Dragonfly is contentedly anchored Key West harbor. The sun is shining, the air temperature about 78, water temperature 70, and a light breeze blowing. Having arrived here 2+ months after our departure from Marblehead, we certainly feel we have covered quite a bit of ground (well for a sailboat), and attained a major goal in this years cruise. We actually arrived here Monday 11/20 and have been enjoying the town. Where to begin, as usual I will stretch my brain back a few weeks and start following my last log entry….
After leaving Palm Beach and motor sailing slowly overnight we entered the intercoastal waterway at Ft. Lauderdale. Motoring in the sunshine through the waterway to Aventura provided a nice change of pace; analyzing our various guide books to guestimate the bridge opening schedules of the 4 bridges we have ahead of us, chatting with the very friendly bridge tenders, doing circles as we wait on the bridges now and again, hoping we’ll fit through the opened spans (not something we ever worried about in 2001 when we traveled down the intercoastal in our monohull “Ragtime”), holding our breath that our mast won’t scape as we approach the final fixed bridge.
As we crept toward this final bridge, craning our necks upward, it was comforting to hear “you have a foot above you” from our friend Jim Zieff, with his better vantage point on the shoreline. With Jim directing us via hand motions, whistles and cell phone calls, June waiving from their apt’s deck 9 stories above, we maneuvered into Dumfoundling bay -- Dragonfly the only boat anchored, surrounded by gleaming high-rise apt. buildings. We moved ashore for the next 4 days, sharing June and Jim’s very chic “House Beautiful” condo – what a treat in every sense. We explored South Beach’s handsome Art Deco buildings, sleepy Hollywood Beach and enjoyed a night at the Rustica Crab House with the Zieff’s madcap Yacht club. This was a rather unusual dining experience; the waitress plunked a wooden mallet, a huge bowl of blue crabs, an empty bowl and a bib on the table in front of each of us. “Whack, thump, smack, whack”-- I really worked for that meal & it was delicious! We made the most of the Zieff’s generosity; 4 loads of laundry without lugging it from the dingy to the laundromat and back, two carloads of groceries from Whole Foods and Publix. In four short days I adapted to all the conveniences and pleasantries; the Zieff’s were lucky to have a boat trip of their own planned or I might be there yet!
The Florida Keys provided an entirely new navigational experience. There is a basic decision required in cruising the Keys – whether to travel Bayside or Oceanside, and a boat’s draft is the primary deciding factor. Bayside is the protected ICW, with controlling depths fewer than 5 feet. The ICW is relatively calm, there are many good anchorages and frequent access to marinas, services and towns. The alternate option is the outside route, Hawk Channel. This route is protected by the fringing reef that parallels the coast out 5 miles and is relatively smooth in most (but not all) wind conditions; it has a controlling depth of 9-40 feet. The Hawk Channel provides easy access to numerous snorkeling and diving sites (more on that later) but not as many protected anchorages so continuous weather monitoring is required. There are only a handful of places where you can cross from one side to the other, some of which require “local knowledge”, and some limited by depth or bridge clearance -- so it is important to have a plan before you start.
We planned our route down the Hawk Channel and were totally psyched to reach the Keys – we have been fantasizing about the warm water, jumping overboard to snorkel the reefs and Scuba some to complete our PADI certification. Well, the weather gods don’t always cooperate. Although generally sunny, the temperature stuck in the low 60’s, the wind continued to blow and the seas a bit wavy. No stops by the reef for us, we chose to anchor in some protection, sailed bundled up in our fleeces and were content to read about the “incredible”, “beautiful”, “ideal” snorkeling reefs all around us. I do remember one almost perfect day of sailing, 22 knots of breeze off the beam, Dragonfly “zooming” along, averaging 9.25 knots, the helmsperson dodging crab pots all the way – it was quite exhilarating! And just to make it more interesting, as we approached the middle Keys we learned that a pretty serious front is headed our way – advice over the radio from Chris Parker, our primary weather guru, “boats might want to find yourself in a protected location in 3 days and settle in for the week”. Well, we decided to postpone the casual tour through the Keys and make tracks to Key West so we could be tied to a mooring ball during the blow and enjoy the town during the blustery weather. We’ll have to checkout all the missed bays, islands and reefs another time.
Key West itself is a surprise, not as cruiser oriented as expected. We have not found any radio net or cruiser hangout in which to meet other boaters. No free wi-fi exists as it has in many other towns. We expected to find a few boats headed to the W. Caribbean but so far we have only met one couple headed to Nicaragua. The marinas charge a budget breaking $2.50-$3.50/foot for dockage and the anchorages, wild large are quite open. We were happy to find a huge mooring field for a reasonable $15/night when we arrived, although it meant a 15 minute dingy ride to the dingy dock, which was very wet and bumpy upwind (oh for the $2 Block Island water taxi) and a 30 minute walk into the center of town. It didn't stop us from going ashore, we'd pack up our foulies, flashlights, navigation lights, books, laptop, town map, bus schedule, etc. and head out for the day. After a week of that we decided to try an ancorage and so far it's been a delight - calm and only a few minutes to dingy to the center of the action.
We both have enjoyed having 2 weeks to get to know the area. It’s famous “independent spirit” and circus-like atmosphere are still going strong, especially on cruise ship days -- the snake guy and jugglers perform on Duval Street, the chickens roam the restaurants. Live music pours out of all the bars and restaurants, we were lucky to spend an evening at the famous Sloppy Joes enjoying a live band with Ken, Marilyn and their friends Joe, Paul, Michaela and George. George having just arrived from Ireland to visit Joe and Michaela, kept us in stitches all night long with story after story.
We have been amused by discussions with a few of old timers here -- including one about a recent town ordinance that prohibits parking in a parking space where the meter is broken – their comment was “typical Key West” to get ticketed in a space where the meter is broken. We were told that the average cruise ship visitor spends only $27 during their stay -- that surprised me. Also, the cost of housing here has skyrocketed, many of the houses are for sale and the townspeople are being priced out of the housing market; this is changing the character of the town, staff is hard to keep for local businesses like the dive shops and locals are trying to find a way to save the old Key West.
We have had some fabulous food, our favorite being breakfast at Blue Heaven – eggs benedict with key lime hollandaise and fresh lobster. We had to try the “Key Lime Pie on a stick” and plan to sample more Key Lime everything! We took in “The Queen”, “007” and “Happy Feet” (getting my fill before heading off for 6 months without movies)! As usual, we utilize the free wireless at the local library.
Thanksgiving found us gathered round an incredible pot luck feast at the Boca Chica Naval Station Marina with 25 cruisers from the marina. We were invited by our friends Marilyn and Ken on DreamKetch’r, who are comfortably tied up at the marina. Most of the folks that we met were powerboaters, a few sailboaters, who use the marina as their winter base, making excursions in the Keys or the Bahamas. The station was unusually quiet -- it is the home of multiple naval squadrons that train carrier pilots and the jets are typically streaking overhead. I have to tell you that I fell in love with a pecan sweet potato casserole made by Dot, checkout the recipe.
A 15 minute walk from the mooring field dingy dock was a dive shop so we popped in during our first day here and signed up for our checkout dives for our PADI certification. The weather was still blustery, a bit cool and a rockin' & rollin' sea on the surface. Two of our 4 dives were on very nice reefs only 20-30 feet deep and we had good visibility and generally lots of fun We saw quite a lot of life marine life – angelfish, sergeant majors, grouper, lobster, jawfish, blue parrotfish, grunts, barracuda. I don’t think we had the premium diving experience offered by the area in the best of conditions, but we enjoyed the experience & the people and are now certified PADI, read for Belize and Honduras. It is shocking to me but we have met many divers in general conversations here who learned to dive in Ohio, where we took our first classes in 1985.
Of course this is our last stop to purchase all those boat items that we don’t even know we’ll need and will be hard to impossible to find in the W. Caribbean. Here is a partial list: water filtering system, outboard impellers, water pump O ring, spare lock for dingy, bucket for dingy chain, engine filters, 12 v socket, db9 connector, 5/8” hose, engine oil. And there are still numerous projects to complete before taking off: install water filter, caulk around escape hatch under the boat from the dingy (waiting for a calm enough day), resolve new diesel leak in the engine, organize the boat so we have space for our crew member, provision final food stores for upcoming passage, fill propane, fill water jugs at hose & top-off tanks then refill jugs, fill diesel containers at marina and top-off tanks then refill containers.
All in all, we are enjoying the area very much and are getting very excited for Belize! We met a terrifically nice French couple yesterday who live aboard and just returned from a summer in Belize and Mexico - they had great tips and painted a fabulous picture! Rick Fishkin arrived yesterday and is trying to fit in the Key West experience in 2 days (with help from Rick W.) – he is probably the right guy for the challenge! Weather is looking good for tomorrow's departure (Sat).. Of course the schedule is loose; it’s all dependent on the weather! We’ll be traveling in company with Dreamketch’r (although we sail at different speeds) and chattin’ with them over the SSB daily. We’ll be changing our position via winlink.org and hope to find some internet soon after arriving in Belize!
Hoping everyone is having a good, healthy holiday season so far and thanks for reading.
