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!