed up the Keys

February 19, 2012

Leaving Boot Key Harbor, Marathon FL

Approaching the Seven Mile Bridge, Moser Channel, Florida Keys

Anchored overnight off of the Lor-E-Lei Tiki Bar & Grill, Islamorada 
with Susan & John Coppedge of s/v Muddy Wench.

February 20, 2013

Approaching Cowpens Cut

Seven Feet of Water! At Last!

Steamboat Cut - note the shoal

Anchored off of Pumpkin Key tonight, Card Sound
- north end of Key Largo, just before Biscayne Bay.
Tomorrow - bound for Miami!

North

Our journey north starts tomorrow - if the weather is benign and cooperates.  The big cold norther and its winds may drop down to only really extreme.

We expect winds of 5-10 knots tomorrow, or maybe 10-15 (depending on which weatherman you believe), from the east - and that's where we are going! The Muddy Wench (Susan and John Coppedge) might join us - we could use their 40 hp motor and Macgregor to pull us off the shoals!  We plan to leave Boot Key Harbor in Marathon (Florida, if you haven''t been taking notes - or even if you have), head under the 7-mile bridge and take the "protected" inside route northeast.  Tomorrow night might see us anchoring in either Barley Basin (Islamorada) or Cowpens Anchorage. Then on to Key Largo, and Biscayne Bay, and finally Miami - in a couple of days, hopefully before the next [expletive-deleted] norther comes through.  

Laundry done including the rugs. Groceries bought and stowed. Involved bike ride for Ilona with two bags dangling on handle bars, back pack full and side bag full. New A/B [really: 1/2] battery switch in and new ammeter/battery monitoring system was installed today,  to monitor the batteries (another "$ boat unit", plus). Boat put back together...again. Dinghy and kayak attached to transom. Bikes folded and replaced in locker. Water, diesel, all that. Departure at 0700-ish and headed NORTH! OMG! NORTH! Slowly north. 

But it isn't over yet.  We plan to get as far as Stuart [200 miles] and the Ochochobee (how do you spell this anyway?) Waterway, and leave the boat on the hard for the summer.  The Indiantown Marina is hurricane-rated by BoatUS, so we don't have to pay extra for hurricane-season insurance down here, as long as our boat is not in the water from June 1 to Nov 1. - no problem there. Then back here for next winter, probably.

Temperatures in MN not really exciting yet. Blizzard warnings. We will be home when Minnesota is inhabitable again - that's in May, right?

Stay warm and safe, our northern friends and family.  Track us on our blog ...

Boat Improvements

Last week we had Bob Williams of SALT Technology come and give our boat an analysis of our energy usage, needs, generation and storage, and make recommendations of suggested improvements.
Bob is the guru of boat energy systems, including solar, wind, batteries, generators, monitors, and related stuff. He teaches seminars on these topics for various boat shows (e.g. Miami, this weekend) and Seven Seas Cruising University webinars. Since SALT is right here in Marathon, let's get 'er done now.

From his recommendations, we are having his firm add a lot of insulation to our refrigerator/freezer  - this is expected to save us at least 1/3 of its energy consumption, and it is our biggest energy eater aboard.  We also will have an energy monitoring system installed, so we can monitor our batteries, see exactly how much energy we are getting from our engine's alternator, find out how long we need to run the motor to keep our batteries charged (and not overcharged), and have another electronic toy to play with. 

His other suggestions - larger alternator, solar panels, replacement batteries - can wait until we find out how the insulation and monitor work out and tell us things. 

These items are supposed to be installed tomorrow = Monday (so we can possibly leave and head back north on Tuesday).

Expensive, but - hey - it's a boat.  And if I were to do it myself, who knows when it would get done.

Another strong norther

The coldest norther of the year is coming through the Florida Keys now. [Wind chills of 27 F in Southwest Florida!] 

Here in Boot Key Harbor, in Marathon: Very choppy. 

Here's what it looked like from our cockpit on a previous calm day - These boats are a combination of abandoned, derelict, or occupied by single guys. Hope their anchors hold or they will end up hitting boats at docks to our right.

Weekend report: 68 degrees here, sunny, wind at 28, gusts to 35. Stronger winds coming. Lots of water banging on the stern of the boat. Wind is pushing water up to this end of Boot Key Harbor. The water level is very high. Tide negligible compared to the surge.

Overnight report (Sunday night): Thump, thump, thump, vibrate, vibrate, vibrate. The quarter berth and stern are taking a beating for 48 hours due to much too strong winds. ARGH!  Hard to sleep with all the noise and bouncing.  And we are spider-webbed into the dock and pelican posts.

Better on Monday, but cold – in the 50s! Ilona went to the Crane Point Nature Reserve and a movie. Bob took a truck ride with the Coppedges to check out some anchorages, down towards Key West on the ocean side.

Then, later for both of us - great sundowners with sailors at Blackfin Marina and Resort, including the crew of sv-Muddy Wench. AND THE WIND IS DOWN. YEAH!!!! It is quiet onboard. NO THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! due to the water pounding on the hull. 

Wind is down at the moment. Did not expect it to drop tonight. Enjoying it immensely. Small but huge changes. But getting cold - we actually have the boat's heater on, and used the electric blanket (!) for a few minutes last night.

We might make a run for Biscayne Bay and Miami, starting on Tuesday if the winds continue dropping and we have the courage to go for it.  Should take us 3 days to get to Miami, assuming lighter winds, moderate waves, and no more idiot boaters.

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FLfro

view from Sombrero Marina

view from City Marina

part of dinghy dock at City Marina

at City Marina

Anchor Rode set - on their prop!

Pelican Post

Down here, the sterns of boats are tied to Pelican Posts in most marinas.  Why are they called Pelican Posts? - oh, ...

view from the cockpit on s/v Ihana

close up

How to tie to a mooring ball

This is posted in the Boot Key Marina, in Marathon, Florida.  How to properly secure to your boat to a mooring ball in their harbor, in case of a storm or hurricane.

detail view - note that the dockline eyes are on the mooring ball line, not on your cleats

attaching your boat's cleat to their mooring balls

Still trying to reorganize the boat

Spent today working on reassembling our boat.  We have to redo all the anchor rodes first, then re-bury the spares and have the secondary and primary ready to go.  Will take a while longer.

V-berth

Our cabin today

marking the rodes

The Dark Side of Cruising - Day 1

Traumatic Adventure – Day 1

The adventure begins:

We are recovering from a couple of pretty traumatic days.  Read this, if you think that all cruising is like it reads on our Blog.  There are downsides.  For example:

Day before yesterday – we pulled into Islamorada in the Florida Keys, off the ICW on the Florida Bay side. 

Our buddy-boat ran hard aground coming in, on sand, in a place where the charts showed at least 7 feet of water (they draw five).  TowBoat US pulled them off; the Florida Police were not happy, inspected their boat and the sea bottom, and would have had them pay for any repairs to the sea floor.  Fortunately, all the coral is on the ocean side, and a sandy bottom didn't need any repairs.  Well, that's how the afternoon started.

Following them, we got out of there and set our wonderful (soon-to-be-ex) Rocna 33# anchor – with 50 feet of chain and 50 feet of line, expecting strong winds that evening. Went below to take it easy.

SUDDENLY, our boat felt like it was hit with 10-foot waves – it was getting pulled and bounced and I thought a freighter had run into it!  We ran up on deck to see that a big motor yacht had caught our rode while motoring by us too closely!  We yelled and they stopped.  Now we had 2 boats tied together (rode wrapped around their prop), and no anchor set on either.

We quickly dug out our spare anchor (28# Bruce clone), 20 feet chain, 150 feet line – and I took the dinghy out and set this.  We now had 2 boats (one very big) hanging on one anchor.  And we were hundreds of feet away from our initial anchor point.

The guy in the other boat [more about what I think of them, later] dove under his boat and confirmed that our line was cut, and our anchor and chain were gone – forever, since we don't know exactly where we were when they cut us.

They called Towboat US, who eventually cut us free from their prop.

Our main emergency spare anchor (28# CQR-German clone) and rode (50 feet chain, 200 feet line) was buried deep under the V–berth. Ilona tore everything apart to get them, and I set a second anchor (needed for the evening's expected high winds – and because I didn't know how well the Bruce would hold after what it had just gone through.)

Our boat's insides, by now, are a complete mess!  Everything is thrown everywhere.

Well, Ilona called the nearest West Marine (Key Largo, about 25 miles away?), and got them to get us another Rocna anchor, chain, and line.  Whitney, a woman who works there, volunteered to drive the stuff up from Key Largo to the nearest restaurant, about a mile or two from us by dinghy. 

The other boat called West Marine with THEIR credit card – this cost them over $1100 for the replacement anchor and rode.  I cheered when I saw how much it had cost them, and would have been happier if it was even more.

By now, we have been working for several hours, and are beyond exhausted.  We still had to go ashore to meet Whitney and the equipment.  We gobbled down a couple of burgers at the Lorelei Restaurant, Tiki Bar, and completely jammed outdoor restaurant (amplified obnoxious music, of course). And we waited for a couple of hours for Whitney and the stuff.  Couldn't even have any drinks, since we still had to load over 100 lbs of stuff into the dinghy and motor it back for  a couple of miles in the dark, to our mother ship.  THANK YOU to marinebeam.com who had sold us a LED bulb for our masthead anchor light – so we could find our boat in the dark in the anchorage (25 boats?), since we had the brightest light.

Back on board by 9 or 10 pm. More exhausted.  Got some sleep.  I was worried about the winds coming in, and how I was going to get the Bruce up the next morning (it sure must have been pulled in deep by having two boats on it). The CQR, fortunately, by now was rigged on our windlass.

Diving for the lost Rocna anchor was out of the question – it was too rough, didn't know exactly where it was, we were too tired, and stronger winds coming in overnight.

More in the next Blog entry – it ain't over yet!

The Dark Side of Cruising – Day 2

Traumatic Adventure – Day 2

The story continues:

After little sleep, we had to move on early the next morning. Strong winds built up about 5 am, and we were on a lee shore and would be the next night when the 30+ knot winds would hit us.  Fortunately (I don't get to use that word too often in this narrative), I got the Bruce up using our dinghy.  And we took off at 8 am, bound for Marathon and the shelter of Boot Key Harbor – with our buddy boat following.

Crab & Lobster pots all the way – too many to let the Autohelm do the steering. Full alert all day.

Not bad motoring this day – about 35+ miles to Marathon.  Tail wind.  We were too tired to even put out the Genoa (!), so motored all day.  Buddy-boat followed, jib up sometimes.  

No problem until we reached the Moser Channel and went through the 7-mile bridge to the ocean side of the Keys.  Now we got the full force and fetch of the 20+ knot winds, on our nose - rough for ½ hour until Boot Key and shelter.

Meanwhile, Ilona [cell phone] checked out Boot Key Harbor and everything within miles – all the mooring balls were full (14 boats already on the waiting list), inside anchorage was completely full also, and ALL marinas (that could take our 5' draft) were also full.  And all boats steaming in all the time, for shelter. 

Only possibility would be to anchor outside of the harbor, weather shore, ocean side, but really strong winds and waves for the next week or more!  [General feeling:  We are really fucked!]

Fortunately [for us; I do get to use that word again], one marina in Boot Key could take us in for a week, since the Asst. Harbormaster would let us use his slip while his boat was pulled for a bottom job. We got a slip!  We are saved! At least for a week or 10 days; expecting strong winds that whole time.

Our buddy boat got screwed, though.  They had to anchor out on the ocean overnight west of the harbor entrance (mostly offshore wind from the east). They decided to take off this morning and head back towards Miami, on the bay side.  They will have winds today gusting to maybe 30 knots.  They have a 40' Caliber cutter. They are pretty tired also; we will miss Frank and Diane, and hope they make it safely. They reported that it was really rough for the first few miles until they crossed under the 7-mile bridge to the bay side.

We, meanwhile, aren't going anywhere.  I hit the beer [breakfast!] as soon as we were tied to the dock, slept immediately for a few hours, then Ilona cooked a great dinner aboard and we slept all night [nightmares, but what-the-hell.]

We will be here in Marathon for at least a week, until the winds calm down enough that we can get somewhere else.  It may be obvious, but we will not be sailing on to Key West, and the Bahamas are out of the question.  Getting back to the South Florida mainland will be enough of a challenge for us, but that problem is many days away.

Today: Laundry, shower, replacing all the anchors and rodes, and rearranging the cabin and V-berth and stowing everything back where it belongs.

I suppose we should bike or dinghy over to the harbor office and register (in person, only) for the mooring ball waiting list.  But there won't be any openings for a week or two, until the winds calm down enough that other boats can travel.  By then, we may make a break for the mainland also.

Someone please tell me why we are here and why we are doing this. 

Would anyone like to trade, our boat for a condo in Death Valley?

Marathon

We made it to Marathon today.  We're in a slip in Boot Key Harbor for at least another week.

Safe and sound and exhausted - we really did run a Marathon today.

More news, later, about yesterday's problems.

Key Largo

Another great day. We actually got to spend some time sailing - full sails - on Barnes Sound *without* using the engine!  First time in a real long time. [This is the same place we sailed our s/v-Maija Lisa, the Precision-23, a couple of years ago - with Ron Carlson.]

We moved further down the Keys today:  Card Sound, Barnes Sound, Blackwater Sound, and now anchored in Tarpon Basin - in barely enough water to float our 5'-draft boat.
Caught a ride on our buddy boat's dinghy to the really neat Tarpon Bay dinghy dock, then trekked down the Overseas Highway for over 1/2 mile to the Publix grocery where we resupplied with fresh food and staples.

Fresh fish grilled tonight on board, with another beautiful sunset.  Perfect weather.  Winds dropped tonight, so we will sleep well.

Miami-Biscayne-Card Sound-Key Largo

Wonderful night yesterday, at anchor with view of downtown Miami.  Quiet, Beautiful.

Nice trip south today - even got a couple of hours in with full sails up!

Anchored now for the night off of Pumpkin Key, on the inside (Card Sound) side of Key Largo.

and later, that same evening ...

Down the coast to Biscayne Bay

Today we motorsailed (jib up, NE wind, light) from Fort Lauderdale, down to Miami.

We are currently anchored off of the Miami Marine Stadium, in northern Biscayne Bay (see chart, below).

Traveling with our buddy-boat, s/v-Utopia with Diane & Frank Albani.  Headed down to the Florida Keys tomorrow.

Weather is perfect, as usual.

Fort Lauderdale to Miami

Miami skyline from s/v Ihana @ anchor

Closeup of downtown Miami

Singing: How I love ya, how I love ya, my dear Miami ...

Why is the bluewater so blue?

A while ago, I asked why the water down here in the ocean is so intensely dark blue.  Got the answer from Mark & Diana Doyle's "Managing the Waterway - Florida Keys" cruising guide (p. UK-53):

Paraphrasing: These waters are an underwater desert.  The water is nutrient-poor, with relatively little planktonic food, so the water is transparent.  The water reflects the blue of the sky, but not the green of the planktons, and therefore the water is blue but not blue-green.

And that's why tropical seas are so blue. [Unless someone has a better idea.]

Fort Lauderdale pictures - not at the beach

bird on the dock

bird on the boat

Fort Lauderdale - "main street" from the 17th Street Bridge

Commuting vehicle parked next to boat -
bought a new water hose and a fishing spear

s/v-Ihana from the Las Olas Bridge

s/v Ihana and some of her neighbors
at the Las Olas Marina, Fort Lauderdale, FL

That girl in the kayak, again

Onward to the Florida Keys

Tentative voyage plan –

Tuesday, February 5 - leave Fort Lauderdale, sail outside on the ocean to Miami, then inside on Key Biscayne and Florida Bay side of the Keys

    Possible overnight anchorages:

Fisher Island or Miami Marine Stadium (or Hurricane Hole, or No Name Harbor)

Pumpkin Key in Card Sound

Tarpon Basin or Sunset Cove

Barley Basin, outside of Little Basin

Channel 5, Oceanside or Bayside (depends on wind)

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon

May arrive in Marathon by the end of the week or thereabouts.  Maybe.