Onward to Key West, Stalled in Marathon

December 2021-January 2, 2021

We enjoyed our last three weeks in Coconut Grove, scootering around and exploring this charming part of Miami with its sidewalk cafes and waterfront parks. The Barnacle State Park is the smallest state park in Florida. It was gorgeous with its hammock of shade that embraced you as you made your way from the street to the waterfront. The vegetation was as thick as a jungle. The Barnacle House and grounds had an interesting history, especially for sailors, as Ralph Munroe was the first documented person to get a sailboat to plane in 1898!

He started the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club and was commodore for 22 years. He also studied hurricane architecture and after losing his boat house to a hurricane, he built it to withstand future storms by building breakaway walls on the front and back.

He even built a lift to raise boats out of the water for servicing.

Our mooring outside Dinner Key was a perfect spot to weather big blows as well as relax in the evenings while watching the spectacular sunsets.

One day we saw 53 knots, but our boat held fast, thank goodness!

Check out this video

Sunset after the big blow. Dreamy!

Nevertheless, it was time to strike out for the playground of the Florida Keys. So, on December 23, one year after we moved aboard Daggers Down in Kemah, we left the waters of Biscayne Bay and the behemoth Miami structures of white and gray to continue our journey south.

Bye Miami!

It was a gorgeous day as we entered Hawk Channel’s green blue waters. The depth of the channel was quite shallow at times, 11-13 feet where the water was light green and then darker green when the depths rose to 20+ feet.

The wind was blowing from the north, so we pulled the schreecher and motored sailed at 6.5 knots. The first anchorage available in the channel was 45 nm away at Rodriquez Key next to Key Largo. We hoped to get there before the sunset.

It was sad saying goodbye to Robert and Deborah on Journey as they sail across the bay with us.

However, we knew we would most likely see at least Robert again somewhere in the keys.  Deborah may return to England in a few weeks. We had a fun birthday dinner for Robert last evening on our boat filled with merriment of good food, friendship, and Christmas music while the full moon lit up the night.

It was hard to believe that tomorrow was Christmas Eve. We were enjoying our one Christmas decoration, a small cedar tree that we found at Fresh Market.

After a lovely uneventful sail, we arrive at Rodriquez Key at dusk. We decide to anchor on the south side of Key Largo rather than navigate all the way into the Key as we wanted to drop anchor before the sunset.

The weather was calm, so the anchorage was a perfect spot to spend the night. We had an easy dinner of leftovers from the party dinner.

Since we had another full day sail tomorrow to arrive in Marathon for Christmas Eve, we went to bed early. We would leave by 9:00 in the morning.

Christmas Eve

This morning the wind was supposed to be blowing from the north, but instead it was blowing about 10-12 knots from the west. As the morning waned, the wind became more northerly and finally from the east by afternoon. We pulled the schreecher again but could not put up the main as it would blanket the foresail.

The day started off nice with blue skies and low puffy clouds. The 1-foot seas of blue green water made for a smooth sail as we headed down the keys.

However, by noon, we entered a minefield of crab pots that would not end! The plethora of crab pots kept us ever vigilant. I had to sit on the princess chair at the bow and watch for the pots of red, green, blue and white.

The extensiveness of the crab pots made sailing the Hawk Channel tenuous at best! I’m not sure how the motor yachts blasting down the channel avoided them. Sailing this part of the channel would be impossible in the dark. I was glad the water was somewhat calm, and I didn’t have to try to spot them in high seas.

Finally around 15:00, the pots became sparse as we approached Marathon Key. We anchored west of Boot Key in about 11 feet of water. The breeze kept the anchorage cool.

We both relaxed for a bit after having to be “on task” for so many hours. Ben grilled steaks for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we listened to Christmas music, ate cheesecake and shared presents with each other. Let me tell you ordering presents and keeping them “secret” when you live in a tiny house if no small feat, but we both managed it.

Ben got some new Eddie Bauer outdoor pants and cologne, and I got a pair of rockin’ Hobie sunglasses that someone recommended for sailing in the shallow waters of the Bahamas.

These were perfect gifts as we certainly don’t need much living aboard our boat and space is of a premium.

Christmas Day

We both slept in a bit this morning. After cooking and eating breakfast, we took advantage of the calm seas to complete our workout routines.

Then we went by SV Redemption and visited with Bobby and Norma from Corpus Christi. They planned to head to the Bahamas in a few weeks. They were waiting on a pet permit for their cutie, Felix.

We dinghied through Boot Key Harbor and were surprised by all the boats that were packed into the channel. Evidently it was so expensive to live on shore, $2000 a month for a small efficiency, a lot of working folks lived on a boat. I would dare say that many of the boats couldn’t sail even if it was needed. We towed one dinghy whose outboard had quit to one of the boats. There was also a large mooring field owned by the City Marina. We were told not to anchor in the Boot Key channel and now we understood why. There were boats everywhere!

Back on board, I began cooking our Christmas dinner. I cooked the turkey breast in the instant pot (IP) and much to our surprise, it came out moist and delicious. I would certainly do this again. I made the gravy right in the IP after removing the turkey. I used the propane oven to cook the green bean casserole and heat up the bread. I made the rice dressing on the propane stovetop. It was almost like cooking at home except I had to run the generator for 40 min. while using the IP.

We ate out in the cockpit because the weather was perfect, the sunset was beautiful, and the gentle breeze added to the pleasantness.

The dinner was a perfect ending to our first Christmas at sea!

Hanging in Marathon

We spent the next week hanging out in Marathon just simply enjoying being at anchor and the gentle rocking of the boat. We completed a few boat chores and dinghied around exploring the nooks and crannies of Boot Key. We also had plenty of entertainment watching the pelicans dive for fish or simply float around. The sunsets were beautiful too!

One day we met our new acquaintances, Norma and Bobby and pet, Felix from SV Redemption at Sombrero Beach. The beach is a city owned park and it was crowded with lots of people soaking up the sunshine and swimming in the calm waters while others were playing beach volleyball. It was a gorgeous area, and I had no doubt we would take advantage of this place again before we left.

We dinghied through the lush mangroves of Sarah’s Creek gawking at the homes which lined the shore.

On the way back to the boat, we stopped at Marathon Marina and hooked up with some French Canadian folks we had met at Dinner Key. Michel and Karolyne sail on a 30-foot Catalina, Vahine. They took six months just to have the experience of cruising and living on a boat. It was nice to finally have time to properly chat with them as we kept meeting them in passing in Coconut Grove, but we were always on a mission when we saw them. We made plans to snorkel at Sombrero Lighthouse in the morning and then headed back to the boat.

When it was time to go to the lighthouse, it was windier than predicted. So we ended up just visiting aboard Daggers Down. We would try again another day.

Decisions, Decisions…

Ben and I spent the rest of the day trying to determine our next destination. Part of us wanted to jump over to the Bahamas and join some folks we had met in Cape Charles. However, after discussion we realized until we could get Dottie’s house sold, we could not leave the country as Ben would have to go ashore to sign papers. Crazy, in this day and age, that paper copies were still needed for some transactions.

We finally decided that we would stay in Marathon until after the New Years. We had heard that Key West was really packed up right now because of the holidays. One part of cruising was being flexible to enjoy where you were, but not getting stuck somewhere and never leaving. It’s an ongoing dilemma but not a bad problem to have!

With that decision made, we needed to go to the grocery store for items I had planned to buy in Key West. Michel and Karolyne  offered us to use their boat as a “dinghy dock” while they were at the marina. It was much closer and less expensive than the City Marina dinghy dock. So we made plans with them to share a cab to the Winn Dixie in the morning. Cabs were only $7 a trip anywhere you want to go in Marathon.

I decided that when we went to the store, I would begin stocking up on can goods and other provisions for when we finally headed over to the Bahamas. Food was much more expensive in the Bahamas and in some places the variety was extremely limited. So the more nonperishable food I could get now, the better.

After the grocery store excursion, we decided to meet back at SV Vahine and walk over to Porky’s for an all you can eat rib dinner. Ben and I ended up just splitting a plate of ribs which turned out to be plenty of food. The restaurant was packed and there was not enough wait staff (which seems to be true most places). So Michel and Karolyne never got one of their second orders of ribs as they had gone for it and each ordered the all you can eat platters. Nevertheless, the company was fun along with the music, and the ribs were excellent.

It was weird heading back to the boat at night. I am glad that Ben has a great sense of spatial awareness because I am not sure I could have found the boat out in the bay with only anchor lights to guide us. However, Ben had no trouble locating Daggers Down. The Bay was dead calm, so boarding also was easy peasy.

The next day, we decided to work out and complete some of the list of never-ending boat chores. Ben worked in the engines, cleaning and installing the back ordered parts we had we received from Cape Charles Yard. I put Semco on the teak rails to seal them from the searing sun and saltwater.

New Year’s Eve

It was a gorgeous day today, so we decided to head out towards the Sombrero Lighthouse. We would like to snorkel on the reef, but so far it had been too rough as it was about 4 miles out from our anchorage. We enjoyed getting out on the water, but the crab pots took some of the relaxation out of the cruise. Once again, I had to sit on the bow as we picked our way through the myriad of floating balls.

When we arrived at the reef, it was definitely too rough to snorkel. Nevertheless, we floated around a bit and saw a couple of turtles, a man-o-war and dolphins.

As we returned to Marathon, we went into the marina and fueled up and topped off our water. While the water in the anchorage was fairly clear, we didn’t want to make water as fish boats regularly traverse the anchorage stirring up sediment.

Around 16:00 we dinghied over and picked up Karolyne and Michel from the marina and went to the Dockside Grill for happy hour. They had live music, and drinks were extremely reasonable. So we visited for a while and later were joined by another couple from the marina.

It was dark when we returned to Vahine but with Ben’s expert navigation we made it through the crowded harbor of moored, anchored and derelict boats. We all visited on Vahine for a while before Ben and I decided it was time to make our way back out to the Daggers Down. Ben said the fireworks were awesome at the strike of midnight, but alas, I as fast asleep in the bed.

New Year’s Day

There was a little excitement in the bay this morning, as the Coast Guard tried to corral a homemade boat with illegals. They chased them around the anchorage but finally the tiny boat evaded the larger Coast Guard boat by running it into the shallows. They left the boat and waded ashore into the mangroves of Boot Key. This was a deserted island without roads and probably full of bugs and other undesirable wildlife. We hear on the radio every few days that another boat of illegals had floated to the USA seeking asylum. We just thought the Texas borders were problematic.

Karolyne and Michel invited us to join them at the pool today. Since we needed to get the laundry done, we used the marina laundry while we relaxed in the pool. It was a very pleasant way to spend the first day of the new year.

After thanking our French Canadian friends profusely for their hospitality we headed back to DD. For New Year’s dinner we had the obligatory (for good luck) black eyed peas as well as grilled pork chops and steamed green beans. I even made a batch of brownies since we hadn’t eaten anything else all day.

To go Or not to go?

For the last several days we had been getting some error messages from our Victron system which controls our batteries. We were not sure if it was the temperature sensor or something else. Ben reset the system and that seemed to have helped some. However, we couldn’t get any definitive answers until folks were back at work after the holidays. Thus, once again, we decided to stay put in Marathon until we had a solution in case we needed to go back to Miami for repairs or parts.

We hadn’t planned to be in Marathon this long, but its not a bad place to hang, and we will head south soon, I am sure.

 

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