14 December 2012 Vero Beach, Florida
Overnight the wind veered around to the north-east and should be more easterly tomorrow, so we’re definitely going to go in the morning. We declared today a holiday and went to the cinema to watch “The Hobbit”, then did a bit of last minute shopping before returning to the boat where we got ready for sea – pulled up the outboard, stowed the dinghy on deck, stowed the cases of beer and generally tidied up.
We had a quiet night in - both feeling a bit apprehensive about sailing overnight. We’ve been here on this nice protected mooring for seventeen nights, which is the longest that we’ve stopped anywhere for about a year. We’ve become land lubbers.
15 December 2012 Vero Beach to Key Biscayne, Florida (Day 1)
Bizarrely, we woke up to a foggy morning – our first for months. We dropped the mooring anyway and motored out into thick mist, which unfortunately became thicker as we got to the Intra Coastal Waterway. Thank goodness for our little chart plotter that shows our position on an electronic chart – it’s incredibly accurate here in the USA. All I had to do was punch in the position of the next buoy, motor in that direction and the buoy loomed out of the fog dead ahead. I wouldn’t trust the charts or the GPS in these conditions in the Caribbean, but here it’s spot on.
It took us two hours to motor to Fort Pierce Inlet, where we anchored just off the Coast Guard station, so that I could climb up the mast (again!) and put the VHF antenna back at the top of the mast. While I was at the top of the mast, Glenys found the arm from our Windex wind direction indicator on the deck. It’s been snapped off by something, but I’m sure that we haven’t hit a bridge, so I guess that one of the bloody crows that have been plaguing us in Vero Beach had perched on it.
We motored out against a strong current into a fairly calm wind. Typically for the East coast of the States, the seas were confused with a two metre swell rolling over the shallow seabed. There wasn’t much wind, so we rocked and rolled for a while until we had the sense to motor a bit further off-shore where it settled down a little bit and the wind picked up.
It’s awkward down this section of the coast because the Gulf Stream, which runs at 3½ knots towards the north, is only four miles off the shore - if we got it wrong would slow us down considerably. Our strategy was to stay within three miles of the shore line which made the passage a little bit more stressful – it’s much easier being ten miles from the nasty, hull-breaking land.
For the rest of the day, we had winds between 15 and 25 knots from 60 degrees off our port bow, which combined with the confused seas made it difficult to read a book or do anything without feeling a bit queasy – it’s been nearly a month since we’ve been a sea and it showed. Hey, but at least we were sailing again…
16 December 2012 Vero Beach to Key Biscayne, Florida (Day 2)
The night watches were unpleasant in the confused seas, but we survived. It was interesting as we went past Fort Lauderdale and Miami before dawn because the cruise ships were queuing up to get into port before breakfast. At one point I had six cruise ships in sight. They’re a nuisance because they vary their speed erratically depending on their particular schedule – you could have one doing fifteen knots to get to port and another one that is wandering around at three knots because they’re early – it’s hard to tell what they’re doing.
Just after dawn, I hove-to just to the north of the ship channel into Miami Port because I didn’t want to argue with a huge container ship that was coming in – I “might” have made it across the channel, but I doubt that Glenys would have been impressed being awoken by a huge ship splitting Alba in half.
As we approached the entrance to Key Biscayne, the wind was still 20 knots from the south east, so we abandoned our original plan of continuing onto Rodriguez Key (which is not very well protected) and went into Biscayne Bight which is a lovely protected anchorage.
We collapsed for the rest of the day reading our books, napping and watching the locals arriving on their boats for their Sunday afternoon party-time. It was chaos with huge powerboats boasting three-storey inflatable water slides, jet skis, a fleet of optimists and fifty or so small powerboats zipping about. The centre of Miami Beach is only 5 miles away and this appears to be a very popular place. By five o’clock it had quietened down and was lovely.
17 December 2012 Key Biscayne to Rodriguez Key, Florida
The alarm clock went off at half past six. We dragged ourselves out of bed and motored west in the mirror calm waters, passing some strange houses on stilts which are on either side of Biscayne Channel – they don’t look to be inhabited, perhaps they’re some sort of bizarre holiday cottages.
It was a very uneventful trip - motoring all day against a ten knot wind that was directly against us. We followed the Hawk Channel which runs inside of an outer reef. It’s only around five metres deep and weaves its way around shallow reefs and sand bars, but the channel is half a mile wide in most places, allowing us to use the autopilot and read a book. There’s not much to see because the Florida Keys are low lying islands and we were mostly a mile away from them, however, the sea is nice and blue – we finally feel like we’re getting close to the Caribbean.
We anchored off Rodriguez Key, which is not the best anchorage that I’ve ever seen. It’s very shallow water – we dropped the hook in 2.2 metres of water about a quarter of a mile from the island. There’s no protection from the south, so I’m glad that we didn’t come here yesterday. The water is clear enough to see the grassy sea bed and I’m curious to see how the antifouling is holding up after five months, but the sun went behind clouds, making it chilly and I couldn’t bring myself to jump overboard.
18 December 2012 Rodrigues Key to Marathon, Florida
The alarm went off at half past six again – another forty mile day. The wind was light and directly against us, so we motored and had another boring trip, but at least we’ve started to see frigate birds again, which makes it feel more tropical.
There’s a damn power cable stretching across the entrance into Marathon Harbour at a height of 65 feet - we had to anchor outside, so that I could go up the mast and remove the VHF antenna AGAIN. We’ve been a little concerned about the availability of moorings because Marathon is a very popular place, with some people staying for the whole winter, but there was loads of space.
Marathon is the most organised harbour that I’ve ever seen – the facilities are excellent. There’s over a hundred and forty moorings, a huge lounge area with tables for internet access, two TV viewing areas, a book swap library, a workshop area, laundry and twenty washrooms. The dinghy dock even has rules – hard dinghies only on this dock, inflatables only on this dock, painters should be between three to six feet in length, etc, etc.
19 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
We listened to the VHF radio net at 0900 on channel 68. There was the usual chatter that one gets whenever there are a load of permanent residents – announcements for yoga classes, carol singing on Christmas Eve, treasures of the bilge, etc. It was nearly an hour long.
We did the usual things that we do when we arrive somewhere i.e. laundry and checking out where the local shops are, so we walked a few miles in the beating sun. Marathon doesn’t have any town centre. It’s all spread along the main road running between Miami and Key West- the strip of land is very narrow being only half a mile wide. There’s a couple of big supermarkets, a big hardware store and a West Marine store, so we can stock up on anything else that we might need in Cuba. We spent $150 of two pairs of sandals – I’ve been wearing my Keen sandals continuously for 20 months and I’ve worn out the soles.
I found out that my damn camera has only just arrived back at the camera repair company and they are planning to send it out today. The lady on the support desk kindly upgraded the delivery to be next day so hopefully, I’ll get it before Christmas.
20 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
I asked on the radio net if there was anyone who could help me with the leaks on our fridges, but had no joy. There’s a local company who charge $100 per hour, but I’m not going to pay that. I had a chat to a guy who repairs fridges, but he’s unfortunately leaving in the next couple of days. He agrees with me that I’ve probably got air and moisture in the system and, although not environmentally friendly, mentioned that I might be able to get the system purged if I charge it and then let the refrigerant out and few times. I’ll give it a go when I’ve got time.
Mike and Rona arrived just before lunch – they’re staying for a few days. We got them to take us to the supermarket to pick up enough provisions for a few days. They must be getting weary of us by now – every time that we see them, they have to go to the supermarket.
After lunch, we went for a dinghy ride into the mangroves next to the anchorage and ended up on a nice beach. We had another heavy night of trying to drink Alba dry.
21 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
A cold front came through just after dawn bringing a strong, cold, northerly wind meaning that it was far too windy to go out sailing, so we went to Key West for the day. We had a nice lunch at a beach bar and then wandered aimlessly around town, which is very touristy, but there are some nice suburbs just off the main streets.
Glenys wanted to go to the cemetery because the guide book mentions that there are some very amusing epitaphs such as; ” I told you I was sick”. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anything amusing at all and I become increasingly concerned by her unhealthy obsession with graveyards.
On the way back we stopped off at Big Pine Key and saw some of the Key Deer, which a small species of deer only found in the Florida Keys. They were nearly extinct a few years ago but there are now 300 or so living around Big Pine Key. We had another night of drinking.