Day 41 - May 10

We are off on the "bridges from hell" trip today; from Ft Lauderdale to Lake Worth.  We decided that going outside today might be risky.  We leave around 8:30 to catch the 8:45 Las Olas bridge.  We catch up to our friends at the next bridge and for the next five bridges, we have a small convoy, two monohulls and a cat.  Our friends stop at Sands Harbor Marina for fuel so there is just two of us now going through the bridges.  We are doing well as we have hit every bridge on time, but finally we miss one and now we are waiting.  Our friends eventually catch up with us and now we have our convoy back.  It is fortunate as both of the monohulls are doing around 7 knots, (they have 35 / 40 hp while we have 25) while we are doing 6.5.  The good news is that the bridge tenders held the bridges for us slow pokes.  During our trip we had a wide spectrum of weather, hot and steamy to downpours. 

We lose the one monohull in Lake Worth as he ducked into a marina, and both of us continue on to Little Lake Worth.   We find our spot in the anchorage where we dropped the hook on the way south, and shower and have dinner.  As the sun set we are provided with a light show from the thunderstorms in the distance, which eventually show up in our anchorage.  We take out the screens and button up the hatches until the rain passes. 

Day 40 - May 9

We leave Marine Park Stadium after a not so great night.  The air was still after the rain and some kids were playing in the stadium for a while.  They left and then the fire department decides to practice their fire fighting drills from the water, until 1 am.  ARG; with all the commotion, I read another hundred pages in the Clancy novel. 

We are going to sail on the outside and avoid the Miami and other bridges up to Ft Lauderdale.  We leave out of Fisherman's channel, which eventually connects with the main channel.   Even at 8 am it is busy.  We pass a large cargo ship being towed and pushed to its berth with 3 tugs.  Off Singer Island we run into several ferries moving commercial and personal vehicles off the island.  We pass another inbound freighter with no tugs, and then pass a flying bridge motor yacht towing a submersible.   Yes, we all live in a yellow submarine. 

We make it outside the channel and start the cruise north.  Like yesterday, there is a following swell, but the 8 to 12 knots winds did not show up.  We pass South Beach and Miami Beach, and the perspective is totally different from the water.  With no winds, we end up motoring the entire route to the Port Everglades inlet.  Just like Miami, this is a busy inlet. 

We get a slip at Las Olas Marina in Ft Lauderdale, and we go and take real showers.  After my shower, I am getting ready to go back to the boat when the skies open up.  We run into a couple we met in Boot Key Harbor, and chat during the deluge.  They invite us for cocktails on their boat, and we discuss our pending itineraries.  We note that we are planning to go to little Lake Worth tomorrow. Afterwards, Beth and I go have pizza at a restaurant we went to a couple of trips ago.  The place is stilll there and the food is still good.  After dinner we wander down the walk by the beach amazed at all the people out on a Wednesday night.

Day 39 - May 8

We have a little bumpy night at the Elliot Key anchorage.  The wind and the swell did not want to cooperate and it was a little rolly.  We are off today on a short trip to Miami's Marine Stadium anchorage via Biscayne Bay.  We have winds of 8 to 12 knots and a nice following sea making it a nice trip.  Beth is snapping pictures of the Miami skyline as it comes into view.  We stop at the Rickenbacker marina to take on some gas, and get sticker shocked at 5.75 a gallon for ethanol free gas.  Well it is cheaper than having to get the carburetors and cleaned and fixed. 

We find a place to drop the hook and settle in.  The western portion of the anchorage is empty as it looks like the "permanent" residents are now on the eastern part of the anchorage.  The skies had been threatening since noon, and we get several thunderstorms.  The skies over Miami are hanging low over the buildings in the distance with flashes of lightning.  After the rain it cooled off, but the air was so still that we only moved half the distance from where we started before the rain. 

I cooked some pasta and spinach with the sauce I had made a week ago and had froze.  The only problem with this dinner is that it heats up the boat, and with no breeze it took a while to dissipate.  After dinner, the skies cleared enough for the sunset to illuminate the Miami skyline. 

Day 38 - May 7

It is another beautiful morning in the keys.  We have a couple of things to do before we go out to the reef.  Beth shoots some pictures of our surroundings including the "beautiful beach" as detailed in their brouchure.  We were there yesterday, and from our perspective, it was more like packing gravel which they use before they pave a hughway.  We motor over to the marina to do a pump out and get some water.

We leave the marina ahead of some of the "tour boats" outbound to the reefs.  We are against an incoming tide this morning and all but the 35 foot wide cat pass us.  Once out in the ocean we head for Mollasses Reef, which is about 6 miles out.  The "tour" boats leave us in the dust.  We reach the reef and find a 2 to 3 foot swell running.  We try to get a mooring several times and everytime we miss or the line gets ripped from my hand.  At that point I realize that the swell is too big and that we shouldn't try and moor the boat.  We leave and then note that we burned over 1/2 a tank of gas just getting to the reef.  However, upon motoring north, we pick up the following sea, which helps our fuel consumption, plus adding the sails makes it a non-issue. 

We are trying to get to Biscayne Bay.  We look at a couple of choices, Angelfish Creek, Broad Creek and Caesar Creek. I decide on Caesar Creek, as Beth read in one of the guides that Angelfish Creek's depths are sketchy, and Caesar Creek looks the deepest of all of them.  We enter the creek and all of a sudden we are getting depths of 1.5, 2, etc., but determine that the sand in the water from the outgoing tide (of course) caused the misreading of the depth sounder.  It is a nice ride through the creek, and there is a park station where you can tie up. 

We exit into Biscayne Bay with some skinny water, and cruise north to where we drop the hook for the night.  We cook dinner and turn in as it has been a long day. 

Day 37 - May 6

We awoke to a wonderful sunrise and moonset.  We are on our way to John Pennekamp state park and will moor overnight, and then try and snorkle a reef tomorrow.  We go out through Channel 5 bridge, and the park is about 30 miles up the coast.  We put up the sails and have a nice following swell.  The ocean has finally settled down.  We have the fishing pole out again, and we finally caught something of substance, another boat.  As we were putting up the sails, a motor boat cuts behind us as we are turning the boat to start sailing.  Somehow they snagged the line with their boat and ran out all of the line on the reel.  They finally realized that they caught our line and stopped and freed the line.    

We reach the park entrance and the mooring field is a mile in.  It is a winding mangrove channel, and boats are zooming around us as we are doing barely 4 knots as there is a strong outgoing tide.  I cannot believe that most of the channel is not a no wake zone or a slow speed.  There is a corner by the marina which is called "Crash Corner" and is a blind corner; most of the commercial boats issue a securite warning.  Here at least is a slow / no wake zone.  We find a mooring ball and the average depth is 5 feet in the mooring field which limits the boats.  We dingy over and pay for the night.  The dock master was very helpful, and if we needed anything, give him a call.  We then walked to the visitor's center and wandered through the exhibits.  We split an ice cream cone, and then go back to the boat to get our clothes and then take showers in some of the nicest showers we've had on the trip. 

We go back to the boat for dinner, and put all the screens in the boat to keep out the bugs as we are surrounded by mangroves.  I put up the windscreen again and we have a nice breeze in our berth. 

Day 36 - May 5

We wake up late as our route today will take us to Matecombe Bight which is near Channel 5 bridge, a short 2 hour trip.  We digny ashore and wander around Islamorada.  We stop at the Hurricane memorial, which is a monument of the people that lost their lives in the Labor Day hurricane in 1935, the lowest pressure hurricane ever reported in the US.   Beth finds some earrings that she had seen in our previous trip and we are back on the boat and headed south. 

We arrive in a nice anchorage, although there are several boats, speed and fishing running through the area.  Another sailboat has anchored a few hundred feet from us.  It is a warm day and I decide to continue cleaning the bottom, which I started in Boot Key.  I had only done the top foot on the outside of the hulls, so I don fins and snorkle gear and have at it.  Even though we have only been gone 5 weeks, there is some slime and little barnacles growing on the bottom.  I finish the port outside and am working on the inside, when I see a 3 foot baracuda crusing under the boat.  I leave the water and afterwards he is gone.  There is still a 1 foot fish still cruising about, and I get most of the hulls cleaned. 

After last nights dinner, we have a light dinner of spinach salad.  We have another beautiful sunset and a moon rise. 

Day 35 - May 4

We wake early to the alarms we set; this is only the second time we have set alarms on this trip.  The winds were supposed to calm down overnight, so we are hoping for only a slightly bumpy ride up to Pennekamp state park.  We go out Sisters creek, which is our route to the beach and pass our beach, with a full tide.  There is enough water for even a monohull to get out.  The shallowest part is at the last marker before entering the ocean.  Once we are in the ocean, well, it is not pretty.  There is still a 3 to 4 foot swell running and the wind (15+) and swell are directly on our nose. We are making about 3 to 4 knots through the wind and waves; at this rate it will take us 12 hours to cover the route we have planned.   At this point I turn the boat around and say we are going inside and will go up to Channel 5 and moor for the night.  As soon as we turn around and with the wind and waves on our beam, we are doing over 6 knots.  We enter Florida Bay and it is much smoother, although the wind is on our nose again, so we motor the entire way.  (As a side note, as we are mototing up the inside, we hear that a 21 foot motor boat had overturned about 1 1/2 miles off the coast and three people were in the water.  They were rescued and Sea Tow was attempting to right the boat.) 

We are motoring along and I miss the place where we were going to stay for the night by a good 8 miles.  After we go through Steamboat pass, I realize we are back in Islamorada, so we anchor here tonight.  If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  We are anchored near a motor cat that looks like a RV on the water.

We decide to go out to dinner at Lorilei's.  The dinner menu is not large so we opt for some drinks and appetizers.  It is a nice night with the winds still blowing and keeping it cool.  When we arrived, there was a band setting up, and we always like to talk during dinner.  Fortunately, they were only setting up and we were able to have dinner.  We did stay afterwards and listen to the band, who were very good. 

We walk out and take our pictures by the Lorelei's sign, and a gentleman approaches and asks if we would want him to take our picture.  We have a lot of pictures of us individually, not too many together.  (Lauren and Richard say we have to just hold the camera out and snap a picture.)  Back at the boat we are treated to a beautiful sunset and moon rise. 

Day 34 - May 3

We are planning to leave tomorrow, so today is prep day.  We go and get water in our 5 gallon jugs and fill the tanks, since we will be in the ocean and we are not sure of the facilities in Pennekamp.  Beth announces that we will be leaving on the cruiser's net, and we say goodbye to some of the people we have met in the harbor.  Afterwards we walk to Publix for fruits and veggies.  The sun is out in full force and even though we are early, it is still warm.  We decided not to go out for dinner tonight, so Beth will have the shrimp and I go to the fish market for some ahi tuna. 

I ferry Beth to the beach one last time and afterwards, I go and fill up at Marathon marina, since we will be leaving by Sisters creek, which bypasses all of the fuel docks.  After picking up Beth from the beach, we shower off the sand and salt.  We have a nice dinner and watch our last sunset in Boot Key Harbor, 

Day 33 - May 2

Over dinner last night we discussed where we will go once the winds and storms abate.  We were planning to go to Pennekamp State Park and snorkle the reefs, but if we could not get a mooring, we might want a Plan B.  I note that we could go up the west coast of Florida, which we had planned after doing the Tortugas.  Since that change, we felt that we would just wander back east / north and stop at some places along the way.  Beth called Pennekamp this morning and they have several moorings available, so we will be heading that way on Friday, if the forecast holds. 

Today the rains have gone and we are left with a sunny, blustery day.   There is still a small craft advisory so we are staying put.  We have decided that we will have shrimp on the barbie tonight, so we are off for some veggies and shrimp from the Key's Fisheries market.  With the sun out, it is warm again, and once we return with our provisions, we are off to the beach.  I ferry Beth to Sombrero Beach, and there is no hope for waves, so I return to play my guitar, read, and do Suduku in the paper we bought.  After a couple of hours, I retrieve Beth from her palm tree shade, and watch as some people tie their boat to a pier that has sign stating that they shouldn't.   They ran aground across the channel and are inspecting the damage. 

We return and have early showers as we are both sandy from the beach.   I clean the shrimp, season with butter and garlic and herb seasoning, and grill them along with some onions and peppers.  Beth says, no wonder you won't take me to dinner, since this is so much better than I can get at the restaurants. 

Day 32 - May 1

Well the April showers did not bring May flowers, but a lot of soggy towels.  We are off to do laundry and we are making it a project, all towels and bedding as well as some of my shirts and other items.  It takes three loads, but I get through it along with another 100 pages in the Clancy novel.  With clean items, we are wondering what to do with the rest of the day.  

It is still cloudy with rain squalls passing through the area.  However, we do get a break, and Beth decides to go to the beach.  I drop her at the beach and return to play my guitar and do some other items around the boat.  I look up from my playing and there is a dark cloud heading our way.  Off I go to retrieve Beth from the beach, but on our way back we are pelted with a torrential downpour.  We dry off and wait out the storm.  Oh BTW, during this rain event, I did go out and clean the cockpit and bimini and the rain cooperated with washing all the soap away. 

Once the rain stopped falling, I pumped out the water in the dingy again, and we are off to take showers.  We have a non-rain event dinner and no sunset as there are still clouds in the area. 

Day 31 - April 30

It is the last day of April and for the last few days we have endured this low pressure which has been spinning off the keys and producing wind and waves.  (April showers bring May flowers; not here, they will bring mosquitos.)  We are waiting for this system to move, as it has been producing small craft advisories for the last couple of days, and also into the next couple of days.  We have rain in the forecast again, and I check the NOAA radar out of Miami and there is definately some green and yellow blobs of rain out there.  Some of the people that we met in NSB are still here and we invite them to join us for happy hour (or 2).  With that in mind we walk off to Publix and pick up some provisions for snacking and drop off the movie Beth rented.  

We have been trying to dry out some towels and other items, but leaving them outside has proven to be probematic since when we leave the boat it invariably rains.  We even put a line up in the salon between the two rods that hold the baby stays.  That doesn't work, and we put all the wet stuff in a bag for laundry tomorrow. 

We have a nice visit with our friends from NSB and they have this nice metal wine flask that is insulated and keeps the wine cool.  We ask where they got and Jim said he found it on line and would send me the link. 

Day 30 - April 29

We had a rain storm late last night and we both forgot that we left the small port in the berth open.  Beth had opened it before we went to bed and then we had a huge storm that soaked some of the items on the top of the drawers and also in one of the cabinets.  This morning we are drying things out, no biggies.  We had left the towels from our showers on the line outside and needless to say they will not be dry for our showers tonight. 

Beth wants a movie since the forecast does not bode well for a beach day, so we walk to Publix and she rents one that she wants to see.  I am not interested in her selection, so  I will watch one of the "Drive Thru" surf movies tonight.  If I can't surf, I will at least watch some good surfing (which does make me wish that we could get some waves; arg).  Upon returning, we both read as there are intermittent showers.  I tell Beth that I could go out and wash the boat and then wait for the showers to rinse it off;  but the showeres are so intermittent, i would get the boat soaped up and we would not get any rain to wash it off.  I am reading a lot and have been through 2 Tom Clancy and 2 Vince Flynn novels. 

Dinner is soyburgers and some wine.  No sunset tonight as the clouds have obscurred the western horizon.