From Coconut Grove to Mooring Field in Boot Key Harbor.

Another stage of our journey has begun. We are on our way to San Antonio, Texas.  I know can’t get the boat all the way there so Cool Hand will get a much deserved rest and some maintenance  in a marina somewhere around Galveston/Huston. We have until the last week of July until first week of August to make our way there, or I am sure our daughter will send a search party for us. She is getting married late August and we will definitely get to the church on time.

We have made our first hop and will be staying in Marathon, Florida at Boot Leg City Marina and mooring field. The City mooring field has 226 permanently attached mooring. Right now, there are very few empty sites, and it is quite remarkable to see the array of different boats and people that stop here. Some are permanent residents year around others stay for months or like us this is a great lay over between a “here” and a “there”.

We are planning to rent a car and take a ride up to Key West. There really is not a safe anchorage there and the marinas are a little pricey. Next week we will strike out for the western coast of Florida, heading for our first major stop in the Fort Myers area. That also is proving to be a challenge; however I will save it for another blog.

We hope to have someone come out and recharge our refrigerator compressor while we are here. The new one is waiting for us in Fort Myers but that is at least 3 weeks away.

One our trip over I added a new bird to my siting’s and hope the porpoise come and visit while I have my camera out.

For now, fair winds

leaving Grove Isle Marina

There is a very defined channel to leave  our marina and
enter Biscayne Bay

Many parts of the Barge were damaged during Hurricane Wilma, including one of the sculptures by A.Stirling Calder, shown on the right after restoration.  

For decades, Vizcaya has been a diplomatic seat of Miami-Dade County, having hosted some of the world’s most renowned dignitaries—such as Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan, and King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain—and major international events—such as the Summit of the Americas, the signing of the Free Trade Agreement, and activities associated with Art Basel.

The house was intended to appear as an Italian estate that had stood for 400 years and had been occupied and renovated by several generations of a family.  It has 34 decorated rooms with 15th through 19th century antique furnishings and art objects. The house appears to be only two stories high but between the main public rooms and the bedrooms, there is an intervening level with 12 rooms for servants and service. Vizcaya intends to open these rooms to the public in the near future, thereby introducing new stories about those who lived and worked at the house.
The expansive gardens combine elements of Renaissance Italian and French designs. Future programs will place greater emphasis on interpreting and presenting these gardens. Suarez and Chalfin worked for seven years, perfecting the design of the gardens as one vast outdoor room with the elements serving as complementary parts of an integrated area. Key features include the many fountains, a central pool surrounding an elevated island, the elevated Mound with its small house, or “Casino,” statuary, and several themed gardens

low clouds draped the tops of the buildings as
we left. 

We went across the harbor to get fuel. At the entrance was
a mangrove patch with a very strong fish smell. When
I looked closely at the trees you could just make out
dozens and dozens of  Pelicans roosting in them.

One of the major Lights and weather stations
Fowey Rocks Light

Magnificent Frigate bird with fish

sunset over Basin Hill / off Key Largo 2/24

We had a great full moon and just enough cloud cover
to make it interesting

we had a long pull to get to our Mooring in Marathon
over 50 nautical miles. Tom pulled up anchor just at sun rise

we were not sure about the weather, dark clouds
blanketed the horizon, but the morning sun peaked through
As the day wore on the real challenge turned out to be
Crab pots,, again trying to play dodge the float, and stay out of the
shallows, deal with wind and waves ....
Oh the Sailors life for me. 

We were surprised to find that we had been
assigned a mooring ball next to our friends
on Nautical Dreamer

From Bimini to Key Biscayne to Grove Isle Marina Back in the States

We are back in the USA now, it is official with a visit to the Miami Port and Customs today. 

Our crossing from Bimini to Miami was long, very long and very uncomfortable. The sun rise was beautiful and waters fairly calm - the Great Bahama Banks which lie between the Berry's and Bimini are shallow so even in the dark we had no problem finding an anchor site. There is little in the way of plant material there so there are few fish and no birds. 

When we came around to the eastern side of the Bimini's the wind picked up great sailing. Then the Gulf Stream, the waves were topping out at 5' south to north, and an east to west wind chop that quickly made life miserable for over 5 hours. We watched the sun set with still 3 hours until we would reach our chosen anchor site for the evening. It is hard to believe that just over a mouth ago we were doing this in reverse, leaving in the dark to arrive in Bimini. 

At 10 PM we finally dropped anchor had left over chicken and slept until the fishing boats started to leave around 5 AM. 

We looked at possible Marinas, Dinner Key is the largest, but we called Grove Isle Marina and luckily one of the owners was gone and renting out his slip. This is a wonderful lay over for the night. We called a Cab and Charles, took us to the port, waited and then drove us to Enterprise to get a car. Next stop Wendy's, Barnes and Nobel then grocery shopping. 

We are going out for dinner tonight.  

Tomorrow we will anchor out then start south down the keys. 

More later

Sun rise in the Atlantic Ocean

Sunset on Miami

I missed birds in the Bahamas though when you do see
markers they are clean

the last of my collection from the Bahamas

Pelicans, I missed them 

This bridge almost looks like jail bars .

road leading to our Marina

Million Dollar Mile - the center is lined with
these massive trees.

the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

some days it goes wrong, then a new day - leaving Great Harbor Cay

We finally had a weather window to proceed west leaving Great Harbor Cay to Bimini then back to Florida. Tuesday would be a brisk sailing day, but very do able for Cool Hand and her crew. Nancy from S/V Summer Breeze came to see us off and toss lines and without any drama we were out and on our way. The wind in our slip was about 9 kts but quickly started to pick up once we were in the small harbor.  Great Harbor Cay is shallow but we have gotten in and out three times so this was a piece of proverbial cake.

WELL you would think!

We just cleared the two markers and started to make way for the cut to open water when we stopped, stuck fast in shallow water and soft weedy sand. Checking the Tide chart we were almost at low tide and we could not get ourselves off. Then the wind picked up and gradually shoved us into the sand bank. We sighed, cursed a little, then settled down to a bowl of breakfast cereal and waited for the tide to change. Tom let the anchor down to try and hold our position. And we waited………………………………………………

11 AM the tide was turning the wind was gusting to 20 and we tried again to get ourselves off to no avail. Tom, disgusted called the marina for help. They contacted Jon, Arline Libby in one dingy and John in another to help dislodge us.

First they tried using their dinghy’s to push us free. We made a little, inches not feet, progress. Then we gave our Halyard line (it goes to the top of our mast) to Jon and using his dingy tried to heel Cool Hand over while we tried to use our engine to move forward. Again small progress and we got her pointed towards deeper water.  

Then we got out our spare anchor and Jon took it out about 75’ from our bow dropped it in and using our electric windless we did move Cool Hand forward. Jon pulled us over again and Tom took the Anchor line to our Primary Wench (not electric) in the cock pit and using muscle power, engine power, and dingy power we finally scooted free.

It was about 2 PM at this point so we returned to the marina, aware that Jon and John were not following us. We got Cool Hand secured with the help of Nancy and Anita. Tom lowered our dingy and went back with Jimmy (S/V Summer Breeze) to see about retrieving our anchor.

Around 3 he returned without anchor, which was buried in the sand only about 6” showing. They were going to try and find scuba tanks for Tom to use to unbury the dang thing.  In the end Tom and Jon took Cool Hand out to the scene of our folly and used the windless and Primary Wench to grapple the thing free. I mention all of these wonderful new friends without their help- well we still might be out there stuck.  The boating community is great and we learned a lot from their expertise and patience during a difficult and stressful event for Tom and me.

Now – in the line of it could be worse. There were two large BTC communications towers at the entrance to this harbor. While we were having our drama with the wind and waves, a BTC crew was trying to remove one of the cell towers to make way for some new equipment. One of the wires snapped sending the tower careening into the other tower, crashing both to the ground hitting the crane and the power plant. NO ONE WAS HURT - however, the island is without cell service, telephone service, internet… it all came crashing down. The crew had to borrow a satellite phone from one of the boat owners in the marina to call in the disaster. As we were leaving on Wednesday the estimated time for repair was a month.

So our adventure did not seem so bad all things considered. One day we may even laugh about it. 

Wednesday morning we tried and succeeded in leaving. Not a breath and haze on the horizon so we motored most of the morning.  We went as far of the West coast of Bimini and anchored out for the night. We had a rock and roll night woke early for the long last leg to Miami, But that is in the next blog.

taken from our stopping place

Great Black-Backed Gull - on sand bar  watching us 

sun rise Wednesday morning not a breath of wind the water still
making for great reflection photo.

We  are leaving again with a clear path of where to go and where not to go

piece of the crumpled BTC tower

We had a freighter  shadow us for a while

From Providence to Great Harbor Cay

Our stay in West Bay was a bumpy one. There was little protection from the waves so sleep again was fitful. We did have a curious light show from shore, though very little of the music was carried to us as the wind was from the south. I have looked at all the information about this end of Providence Island, and I have no idea which resort this is or what was going on. 

Friday morning, Valentines day we was a great sailing day. We did motor sail a little when the wind became "light and variable  for about an hour nevertheless we were full tilt in less an an hour. We decided to skip Chub Cay and go on through the Providence Channel up and over to Great Harbor Cay. By 8 pm both of us were wind tired and a little chilly. We dropped anchor about 3 miles from the harbor entrance, ate some hot chicken soup and tossed on the waves again. Sun rise was hot orange against dark clouds but the trip into the marina was fast and we were greeted by Jon and Arline, John and Nancy in short order. The marina is filled with fishing boats as a tournament is on for the weekend. 

It is Saturday morning - and the predicted rain has arrived. The salt is getting washed off of Cool Hand.  With the current weather forecast we will be here until Monday or Tuesday for the next window to skip over to Bimini.

Our  short circle of the islands

anyone know what this is?

Tom hauling up the anchor

We  passed  dozens of ships in all sizes  - the most we have seen
in our travels. Most going towards Nassau

Bright  yellow Catamaran  called Sunburst, with in
waving distance.

sun set  2/14 

Our anchor chain  

sea  cucumber

Sun rise   2/15