South to the Keys

December 1^st – 10^th – North for the Holidays

We fly back to NJ on December 1^st for our holiday visit.  We have a jam packed ten days.  We get our annual (or in some cases once every thirty years) physicals.  Jennifer renews her driver’s license.  We visit with Jennifer’s parents and John’s brothers and sister.  We drive up to Rhode Island and spend some time with the beloved grandchildren.  But mostly we freeze our butts off!  How do people live up here in the winter?

A Cool Christmas Gift

December 11^th - 13^th – Leaving Stuart

After arriving back in Stuart, we do some more provisioning with the rental car.  Then we drive up to Vero Beach and visit friends from Anchorage Marina.  We spend a lovely evening on Bohemia with Linda and Bill and Paul and Susan from Slow Dancing. Since Linda, Paul, and John all worked at the West Marine in Baltimore during the summer it is a West Marine reunion.  Linda and Bill are staying in Vero Beach for the winter.  Paul and Susan will leave Vero shortly.  They plan to go to the Bahamas in January. 

After our late night in Vero, we get a fairly late start.  We take the car back, get our bikes from the bike shop then say good bye to Buzz and all the folks in Stuart.  We’ve had a lovely stay, but it’s time to move on.

We have a fairly uneventful motoring trip through the bridges between Stuart and Lake Worth.  The only exciting thing that happens is that we hear Gratitude on the VHF talking to one of the bridges.  They are a couple we met when we were cruising on Finn, who are friends of Jennifer’s aunt.  They are on their first cruise south.  We chat a little bit about their plans but are unable to get together with them this time.  We end up dropping the hook in the pouring rain, getting totally soaked.

 December 14^th – A Perfectly Horrible Day

It rains off and on all night.  Both of us are subjected to drips from the hatches while we sleep, the cruisers form of Chinese Water Torture.  We get up before dawn and check the weather.  NOAA reports the wind will be out of the SE at 10 – 15 knots with two to four foot seas.  This is the best day of the next four and it’s really not too bad so we decide to go.

We make it out of the inlet without incident.  But once we’re out in the ocean we’re getting pounded by the seas pretty well.  Our rhythm is pound, pound, pound and then roll, roll, roll.  Every ten minutes or so we get rolled pretty badly. About 6 inches of green sea water rushes down the decks.  Just after one of these episodes John notices that the port hole in the aft cabin is open.  Ugh! Everything in our storage “garage” is drenched.

We continue our lumpy journey to Fort Lauderdale.  Jennifer is fairly sick.  We had toyed with the idea of going all the way to Miami. Although we can handle this, we are just too miserable. We ask ourselves, “Why?” We decide to go no farther and turn into the Port Everglades inlet.  The water calms, which is great. We pass under the 17^th Street causeway and head to Lake Sylvia.  There is a boat aground at the beginning of the basin.  The basin is crowded.  We can’t find a place to anchor. We are really tired and have no place to go. Jennifer starts calling marinas.  She calls Las Olas, the city marina, but they don’t answer.  She calls the New River Marina and they say that they have a slip for us.

We get out of Lake Sylvia, avoiding the grounded boat and the flotilla of dinghies that have come to help it.  We head up the narrow, windy New River.  We see a large Christmas display for tomorrow’s boat parade.  We follow a large motor yacht up the river.  He asks the first bridge (Third Avenue) to open for him.  We call and ask the bridge to hold for us.  Because of all of the turns in the river, we cannot see the bridge and the bridge tender cannot see us. We are only about a quarter mile away.  We describe our position to the bridge tender and she agrees to hold the bridge for us.  John revs the engine up to 3000 RPMs so that we get through promptly.  Now we are only about a quarter of a mile from the next bridge.  John keeps pushing the engine to make the next bridge when the bridge tender lets us know that a tow boat with a large motor yacht is coming toward us through that bridge.  We need to back off and let them pass.  We need to get to the starboard side of the channel behind a fuel barge that is waiting there also.  We back up and end up needing to maneuver Shamrock between the bridge we just went under and the LARGE motor yacht under tow. The current is tremendous.  It’s heart-stopping but we get to the starboard side of the channel just in time.  The fuel barge actually moves forward a little to make room for us.  After the towed boat passes, we follow the fuel barge through the second bridge (Andrews Avenue). 

There is a railroad bridge ahead of us, which is open fortunately.  We’re not sure if the New River Marina is on the near side of the railroad bridge or the far side.  Jennifer tries to hail them on the VHF, but they don’t answer.  So she calls them on the cell phone.  She has made a terrible mistake and made a reservation at the New River Marina in North Carolina rather than the one in Florida.  It is a busy Friday night and we do not have a reservation. She gets the correct number and calls the New River Marina in Fort Lauderdale.  They are not taking any more boats until after the boat parade tomorrow night.  She begs and pleads, promising that we will leave as soon as the bridges go off restriction in the morning, but they will not take us. 

We need to turn around in the narrow river with the rushing current go back through the RR bridge and the two bascule (lifting) bridges. We continue up the river to a place where there is enough room to turn the boat around.  Then we head back down the river.  John tries to get behind a sport fishing boat to go through the Andrews Avenue Bridge.  The boat sits in the middle of the channel in such a way that we cannot pass through the railroad bridge to wait for the Andrews Avenue Bridge.  John tries to hold Shamrock just before the railroad bridge put the current grabs our bow.  When the Andrews Avenue Bridge opens, he cannot get the bow back around to get through the railroad bridge.  Maneuvering a full-keeled boat is always a compromise between what the current wants to do and what you want to do.  In this case, the compromise is to miss this bridge opening go back to the place where there is enough room to turn the boat around and try once again.

We get through the RR bridge. We hang motionless in the streaming current facing the Andrews Avenue Bridge. A large paddle-wheel tour boat comes behind us.  There is also a large motor yacht on the other side of the bridge.  We proceed through the bridge cautiously in no hurry to get too close to the next bridge, which is just a few hundred feet away and closed. The paddle boat is so large that we do not leave enough room for it to get completely through the bridge.  The waiting motor yacht can’t go through the Andrews Avenue Bridge until the paddle boat gets through the bridge.  Everyone is yelling, “Move up! Move up!” We speed up and get closer to the bridge. We know if we get too close to the bridge, we will have to back up. Then Shamrock will spin to port and we will probably not have enough room to push our nose back into the current. It could be a disaster. We hold straight into the current and finally the Third Avenue Bridge opens. The paddle boat is frustrated with us and, once through the bridge, requests a pass. Whatever! We slow and pull over to the starboard, hold our position and let the lumbering behemoth pass. A few more blind turns and we are finished with the mess of the New River.  This isn’t a place that we plan on visiting again.

We are tired, frazzled, and have no place to stay in Fort Lauder dale.  Jennifer calls all the marinas in Skipper Bob’s marina book. She even calls Bahia Mar which is three dollars a foot.  No one has any room for us.  John wants to go back out in the ocean and head to Miami.  Jennifer doesn’t want to do that since it is already after 4:00 PM.  This means that it would be well after dark by the time we reach Miami.  So we decide to try to anchor in one of three different anchorages south of Fort Lauderdale on the inside.  It means that we have to go through two more bridges. 

We get to the first bridge well before its scheduled opening so we have to wait.  As we idle near the center of the channel we go aground.  We have to back off the shoal.  The boat behind us doesn’t expect us to be going backwards, but we yell our intentions to them so that they don’t run us over.  Finally, we get off the shoal, the bridge opens and we pass through. 

On the east side of the narrow ICW channel is a restaurant with a dock.  The restaurant appears to be out of business.  But there is a sign that says dockage is available and gives a phone number to call.  Jennifer calls the number.  The woman who answers says she doesn’t have any security at that dock this evening, but she knows a guy with a dock available further south of us.  Jennifer calls the number that the woman gave her and arranges with a man named James to tie up on the east side of the ICW just south of the next bridge.

As we wait for the next bridge, Jennifer gets the fenders ready for docking.  The boat that nearly ran us down is also waiting behind us.  We are supposed to dock by a large blue sailboat and two smaller boats.  James should be there to catch the lines.  We pull up next to a likely looking space, but no one is there.  We spy another likely looking place further down the channel.  By this time, the other sailboat has passed us.  They turn east and pull in to the slip.  Jennifer yells to the guy on the dock, “Are you James?”  He is.  The other boat has mistakenly tied up in our slip.

We wait as the other sailboat backs out of the slip.  Then we turn in and John pulls up to the dock.  We finally have a place to stay for the night.

We go to shore and find out that we won’t have electricity.  The dock only has 50 amp power and we take 30 amp and don’t have a converter.  The slips are in front of a small motel that James is refurbishing.  The shower is in one of the motel rooms.  It is not the greatest place in the world, but we are very happy to be here.

The Dock in Hollywood, FL

We get dinner ashore then wander around Hollywood, FL.  We come on a small amphitheater where something is definitely going to happen.  We find out that it is the holiday recital for a local dance school.  They have classes for everyone from preschoolers to adults.  We stay for the preschoolers’ rendition of Jingle Bells, the grade-schoolers singing and dancing to an original song about the lack of snow in South Florida.  Some high school students do a hip hop dance and the adults dance to “Santa Baby.”  There are many more acts, but how long can people who aren’t related to anyone in the recital truly enjoy such a thing.  We head back to the boat and collapse into our bunk.  This is the end of our perfectly horrible day.

December 15^th – 25^th – Miami, FL

The next day we decide to take advantage of the marina “amenities.”  We both take showers in the hotel-room bathroom.  Then Jennifer vacuum-seals the last batch of meat that we bought in Stuart.  She uses the electricity in the hotel room.  But there is no table, so she balances the Food Saver on a small refrigerator and stages the meat in the cooler that we keep on the boat.  It is not a very pleasant experience.  John hoses the salt-water off the bikes and the boat.  Then he fills the water tanks.  We’re ready to leave at about 10:00.

Vacuum Sealing the Meat

We get some people to help us off the dock because the wind and current have picked up by then.  We make our way south through several bridges.  We get to see many north bound boats all decorated for the Fort Lauderdale boat parade.  Most of the north and south bound sailboats are on the small side because they have to pass under a fixed bridge, the Julia Tuttle Causeway, which is only 56 feet high. Fortunately, Shamrock has a fifty foot mast.  Since the ICW standard height for fixed bridges is 65 feet many cruising sailboats cannot pass through this bridge.  Legend has it that someone transposed the numbers on the plans for the bridge. 

Welcome To Florida!

We get to the Western Venetian Causeway at about 2:00 PM.  The Venetian Causeway is a series of bridges that join five man-made islands that run east to west between Miami Beach and Miami. We head down the North side of the causeway.  When we get to the Miami Beach side there is another string of islands called the Sunset Isles.  We turn north and anchor just south of the Julia Tuttle Causeway. 

There are very few boats in any of the anchorages.  Miami Beach has passed an ordinance that boats can only be anchored in the waters of Miami Beach for seven days.  This law is controversial in the boating community and probably illegal according to Florida State Law.  Florida has been trying to assert that the State owns the bottom of the inland waters.  People who own fancy houses do not always want to look out at boats.  However, boating is big industry in Florida.  Community anchoring laws are a mess and cruisers are caught in the middle without the means or the inclination to fight them.  Anyway Shamrock is such a pretty boat that no one should complain about seeing it out their window.   We plan on moving before the seven days are up.

Miami Area Map

After we get the anchor well-set, we put the dinghy down and head to shore.  The only place that we find to tie up is behind a dry cleaners. We jump ashore and continue our exploration on foot.  We find a Publix supermarket shaped like a cruise-ship.  Then we find the police station.  There is a boat ramp and a twenty minute dinghy dock at the police station.  Further down the street there is another Publix and a real dinghy landing area with real cruisers.  Satisfied that we can now get to shore without sneaking through the dry cleaners, we head down to the beach.  The beach is lined with expensive hotels.  The hotels are gated and guarded keeping all but their guests from entering the compound.  We are having a hard time getting off the beach and back to the main road.  Finally there is a public beach access so we leave the Promenade and get back on the street.  We take the bus for 25 cents a piece back to the dry cleaners. 

House in Sunset Lake

The next day is football day, I mean Sunday.  We go back to town to watch the Ravens and the Dolphins.  We hope that the Ravens don’t suffer the humiliation of being the only team to loose to Miami all season.  After a fabulous lunch in a South American restaurant, we find an Irish sports bar.  We get a table, but the Dolphins game is only on one of the TVs.  All the rest of the TVs have the Patriots game.  We can barely see the Dolphins/Ravens game.  Eventually a waitress comes by and we order a beer.  We continue to strain our necks to see the game.  The service is terrible.  After a long wait we get another beer.  We have now had two beers each for a total of four beers.  We decide to leave and try to find somewhere we could actually see the game.  We get the check.  Since this is a tourist town, we expect the beers to be expensive, perhaps as much as twenty dollars for four beers.  We are shocked by the bill.  It’s thirty dollars for four Miller Lites.  The gratuity of 18% has been added in automatically.  Things are really expensive in Miami Beach! 

Despite the expensive beer, we end up staying ten days in Miami Beach.  The police visit us the fifth day that we’re there.  They ask us if we plan to stay and make us sign a paper that says that we are live-aboards or not engaged in navigation and that we can stay seven days from the day the police visited us.  The police are very nice and polite.  This is really a good job for the cops.  Instead of dealing with real crime, they’re out on a boat gently encouraging cruisers to move on. They never ask what day we got there.  They just let us know that we have seven days from the day they visit us.

Of course we have some misadventures in Miami Beach.  One day, after a storm with a lot of wind and rain the dinghy is filled up with water – really filled up.  The inflatable floor is floating in the dinghy.  We pump out the water and dry all the stuff off.  We even pump the gas out of the tank into the oil changer to look for water in the gas.  We wonder how this happened.  There’s way too much water to be from the rain.  That night when we run our electricity generator, we realize what happened.  We had tied the dinghy up under the exhaust from the generator, and then ran the generator for a few hours, pumping the exhaust water into the dinghy.

Under a Bridge in Collins Canal

Most days during our stay we take the dinghy through Sunset Lake under the eastern end of the Venetian Causeway and then up the Collins Canal to the “real” dinghy dock by Publix.  Then we take the South Beach Local Bus for twenty five cents and ride all over.  The bus is the only inexpensive thing in Miami Beach.  One day we see a bunch of newly naturalized citizens walking from City Call carrying little flags and their paperwork.  We see fabulous Art Deco hotels.

The Miami Beach street art seems to be a flamingo.  There are several large painted flamingos around town.  We try to get back to the boat by sunset and have dinner on the boat.   One evening, a pod of dolphins fish by our anchorage providing our entertainment for the evening.

John in the Dinghy in the Canal

After about a week we need a pump out.  After we take the boat to Miami Marina to get pumped out, we decide to anchor by Monument Island on the south side of the Venetian Causeway.   The locals seem to party on Monument Island, so we are often treated to loud music and marauding jet skis. 

Monument Island

One day we decide to have sundowners on the island with the locals.  We take our chairs, folding table, snack, drinks, iPod and iPod speakers and go ashore.  While we are sitting there a jet ski pulls up with one guy driving around two topless women.  They pick up another guy from the island.  Then the four of them try to get back on the jet ski.  This takes several attempts with topless women flailing around on and off the jet ski.  John has a good time at Monument Island.

Spanish is the primary language of Miami Beach.  We’ve heard that it is the primary language of Miami as well.  We have fabulous Cuban, Mexican, and Columbian food for lunch. The music that we hear from the local boaters visiting Monument Island is mostly Latino music.  The marina employees, the restaurant workers, and the hair dressers all speak Spanish.  Most of the cruisers speak English although there are a few Quebec boats that speak French. 

The funniest thing happens while we’re anchored by the Monument.  It is dark.  We are the only boat in the anchorage.  All the local boats have gone home.  A large center console boat comes by us slowly.  Then it circles us.  John goes into the cockpit to glare at them.  Jennifer turns on the VHF.  The boat circles us a third time.  The guys on the boat yell at John, “Englez?”  They come closer to the boat.  One guy reaches out and hands John a cell phone.  John talks to the guy on the cell phone.  The boat has been lost for three hours.  The guys on the boat don’t speak English, so they have called their friend who does.  John tries to give them directions through the friend.  The problem is that we are unfamiliar with the land area and they are unfamiliar with the water area.  Eventually we send them down to the blue lights, “luz azul”, of the Miami Herald building.  We tell them to turn left and head down to Dinner Key Marina which we believe is in the town of Coconut Grove, where they are trying to get.  We try to tell them to look for marker 71, but we can’t remember the Spanish for seventy.  We tell them siete y uno, to which they reply ocho.  John tells them how many miles to go, but it is a long way under several bridges.  We wish them good luck. They thank us and give us icy, cold water from their cooler.  When we leave Miami Beach three days later, we expect to see them out there still wandering around.

The Saturday before Christmas, there is a boat parade.  We get the horn and salute every boat as they pass us.  After the parade there are fireworks.  Although it is hard for us Yankees to believe that it is Christmas when it’s 80 degrees outside, Miami tries to help us remember.

We have such a good time in Miami Beach.  We go to the Botanical Garden, the Holocaust Memorial, and the movies.  We go to the Bass Museum of Art.  They have several fabulous photographs, including one of Malcolm X taking a picture of Mohammed Ali.  Oddly enough, we don’t see any paintings.    We find a Laundromat.  It’s easy to see why people would stay here all winter.

Important Miami Addresses

• Movie theater – Alton and Lincoln Road
• Laundromat – 14^th and Alton
• Bank of America – 17^th and Washington
• Publix supermarket – Dade and Michigan
• Dinghy dock – Dade and Michigan on the Collins Canal
• Library – 22^nd and Collins
• Tourist zones – Lincoln Road, Washington Avenue, and Ocean Drive
• Local Bus - 25¢ Bus runs a loop around Washington and West

December 25^th – 27^th Key Biscayne

We end up leaving Miami Beach on Christmas Day.  We meant to leave on Christmas Eve, but by the time we had finished shopping for our Christmas dinner trimmings it was past high tide and we couldn’t get back to the ICW.  So we get up very early Christmas morning, haul the anchor, and motor down to Key Biscayne.

Christmas Day we anchor outside of Hurricane Harbor, just about in the middle of Key Biscayne.  We get in the dinghy and use our hand held depth sounder to verify that the entrance to the harbor has shoaled.  We could probably get in at high tide but it would be very scary.  We also go to the south end of the island and check out No Name Harbor.  This is a popular place where cruisers wait to cross to the Bahamas.  It is a well protected harbor, with a free pump-out.  We decide to come back with the big boat tomorrow.

Sunset Outside Hurricane Harbor

The day after Christmas, we go to No Name Harbor.  We get a pump out and then tie up along the wall.  For two dollars, we can stay all day.  The harbor is in Bill Baggs State Park.  There is a restaurant and a laundry right in the harbor and a lovely beach near by.  They are very cruiser friendly in the park except that it costs $15 to anchor there overnight.  You cannot tie up to the wall overnight.  We’ve just come to play for the day. 

Jennifer Riding by Shamrock in No Name Harbor

We unload the bikes and explore the park and the town of Key Biscayne.  The park goes all around the southern end of Key Biscayne, which is called Cape Florida.  The beach is lovely.  There are nice bathhouses with cold water showers.  If we were desperate for a shower, we might have tried those.

Cape Florida Lighthouse

In town there is a supermarket, a hardware store, and a bus to Miami fairly close to the park. We decide that the charge to anchor in No Name Harbor is so that folks don’t spend the winter there.   We have lunch at the restaurant. It is quite a fancy place not at all the burger and fried fish joint that we were expecting.  John has black bean soup and ceviche.  Jennifer has scallops in garlic sauce.  Since the park closes at dark, the restaurant isn’t even open for dinner.  Several power boats come in to the harbor and tie up along the wall.  All those folks go to the restaurant for lunch, so the restaurant must be doing all right.

After lunch we load our cooler, chairs, table and towels onto the bikes and go to the beach.  We stay at the beach for a few hours, then head back to the boat.  We load the bikes back onto the boat and head out to the anchorage for the night.  We had a great day ashore.

John Biking Near the Lighthouse

We need fresh water.  We haven’t filled up our tanks in two weeks and have been taking showers on the boat.  We decide to go to Crandon Park at the north end of Key Biscayne to get fuel and water.  There are moorings there, but the guidebook says that there are no showers. 

We motor up the entrance channel, pull into the fuel dock and get diesel, gas for the dinghy and water.  There are a lot of cruisers hanging out at the dock waiting for us to finish filling up our water tank.  It takes a long time to fill them.  John gets to talking with them and Jennifer goes and gets a mooring for the evening.  The mooring is a pain since it doesn’t have a line on it long enough to go up to the bow of the boat.  John has to bring the boat around so that the mooring is in the middle of the boat so that Jennifer can reach it and thread one of our dock lines through the eye.

We decide to take our lunch with us when we go to shore.  We walk over the bridge toward the Miami Seaquarium. We see several rays swimming below the bridge.  John sees a large ray jump out of the water.  Jennifer only sees the splash. The Seaquarium has many shows.  We see the sea lion show, which is fun.  We skip the dolphin show because we see dolphins frequently.  But we go to the Killer Whale/Dolphin Show.  This is the most fantastic thing we have ever seen.  The Killer Whale is huge, probably 25 feet long.  It jumps up and splashes down completely soaking the people in the first few rows.  The trainers ride on it.  The Killer Whale jumps up spinning with the trainer on its nose. 

Back at the boat we use the binoculars to check out the birds living on the island behind the mooring field.  There are several Magnificent Frigate Birds.  There is also the usual collection of egrets, ibises and pelicans.  The most fascinating thing is watching the pelicans feed their young.  There are two nests that we can see.  One nest has babies in it.  The parent pelican takes a fish in its mouth for a while, then the babies stick their heads in the pelican’s mouth to eat.  There is another nest with much older birds.  We call them teenagers.  They feed in the same way, but they have a harder time getting their heads in the parent’s mouths.

December 28^th – 29^th – Card Sound

Friday morning we go for a run before leaving Crandon Park Marina.  We cast off the mooring lines and motor out of the narrow channel into the marina.  Once we get into Biscayne Bay we raise the sails and turn the engine off.  We have a lovely and unusual sail all the way south to Card Sound.

While we are sailing we get a phone call from Jim and Elaine on Pitcairn, who we met in Stuart.  They are anchored in Barnes Sound, just south of the Card Sound Bridge, which joins mainland Florida to the Keys.  We decide to anchor there and meet them for cocktails.  We sail all the way to the Card Sound Bridge, making great time.  The wind is about 15 knots abeam and the seas in the bay are flat.  We motor-sail through a few shallow places so that we can maneuver easily.  We also motor-sail through the bridge.  Once we get into the open area south of the bridge, we regretfully turn the boat into the wind and furl the sails.  We anchor behind Key Largo.

Toll for the Card Sound Bridge

We have a lovely visit with Elaine and Jim from Pitcairn.  They are also headed to Marathon and were wondering how full the mooring field is.  They had suspected that we would be there already.  Their boat has a shallower draft than Shamrock so they plan to go through the Florida Bay to get to Marathon.  We have to go on the east side of the Keys through the Hawk Channel.

The next day we plan to go to Alabama Jack’s for lunch.  This biker bar got a great write-up in our cruising guide.  Our plan is to anchor north of the bridge in Card Sound Saturday night.  Then we will head out to John Pennecamp State Park on Sunday.  We should get to Marathon by Tuesday.  Elaine called the City Marina in Marathon.  They said that there are 48 moorings available so we should have no problem getting one.

Saturday morning Elaine and Jim stop by on their way out.  They have decided that the weather is turning so they will head to Marathon sooner.  After listening to the weather, we decide to skip John Pennecamp State Park and get to Marathon a day earlier.  Then we haul up the anchor and head north about five miles in an attempt to get closer to Angelfish Creek, which connects the bay to the channel.

We take the dinghy into Alabama Jacks.  It is on the mainland just at the entrance to the Keys.  Our cruising guide says that people like to stop there on Sunday on their way back.  Celebrities like Kathy Lee Gifford and Jimmy Buffet have been known to stop there. When we get there, there are fifty Harleys outside. 

Although the place is packed, we get seats at the bar.  The bartender is a very busy guy.  He sells more T-shirts than beer and seems to be ready to drop dead from exhaustion.  We get a conch salad.  Jennifer gets conch fritters and John gets a cheeseburger.  The food is pretty good.  The beers are cold.  The scenery is great.  But the place is too hectic for us.  We think the bartender should get a job in Manhattan so that he can slow down and enjoy life.

 December 30^th – Rodriguez Key

We plan our departure so that we can go through Angelfish Creek at high tide. The creek is shallow in some parts but we have spoken to many deep-keeled boats that have made it through. The alternative is to head south and go through 5 foot, keel-catching depths for the 50 miles to Marathon. We get to the creek right at high tide. We see some 6 foot depths, which is really scary since it is high tide. It is also the weekend and there are dozens of small fishing boats that make us zigzag out through the creek.

We get out without touching the bottom and enter the Hawk Channel. The channel is great. It is a body of water that is separated from the big bad ocean by coral reefs. The channel is like a wide flat highway that parallels the Key Islands. Flat is the word that gets sailors’ attention. The waves in the channel are about 2-3’ smaller than the ocean waves.

The wind is a wee bit too close to our nose so we motor sail south. Or is it west, since the Keys begin to gradually curve westward rather than southward. Since we waited for tide, it is afternoon already. We decide on a short day and stop after 5 hours and 28 miles at Rodriguez Key. It is a small island with room for about 20 boats to hide from the wind on the leeward side. In two days, we are expecting a cold front to come through and we want to be in Marathon before it arrives. We drop the hook and kill the evening watching reruns of The Wire.

December 31^st – Marathon

We get up early and leave at 6:30 AM. There is not much to tell. We motor sail the 50 miles from Rodriguez Key to Marathon.  We turn north to the Boot Key Harbor entrance. We must go through a bridge to get to the mooring field. It only opens on the hour. Jennifer quickly drops and furls the sails because we are a little close to the hour. When she calls the bridge, the tender calls, “Welcome to Paradise” and tells us that the bridge opens on request.

We enter the harbor proper. Marathon is the cruising sailor’s Mecca. The harbor is surrounded by land in all 360° so there is excellent protection from the wind no matter where it comes from. There are over 200 moorings so a sailor does not have to worry about anchors dragging in the night. There is a public dinghy dock with showers, toilets, laundry, and even a dockside hose to fill the boat’s water tanks. There is a grocery store, Home Depot, and Kmart within walking distance. There is a strong cruiser community with a morning Cruisers’ Net on the radio that welcomes          new boats, bids farewell to departing boats, shares general and boating information, and has a trivia quiz for free giveaways. There is a cruiser friendly bar right across the street that has beer, burgers, TVs and free WiFi.

We get through the bridge and find out that no one is working because it is New Years Eve. We find our way through the shallow mooring field and pick up mooring ball T9. We are in and safe and plan to spend a few months here.