TO THE KEYS

From our last post, (which has been a while), we were anchored on the North end of Lake Worth. The winds had kicked up quite a bit which did not allow a good nights sleep. After reviewing the guide books, we also decided it would not be a good idea to traverse the next few miles on a Sunday due to heavy boat traffic and the resulting "washing machine" effect that resulted from several hundred boats wakes(mostly power)between concrete sea walls. We had planned on moving to a marina to get water and a pump out, as well as a better nights sleep. Once again, the weather gave us a different plan. The winds became even more severe and getting the anchor up and into a dock was going to be a difficult, if not dangerous venture. As a result, we wound up spending a pretty miserable day and night until Monday morning when we finally raised the anchor and were on our way to Fort Lauderdale. The ICW from this point to Miami is highly developed. The guidebook was right about the "washing machine" effect as power boats would fly by creating huge wakes that continued to bounce back and forth off the concrete walls long after they passed. Luckily, being a Monday, we didn't have too much of that. The other part of being highly developed is the mumber of bridges. We went through more than 20 bridges between Lake Worth and Fr. Lauderdale, many of which only opened at specific times. The houses, the huge yachts and highrises along the way were also spectacular!

All together it was a pleasant trip to the Los Alos Municipal Marina where we grabbed our mooring on Monday, November 19th. When we went ashore to register, we were surprised to run into Roger and Lisa from Sky, along with their crew member Zach. They had been docked next to us at Amelia Island while we were waiting for the affects of Sandy to die down. We were surprised because he had planned on going to the Virgin Islands right away. It seems he ran into some engine problems and had to order parts from England. He had been waiting for over a week in the mooring field where we were at. Fort Lauderdale was the furthest we could go on the intercoastal due to a 55 foot bridge on the way to Miami. This meant that we would have to wait on the weather again for the wind and waves to die down before we went out on the ocean to sail the Keys. The forecast showed high waves and wind until at least the next Sunday, so we settled in for a week in Fort Lauderdale and even made plans to have Thanksgiving on our boat along with Roger, Lisa and Zach. Some Beach scenes and Brad Pitt's Boat in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale is famous for it's fabulous beach and college spring breaks. We were not disappointed. Although the weather was a bit windy and cool, the beach front was the place to people watch. The Elbow Room bar seems to have the best advantage point since it is on the corner of Los Alos and Route A1A that goes along the shore. There were lots of restaurants competing for the business, but were a little pricey. Everyone, except the Elbow Room, had "happy hour' specials with 2 for 1 drinks. The only problem is that one drink cost you more than three drinks should. Despite the high prices, it is beginning to feel more and more like the tropics. The Los Alos City Marina has nice facilities that include a cruiser's lounge. We met several cruisers there that were going in different directions. The majority were waiting to go across the the Bahamas. We decided to leave on Sunday morning to go outside on the ocean and then down the coast to Miami and into Biscayne Bay. We had two other boats that wanted to leave at the same time. Walter and Donna Reid (not the hospital or the movie star) Windspell was in the mooring field with us and Siobhan II with Joe and Joyce were in a slip across the channel. Windspell and Manana dropped the mooring at 6:30, but Siobhan II said they would be an hour or so behind us. We had to wait for our last bridge to open at 7 AM and then we were off past all the cruise ships and into the ocean. What a relief! We had all our sails up and had a beautiful, peaceful and QUIET sail all the way to Miami. I almost forgot how wonderful it is to move along at six and seven knots without having to listen to a motor! Going into the Government Cut into Miami was interesting. The Coast Guard had closed off the shipping channel to keep potential terrorists away from the rows of cruise ships, so we had to be careful to keep to port and and go into the channel through Miami Bay and then under a very high bridge into Biscayne Bay. From there it was a straight shot over to Dinner Key where we got more water and grabbed a mooring next to Windspell. Dinner Key is near an area called Coconut Grove and has a huge shopping and restaurant district. We had dinner with the Rieds at a local restaurant that was recommended by some local people and then got back to the boat for a good nights rest. The Miami Skyline

On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Windspell and headed for the Biscayne cut to get on the ocean side again. The cut is interesting because it is bordered by houses built on pilings over the water that are at least a mile or so away from dry land. Once we got outside, we were in the Hawk's Channel, which is protected by reefs to the East and the Keys from the West. The Biscayne Key Light House

Houses on Pilings

Siobhan II had also been at Dinner Key and came up behind us motorsailing. The winds were blowing 10 to 15 and we had another good sail, all the way to Rodriquez Key just past Key Largo. Siobhan II got there first and anchored on the Northeast side of the Island and suggested we could anchor to their starboard and have a comfortable night. There wasn't much protection, however. Shortly after the sun went down, we noticed Siobhan II had slid from a position next to us to behind us and sideways to the wind and waves. Apparently their anchor had dragged! We called them to let them know, since they apparently had not noticed to that point. Our anchor was dug in good and we did not budge but the wind was strong and consistant and, with the waves they created, kept us bouncing around all night. Siobhan II tried at least once to get back into the same position but didn't have much luck. After a restless night, we hauled anchor and got moving again. A full moon and angry skies at Rodriguez Keys

We had noticed that our batteries were lower than they should be and decided to motor sail down to Miami to get them topped off. As I might have mentioned before, we have minimal information to determine the status of our batteries. We have been on the hook now for almost two weeks and apparently we have not been adequately charging them. They are never supposed to go below 50% of their capacity but, unfortunately, with only a volt meter and an amp meter, we can't seem to know for sure where we are at on our usage or our charge. According to our volt meter, our generator is charging them at 14 volts, but they never seem to get fully charged. We are going to be looking into a monitoring system and solar panels before we leave the boat for the holidays. The motorsail down was a little uncomfortable with some fairly large swells on our beam and hundreds...no... thousands of crab pots everywhere! In our earlier expierience, if we stayed in the marked channel, we rarely saw a crab pot. Here they are so packed together there are times when there is not enough room to go between them. If you hit one, you stand the chance of gettting them wrapped around your prop. That means you would have to stop, dive down and remove it. Not a pleasant thing to have to do. Our friends on Siobhan II Continued on to Boca Chita and we turned off into Marathon to grab a mooring at Boot Key. Boot Key at Marathon is a unique area that is very cruiser friendly. Coming into the channel, it feels as if you are going back into the 50's with the the buildings and docks along the channel. There are more than 200 mooring balls here as well as additional anchorage for a similar amount of boats. A mooring cost $21 per day and includes the use of the dingy dock, showers, laundry, internet, water, mail services, various cruiser activities, and the commaraderie of all the other cruisers you meet every day. Anchoring is free, but to get all the other amentities, you still have to pay $21 per day. One of the first things we did was to contact some local service people to solve our energy problems. We made an appointment with SALT (which we were told stands for Sea, Land and Air Technologies)to have them come out and evaluate our porblem and see what they could suggest to correct it. They pretty much told us what we had expected. We needed a monitoring system and some solar panels to help us maintain our battery charges to avoid what happened while we have been on the hook. Although our volt meter was telling us it was fully charged, it was only a "surface" charge and we ran our batteries lower and lower each time. since we needed a place to mount the solar panel, we decided to have davits put on to help transport and secure the dingy. Key west is only about 20 minute, $4.00 bus ride from Marathon ($1.50 if you are over 60), and most of the cruisers prefer to stay here because of all the amenities and, of course, the price. They get the best of both worlds! We plan on having our new equipment installed on the 3rd or 4th of December so we are staying for at least a week ourselves. So in the meantime, we'll be enjoying the cruisers network, visiting the beaches and restaurants, going to potluck dinners, jamming with local musicians, volleyball?, tennis?, yoga classes?, watch a few movies and plays?, and enyoy meeting and talking to all the other cruisers who are enjoying the lifestyle like we are. Sorry for such a long blog, but it has been a long time between and there was a lot to tell. Key West is next and then home for the Holidays. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season! Entering Boot Key

Sunset among all the cruisers at Boot Key