April 29, 2021
JD and Susan left this morning. It was sad to see them go, but I guess some people need to work to keep this world spinning.
We headed out from Stock Island Village Marina around 11:00 just about the same time our friends on SV Scenic Route were passing us. It looked like we might be headed to the same place. For this part of the trip, it was John, Ben and myself.
After a pleasant sail at 40 degrees off the wind, we arrived at Big Pine Key around 16:00. Shortly before our arrival, I had opened my eyes from a rest and noticed that there were black and white dots covering the visual field of my left eye—more than I could count. This did not seem right and was very disconcerting. So, I began calling around to see if I could find an eye doctor on Big Pine Key or Marathon. At first, I didn’t have any luck, but finally a doctor’s office in Marathon called me back. They indicated I needed to come in the following morning at 8:45 in case they needed to send me on to Miami, especially since tomorrow was Friday. We said yes, we would be there, and try to figure out how to get there afterwards.
We met Jill and Jeff E. for dinner at KiKi’s Sandbar Bar and Grille. It was such a pleasant night that we dined on the beach and visited until after the sunset. The dark sky with no moon made for an interesting dinghy ride back to the boat. We carefully navigated the bridge opening out into the bay. We had forgot to turn on our new little transom lights; nevertheless, we finally found Daggers Down. We won’t go off and leave the boat dark again!
Good thing about KiKi’s, they had a dinghy dock where Ben could drop me off in the morning to catch an Uber to Marathon. The bar was totally open to the parking lot which would allow me to walk directly out to the road. Now I just had to hope that there would be an active Uber on this little island at 7:30 because neither of the taxi companies the eye doctor recommended, serviced Big Pine Key.
April 30, 2021
The alarm went off at 6:00. Ben and I got up for coffee and diet coke, respectively. Then at 7:00, we jumped into the dinghy and motored back to KiKi’s. One thing about getting up so early was witnessing a beautiful sunrise.
Before Ben dropped me off, I summoned an Uber, and low and behold, it was to arrive in 8 min. Yippee!
After a 40 min drive to Marathon, I arrived early enough to relax and have breakfast at a Cuban restaurant.
The doctor’s office was one of the nicest offices ever. Everyone was extremely professional and helpful. The doc was concerned because she said all the dots I had seen in my vision were most likely from a small hemorrhage when a floater had dislodged from the retina. However, after using three different machines, she could not find evidence of blood or a tear even though she could see the floater quite well. She took her time, because she did not want to send me back on the water if she thought I needed further treatment in Miami. Finally, she said I was good to go, after giving me her cell phone number and telling me to call no matter what day or time of day. If I had any other episodes, she would arrange for me to see a specialist in Miami. What doctor does this?? So super nice and attentive.
Meanwhile Ben and John sailed from Big Pine Key to Marathon Key. I sat for a while in the doctor’s waiting room. Then, I walked to West Marine to look around. About that time, Ben called to say they were anchoring and would meet me for lunch at Sunset Grill where there was a dinghy dock.
I called one of the recommended cabs to take me to the restaurant. I can tell you I preferred the Urber guy from this morning who didn’t speak English to the cab driver. The lady cab driver continually cussed, ranted, and raved the entire 4 miles. I was glad I did not have to ride with her for 40 min. this morning! Wow! I wished her a nice day and got out of the car, quick!
After lunch, we dinghied back to the boat and decided to take another bite up the coast to Long Key for the night. The wind was light, and we ended up motor sailing, but after the eye stress, I was contented to view the calming seas and decompress in my happy place—on the water!
After dinner, I took a transom shower and watched the sunset while the dolphins played next to the boat. It was a nice way to end a stressful day.
May 1, 2021
We didn’t have far to go today, so we enjoyed a leisurely morning sail. We crossed a very shallow area where John and Ben saw turtles and rays from the boat. We quickly dropped anchor for a short snorkel. However, just as John got in the water the seas picked up, as well as the current. A small rain shower was headed our way.
Since I had been below sweating it out, cleaning the boat, I really wanted to get in the water, but settled for standing in the rain to cool off. As this snorkel spot became blown out after the rain, we headed over to the Hen and Chicken reef. Why it was named this, I have no idea. While we got in the water, the sea state was not conducive to a relaxing snorkel and the reef was somewhat deep, but there was some very large coral. We only stayed in the water a few minutes, but it was long enough to cool off.
We decided at this point, we would make way to Lowes Point off Tavenier as we needed to determine where to pick up Mona and Austin. They were flying into Miami and then driving to Tavenier. So we needed a place to land the dinghy to retrieve them.
We anchored in a lovey bay that was lined by a sandbar on one side. Since it was Saturday, lots of folks were anchored and playing on the bar.
Once we got settled, Ben and John went for a dinghy ride to determine where to pick up our new crew. It turned out that there was only one option, Harry Harris Beach Park. However, we needed retrieve them before the park closed at dark.
Around 18:00 Ben went to collect the guys. Upon his return, the dinghy was ladened with luggage, ice, other goodies, and Mona and Austin, of course. It was a good thing Ben went by himself to get them! After unloading the dinghy, he took Austin back to the park so that he could drop off the rental car. He returned to the park just as the ranger was closing the gate. Austin had to convince the ranger that he was just getting on a boat and not staying in the park. Whew, he made it!
We enjoyed the cool sea breezes sitting on the bow and catching up. It was so pleasant.
May 2, 2021
We didn’t leave anchor this morning until around 10:00. Evidently last night, it took Mona and Austin a while to go to sleep as they tried to figure out how to sleep in their pie shaped berth that was up a two-step ladder.
Today we planned to snorkel a bit around Key Largo if the sea state and wind allowed. If not, it would be a wonderful day wandering around Hawks Channel. The first stop, Molasses Reef was about an hour out. The water was beautiful, but it was very rough. So we did not anchor. We decided to go on to the Grecian Rocks. Here the coral and fish were abundant right under our boat. We did not have to go far to enjoy this wonderful snorkel sight.
Our next stop was to see the Jesus of the Abyss in the Dry Rock Reef. However, it was crazy rough when we arrived, and everyone was too relaxed to fight the surf. Thus, we gave this site a pass.
We turned the boat towards Rodriquez Key and arrived about 16:00. The guys hung out while Mona and I floated in the water. The bay was very much like Lowes Point lined with a large sandbar where people were partying. As a boat passed by, we asked them where we could buy ice. They said there were no places in the bay, but they were headed home and had a bunch of ice that they would give us. So they tied up next to us and filled our ice chest. That was so nice! They also were enamored which our Catana, and their friends indicated they had just sold their house and were looking to buy one.
For dinner, we grilled ribeyes, and had baked potatoes and salad. We were all famished and enjoyed this lovely dinner. Mona and I sat on the bow again as the breeze was cool and refreshing.
May 3, 2021
We had a lovely sail to Biscayne Bay today through Hawks Channel. Once inside the bay, we went south to Boca Chica which is a part of the Biscayne National Park. We side tied on the wall and walked to the beach for a swim. The water felt good after being in the sun a good part of the day. It was fun to relax and hang out with our friends. We also got some good snaps of our boat.
We had a simple dinner of steak quesadillas and taco meat burritos. We watched the sun set and then buttoned up the boat for the night. It was a nice relaxing day.
May 4, 2021
We decided to spend the day traversing Biscayne Bay getting fuel and additional groceries. We sailed up to the fuel dock at Chandon Park Marina. Here, we not only filled our diesel tanks, but also our water tanks and ice chests.
Next we went south to No Name Harbor where John and Mona took an Uber to Winn Dixie and got some pizza from Pizza Sir. The rest of us went to Boater’s Grill for a drink in hopes of scamming some wifi. While we got the password, even our wifi ranger couldn’t pick up the signal for long.
So we left the protected harbor, which lacked breeze, and anchored outside where it was cooler. After munching down on pizza, making plans for our journey to West Palm tomorrow, and taking transom showers, we all watched an amazing sunset over Miami and the skyline twinkle in the night. We then, settled in to rest as tomorrow would be an early morning.
May 5, 2021
Ben and I awoke at 4:30 and tried to put on our happy faces. We needed to leave anchor at 5:30 to reach Lake Worth inlet during the daylight and with the tide. John also got up, and by 5:45 we were headed through the channel. We watched a spectacular sunrise as we sailed through Stiltsville. The wind was light and it would most likely be a motor sail all the way to West Palm.
The wind continued from 120 degrees, but as we moved about 3 miles offshore, we entered the Gulf Stream. Now we were going 10-11 knots in 7 knots of wind using the main, screecher and one engine.
John tried his hand at fishing and struggled for about 45 minutes before reeling in the big one, but alas it was only a handful of seaweed. It was such a disappointment and John was wiped out!
We made better time than expected and reach our anchorage by 16:00. We anchored in Lake Worth at West Palm alongside several other dagger boats. There were two other Catanas and an Outremer. One of the Catanas was Scenic Route.
As we were arriving, we also saw a Dolphin SV which had daggers too. This basin is full of yachts. We were anchored super close to some mega yachts as well.
Since it was Mona’s and Austin’s last night with us, I cooked a sausage pasta and rosemary bread for dinner. Then Mona and I sat on the tramp, watched the sunset and reminisced about the fun we had had so far this trip. It would be super sad to see them go tomorrow.
May 6, 2021
Today Austin and Mona were leaving us. They had planned to travel a little further with us, but because of imminent storms and the wind clocking to the north for a couple of days, we had to stay put at West Palm until at least Saturday in hopes the wind would switch back to the south. Thus, Mona and Austin needed to depart to start their trek towards Orlando airport. We had a hardy breakfast before Ben dinghied them to Currie Park to catch an Uber to their rental car location. We relaxed for the the rest of the day.
May 7, 2021
It rained off and on during the day. So we took naps and later went over to Jill and Jeff’s boat for a visit. Since they had made this journey before, we found them to be a wealth of information about weather applications, inlets and data.
The storms began to arrive around 18:00. So we raced back to the boat and watched the lightening as our boat swung around on the anchor. It was 20:00 before we could touch any metal on the boat to fix dinner. Dinner was a simple meal of left-over pizza.
If all goes well we would start our passage tomorrow towards Charleston. We planned to visit Jill and Jeff at 6:30 to get the latest weather information. So we need to get some rest in anticipation of our next journey.
Hope you are enjoying sharing this journey with Ben and me. Let me know if you have any questions!