Hello to All,
Since late November, we have been "wintering" in Florida. We spent the holidays in Marathon Florida and moved up to Stuart Fl spending the last month at the Hutchinson Island Marriott Marina....really nice spot. However, we realize we have not updated or kept current on this blog since leaving Panama City Fl in November. This post attempts to bring readers up-to-day with our travels.
We left Panama City and went direct to Clearwater Fl...distance of about 250 miles. This was the first trip that we have been over open water and out of site of land for any long duration. We left at 1200 noon and arrived in Clearwater at 1400 the next day. We took turns during the night and had a great trip with light winds and clear skies. We dodged shrimp boats during the night and crab pots once we got closer to the west coast of Fl. All in all uneventful...we like that.
As a side note, during all our travels down western Florida, we we often in the company of Dolphins who would play in a wake and keep us company for a while. It was always fun to watch; they seemed to enjoy the company as well. Sometimes they would play in our wake and sometimes they would play in the bow wave...really neat stuff.
The next 5 days were spent working our way down the west coast of Fl with stops in Sarasota, Ft Meyers and Shark river...various anchorages between as well. During this time we only stayed at one marina in Clearwater preferring to anchor the rest of the time. We have evolved to the "rather anchor out" group as this is easier to do....and certainly cheaper. We like the solitude and the independence anchoring give us.
We arrived in Marathon just prior to Thanksgiving and opted to cook the traditional diner on board. After diner we joined other marina folks in singing and merriment until all we done. We also had two manatees as slip mates everytime we washed the boat!
The month of December found us back up in Virgina for our daughters graduation from Virgina Tech...Bio Chem honors graduate headed to Pharmacy School...we are very proud. We headed back to the boat just before Christmas with Ashton opting to stay in Virgina to get his checking account back in the black by working for two months (also his girlfriend, Naomi, was anxious to have him around for awhile).
We had several visitors during Dec and January, old friends from California (Gene and Julie Laughery), my sister Ruth, and my best man at my wedding ,Mike Saviano. Seems everyone wanted to visit the Keys during the mid-winter stretch...can you blame them? Also during this time we would take Waveaway out for exercise to the reefs to snorkel and fish.
During the downtime I also had Waveaway pulled for an insurance survey and had one prop removed and reconditioned as that shaft have exhibited some vibration after "touching" several objects on our journey (bottom in New Jersey; logs in the rivers etc). Good news is the reconditioning fixed the vibration (total cost 700$) and my cutless bearings had not suffered any ill affects.
I also had the engines tuned up while there and took Waveaway out for sea traisl where we got the old girl up to 18 Knots...wide open! The mechanic chastised me for not opening her up more often. I resolved, fuel costs or not, to open her up during the last 30mins of cruise each day (more on that later)
Also during this time I played chauffeur for Cathy as she had to fly in and out of Miami five times to do the work thing. We did manage to get to Key West three times and do those tourist things there. Crazy place.
On Feb 1, Cathy and I (Ashton was still in Virgina earning $s) starting a move north up to Stuart. We took the Hawk channel as the depths are more forgiving and the weather was excellent. We picked a nice anchorage just north of Key Largo for the first night. And I proceeded to "blow out the soot" and pushed her up for 10 mins or so as we neared the inlet. All went well until I came off power as we were entering the inlet and both engines flamed out....sporty. I quickly realized I was running on the forward tank which was getting low after 9 hours of running that day (only 90 gals in the fwd tank). So, when I came off of plane, the angle of the boat went from 5 degrees up to approx. level with the fuel leaving the area of the fuel pick-up lines. ...stupid me. I quickly gave the helm to Cathy and told her to try and stay in the channel while I went below to switch tanks and re-prime the engines. She did what she could but without power we were at the mercy of the tides and waves. We lucked out and the tide pushed us directly into the inlet. Meanwhile I was swapping and pumping madly in a HOT engine room but was patting myself on the back at the same time at a modification I had done putting hand priming pumps on the engines. I had it changed and primed in less than 1 min with the engines restarted shortly thereafter....lots of lessons learned on WAY too many legs. BTW, we had an uneventful anchorage even seeing florescent jelly fish that evening coming and going with the tide.
The next day we went outside again direct to Ft Lauderdale...about 7 hours of cruising. We stayed just off Miami Beach and had a great trip pulling into the inlet by all those huge cruise ships! We entered the New River which takes you to downtown Ft Lauderdale and pulled up to the wall there managed by the City Marina (cheap). We met my sister there and had a great time people and boat watching late into the evening. This was a neat stop.
The next day we went out the inlet again to avoid the Sunday Inter coastal Waterway congestion. However, on that day we paid the price with 4ft beam seas all the way until I called uncle and went into the Palm Beach inlet. We continued north up the ICW another 30 miles until we pulled into the Marriott for our one month stay.
Ashton returned yesterday to prepare for the final leg north. We plan to begin heading up to our next short term destination, St Augustine, one week from today (3 March). We will then ease our way north waiting on favorable winds or temperatures. More updates more often as we actively begin cruising again on 3 March!
