12/01/2008 Miami to Key West

11/24/2008 Today was a quick jump over to Key Biscayne from Miami. I needed to get the traveler back working again as I have sailing friends from Denver and California coming in on Tuesday. I sailed under jib alone for a couple of hours and then had to motor as the wind was on my nose for the last leg for the day. I took the boat into No Name Harbor located in Bill Baggs State Park on the southern tip of Key Biscayne. This is a nice protected bay and I have staged my last two trips out of here.

I worked on finding a West Marine that is located in Miami. The good news is they have they parts, the not so good news is how to get to the store. It worked out very well for me. I have friends that I raced against in Colorado now living in Key Largo. The better news is that Karen worked in Key Biscayne and could stop at West Marine for me and was able to pick up the parts. Now I am back in business.

11/25/2008 Today I will have a boat load of people joining me. Coming in are Richard, Leslie and Taylor Allen from Denver. Debby Platt is from California. We have all raced on each other boats over the years. I caught up on the laundry and did some grocery shopping to get us through the next day until we would get to Key Largo and load up there with food for the week.

The Allen’s arrived on time at 4:30 and Debby made it in by 6:30. The shuttle bus was able to bring them right to the bay and there wasn’t much walking needed. After sundowners we moved the boat out into Biscayne Bay for the evening anchor.

11/26/2008 On Wednesday I had a boat load of friends for a trip from Key Biscayne to Key Largo. Joining us today is Wes and Karen Tone and their two boys Tyler and Bryce. We started off with some nice winds out of the north east and started with a sail. We had a real good time catching up and sharing stories of our racing exploits over the years.

As the day was going on we needed to start up the motors and push on as we would have early sunsets this time of the year. This is something I need to get use to as my last two trips in the Keys on my Corsair and been in the summer with much longer days. This affects how far you can travel in a day. Wes lined up the use of a dock on a canal in Key Largo from a friend of his from the local club. We made it in just as the sun was setting. I thank Jerry for allowing to use his dock behind his home. He is going to allow me to use the dock to store my boat when I head home in a couple of weeks for Christmas.

When we were off the boat, Wes let us borrow his car and we made a trip to the grocery store to load up on ours supplies for the rest of the week and a couple of runs to the gas station for fuel for the boat. We then had a wonderful dinner at Wes and Karen’s including shrimp, stone crab and grilled salmon. It was the wrap up of a perfect day and I am very thankful for friends like Wes and Karen.

11/27/2008 Happy Thanksgiving!!! I have been looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving on the boat this year. I did not know what we would do or eat, but I was sure it would be special. We decided to stay in the Key Largo area. We had a late start today as everyone was catching up with their sleep from traveling in from the west. We then headed out to a couple of reefs to do some snorkeling.

We first went to White Sands Bank and got use to the water. Everyone had wet suits except for me, but that really was a non-issue for me. The water was just above 70 degrees, but when I starting swimming and the blood was moving, I had no issues. The one thing I was concerned about was jelly fish. There were some large jellies, but swarms of little ones. I was able to swim through them and did not get stung. After White Sands we went over to Molasses Reef. One of the most incredible snorkeling experiences I have ever had. It was a little bit deeper than most reefs I have snorkeled around, but the water was super clear. There we saw the largest fish and largest schools of big fish. We saw barracudas, parrot fish, angel fish, corals yellow jack and a smaller black tip reef shark. The coolest experience for me though was swimming with a large sea turtle. I was able to swim along it and it did not seem bothered at all. The turtle was a gentle animal in the water. What a day. My disappointment on my own behalf was then I did not get an underwater camera to share some of the sights with all of you reading the blog.

We then motored over to Rodriquez Key and anchored for the night. For Thanksgiving dinner this year we decided to pass on turkey and cooked up a pot of Jambalaya that I found in the October issue of Cruising World. The Jambalaya had chicken, sausage and shrimp in it. We also had a salad and loaf of bread. For dessert we bought a Key Lime Pie from the grocery store. We decided instead of dirtying another dish we all ate the pie straight from the pie tin. It was a fun time and we all enjoyed the meal. Just like any other Thanksgiving dinner we were stuffed and ready for a nap. We turned in early as we had a long day ahead of us to keep moving south.

11/28/2008 Today was a motor day the whole day as there was almost no wind. We stopped at one reef for a little bit of snorkeling and pushed on to Marathon. We made it into the bight just as the sun was setting. We were greeted by the very friendly and informative bridge tender. After he raised the bridge, he told us about the anchorage and the mooring balls. We decided on a ball and he told us to check in with the marina in the morning.

We decided to get off of the boat for the evening to stretch the legs and had dinner ashore. It was a good dinner and then back to the boat for an evening of movies on the laptop.

11/29/2008 On the 29th, we were able to sail the whole day making good time and sailed all the way into Key West. Finally some good sailing for my guests. The seas were too rough for any snorkeling so we sailed right into Key West. We stayed on the anchor for the night and I had a slip scheduled the next day for us.

11/30/2008 After we tied up, everyone headed off for showers and a day of sight-seeing in Key West. I stayed back and caught up on cleaning the boat. She has not had a good wash down in a couple of months and she was deserving the special treat of washing with fresh water. It was also a good way for me to relax also.

Then the rain broke loose. I had not seen this strong of weather on my whole trip. We had winds in the mid-40s and heavy rains. It was so rainy that the streets of Key West flooded. This was the beginning of a cold front coming in the will dictate the weather for a good part of the week. We then met for dinner and had a great time celebrating my 46th birthday in Key West. I was also imbibing in a little rum. We had a wonderful dinner at the Conch Restaurant on the wharf and a good time with more movies.

11/29/2008 St Augustine, FL to Miami (End of another chapter)

11/20/2008 I decided to make an off-shore run today. The plans are to go from St. Augustine all the way to Key Biscayne. I expect this trip to take about 55 hours. This will be my longest non-stop trip so far. This will allow me to by-pass all of the bridges along the ICW from here. These bridges are lower than the 55’ I require to get under them with my mast. They will be draw bridges that will require some timing and probable waits for specified opening times.

The weather is calling for north-east winds, which aren’t too bad, but not as good as north-west winds. The problem with a north-east wind at this time is that there will be building seas that will cause somewhat of a rough ride.

I left right at daybreak, even before the sun rose. I took off in great winds and was able to shut down the motor as soon as I was out in the ocean. Shortly after that I was also able to set the spinnaker. The weather was perfect and I had a great sail all afternoon. Right as evening came upon me, the wind died for about 30 minutes. Then the breeze kicked up. It was building from then on as the night went on.

I was sailing about eight miles off-shore as the gulf-stream was about 25 miles or more off-shore in this area. There was no moon this evening and a clear sky. It was very dark and the skies were filled with stars. As the night went on the winds and seas kept building. I decided to try something I had not done yet and that was to reef the main sail while underway. I knew I would have to do it sooner and later and now seemed a good as time as any. For some reason I had a fear around doing this. I planned through all of my steps and it went off just as planned. The only thing was the boat went faster. It wasn’t too rough for the boat, but my dinghy that is hung from the stearn of the boat was taking a beating from the waves coming from behind and when I would have a wave come from between the hulls. The winds kept building so I put another reef in the main. I then tried to hove-to. This is a maneuver in which you tack the boat , but do not release the jib so that it is back-winded. It work very well, except on this tack the boat was driving in the opposite direction that I wanted to go at about 1.5 knots. If I did this the rest of the night ( I did this about 2 AM) I would give up about 6 miles and be further out to sea. I tacked the boat back and took the main sail all the way down and just ran with the jib. This slowed the boat down to 5 knots and the dinghy did much better.

Because of all this work I did during the night and I was having issues with the dinghy that I needed to resolve I headed back into shore and arrive at Ft Pierce, FL around 10 AM. I then proceeded to sail down the ICW again for the rest of the day and stopped to get a good nights sleep.

11/22/2008 Today I will stay in the ICW. This was primarily do the weather that was being called for, high winds out of the east which make for a very bumpy sea. I pulled anchor with the main sail up as the wind was blowing about 20 knots. It was a great start of the day as I passed two other catamarans that were motoring.

As the day went on I started to get in more protected areas and had to motor. I did this with the main sail up as I did get an extra push and the wind kicked up I would be ready to sail some more. I then started to come upon the bridges I was trying to by-pass when I left St. Augustine. Today I passed through seven bridges. Some of the bridges would be raised at request, another I had to wait because of some boats close enough to me that the bridge tender wanted to lift only once instead of multiple times and other bridges had set schedules.

Towards the end of the river I had to drop the main because there was very little room to maneuver and there were more and more boats queuing up to pass through the bridges.

I dropped into Lake Worth which is a large water way the Palm cities (North Palm, East Palm, Palm, Palm Beach) are built around. The great this is the weather has warmed up and so has the water. After I anchored I was able to go for my first swim since Annapolis.

11/23/2008 I now need to decide whether to go off-shore again or head down the ICW and deal with about twenty bridges today. The concern was that NOAA has been calling for small-boat warnings for the last two days and it was not suppose to lighten up until late afternoon. I am still trying to determine what a small-boat warning is and what a small boat is. I had sailed in these kind of conditions in the Chesapeake and decided to go off-shore. That turned out to be a great plan.

I came out of the cut at Lake Worth and set the sail immediately. I was off-shore about four miles looking for a counter current that would help push me south. Also another catamaran, a PDQ 36, Inspiration, came out of the inlet. I started tagging with them and chatting on the VHF radio. We sailed about the same speed until I found the counter-current and then I took off. They sailed very close to shore I figured it was more bouncy due to the wave action.

We talked back and forth about a good place to anchor. It kept changing as we had great winds and really good speed. We were looking at a lake in Ft Lauderdale. I indicated I would get back to him when I got closer to determine what time it was in the day.

As I came to Ft Lauderdale, it was so early in the afternoon and I was making such good speed I decided to push onto Miami, even if it meant I would need to go into the Government Cut at night time. That turned out to not be a problem as I made it to the cut at around 5:00PM, just in time to share the Cut with three cruise ships leaving port. Then the fun began. As I jibed the main sail (jibing is when the wind passes from one side of the stearn to another and the main swings across the back), the line that controls the traveler (a sailing trimming device on a track) broke and the main flew down the track and knocked off the end cap of the traveler track. I now had a main sail out of control and no propulsion with three cruise ships coming at me. Cruise chips fill up the channel real quick. I was able get the motors started to keep out of the way of the cruise ships and then get the main sail down and under control again. After that little excitement, I headed over to the anchorage I found behind Fishers Island. I was met there by Inspiration and we shared a great sunset, a couple of beers and dinner together.

This marks the end of my journey down the ICW. Starting next is sailing in the Keys, which is what I have always said is the beginning of my trip. After reflecting on it, this last 5 weeks has been a real journey in itself as I have learned a lot about No Rush and myself. I am looking forward to the next steps.