Wrecker's Race--Key West

So Sunday, we decided to have somebody do the sailing for us and jumped aboard to take part in the Wrecker's Race.

Every year, Key West, namely the Schooner Wharf Bar, hosts a series of four races to commemorate the golden days of yore when somebody would ride/walk/shout (?) through town and announce that a ship had wrecked on the reefs.  So every able bodied man, sometimes women and child would set off in whatever floated to try to lay claim to the prize.

Our race headed out to Sand Key, which is actually a reef.  We were on the Schooner Adirondack III and she's a sweet little ship.  Gaff-rigged cutter and swift on her feet.

Anybody is welcome to join the race, you sign up and then attend a very informal and semi-intoxicated Captain's meeting. They told us we could enter HemiD late if we wanted, but I preferred to take pics and get buzzed instead (BTW--that didn't work out so well, old Cap'n Chris had his game face on).

So, with a brief dial up before the very anti-climatic start. (C'mon people, you got paying customers aboard!) We took off. And by that I mean. We. Took. Off.  We quickly passed everybody to be in the lead.
We passed the Schooner Appledore like it was standing still and she had her full sails going.

We won our class, but we didn't win the race.  The winner of the race was a guy in a Hobie Cat. Holy shit! Hobie Cat, 7 miles out to the reef, ocean.  I was impressed.  The second place was in the multi-hull class. Everybody else was way behind.

Since the crew of Adirondack almost beat their all time record, they decided to take us out to a little joy ride. They wanted to get to the Gulf Stream to see the colors, but it had shifted outward and we wouldn't make it and get back in time.

On the way back, we lapped a lot of the ships and commenced in some good natured jeering.  Maybe next year we'll enter HemiD.

Ye Olde Schooner Wharf Bar

Tim's new boat (never got the name of her)
She's definitely a Perini Navi

My favorite.  Big schooner with mini-me.
A homemade schooner from a dinghy, some bamboo and tarp.

The Sand Key Light and end of our race.
Rumor has it in the old days, the wreckers would knock out the lights or
cut loose the light boats to make ships deliberately wreck.

 

Part of the pack of racers behind us.

 

 

Capt. Chris with his game face on.

Tim admiring the neighbor's very pretty Shannon after the race
and during 'Afternoon Tea.'

The Pirates of the Prairie take over Biscayne Bay

And numbnuts here didn't take pictures, hopefully I can get some from the crew.

We had a bunch of friends from the lake marina come to Miami Strictly Sail so we scheduled a day on the water with them.

Theme music for this post is: What do you do with a drunken sailor....

So, it was a great time, although....
1) We almost ran aground.....twice.
2) We almost had a man overboard....in the slip.
3) We almost had some teeth knocked out from the jib clew.  Evidently the 'down in front' message wasn't conveyed properly.

However, we did have a good time.  Beautiful day, and we got to do a great tour of the Miami skyline and Stiltsville.  (Which I was actually sailing through Biscayne Channel. Sphincter Factor = 10)

Here's the few photos I did manage to shoot. C'mon, I was trying to be an adult here. We ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto!

Regatta of Optis

Please note that there's a serious blue can infraction in this picture.
The requisite 30 pack was BUD LIGHT. Gah!

Time for Sundowners. (and blessing the cockpit floor with copious amounts of wine)

Update on the project boat

Over Thanksgiving, I talked about the 'project boat' that was on the hard and Spouse met the owner.

Well, he talked to him today and I guess things have really progressed.  Evidently, he himself is a general contractor, but not necessarily in marine things.

The last time we were there, they were rebuilding the rudder (the other had a nice little 8 inch hole in it) the folks that were doing it did an incredibly fantastic job. It was a wood core to be glassed over.

Well, I am happy and awed to announce that B. and his wife sailed the old girl not only around the Keys but all the way up to St. Petersburg.  WAY TO GO!  Without an autopilot.  Shit yeah.  And it was cold.

B mentioned that they went through Key West during the Key West race week, he was annoyed because there were no anchorages or moorings or slips.  I'm like OMG KEY WEST RACE WEEK!  Evidently, not the same for him.

Anyhow, bully for them.  Obviously the boat got a good home.  I hope to see her one day.

Day Two--Key West Trip

We get up about 5:30am, and start preparing to leave. Nautical twilight dawn starts about an hour before actual sunrise so that we could start motoring out towards the bridge. I am down below when I feel a sudden veering to port by my intrepid helmsman.  So I sweetly pop my head out of the cabin and say WTF?  Evidently, my sightseeing skipper was looking everywhere except at the chartplotter and we about grounded on a shoal. It would have been fun considering we were revved up to 7kts.

It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day....

We get back through the Channel Five bridge (its amazing how 10 feet of clearance above the mast can look like 10 inches when going under a bridge).

We once again set the sails 50/50 since the winds were still hanging out around 20kts. We set off. I go down briefly to take a nap, once again marvelling that my newfound sea legs are letting me do that. And then get back up topside so that Tim can finalize where we will stay (not a lot of answers forthcoming on Thanksgiving day).  Soon he pops up all excited.  I think we'll make it to Key West today! So I start throwing in waypoints and calculating distances, we are once again averaging and awesome 7.5kts
We agree, and the fun begins, let's go.

As forecasted the frontal boundary finally dissipated, and the sea settled down to it's normal 1-2 ft chop. Best of all the sun finally comes out and we have beautiful blue green water, clear sky and tunes on the radio. Life cannot get any better than this.

Look at all that dandy equipment, and the 7.3 kts on the speed!

By afternoon, the winds died down to a respectable 10-12 kts so while Tim was taking a nap, I let all the sails out. Another small victory for me. The HemiD is still keeping her speed around 7 kts, and mother nature is being agreeable by giving us a wind shift from ESE to SE, which is very beneficial since we are at the point where the Keys veer towards the West.

It was a treat to see by sea all the landmarks that I have come to know over the years.  The 7 mile bridge is impressive, of course only going 7 kts, we had her company for a while.

Ghost ship passes the 7 mile bridge..

We didn't get a visit from any dolphin, but there were plenty of fish jumping from the water. And we saw a few Man O'Wars. For awhile a frigate bird played around the boat, I think he was playing with the lift coming off our sails.

We wound up having the perfect sail by the afternoon, it gave us time to play with all our new instruments more, especially the radar which we know jackshit about.  The AIS screwed with my head a couple of times while Tim had been napping. He said he was awake for awhile being entertained by my conversations with the instruments and singing.  Of course, the entire time we have to play the lobster pot slalom, which wasn't too bad, but the season has just started. I rolled quite a few off of the hull but didn't actually snag one.

We arrived at Stock Island at a little after 4pm, it was nice to not have to worry about depth and tides to enter this marina.

We pull into our slip and had a raucous welcome crew of our new boat neighbors for the month. With much drunken enthusiasm they help us get the boat tied off. (of which I discretely redid the next morning....)  They invited us to dinner, but I promised (and bought) stuff to make a Thanksgiving dinner and I was going to make it by golly.  I sent Tim off to get the rental car and some wine for me. Evidently, he wanted to make up for the Hamstermobile, because he came back with a Mustang convertible.

So we wound up with yummy mustard herb glazed turkey breast, macadamia nut stuffing (which Tim gave two thumbs up on), coconut sweet potatoes and cinnamon/ginger glazed carrots.  Not to shabby from a galley kitchen.

We ate and then the wall hit us hard and we crashed by 8pm.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a day.

Characters are welcome

Or...why you probably shouldn't buy a boat on eBay.

So this boat that was waiting to be pulled out of the water.  1977 Jeanneau Gin Fizz ketch, needs a little TLC, engine is seized up.  There's a hole in her rudder.

However, Tim met the new owner who wants to take this boat and bring her back to glory.  Good for him. He must be a glutton for punishment.  However, I was researching this boat and he truly only paid what I actually saw it listed for, helluva deal, well, except for the $20-30K he'll probably need to pour into it.

Oh, and they also plan to sail her to Houston.

He and his wife will be up next week, hopefully we can hook up with them and maybe take them for a sail on the HemiD.

Here's what the bottom looked like when she was  pulled.

That would be a prop.  No really, it is.

I saw this once. It was a movie with Johnny Depp and Geoffry Rush in it.

Here's wishing them luck and I hope to be able to post and update on the boat's progress.