Boat Life in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon

We made it to Marathon in time to catch a few gloriously warm days and then sure enough it cooled right down again.  Although I am sure if we wait long enough it will warm up again:-)  I hope that cool weather isn't following us (?).
It feels great to be back in the Keys.  We lived in Key West in the early 80's and things have really changed around here.

Sunset in Boot Key Harbor

The first thing we did is the typical mundane things, like taking a shower and washing clothes so people won't avoid us.  After we were clean smelling again we did some socializing and catching up with people we had met earlier in our journey.  We also checked out some of the local restaurants within walking distance and had an excellent breakfast at the Stuffed Pig and a great dinner watching barracuda feed just a few feet from our dining table at Key Fisheries.  It was celebrity night at Key Fisheries and everybody had to choose a celebrity name to claim their dinner.  Bruce chose Hemingway and he certainly looked the part sporting his new beard.

We met Carolyn and her husband Dave of Boat Galley fame.  She was great and they shared with us their boat prep for Hurricane Irma.  They have been here quite a few months, leaving for a short time during Hurricane Irma.  Their boat did survive Irma at a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor.  You can read her account of what they did to prepare for the hurricane on her blog at:

👉https://theboatgalley.com/hurricane-prep-lines/

Carolyn has some great tips for living a cruising lifestyle.

We are on week 2 and after doing a lot of boat chores the first week including commissioning our water maker.  Yes! We can now make power with our solar panels and make our own water.  We are using a Cruise RO Watermaker and so far it is working great.  We had a few bugs to work through but Rich of Cruise RO provided great support. 

After working hard and feeling pretty confident that everything is working the way it should we hiked down to Crane Point Museum and Nature Center for a day of sightseeing.  This is a 63 acre property that includes the oldest house in Monroe County outside of Key West.  The Adderly House was built in 1903 by George and Olivia Adderly.  In 1953 Francis and Mary Crane bought this piece of property and built the Crane House.  They were so enchanted with the rich variety of  local plant life and wildlife that they preserved the property until 1976 when the Florida Keys Land and Sea Trust purchased the land and saved the area from being developed into private homes and shopping malls.  It is a little oasis in a sea of shopping and residential areas.  

Mahogany Tree

Separate kitchen next to the Adderly House

Adderly House

Adderly House

This iguana was checking us out

Bruce 

Waiting for a weather window to the Bahamas

New Years in Bradenton

It was pretty windy and gusty over New Years so we stopped in Bradenton for a few days and met  up with some good friends.  We first met Chuck and Diane (Bear) on the Illinois River and have been hopscotching each other ever since.

We spent a little time exploring and shopping in town and ventured into learning how the city buses work.  It was pretty convenient and a lot cheaper than renting a car.
We left on Thursday and headed towards Sarasota.  We anchored out near Marina Jack in front of this iconic statue.

The pelicans were hungry and we had a few laughs watching them.  They are so graceful in flight but when they swoop down with a surgeons precision to snag a fish their feathers are all akimbo and feet are splayed as they flop into the water with a mighty splash.
The next day we sailed towards Venice and anchored in a tight little bay called Cape Haze along with several other boats.  We had the chance to put hoist the new sails and they are great.  We definitely get more speed and are able to speed up and slow down much better than with the old sails.
The weather has been cold so we have been moving fast to find warmer temps.  We next anchored in the lee side of Chino Island and weathered out the winds on Sunday.

Sunset at Chino Island

Papa and Delilah taking a quick nap over Christmas

It is beginning to warm up as we head for Marathon Key.

 On to the Keys~~~~~→

My Introduction to Lake Superior

This blog is a little different from my norm as it is about past not present history.  It is inspired by Annie Dike who we were first introduced to on her YouTube channel, Have Wind Will Travel.  Annie is a knowledgeable and experienced sailor who also blogs and has authored several books, her latest, 'Salt of a Sailor’.  You can check out Annie's blog at this link,
https://havewindwilltravel

I didn't get a picture of Annie and Phillip, so swiped this off her blog.  Thanks, Annie!

We first met Annie and her husband, Philip, anchored in their sailboat, Plaintiffs Rest (yes, they are attorneys) at Fort McRee during the Blue Angel's Homecoming Show.  We were thrilled to meet her in person and she was every bit as personable and funny as in her videos.  Annie wrote in one of her blogs she would like to hear the story of the day we found ourselves in 12-14 foot waves on Lake Superior.  So here you are Annie (hope you are reading this, haha).
 Eighteen years ago I got a call at work from my husband with this message, 'Honey we just bought a sailboat!'  A sailboat???  Really???  I grew up on an inland lake (not one of the great lakes) west of Minneapolis, power boating with my family.  If I saw waves they were definitely of the friendly size.  As for sailboats all I had ever seen up to this time were the little sunfish sailboats on Lake Minnetonka.  After getting over the shock, I decided it might be interesting and that was where the learning curve started.
So one beautiful day in August, 2000 we began the journey of sailing the Sea Hawk home to Duluth from Milwaukee, WI on Lake Michigan.  For the sake of brevity I will skip the first part of our journey which for the most part was extremely pleasant and enjoyable.  As we made our way through the Soo Locks into Whitefish Bay, the first part of Lake Superior I was excited to see the Lake from a different perspective.   My euphoria soon turned to anxiety as I realized these were not the friendly waves I was familiar with they were big and getting bigger as we made our way across White Fish Bay.  We continued to have what I perceived as a series of misfortunate events as the day unfolded.  Night began to fall and the waves continued to increase to the steady 6 foot stage so Bruce decided rather than continue through the night we would anchor in the lee side of Isle Parisienne in the middle of the infamous White Fish Bay (remember the Edmund Fitzgerald?).  As we drew close to the relative safety of the island the engine decided to conk out and I found myself  wondering what the heck I was doing at the helm with the head sail up in the worse seas I had ever experienced while Bruce tinkered with the engine (this was prerestoration days).   Well I did survive and the engine started and we continued on our way.  I did mention the head sail, right?  Next Bruce informed me he was going up to the bow to take the head sail down and I was to keep the bow in the wind.  Easier said than done for the novice sailor that I was, plus I was kind of hoping we could do that later (my excuse, I was new to this).  So there I was with tears streaming down my face, Bruce on a bucking bow taking a huge sail down and I just knew I was about to become a widow because I couldn’t keep the d** bow in the wind.  Of course everything worked out fine and we came into an exquisitely beautiful anchorage with the moon’s shining reflection looking up at us in the now quiet sea and all was right with my world again.
That was the day before the ‘day to remember'.
The next day began innocently enough.  The sun was shining but I don’t remember the full weather forecast, I do remember the part about 2-4 foot waves.  After checking the marine forecast we decided we were good to go.  We were planning a 24 hour crossing.  I remember it was breezy and still sunny but pretty soon alarm bells began going off in my head and then the bells were screaming!  Talk about building waves, I pretty much gritted my teeth through the first part of the day.  Then I started doing this thing I am sure we have all done at one time or another, I began looking at Bruce to check his facial expression.  He was looking pretty calm so I figured it couldn't be that bad.  Then I got beyond checking his expression and was just plain terrified but tried my best not to show it.  Then came the time when there was no use denying what was happening, the waves were so high all I saw was a wall of water when I looked out the cabin ports as we came into the the trough of a wave and another wall of water that reached way over Bruce's head when I looked out toward the cockpit.  About this time I figured this was not a normal day of sailing and I pretty much shut down my emotions and just took it minute by minute.  I was in the cabin and we put 2-3 washboards up and I passed energy bars to Bruce.  It was all I could manage to do in the cabin between being slammed from one side to the other.  In fact the next day, I was almost a solid black and blue from my hips to my knees.  My husband was the only person capable of taking the helm and the hours were taking their toll on him so we finally decided we needed to seek shelter.  I had studied a little navigation and knew how to dead reckon so I plotted a course to Grand Island which would get us off the lake and give us protection from the wind and waves.  I noticed a submerged rock on the chart and rather than alert Bruce made an executive decision (wrong!) to not inform him as he had enough to worry about.  I gave what I thought was plenty of room without taking us too close to the tip of the island.  Fortunately that part turned out alright, but my heart about stopped when I heard Bruce say there was a rock just off to port.  Well to bring this saga to a close, Bruce turned the boat on the crest of a wave making about a 45 degree turn timed just perfectly and headed towards land.  There is nothing like the high of coming into a remote anchorage with the sun shining and all of a sudden everything just shuts down, no more wind, no more waves, just the serenity of coming into paradise.
The next day we came into the marina for gas and they couldn't believe we were out in those seas, confirming what we suspected, in 12-14 waves.

Sorry I have no pictures for you, but pretty sure I was not taking pictures that day!

Good Bye to Tarpon Springs

We had a wonderful time in Tarpon Springs.  We reconnected with the new harbor hosts and now gold loopers, Cindy and Chuck and missed Herb Seton about 3 times.  Bruce and I first met Cindy and Chuck on the Illinois River and again at Green Turtle Bay.  We met gold loopers, Rick and Monica of MoniJean, who also have a blog I have been following and had lunch together at the Rusty Belly.

We had a great day with Bob and Shelly of Allons, fellow sailors also from Minnesota.
Tarpon Springs is known for its sponges and Greek cuisine so we stocked up on sponges.  Bruce likes the big sponges and I like the little silk sponges that are great for cosmetics.  The restaurants were great and we sampled a few.  Shops for olive oil, cheese, spices and homemade soap are abundant and I left with some great products.

We spent a wonderful Christmas with our son Peter and his family and had the honor of being present for his swearing in as an attorney.  Peter just graduated from Stetson Law School in May.  Thanks to Jim Thalen who came to Pete's house to perform the ceremony.

Our grandchildren, Alex and Delilah are just a little excited to open all those gifts under the tree.

Two weeks in Tarpon Springs and time to move on.

Cruising to Gulfport→→→→

Gulf Crossing from Dog Island

It has been over a week since we made the crossing but it is still fresh in my mind.  It was definitely not an Eddy Wag recommended day.  We started with beautiful sailing weather for the first half of our trip which quickly deteriorated over the night crossing.  The forecasted 5 sec delay between waves was more like 1-2 seconds with 4-6 footers (occasional 8 footer, yikes!) and the winds were steady at around 17 knots with gusts up to 27 knots overnight.   The rough seas battering the boat made it feel like Lake Superior on a bad day.  It was also exhilarating learning to use the sails again.  We found that the Sea Hawk is much faster with the new sails than our old stretched out sails and we made good time even with our sails fully reefed.

Look closely and you will see that our boat is well heeled on a port tack (wind coming over the starboard side).

Sea Hawk early in the crossing

We met up with our buddy boat the Cormorant II at Dog Island and started the crossing at first light on Monday morning, December 11.

Cormorant II

This is the first time we had a buddy boat for a crossing and it was comforting to see their navigation lights and be able to check in with one another occasionally overnight.  We have made shorter crossings on Lake Superior several times, but never this long.  Marsh and Corinne are long time Canadian sailors and we enjoyed getting to know them.  We found how true it is that you do not want to come into Tarpon Springs before 10:00 am with the rising sun in your eyes to avoid the many crab pots.  We came in about that time and had to keep a close look out.  It was a long exhausting trip as it was difficult to catch any sleep with the heavy motion of the boat.  We managed to stay awake until that evening and slept very well that night, (and the next few nights!).  As hard as this crossing was it was great to be sailing again!  

Bruce is definitely the photo taker in our family.  I could never get such great dolphin shots.  The dolphins just laugh at me!

We found warm weather!  Exploring Tarpon Springs......

It’s Cold

I mentioned the cold in my last post, three days later it is still cold.  Cold temperatures, winds gusting up to 25+ knots, and snowy rain do not make for pleasant cruising.  We are pushing on and hope to get to Apalachicola today.  We erroneously thought we had no further need of solid fuel for our cubic mini wood stove which was jettisoned to make more room for more important items, hmmmm.

No fuel

The results of that are, we are freezing cold, the boat is dripping wet and nothing will dry.   All the lockers are damp at best, wet for some.  I quit using cloth towels to dry the drips because there is no room to hang towels that won’t dry and started using paper towels.  Bruce lost his Kindle when the port over his wall organizer dripped enough water into the pocket holding the device.  Even using the propane stove for cooking is a mixed blessing as it adds some heat but also adds to our moisture problem.  The Baileys Irish Cream is almost gone, and it is time to find some charcoal.  I think I’d drive a great distance to find solid fuel this afternoon, hopefully it will be within walking distance when we get to Apalachicola.
The solid fuel heat should go a long way towards drying the boat.  Then the big job starts as I will have to go through each locker, dry the contents and spray with mold and mildew inhibitor.  I have been using Concrobium which has worked great so far.
Hope the pay back days are over.

We made it:)

Looking for warmer weather...........

Chapter 3 Florida Cruising

December 7  Pearl Harbor Day

So here we are at MM 253 on the GIWW at anchor on a very cold dreary day. But we are on the boat  and our Pensacola refit is completed and I’m having Irish cream and coffee trying to stay warm.

We look like a sailboat again with new rigging, new 135 roller furling and reefing head sail, main sail with two reefing points, and stack pack main sail cover with lazy jacks.  Zern Rigging took care of our rigging needs and Shurr Sails supplied our sails.   Blue Coral made our half tower which now holds our propane tanks and solar panels.  We couldn’t be more pleased with the work and can highly recommend all their services.

Tammy, the office manager of the shipyard was wonderful and very accommodating.  We were in and out of the shipyard, many times without notice to Tammy and she always made room for us.

So here we are desperately trying to find warmer weather and starting a new chapter in our journeys.  Actually we are headed first to Tarpon Springs to spend the holidays with our son and his family.  We will be looking for that elusive weather window sometime early next week.  After the holidays we will head slowly for the Bahamas.

From this to →

This →

Happy Sailing!