Goodbye Burnt Store Marina! Hello Marathon Key!
The final days before cutting the dock lines were hectic and an adventure in making sure all our systems worked. Two weeks before we left, we took a long weekend trip out to Ueseppa Island and discovered more things that weren't functioning properly. Back to Burnt Store. Monday afternoon the Heinz Electronics guys diagnosed our wind indicator as a dead masthead unit - they had to order a new one, so we were stuck at the marina until Thursday morning at 8 AM. OK, so we planned on leaving mid-morning on Thursday before the weather window to the Keys expired. Wednesday night we enjoyed our last night at Burnt Store Marina, our home for the past 4 years & celebrated by watching the full eclipse of the moon. Nothing goes as planned on a boat and after the new masthead unit was installed, it worked for about a minute & then wouldn't transmit to the display at the helm. Then it was diagnosed as faulty wiring in the mast. Luckily, they were able to redo the mast wiring & we were on our way by about 12:15 PM.
Sailing Under 7 Mile Bridge, Marathon
Sailing was good, wind from the NE and predicted to be NE the entire trip, which meant a beam reach. As dusk approached, we debated whether we needed to put in one reef -- conventional wisdom is that cruisers ALWAYS put in at least one reef while it's still light in case conditions deteriorate after dark. We really weren't very excited about reefing, but we did -- GOOD THING! Hull speed on Winterlude is 6.2, I saw 7.2 several times on my overnight watch - along with the full moon which lit up the sky like daylight all night long! We didn't get much sleep -- when the boat's flying, it's NOT quiet!!! Friday morning just after daybreak, the wind switched to the SOUTHEAST! What the @#)($*#@!!! On the nose, nothing forecast about this - even after the fact NOAA was still saying the wind was from the NE. LOOK OUTSIDE GUYS!!! :( Anyway, now we were hard on the wind & doing a bit of bouncing -- sort of like Carlyle in a fresh breeze -- Florida Bay is VERY shallow & has lots of room for lots of chop to build! No problem EXCEPT for the damn crab pots. I swear since our last overnight to the Keys in 2003, the crab pots have multiplied exponentially! We spend all day Friday in crab pot hell with the wind directly on the nose in Carlyle-like chop.
US Coast Guard Doing It's Duty???
We sailed under the 7 Mile Bridge right at sunset on Friday evening, October 29, 2004. I still cannot believe David SAILED under the bridge, I'm not sure that's even legal. We dropped anchor west of Boot Key Harbor at Marathon about 8:05PM. Before we even had the snubber lines on the anchor & the diesel shut off, a launch roared up with a BIG spotlight shining directly on us & two big blue flashing lights. Uh oh, what have we done now? We were exhausted & not a little amused when the US Coast Guard demanded we turn on our anchor light immediately. I obeyed, but I still think they could have given us time to anchor -- the bow light was on, so it wasn't like other boats couldn't SEE us!
Boot Key Bridge
Saturday early, we moved to Marathon Marina to spray the salt off & do laundry. We also got to spend a delightful three days with Paul & Kay White at Bob & Sandy Rowland's condo in Key Colony Beach, swimming (Sandy taught me to tread water -- today for 45 minutes straight!) in their beautiful pool, having brunch at a great Sunday brunch place, dinner at the condo, just plain FUN. But the highlight for David (and Paul & Bob) was going to FantasyFest in Key West on Saturday.
Tomorrow we leave Marathon Marina -- the weather is supposed to be lots of wind from the S to SE at 25 - 30 -- we were hoping to take White's & Rowland's sailing today, but the wind & waves didn't cooperate! We'll pick up a mooring ball or anchor in Boot Key Harbor & then meet them for dinner at The Quay tomorrow (Tuesday) night. It's their last night at their beautiful condo & I know they'll be sorry to leave. We'll be hanging out here waiting for a weather window to move on down to Key West or the Dry Tortugas before the crossing to Isla Mujeres. Tonight the forecast is for strong winds all week, so we may be here a few days.... Oh well, stuck in paradise, darn!!! :)
Tomorrow we leave Marathon Marina -- the weather is supposed to be lots of wind from the S to SE at 25 - 30 -- we were hoping to take White's & Rowland's sailing today, but the wind & waves didn't cooperate! We'll pick up a mooring ball or anchor in Boot Key Harbor & then meet them for dinner at The Quay tomorrow (Tuesday) night. It's their last night at their beautiful condo & I know they'll be sorry to leave. We'll be hanging out here waiting for a weather window to move on down to Key West or the Dry Tortugas before the crossing to Isla Mujeres. Tonight the forecast is for strong winds all week, so we may be here a few days.... Oh well, stuck in paradise, darn!!! :)
Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL
