boats

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Arrivals and Departures 2/9 -2/12

Good things come to those who wait, and boy we’ve been waiting… 3 weeks here before boats we’d been expecting, found their way to Elizabeth Harbour.  Since most boats prefer to travel in fair winds and relatively calm seas, you can usually predict the days when lots of boats will enter the harbor. Polar Pacer, Celise/Spirit and Seabiscuit all arrived from various parts. We bid farewell to One White Tree who chose a near perfect day to continue their travels south- one year from now they plan to be in Panama.

The predicted cold front arrived over Sat and Sunday bringing the requisite 20kt winds and barely 70 degrees on Sunday. Great days to hang out the wash though. Classic cold front behavior; wind movement east to south to southwest then a quick swing north to northeast.  Suddenly, the Sand Dollar anchorage was filling up, but by late Monday many boats had moved close to the action off Volley Ball Beach.

Boats at VolleyBall BeachELVIS, a Gunboat

Crowded anchorages and windy conditions are perfect ingredients for “accident pie.”  The gusty Sunday wind pulled a trawler off its mooring and with no one on board the mad scramble to get it under control was thrilling to listen to. Fortunately, the keys were in the ignition and the guys who climbed aboard were able to get the boat anchored without any mishap.

While closer to home we had a front row seat as a tender got loose and began a rapid drift through the anchorage. Russ called a warning and a Good Samaritan dashed out in his dinghy, snagged it and tied it back up to its master which it just happened to be floating past. Based on 3 weeks’ worth of neighbor knowledge and the direction from which the terrible tender came, I made the following prediction: the couple on Boat 1 went to visit Boat 2 for the evening and Boat 1s’ tender got loose, the wind blowing it (by pure luck) back past Boat 1 where it was corralled and tied up to Boat 1 (a good reason to have “T/T Your Boat Name” on your tender). The owner did not respond to the warning call and subsequent call between Russ and rescuer because Boat 2 had the radio off so the couple could enjoy the evening. With nearly 300 boats in the harbor VHF 68, the hailing channel in GT, can be busy, busy. So, when Boat 1 gets ready to depart and sees their tender missing, they’d put out a call on VHF 68. Those of us who knew the scoop would re-assure them and their hosts would simply take them back home- a distance of 4 boat lengths.

Turns out I called that one except it got even more interesting when the older couple in Boat 3, anchored behind Boat 1 got worried that Boat 1 people weren’t home yet and where were they? Oh gosh but isn’t it comforting to know that people watch out for each other? Just before Boat 3 had a coronary, the folk from Boat 1 got on the radio, said they were on their way back in Boat 2’s tender. We were enjoying Mexican Train Dominoes with Polar Pacer, further enhanced by the daring dinghy adventures. In the middle of this, another boat calls out that their dinghy went missing and gee, it’s pitch black and the wind blowing 20kts- and oh BTW they are on near the outer edge and with tender gone at least an hour it’s got to be all the way across the harbor and into who knows where. Yes, we are easily amused. Tender was retrieved the next day.

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Two day sail to Marathon, FL

A Miami style yacht

More time at the helm. Adding that to my list of minor accomplishments; the first being able to start the dinghy with that pull-string that always seems to be locked in place!  A forecast for NE at 10-15 gave us hope for a couple decent sailing days down to Marathon. I really enjoy the easy sailing in Biscayne Bay; after Key Largo the water gets skinny in many places and the pots are everywhere- even in the channel, which mostly is nothing more than a magenta line with a heading.

A Keys style yacht

Thursday was near perfect and we were in the extremely rare travel mode of “let’s see how far we get.” I had 3 spots picked out, one for each wind possibility: virtually none, some and plenty. The promise of “plenty” that greeted us in the morning, dwindled steadily and left us with our second anchoring choice. I was more than okay with that as it was our preferred spot due to north wind protection. We basked in the easy sailing, mostly moving along at 6kts in 8kts of wind. Sweet, and yes true, thanks to a great angle to the wind- I can’t say exactly what though because we don’t have our Garmin wind direction indicator- remember?  We felt good; plans had been made to get the sail drive work done on Monday/Tues and we had several packages on their way to us, one being that wind thingy.  West Marine called to say it arrived at the store; such a nice feature they have called “ship to store”. The air conditioner circuit board would be replaced under warranty- yippee!! – and sent to us at Boot Key City Marina.

Before anchoring we calibrated our compass which had a long history of not agreeing to the electronic compass nor the GPS heading compass. For those as compass-ly challenged as I, don’t worry if this makes no sense. What we had to do was travel slowly in all four directions and use a non-magnetic tool to adjust the compass to the others. End result was close with room for improvement. By 4pm we’d anchored and were enjoying sundowners on the stern as the sun set. Ah, life IS good. As we finished up, I heard the iPhone “strum” ring; Benj was calling.  His flight to CT out of Miami had been changed an hour and a quarter earlier. Um, that would make a flight back from Nassau more difficult to connect with the Miami one. Oh well, we’ll figure out something if we are lucky enough to cross with him in December.

The next phone call bummed us out. For the second night in a row, Russ’s dad fell getting up from the dinner table. A trip to the clinic and then to the hospital for observation; not looking for fun times for any Rackliffe for the next few days.

Friday gave me oodles of time at the wheel as Russ spent half the day on the phone dealing with sail drive and Dad stuff.  Managed to squeeze in water making before the onslaught of phone calls began.  The short version of the sail drive story- yes, I am going to try-is Yanmar won’t give the go-ahead for any parts to be ordered or work performed until the yard has a look-see. Maybe warranty, maybe not. If not, our nickel. We’ve been dealing with this particular issue since before buying the boat and now it’s south vs north. The southern distributor has never heard of the fix that the northern one has had to do on several sail drives. By the end of the day Friday we had emails indicating a willingness to open talks with the other side. No way will this be our nickel. We’ll have the work done in summer- up north if it comes to that.

All in all, a decent sailing day and I skimmed by only one pot that bounced along the starboard hull a few times. The little buoys here are round and mostly quite colorful; easy to see. Russ was forced to turn the engines on for the final hour and ½ so that we could make the mooring field by sundown. With the next few days’ forecast looking like this: wind NE 20-30, I was happy with our good timing for a stay in Boot Key Harbor.