March 22, 2014 Marathon to Palm Beach and points in between

Manatee's love fresh water

This evening, we ended up taking a cab to a pot luck dinner at the marina where many of our cruising friends are staying.  We arrived and headed to Curt and Marilyn's boat where a manatee was lounging around.  They love fresh water.  We bought lobsters and Sal, from one of the boats there steamed the up for us.  Yum!

Pot Luck on the dock

Guys talking boat things.  Yes that's me with my back to the camera

I spent the next day running errands.  First fetching the repaired props from the prop guy which meant a 1.5 mile walk to the place and another 1.5 mile walk back with 3 props on  a little cart.  I must have looked pretty pathetic.  2 people asked if I wanted rides and a third, a tan little old lady driving a huge dodge pickup truck cut right in front of me on the sidewalk (actually the sidewalk in some places is the side of the road) and shouted, "hey sonny, you want a hand with those things?".  I declined all three invitations but its great to know how helpful people can be sometimes.

Got the props loaded on the dinghy and to the boat then turned around and headed back in to visit the computer store where I found out my replacement screen is still on a slow boat from China.  They are going to ship it to me in Stuart.

Marathon Movie Theater.  No its not a hotel!

Then we made plans to go out with Rob and Sue so after showering and getting dressed (Mary yes.  Me, same old "clean" shorts and t-shirt) up for a night on the town  they took us this neat little movie theater, the Marathon Cinema.  It has spacious seating, with tables and comfy chairs.  And they sell hot dogs and beer at the concession stand.  Saw some movie about soldiers rescuing art during world war two.



We then went to the only bar we haven't been to here in Marathon, the Hurricane Bar.  They had a good band too.  Although it made it a little tough for us to engage in a conversation.  Maybe we shouldn't have sat 20 feet from the band.

The next day I  ran a few additional store errands in the morning.  Then Marilyn and Curt came by the harbor from their marina about four miles away.  They're energetic, riding their bikes all the way down here.

We now have blue lights on the side deck stairs

Marilyn and Mary talked of kayaking so I switched from errand boy to deck hand and got both kayaks down and in the water.  The girls embarked gracefully(?) and went off towards Sister Creek while I went back to fixing the deck lights.  Curt called a few minutes after I had everything working again so I went and picked him up and we went up Sister Creek looking for the kayakers and found them poking around Sombrero Beach.

Marilyn and Mary starting off towards Sister Creek

We had wanted to take a little tour of the yellow submarine which is up this little creek on the other side of Boot Key.   So given the hour and potential time required to paddle back to the boat, we hooked both kayaks up to the dinghy and towed them the two miles back to our boat with much hilarity and inquisitive stares from other boaters as well as shore side onlookers..  

Once we made it back and the kayak disembarkation was completed (gracefully?) we hauled the kayaks up onto the sun deck overhead and then hopped back in the dinghy and ran up the harbor and out around the island to the yellow submarine creek (my moniker).  We went in here at low tide and it was incredibly shallow, even for the dinghy.  But it was still impressive!

We headed back to the boat where Marilyn and Curt picked up their stuff and I grabbed our garbage.  But Marilyn forgot her sandals so I zipped back to the boat and fetched them.  We dumped our garbage and then walked the bike down from the bike rack to the dinghy dock and got in on the dinghy and said our good-byes.

Went back to the boat and hauled up the bike and then moved the dinghy into position to lift it up onto the deck.  But, I forgot to re-attach the lifting harness.  Took a few minutes and I had it on but then we couldn't get the outboard motor tilted up.  The dinghy battery was pretty drained but I suspect its more likely the tilt motor isn't quite right.  So I had to start the generator and use a battery charger on the darn battery and after about an hour, was able to incrementally tilt the outboard up high enough so we could winch it aboard and in its cradle.  So by about 9pm we had it all secure and ready for sea.  Along with the tilt not functioning, I noticed an amazing amount of growth on hull and even the side tubes.   Barnacles were everywhere.

Leaving Boot Key Harbor

We left at 8am next day with Priorities on a calm, clear day.  We made water while out in the ocean on our way to Channel 5 inlet,.  Water maker worked fine after about 30 minutes of running.  I think the membranes are a trifle plugged.  $800 a piece.  We have three.  I'm afraid to do the math.

Anchoring in Tarpon Basin

We took Channel 5 from the ocean into Florida Bay where we ran the majority of the the 60+ miles to Tarpon Basin which lies across from Key Largo between Grouper Creek and Dusenbury Crek .  We anchored in 7 feet of water but after we anchored I heard an odd hissing sound.  I figured it had to be a water leak somewhere and after shutting down the fresh water pump the hissing stopped.    Great!  We cycled the pump on and off a few times until I could pinpoint the leak.  It was behind the shower stall wall at the faucet .  Luckily there was an access plate and after prying that off sure enough, the cold water hose was loose.  Whew!  Minor problem and pretty easy fix.

Field Trip and ReUnion came into the bay and anchored near us so we had them all over for a party.  After a few hours we broke up and Mary and I headed over to Priorities to eat  a little dinner and see their boat.  Randy and Sherry are great folks.

Hard to see but that is a big fish, larger than it appears

The next morning we waited until the tide starting coming in before leaving.  Meanwhile I was watching these large, like 4-5 feet large, fish inching along under the boat.  They must have been Tarpon.  We were in Tarpon Basin after all.

We left around 10:30 and all of the other boats intended on going to Boca Chita Key hoping that the weekend revelers would be heading back home by the time they arrived.  We had already decided to head right into Miami and anchor near Belle Isle along the Venetian Causeway in Miami Beach.

Biscayne Bay and Miami in the distance

We parted ways in Biscayne Bay as Field Trip, ReUnion and Priorities headed towards Bocha Chita Key.

Miami and lots of boat traffic

We entered Miami and briefly checked out an anchorage for our wayward traveling partners who decided to forgo Boca Chita Key.  Seems even at 5pm on a Sunday, Boca Chita was still packed with loud parties on many boats squelching any desire to stay there.  Besides there wasn't any room on the sea wall.  So they radioed me asking to check out another anchorage, Marina Stadium, which had plenty of room.

Government Cut

We went on a few more miles past Government Cut‎ and ran up a channel to Bell Isle and anchored there.  The views were marvelous with the sky lines (Miami and Miami Beach) and all the boat traffic.  Well, the boat traffic was a bit annoying since they made wakes and some brainless souls in big power boats went through this little anchorage a top speed.  But we did watch a number of huge cruise ships leave port past MacArthur Causeway‎ bound for wherever.  Quite a site..

Anchored by Belle Isle, Miami skyline in the distance

Cruise ship leaving by MacArthur Causeway

Another new water toy?

Before it got to dark we watched this weird sight with some guy in a water jet-pack flying around over the water.

It was a little windy and with the boat wakes we were rocked to sleep which was a good thing since we were determined to leave around sunrise.  So we left at 8am.  But we did make the Venetian bridge opening to begin our trek north through countless bridges and no wake zones.  Ugh ... it was slow going sometimes but every so often I opened up the throttles and hit a hair tussling  9mph.  We did this because the bridge openings are such that some you need to putter around slowly to wait and others require a mad dash to make.  Intricate calculations of time, speed and distance.  I couldn't remember the formulas so turned to technology and downloaded an app to do it.  And you'd think we'd have noted all these speeds and times between bridges somewhere to be used again when we head back down this way in the winter.  You'd think  ...

A small winter house

Interesting sites to see all along the route.  I couldn't count the number of ostentatious homes we saw interspersed with elaborate condos with large pools and expansive decks.  I would venture to say there is a lot of wealth down here.  And I didn't even mention the mega yachts that were every where.

Yacht transports ship.  Stern is sunk so yachts can drive on  

Fort Lauderdale was particularly rife with large pleasure craft.  We ended up in a little line of yachts waiting for the Las Olas bridge to open.  It's undergoing repairs so only one span is opening which makes for congested traffic.  The density of boats and boat traffic around here is startling.  Mega yachts, cruise ships, commercial freighters, water taxi's and even fuel barges (where you can fuel up you boat for competitive prices) all milling about in a rather constrictive area.  Awesome!   We went by the area where the Ft. Lauderdale boat show is held every year and recognized very little from our perspective on the water.

Entering Ft. Lauderdale

Our little procession through several bridges

The little group we were traveling with between bridges included some big yachts, one with a helicopter.   We were feeling a little puny along side these monsters.

Our well equipped traveling companion

As we made our way further north past Ft. Lauderdale there were more bridges, some of which we had to request an opening while others we were able to breeze through.  Our air height is 18' 6" as measured by Dave Boyd and myself several times.  Still, one gets a little tense when that first span appears close enough to touch.  But those we passed under that were a little nerve racking were 20' or more so no worries.

Anchored in Palm Beach

Rain began to really pour down around 6:30 as we approached Palm Beach so we decided to anchor there off the ICW across from Palm Harbor Marina and the Flagler Museum.  So here we were anchored in the middle of the city during an all night downpour.  Good sleeping weather!  And there is free city wide wifi available and actually works .. sort of.

Our plan is to be underway at 7am to make the 7:15 Flager Bridge opening because the the next opening would be at 9:15 which would put us in Stuart and Loggerhead near closing time.  The winds were supposed to pick up in the afternoon as the front goes through and docking our beast in the wind isn't easy especially without someone on the dock taking lines.  So we opted for the really early departure.  Nothing like getting up when its dark on rainy morning.  Someone I know revels in this sort of activity :-)

But once we're in Stuart we will have completed the loop.  Rough estimate is around 6,000 miles.  Yikes!