Month: December 2011

by

Presto- One week becomes two!

A certain magic occurs when a boat has been stationary  more than a few days so….no surprise, this extension. Not only do we continue to wait on Yanmar to.. can I say this? Shit or get off the pot, we have time to kill before needing to return to Miami Beach by Dec 19. Tiny progress has been made and finally on Thursday, one week after we got here, the southern distributor gave the go-ahead to enter the work ticket in the system. If Yanmar gives the OK for the seals to be replaced (it’s a bad thing to have both drives with the same problem) Marathon Boat Yard will fit us in next week; hopefully Tuesday or Wed.

Boot Key Harbor is an easy, pleasant place to be. Everything, except a good nightlife is here, much of it within a mile’s walk north or south on AIA. Bicycles are the preferred mode of transportation for the cruisers here; 5 bike racks are filled at all times, and that doesn’t count the bikes kept aboard. Bus service is available; for $4 one away you can ride from Marathon at mile marker 51 all the way to mile 0 at Key West. There you will find the night life and superb people watching you can’t get in Marathon. Plans for a Key West jaunt on Friday got squashed by too great a chance of rain.  The boat parade is Saturday evening, Sunday has showers so Monday could be our day in Key West. See why you need so much time to accomplish everything? 🙂

Key West and boats aground remind us of our friends Chris & Tracy on s/v Sanuk.  Key West was their favorite place and going aground was simply another opportunity to kick back and toss down a few shots! We miss having instigators of fun times nearby.

Speaking of fun times, I finally gave in and did laundry. The machines at Marathon Boat Yard are only $1 on the honor system, so I’d planned to spend some quality time with them. Forget it, plus with my luck we’d get there and the machines would be out of order.  The City Marina has 6 washers and 6 dryers at $2 per load. You have to get a money card at the office; no lugging quarters here. The washers take forever, the longest time I’ve encountered at any marina. Oh, I can hear the groaning now. Yeah, you all should have such problems. I’m smilin’.  The washers do a fine imitation of certain hi-rise bridges- oh speaking of bridges- I have to confess that I love, love Jeff Bridges’ song, “Fallin’ and Flyin’”, from the almost as good movie, Crazy Heart. Anyway, when the washer display shows 35 mins, don’t believe it. I forgot that and had time to kill waiting around. Met a newbie cruising couple who are also new to sailing. See, we aren’t the only crazies out here.

This sight warmed up my sleepy camera

Thursday looked like new pilot training day as two military planes (correct me if I am wrong) spent five hours flying in huge ovals over Marathon. Marathon airport is a few miles north of the harbor. We caught a better look when we walked into town and the planes seemed to fly in low as if they were going to land, but then they lifted again and made another circle around. Taking those lessons one step at a time, kinda like me with dinghy practice. I am now able to start the outboard, a major accomplishment, although I need to pull 3 or 4 times when the outboard is cold. Heck, that’s the easy part. Forward, reverse, left, right, the wind, the waves- ugh. I came up with “right away” which tells me that if I want to go right, I have to move the handle away from me. Maybe when I’m 80 this will be second nature.

by

Passing the time in Boot Key Harbor

Ah, protected Boot Key Harbor, the home of so many for varying durations throughout the year. The Municipal Marina controls 229 mooring balls, all hurricane rated. The balls are regularly inspected and repaired as needed. A handout describes the three approved ways to attach your lines to the pennant. Picking up a mooring has become, dare I jinx things, a piece of cake for us ever since we acquired our super-duper stainless hook during our long stay here last Feb/March. After using the boat hook to pick up the pennant, being sure to reach through the dolphin strikers properly, I just clip the hook to the hard plastic eye of the pennant. The hook is attached to our anchor bridle which is attached to the cleats on the bows. Marinas don’t want you to use anything metal to attach yourself to the pennant, so we trade the bridle with the hook for lines that are fastened at the cleats and out to the eye of the pennant.

From the time we arrived until Tuesday morning, the wind kept up its 15-22kts (never saw 30 though) and Russ was in regular communications with The Hearth, the hospital and then the convalescent/rehab facility, his brother, brother-in-law, the movers and no doubt a few others. Good thing we weren’t on the move. We hiked the mile to Publix a couple of times, picking up On Stranger Tides from the Blockbuster box. By Tuesday afternoon all our packages had arrived and Russ re-installed the port A/C circuit board to be sure it worked. All kinds of progress, except the reason we were here in the first place; the sail drive seal issue. No word.

The view from Ortolan

Crappy way to begin your day

The other night I lamented the lack of photo opps. Well you know the saying, “be careful what you wish for”… the next morning we woke up to a 45ft monohull aground off the channel less than ½ a football field away. Am ashamed to say, I jumped right up to get a look and soon after, a photo. After trying to figure out how he got into that predicament we checked the tide to see that the grounding occurred near high tide. Several helpful boaters- or maybe they were just curious, went over to offer assistance, then left. I thought for sure I’d be taking another photo later on showing this guy way, way heeled over. But no, TowBoat U.S. showed up and got him free- not completely free- you can bet it cost-ed; oh, maybe like most monohulls he had unlimited towing!

The dolphins have stayed away, although I saw an amazing sight about 80 ft off our stern; a stingray jumped out of the water, twice. I don’t think anything was chasing him, so perhaps he was after a tasty lunch. The water is 8 ft deep and a milky green. At best you can see down about 3 ft but the sun was at an angle such that I could see him in the water; nothing was chasing this guy.

With life a bit boring right now, we’ve resorted to  dinghy watching. I think most people know that the most common color for inflatable dinghies is dull and boring gray, gray or even gray. Imagine seeing a bright yellow one! We’d just gotten out of ours at the dock when the owner of Sunshine Yellow comes along, “nice dinghy chaps.”  I have to confess that all the work was worth it for those things because they are a great conversation piece. Decent job in sun protection too. Will they protect the dinghy itself from the dangers of a crazy driver or a marine bivalve-covered pier remains to be seen; or not.

Bunting snuggles up to Sunshine Yellow

We chat about his and ours. His being an Alaska model with a special gray material along the rub rail and covering the underside. The elements being a tad tougher in Alaska gives companies a reason to develop better materials and construction methods. This particular dinghy was the owner’s second one, the first came apart. Why ? I’ll give you a clue. Heat. The glue that worked so well in chilly Alaska fell apart in Florida. The replacement is a test model of sorts to see if the re-formulated glue holds up.

Read some bummer news on the CruisersForum the other day that Bob Bitchin’ has sold Lats & Atts to SFO (whatever that is); Stocks, Futures and Options came up on Google, but how about San Francisco Offshore? or Sailing Fun Obsession. The sale was announced at the recent St. Pete Boat Show.  Bob is a one-of-a kind guy with a life many adventurous folk would envy.  May he remain involved with the mag for at least three more years… until our just renewed subscription runs out!