On the way home--the power of local knowledge

We got up to Marina del Mar with no problem and was able to chill out and have a drink and nice meal.

Nothing really exciting happened for the rest of the trip.  Well, at least to us.  We earned a respite I believe.

However, since it was Memorial Day, it was amateur day out on the water and we heard all sorts of distress calls, nothing life threatening, but some kids did swamp their boat (dad's boat?) and it proceeded to start sinking over the Hens and Chickens reef.  Whoops. That would have not only been bad, it's a great snorkel reef, but the fine that goes with that.

North of Key Largo, there are several cross overs into the southern Biscayne Bay, and you best have some input from the locals if you attempt.  I appreciate the reports that people put on Cruiser's Net.  We've yet to try it because once in Biscayne bay, you are subject to motoring through the channels of the shoals.  We had finally got our wind so we gave our sore, beatup, overheated engine a rest and stayed in the channel.

However, the best route for sailboats to cross into Biscayne is Angelfish creek, and even that is when the tides are up and you don't have much draft.

Cesar's Creek looks good on paper, but it shallows out to probably 3 feet at the last two markers, it may be more, but it LOOKS shallow.  However the charts really don't convey that.

So, make sure you have local knowledge.

As were were sailing by the ocean side of Cesar Creek, I see this rather large sailboat coming from bayside through the channel.  I called Tim up, because I knew they weren't going to make it.  Maybe if it was a Southerly with a grounding plate, but not this boat.

Tim says, I don't think they are going to ground are they.

And then the boat comes to a complete stop.

I says, I think they are.

My good deed husband really wanted to go help, which what could we have done besides get grounded ourselves?  The boat was firmly between two channel markers which was going to utterly delight the fishermen.

I finally hear the call go out to TowBoat US.

I felt sorry for them, but not enough to risk my boat (and our schedule) to assist. They weren't in danger, probably felt stupid, in which they didn't need us in the mix.  Tim said we should have at least dinghy'd over with cold beer?  But we had since pulled  in Tiny D and were letting her deflate on the foredeck.

Add Cesar Creek.  Not for keelboats.

Melted throttle linkage

Okay, who to yell at first.

1. Yanmar for not putting a sufficient size heat exchanger on their diesel?
2. Hunter Marine for running the throttle linkage right over diesel?
3. All of the above.

Okay, Yanmar,  yes, we did let our strainer get clogged, but that doesn't let you off the hook.  When you be motoring through the balmy waters of the Florida Keys in May, the only option for water cooling is running about 85 degrees.  Nice to swim in, not so nice to cool the engine.

Hunter.  Really?  Engines get ... hot. So why don't we run the linkage cable right there within two inches.  That sounds like a great idea!

Melted Linkage cable.  The wires are actually supposed to slide
through the casing.  Not so much.

So, before we can leave, we need to get this situation of forward/reverse/neutral worked out.  So, Tim proceeds to perform surgery on the linkage cable.  I had the stressful and taxing job of sitting in the cockpit, drinking wine and listening for: "Now try moving it in neutral/reverse/forward"

Because of the engine overheating, our back berth, usually where we sleep is roughly 10,000 degrees.  I get all the fans I can blowing on Tim before escaping back up to the cool breezes outside.

We finally got it to working. Thankfully.  It was going to be fun trying to dock at Marina del Mar in Key Largo otherwise.

I wound up sleeping in the cockpit that night, we built up the bed in the salon for Tim.  

With very little to no ambient light, the night sky was absolutely fantastic.

crap the spouse does to give me a nervous breakdown

Okay, I don't pretend to know a lot about motors, I could probably pick a marine diesel out of a lineup, and I kinda know about alternators and crap like that.

I definitely know that they overheat.

And I definitely know that They. Have. A. Lot. Of. Moving. Parts.

So while underway, do not suddenly pull open the access panels to give her a looksee, please.  My blood pressure can't take it.

But that's EXACTLY what the spouse did, so he expects for all the crap he's inspecting for (godknowswhat) and I stayed up top reviewing the first aid procedures for amputated body parts and arterial bleeding and looking around to see if we were going to get hit with any big cruiser wake all the while muttering the mantra of OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

DO NOT DO THAT!  Argh.

Bahia Honda State Park and Anchorage

So, here's the whole reason why we chose Bahia Honda anchorage.  But a big note:  it's not an anchorage for nasty weather, anything that will kick up the seas and tidal currents can ruin your day here.  Some folks do it, but usually throw out two anchors or try Bahamian mooring (bow/stern anchoring).

Google search the area and sailboat and you'll hear tons of horror stories.

However, if you do your research, it's a wonderful place to be.

The anchorage is located between the 'new' bridge and the old bridge, which was first the Flagler railroad and then the US1 highway.  They cut away the 'old' bridge so that sailboats can come in from the ocean side.

Sorry, there's no entry from the gulf side.  Unless you are a power boat.


However, do be aware of the current, it ranges anywhere's from .5 kt to over 2kt and I'm sure more with full moons and hairy weather.

Entry into the Bahia Honda anchorage.  The right hand span is kept up by the state park
so you have an awesome vantage point, the left span are slowly rotting away.
The road bed is on top and the old railroad underneath.

Post anchoring incident. Sunset thru the 'new' bridge.

HemiD at anchor (no really!) between the bridges.

From the restored span looking across the cut to the old span.

View from the bridge of Bahia Honda. Hemi D to the left, the beach off to the right.
Nice facilities, showers, concession stand and a small marina for shallow draft boats.

Sundowners and Show, Courtesy of the Hemi D crew

So, I'll show you the beauty of Bahia Honda later, but let's continue with the adventure, shall we?

We get to our lovely anchorage in Bahia Honda.  We need to anchor, and we need to anchor well, because there's a lovely tidal current here.

So, spouse is up front, I'm manning the helm.

We get the anchor dropped.

Spouse: Okay, put her in reverse.

Me:  Pulls throttle back, and notices that not only can she not go in reverse, she was never in neutral.
          OH F********.
           Honey, I can't.  The throttle won't move.

Spouse:  It's just probably tight.  Give it a good tug.

Me: Uh, no. IT AIN'T MOVING.  Oh, and by the way, we are actually in forward.

Spouse: Does the 36ft dash back to the cockpit, and tries the throttle, quickly approaching the assumption
              I made earlier which is . OH F********.

Spouse turns off engine.

We are not set.  We look at each other.  We are doing good, the tide is slack so the current isn't that bad, we have no immediate danger of either 1) beaching (you'll see later)  or 2) running into the big beautiful catamaran that is our anchorage buddy.  And since their crew is getting ready for afternoon high tea followed by sundowners, they won't be amused if HemiD lands in their cockpit.

Spouse: Okay, here's the plan.  I will dive over the anchor, and you'll use Tiny D to set the anchor.  We'll just tow Hemi D backwards.

Me: Uh, run that by me again.  We are going to use the dinghy to pull the BIG SAILBOAT backwards on the anchor with AN ELECTRIC MOTOR.  R U NUTZ?

Spouse:  C'mon.  It will totally work.

So after rapidly assessing the odds of me encountering personal bodily damage on this endeavor and finding out that it's not bad and what the hell, nothing ventured nothing gained. I agree to this madcap plan.  After all, I have a blog entry now!

So, I load up in the dinghy, assemble the Torqeedo and he dives in over the anchor.

He rights the anchor, so it will actually dig in, and gives me the thumbs up.

I say a quick prayer to King Neptune and throttle back in reverse with the Torqeedo. And by throttle back, I mean, I'm giving her all she's got Captain! And Tiny Dancer goes flying back, and starts bringing Hemi D with her. WHOO HOO. HOLY SHIT. IT'S WORKING!

And then the anchor digs in.

And Tiny D, Torqeedo and Special K become a nautical sling shot.  We whipped around on the tow line so freaking fast, I'm amazed I didn't go ass over teakettle into the drink.  I did look like a Looney Tunes character with the stars and the birds.

Then Tim pops up, It's working......Keep going......Where are you?

I'm wrapped astern around HemiD braying like a jackass. But I get it together to get the tow rope untangled and back into 'tow' position.

So, in a more gentle and controlled manner I got the anchor dug in a bit more.  Thankfully, later the current did a great job getting her REALLY DUG IN!

I finally did look up to see 6 people over on the catamaran going WTF?  Which sent me into a tizzy again.

So....for your information.  A Torqeedo 1003 will sucessfully tow a 36' Hunter sailboat with enough power to set an anchor.

And that's all I got to say about that.

Engine Overheats

So, as we merrily truck along to Bahia Honda, Tim happens to notice that we have white smoke (steam) coming out our engine exhaust.

This is not good.

Yes, our engine hath overheated.  So, what's wrong? as we sit dead in the water (no problem, calm day), he starts diagnosing this and that, basically every part of the engine.

Can't figure out what's going on.

Me, not a dumb blond, but not an engine guru either, can only come up with one thing:  Is it the the strainer thingiemajobber?

Very mechanically minded husband just looks at me like I started reciting The Iliad in Latin or something, said, uh, yeah, probably is.

So, up comes a gooey, nasty, filled to the brim with sea grass and other noxious substances of the sea, strainer.  I get to clean it out. NICE.  And I get the a/c strainer also, might as well get them all while we ain't doing anything.

So, we sit there floating our boat letting the engine cool down.

And husband rant commences:  I hate these f-ing dummy lights on the panel. I want a TEMP GAUGE DAMMIT.  Not some stupid thing that lets me know AFTER THE FACT.

Good point.  And note to my fellow boaters, make sure your gauges actually provide you with information, not a binary code for YOU GOOD / YOU SCREWED.

So, finally we start the engine back up and continue our journey, unfortunately still heading into the wind, and so the iron genny needs to be utilized.

We repeat the cool down routine a couple more times, but the strainer is clean each time now, so the spouse starts researching online what could be going on.

(Folks, I just don't see what is going to happen if we ever leave the comforts of having a cell tower within 10 miles)

Finally, we get to Bahia Honda.  And we are about to put on a show.

Day One--Key West to Bahia Honda

After being able to wake up at a leisurely hour (for once) and take one last shower in my marvelous open air shower (sob), we headed out.

And the wind was right on our nose, good times.

So we don't have far to go, so not too worried.

And then this:

Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening....

Great, we are going to get zorked for sure.  I, being the stinker I am, tell my husband to look for water spouts.  Which made his head pop off....and then run down below to get every gadget uploaded with radar.

However, I've noticed a very strange thing about Keys storms, they will start roaring from the gulf side, hit the islands with a good hefty wallop and then once over the ocean side, they just peter out and dissipate.

And that's what happened again.

So that nasty mess you see above, literally just evaporated once going over the island chain. We got a few rain drops, not even enough to give us a good fresh water rinse.

Mind you, that doesn't ALWAYS happen, but it did this time. And if it's associated with the 'H' word coming out of the east. Fugeddaboutit.

So luckily, we got a fabulous light show and no winds/rain.

But the fun was just about to begin......

Returning to Miami

We needed to get the boat back up to the slip in Miami. After all we were still paying for it.  Instead of a marathon bashing up north with the headwinds we decided to mosey on up.  Good thing for more than one reason.

But more on that later.

I cashed in the frequent flyer miles and we were able to fly directly into Key West. However, it was the first time I rode a 7freaking3freaking7 into Key West.  I think the Key West pilots are required to have had aircraft carrier experience before flying that route.

You know it’s going to be fun when the pilot comes on and says okay folks, I’m going to hit the runway hard and apply a lot of braking.  As I watched the Conch Republic passenger terminal whiz by, I thought to myself, we are running outta runway.  However, he got the bird stopped and we got to disembark princess style on the tarmac.

We dumped some stuff off at the boat, poured some drinks (there was wine on board, YAY ME) and wandered out to the tiki hut on the point. 

Where we met Digger the water sprite.  She’s a Jack Russell terrier who practically lives in the water, she’s hilarious to watch because she uses her little tail as a rudder. We chatted to the owner for a while before heading downtown.  She is one the people I envy, full time cruiser, albeit on a motor yacht. Don’t envy their diesel bills.

So, we visited our usual haunts and came across GoldenGirl Jean at the Chart Room.  She’s one of these people who decided to chuck it all and follow her dreams.  Awesome lady, and one of the Mel Fisher crew.  She actually got to dive the wreck, and came up with an emerald the size of an almond, she still wears it today. Of course, I was thinking…how much boat crap can be bought with that bauble.

Goldgirl Jean with her find

Jean Today--still beautiful

How to be my hero (even if I'm not with you)

One of our favorite performers in Key West is Mustafa, he often plays the sunset celebration and Blue Heaven.  Mostly its covers done in his own Caribbean way.  You can see videos of him on YouTube.

We hadn’t seen him in awhile so, we had been getting worried, he’s not exactly a spring chicken. 

So Tim calls me up from Mallory Square all excited. Mustafa is here.  Although, I was glad to hear he was alive and well, I wasn’t as amused to be sitting in Kansas on a Friday night while my husband is sipping adult drinks on Mallory Square.  So I signed off so he could enjoy himself and I could wallow in self pity appropriately.

Later, I get a call about the ‘rest of the story’.  Evidently, Bongo Boy, most likely not a member of the Mallory Square street performer group, sets up shop about 20 feet from Mustafa and starts merrily bongo-ing away.  And Tim can no longer hear Mustafa.  And Bongo Boy ain’t that good.

So, Tim walks over to Bongo Boy and says, “Here, here’s 20 bucks. Go away”.  Bongo Boy was like: “Really? Seriously?”  Tim: “Yes.”  So Bongo Boy takes the twenty and moves further down the square, and also started playing softer, which evidently was part of the negotiations.

Now, that was just awesome.  I would have loved to be there for that.

Now, THAT’S how you impress this gal.

Adventures of Compy Comp

Some of our friends often joke how my spouse lives under a lucky star.  And he does.  Of course he'll tell you he makes his own luck.

Whatever.

Well, he managed to have a job in Miami. Okay.  Then he gets a sales call in Key West at the Naval Air Station. Now he can pretty much right off the whole HemiD visit to the company.  Nice, huh?

So, he went to finally fix the battery problem. (However, every time he called, he was half in the bag in downtown Key West, hmmmmm)

But, he did get a lot done.  He replaced the batteries, deciding screw it on the AGMs and put good old fashioned buggers in.  And managed to convincingly tell some sob story to West Marine and get the replacement batteries at cost.  (Lucky star)

Also, with a lot of head and butt scratching, he figgered out that there was a fault in the battery charger (bad Xantrex, bad, bad Xantrex) and that is what caused the AGMs to overcharge, which caused them to crap out and really....AGM batteries are kinda candy assed if you ask me.  That was under warranty so that was no biggie.

He also replace the tach since ours wasn't reading out the engine hours.  Also some odds and ends that were irritating me.

I also tasked him with doing the laundry, that quickly got sub-contracted out to the local laundromat.  No surprise there.

And he came back with some lovely gewgaws for me, that's my man, drunk shopping for his gal.

New restaurant find in Key West

The last night we decided on an official date night, put on the Sunday-Go-to-Meeting clothes and have a nice dinner.

Just by dumb luck, we stumbled across this delightful new restaurant (about 5 months old) on an off street of Duval, near the city offices.

The name is Fin as in final, not fish.  It specializes in small caribbean style plates, so it's a great place to go to share plates and a great bottle of wine. This probably mid-high range in pricing with the wine. But, not the most expensive place to go by far.

However, if you are a foodie, this is the place for you.  The service is fantastic also.

Best part is the food is pretty to look at!

Inside-Small but elegant

Appetizers-Hearts of Palm salad and selection of cheese

Entree--Black truffle flatbread and fish cakes

UPDATE:  Sadly we must report that Fin went out of business last fall.  It has been replaced by a more tourist friendly oven fired pizza place called Only Wood.  

Sigh.....