Hello to our family and friends and to others reading our blog. For those of you who did not receive our journal last year and for those of you who are sailors and interested in reading about our adventures, I hope you enjoy this blog. We plan to spend the next five to six weeks on Little Wing, our 37 foot Island Packet sailboat, cruising in the Bahamas. My daughter, Emily, introduced me to blogging recently, hoping that this would be an easier method of communication. I invite you to blog back to us on this site so we can stay connected to you. (Now Julia, don’t you go correcting the syntax, spelling, or numbers! I am retired from work!)
Our honeymoon trip to Key West last year was the beginning of our cruising adventures. After examining the calendar this year, we were beginning to wonder if we could fit in a cruising trip south before hurricane season. With much thought and determination, we can up with a solution. Steve would sail the boat to Miami and I would meet him at some point in late March. As most of you know, I was in Memphis spending time with my first grandchild, Jacob Tyler. I couldn’t miss being there when he was born and helping get Mom and baby settled in from the hospital. He is so precious.
The next section of the blog is Steve’s recollection of the trip to Miami dictated to me while we wait in No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne.)
Sunday, March 16
Three sailing buddies from our condominium complex, Mike Darden, Bob McDonald and Charlie Stewart and I, departed on Little Wing headed to Miami. We motored down the Intercoastal Waterway(ICW) and out the channel at Pensacola into the gulf, sailing along the shoreline with plans to make Port St. Joe our first stop. My only request from the crew was that Mike not be allowed to make breakfast! You see, Mike crewed with me last January sailing Little Wing home after Judy broke her heel and the boat remained in Ft. Myers for a month during the Christmas holidays. Mike volunteered to make breakfast one morning – it was chili, wieners, jalapenos, refried beans, sautéed onions and peppers and I’m not sure what else. Everything you wouldn’t want for breakfast! Now don’t get me wrong, he is a good cook but his menu for breakfast food and mine are a little different.
Ten minutes into the trip, the Alabama Marine Patrol passed Little Wing, turned around turning on their “blue light.” I suggested we outrun them, but I was voted down! They had twin 200 HP outboards. I slowed down so they could check my Alabama license. They asked where we were going and I said, “well eventually the Bahamas.” They said, “Could we go?” It was cool that day and the thought of being in the Bahamas sounded pretty damn good.
We arrived at Pensacola about 3:00 p.m. heading out the Channel thinking that the seas would be ruff based on the weather report. We found that not to be the case and were able to motor sail on a close reach, with the winds northeast at 10-15 knots. We continued on this course into the night.
Monday, March 1
We arrived at Cape San Blas at dawn with everyone getting up to see the sun rise. It was really spectacular. We had traveled 160 miles for our first full 24 hours.
I called ahead to the marine and was given our usually slip at the T-Dock Port St. Joe. We pulled in around 8:00 a.m. with plans to spend the night in the marina and continue Tuesday in the ICW to Apalachicola. After I checked in, we all had a great breakfast at the Dockside Restaurant. Everything was good except the grits were “uneatable.” This is what happens when Yankees try to cook grits. Looks and taste like paint.
They guys showered and I did a little boat maintenance. We rested because most of us had been up all night. We decided to have an early dinner. We walked to a great Mexican restaurant, Pepper, on main street, one of Judy and my favorite stops. It was good as usual. We made at stop at the local Pig for ice and other provisions, stopping also at the local marine on the walk back to the marina.
We all had another beer and went to bed.
Tuesday, March 18
Tuesday, the wind was blowing in the mid 20’s from the east-southeast-right on the nose. We continued motoring the ICW towards Apalachicola entering Lake Wimico with the wind howling and blowing. This made for a tight run down the 2.5 mile-long straight on the shallow lake. Later we found it entertaining as we watched a sail boat ahead tacking back and forth across the ICW making slow progress towards us. Were they just practicing this tactic or did they not have motor power?
Upon arriving at Scipio Creek late afternoon, we found docking a little tricky due to the wind, but with three experienced deck hands to assist me, we “got her done” without a problem. Off shore forecast for the next day was 20-35 knot winds with 9 to 14 foot seas at night; not the kind of weather we needed in the gulf. We would wait another day and see if we had a better weather window.
Wes Birdsong, a friend of Bob’s, meet us for dinner at the Wheelhouse Restaurant, where we dined on raw oysters, proclaimed to be the best around, and some great seafood entrees. (Bob, did you order a cheeseburger again?)
Wednesday, March 19
Wednesday was a cold and chilly day; we spent time taking care of a little housekeeping on the boat then walked into town and strolled through a nautical antique shop and walked around the Municipal Marina, under the John Gorrie Memorial Bridge. I cooked spaghetti for all the guys (sauce was made and frozen in Gulf Shores for convenience) Wednesday night. We were entertained by Wes as he regaled us with tales of he and his wife’s hiking trip to Maine on the Appalachian Trail and their trip to the Abaco Islands.
Thursday, March 20
The winds, blowing from the south, prevented departure from Apalachicola until Thursday morning when the winds clocked around to the east. The only issue was a predication for 15 to 20 knots of wind. Four anxious sailors felt we could battle the wind and the waves and were ready to “get to sea.” (Judy’s comments.) Last year Steve and I attempted to go out into the gulf at the government cut at Apalachicola, but found the channel to look very shallow and rough. It took us three to four hours to motor sail to Carrabelle where the channel was much deeper and easier to navigate. I wondered, after the phone call from Steve on Thursday morning, if they would go out at the government cut. Bob is the seasoned sailor in the group and most always takes this course.)
We ran aground twice in the government cut channel. This is the last time I will attempt that “damn” channel. I do know that we will not be taking this course on our return trip home nor will I make it on any of our future adventures! It is a very narrow channel with a lot of current and I would not like to be stuck there getting pounded again.
All agreed to head south as long as the weather remained tolerable, setting a course for Tampa Bay, with the intention that if the weather proved favorable we would keep sailing south. The sails were up with 12-15 knots of wind sailing 5 knots until around 3:00 p.m., when the winds dropped under 10 knots. Charlie was “chomping at the bit to fly the new chute,” or in other terms referred as the cruising spinnaker sail, so I finally agreed to give it a try. It appeared quite easy for three guys to attach this large sail and hoist it up. It is quite impressive; a beautiful red, white and blue sail which doubled our speed going from 3 knots to 6 knots. (I gotta buy the sail!) We sailed like this until late in the day and decided to switch back to the jib sail so we could get the spinnaker down in daylight. This turned out to be a wise decision. We set up watch schedules starting at 8:00 p.m. with two hour shifts all night. Wind increased to 20-25 knots from the east, so we reefed the sails right before dark. We made great time sailing on a close reach, averaging 5 knots on sail power all night.
Friday, March 21
Early morning during Charlie’s watch he motion for me to notch the starboard rail was buried in the water. Most sailors dream about having the kind of conditions to experience”burying the rail in the water.” (This happens when the boat is on a heel on a severe ankle with water flowing over the toe rail/edge of the boat. Look at Charlie’s Picassa Web Album site to see this.)
By 11:00 a.m. Friday morning we had the Tampa ship channel buoy in sight, motor sailing as the wind had dropped considerable. We decided to continue, turning south running down the coast as far as we could with Ft. Myers ahead. I put fishing lines out during the day and landed a nice size Bonita. Later in the afternoon, I heard the big rod screaming while below and thought we had landed a big tuna; taking the rod out of the holder, I felt this big pull and started reeling her in only to find that it was a loon(duck) not a tuna. What do we do now? We all agreed to dowse the sails, turn around and go back to rescue and release the loon. Between Bob, Charlie and I, we managed to free the duck without injuring it. Thankfully the hook had only wrapped around its body. The duck was quite mad at being caught and relieved to be set free. No tuna for dinner! We resumed our course, motor sailing with the wind on the beam probably 12-15 miles off shore all day. Night watch schedules found good wind to sail all during the night.
Saturday, March 22
Saturday morning, as we approached Ft. Myers, we decided to keep pushing south. We had most everything we needed; beer, wine, rum and peanut butter. We could have used a loaf of bread, but hey, we are sweaty, smelly, bearded sailors who wanted to keep pushing ahead!
We motor sailed all day passing Cape Ramaro where we set a course for Bullard Bank buoy. In the channel you have to zig zag through the mango islands. Around mid day, huge banks of ominous looking clouds were building behind us. We turned the radar on and saw a squall line moving east. We were heading south, so we felt like it would go behind us and we would not have to alter our course. We motored all day in very calm water dodging a lot of crab pots for entertainment. Later in the day we came upon a light shower with overcast skies. I couldn’t believe we were on my planned schedule!
Saturday evening, as it was getting dark, we once again set the all night watch schedules.
Sunday, March 23
Sometime around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, shortly after I was relieved from my watch by Bob and trying to relax and go to sleep, a thunder clap that sounded like a nuclear bomb going off shook the boat. Everyone jumped up and I went to check on Bob. He said everything was ok; all instruments seemed to be working. I asked him where the thunder/lighting was and he just pointed straight up! Leave it up to Bob to crack a joke in that situation in the middle of the night. This was the only close call with lighting during the entire trip. Bob surmised that the squall was overtaking us and our best course of action would be to turn around and go back through the squall. Within 15 minutes, we were out of the storm and it was ahead of us.
We arrived at Bullard Bank an hour after daylight, motoring through Moser Channel and 5 Mile Bridge into the beautiful blue waters of the Keys. Everyone had shorts and t-shirts on as it was warming up nicely. I called ahead to Marathon Marina for a slip; we were ready to get our feet on land after 72 hours traveling from Apalachicola to Marathon. We were proud sailors. Because it was pretty warm outside, the first order of busy was to get shore power hooked up and the air conditioner turned on. Some guys napped, some guys looked around the marina; Mike washed clothes. A quick wash job was in order to get the rather salty crust off Little Wing. We ate an excellent dinner at Frosty’s, a restaurant newly reopened at adjacent to the marina. This was possibly the best Ahi Tuna I have every eaten. We then walked a mile down the road to a convenience store to get milk, bread, ice, cereal and other provisions. I believe Charlie got another bag of cookies! After listening to the weather forecast, we decided to push on for the Key Largo area in the morning. We all crashed early.
Monday, March 24
Mike, the early bird, got everyone up at 5:30 a.m., an ungodly hour for the rest of us. We fueled up at at $4.09 a gallon for diesel. Ouch! We pulled out of the marina around 8:00 a.m. motoring into Hawk Channel. This was new territory for me. I had never sailed north of Marathon. The channel is big and wide and relatively safe. Coral reefs, approximately 10 miles off shore, protect the channel. The wind was northeast so we motor sailed averaging 7 knots in order to make the 70 miles to our next anchorage. Not much to report about this leg of the trip except for the beautiful Hinckley we passed. (For those of you who do not know about a Hinckley it is a specific model sailboat that Steve and probably all sailors admire.)
The wind was building to 20 knots and the water was choppy. It was decided our best option was to cross into the gulf side through the keys to get out of the wind via Angel Creek Channel. This channel is very shallow and many sailboats cannot even attempt it. But Little Wing at a draft of 4 one half feet should be able to “just” clear. As we approached at dead slow speed we watched the depth carefully. We entered the channel and had less than 1 foot under the keel. After we got into the channel a ways it got deeper and we felt relieved. Bob suggested we anchor in the lee of Pumpkin Key since he had anchored there before. We made a short trip to the Key and anchored.
After we anchored near a beautiful 80 foot motor yacht, we had our sundowners. Mike volunteered to prepare dinner being vague about the menu which caused some concern by the other crew. However, it turns out that his chicken biscuit casserole was quite delicious and enjoyed by all.
Sitting out in the cockpit after dinner we noticed that the yacht was dragging their anchor. They drifted approximately a quarter of a mile before they realized it then sent a crew out to re-anchor. Bad stuff happens even on multi-million dollar yacht
Night winds howled in the 20-25 knot range. Even though we were in the lee of the island, the boat rocked, creaked and danced on the anchor line all night. It was quite cold with reports of temperatures in Miami in the 30’s for the night.
Tuesday, March 25
We shoved off Tuesday morning around 8: oo a.m. headed north to the ICW into Biscayne Bay. The bay is extremely large with a lot of shallow water to avoid and I might add a beautiful shade of turquoise. The wind was on the nose, of course, at 20 knots, creating lots of spray on us and the boat. The temperature warmed up nicely and we enjoyed the trip. There were a few narrow spots, but well marked areas to navigate. Bob suggested we make for a safe anchorage at No Name Harbor where cruisers hang out, some waiting for a weather window to cross the gulfstream and others just enjoying the boating experience. We set a course for the harbor and continued on our journey. A few miles out, we noticed a vibration at the helm. When we throttled back, the vibration seemed to lessen. Maybe we had picked up a crab pot line so we continue will caution to No Name Harbor and anchored. Charlie volunteered to dive below even though the water was quite cold, to check out the problem. He found a rubber mat of some sort wrapped around the shaft and prop. He pulled it lose and brought it aboard to discard when we go ashore. End of problem. Extra rum rations for Mr. Stewart for his work, says Captain Steve.
I defrosted the refrigerator and found dinner thawed and waiting to be cooked; grilled shrimp and chicken, served with a tossed salad, baked beans and bread. Quite a meal I might add. After dinner, I phoned Dinner Key Marina to reserve a slip for the next morning.
Wednesday, March 26
We pulled out of the harbor around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. A couple on a Tayanna sailboat anchored next to us, noticed that the homeport on Little Wing was Fairhope, Alabama, and asked who was from Alabama. She was from Georgia and glad to see someone from a neighboring state so far from home.
Our trip across Biscayne Bay was only a short distance compared to the distance we had averaged most of the previous days on this journey. The marina is very large with over 500 slips. Upon our approach and contact with the harbor master, we were informed that they did not have a slip for us. After pleading with them, they found one. Part of the problem was the language barrier. Most residents of Miami are Hispanic and speak broken English. We had no idea where the slip was located, so I just pull into the first available t-dock and walked to the office for assistance. Little Wing barely fit the boat slip we were assigned and I was glad that I had three mates to assist in guiding her in and tying her up.
The guys spent the day scrubbing the boat on the outside while I worked inside. (I knew Judy was coming tomorrow, and she would not like a dirty boat, especially the galley and the head.) My friend Clint called to say he would swing by after work, pick us up and show us the sites around Miami. The guys packed their things for departure and we all showered the three days of sweat from our bodies. We ate pizza and drank beer at a little restaurant in Coconut Grove, a neat little area with open air café/shops right off the beach. After dinner, Clint drove us to South Beach for a look around the beach area. I might add that this is not a good place to be at night alone. Miami is an impressive city; big, gaudy and colorful. We also drove to the port of Miami to show me the general area where we would need to get our papers in order to return to the US.
Thursday, March 27
The guys were planning to get up and leave around 7 a.m. to head to the airport. All three had buddy passes (thanks Dennis and Mike’s brother) for standby seats on Delta. I hung around the boat until the rental car company delivered a car at 9 a.m.. I wanted to head out so I would have plenty of time to find the airport, get parked, and wait for Judy’s flight to arrive. Let me tell you, driving in Miami is more like a contact sport. My directions were true, as I arrived at the airport two hours early for her flight. I kicked back, read the newspaper and people watched until her flight arrived around 12:30 p.m.
Back to Judy and her trip.
Thursday, March 27
I was able to hitch a ride to the airport with Paul and Carol Monroe on Thursday morning. Unfortunately for me their plane was leaving at 6:30 a.m. requiring a 4:00 a.m. departure from Gulf Shores. No one was out at that ungodly hour of the morning except a lonely cop in Pensacola who decided to pull us over for slightly exceeding the 35 mph zone. I think this guy just sits and waits for someone to pull over. My flight left at 7:30 a.m. to Atlanta and then on to Miami arriving at 12:35 p.m. I had been away from Steve for four weeks and 2 days; boy was I glad to see his smiling face in the airport and get a long awaited hug and kiss.

We ate a quick lunch and headed to the customs office to file the necessary papers to re-enterr the country. Steve had talked with someone at the office earlier who had given him sketchy directions and an address. After driving around this circle several times, we finally found the H Building where the office was located. The building actually looks like a warehouse. Who would think a customs office would be housed in this type of facility. We saw several cruise ships docked in the area as well as watched several Hispanics file papers in the immigration office. With that task in order, we headed to a Publix grocery store to purchase provisions for the next few weeks. An hour later we wheeled two buggies to our rental car. Boy, fourteen gallons and one case of bottled water takes up a lot of space in a shopping cart. We decided we would have time to find the West Marine store we had passed earlier for Steve to purchase charts he needed before we left Miami. After several trips around several blocks, we found the store. I stayed outside in the car and ended up taking a short nap while Steve had a long conversation with one of the salesmen in the store about our trip.

Miami is full of crazy drivers; we had a near miss at an intersection almost at the marine. I believe in Miami when the light turns yellow it means “go like hell!” I was glad to see the marina ahead and get out of the car. Thankfully the marine provides large push carts for you to use to carry your supplies and such to your boat. We unload the groceries and put them away finishing just in time to have our sundowners at sunset over Miami. We ate rotisserie chicken and potato salad purchased from the deli for dinner. This is not one of our gourmet meals but it was quick and easy. It was great to sit in the cockpit of Little Wing after dinner and explore the Miami skyline.

Friday, March 28

We enjoyed coffee and cereal early morning before we headed to the laundry to wash Steve’s clothes.
Steve worked on routine boat maintenance while I finished the laundry and looked around the marina. We were off by 11:00 a.m. across the bay to No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne Island. Check out your map. The harbor is small and protected from all sides with a nice docking wall and a small restaurant. Mega yachts to small fishing boats and sailboats from all over the world can be spotted at any time in this harbor. After lunch and a short nap, we spent the afternoon watching the comings and goings of boaters. We were beginning to get the feeling that we were in a foreign country because so many of the people we heard were speaking Spanish. It was a pretty rowdy night of loud music and laughter from the motor boaters tied up to the concrete wall. Luckily we were both tired and drifted off to sleep easily.

Saturday, March 29

Spring break week in Miami must have begun! Imagine a parade of boats from the size of a dingy to 65 foot yachts and you have a picture of what we looked at most of the day. This seems to be the weekend spot to pick up friends from shore and go out into the bay boating. At one point in the day, as many as three boats were stacked side by side partying together. We did see several near misses and one small dingy ram into another boat.

We enjoyed spending the afternoon with Clint, Steve’s friend, who drove his motor boat over after fishing. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon and evening. While Steve ran the generator, we watched the movie, “Catch Me If You Can” on the TV.

Sunday, March 30

After coffee and breakfast, we put our tennis shoes on and took the dingy to shore to get some exercise and explore Cape Florida State Recreation Park. Along this barrier island, we found a beautiful shoreline with some of the best fishing in the region and one of the nation’s top ten beaches. We also toured the Cape Florida Lighthouse keeper’s family quarters. The park consist of 415 acres and provides a wonderful place for families to spend time together on the beach, fishing, picnicking, riding bikes, walking your dog, boating, etc. I didn’t have my camera, so we opted to come back on Monday to attempt the 106 stairs up to the top of the lighthouse for a photo opportunity.

All afternoon we spent in the cockpit watching the boat parade in the harbor. At least 75-100 boats were either anchored, docked-some two and three deep, along the sea wall or motoring through looking for a place to stop. At one point there was a large yacht from Canada, maybe 65 feet long, searching for a place to anchor amongst all the boats already in the small harbor. Of course there was a captain steering the yacht and the Onassis type owner looking on. I felt like I was at the Dairy Queen in Hartselle on a Sunday afternoon watching the parade of drivers circle the building over and over to be seen, especially if you were driving a “hot” car or had a “hot chick or a hunk of a guy” next to you. We enjoyed seeing at few classic older sailboats with a lot of teak wood and pretty hull designs. I didn’t care for the large, loud racing boats with the skimpy clad “babes” but Steve seemed to always find the binoculars in time to get a closer look. Wonder if he was looking at the boat or the passengers?

There was a little excitement later in the day when a sailboat rammed into a group of mango trees in an attempt to drop anchor. We both looked up when we heard trees cracking and saw the bow of the boat in the thicket. We hope to get the details from our neighbor, who jumped in his dingy to offer assistance. As far as we can tell, there is a good bit of damage on the bow-we didn’t hear any screaming or yelling from the three on board so we feel like there might have been some kind of mechanical problem that caused the crash.

We enjoyed an afternoon shower in Little Wing; ate a delicious meal of grilled pork chops, with Rosemary grilled potato wedges, cold slaw and a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Steve finished off the remaining wine while listening to Chris Botti and Pink Floyd. Hope he doesn’t have a headache in morning!

Monday, March 31, 2008

It was an uneventful day of reading, smocking and napping while Steve polished the rub rail. We watched “The Aviator “for nighttime entertainment while the generator was running. If Steve had known the movie was over two and a half hours long, I don’t think we would have watched it.

Tuesday, April 1

Happy April Fools Day!

We walked into Key Biscayne after lunch to get a little exercise. I wanted to check out the shopping and we needed a few things at the Winn-Dixie. After dinner I was able to watch American Idol while the generator was running.

There is pretty much everything we need close to Cape Florida State Park and our anchorage. Banks, grocery story, CVS, library, Ace Hardware, Pizza restaurant and other ethnic restaurants. Everything we need while we waited.

Wednesday, April 2

We walked around the island again early morning. I couldn’t put the book down I was reading all afternoon. Steve assisted our neighbor switch out his outboard motor on his dingy.

Thursday, April 3

I spent the morning working on the blog trying to catch up will I had generator power. We hauled the laundry over to a pavilion and walked around waiting for it to get finished. We meet two interesting cruisers, Skip from Chicago and Alice from Indianapolis. We were trying to get as much information from them about the crossing as we could. Most sailors are more than happy to talk about their experiences. We napped and waited for Clint to pick us up for dinner out and grocery shopping.
All three of us ordered grilled snapper at Boater’s Grill, the restaurant adjacent to the harbor. We enjoyed our dinner and watching the sunset overlooking the bay.