February 18th - The key to success in sailing - Part Two

Well, as I started to say, sailing successfully to a key, anyway.

We left you after having managed a return to Miami without our
friends aboard. You'll recall that all but Steve and I, enjoying
the marvelous sailing, made *their* executive decision to keep
going past Ft. Lauderdale, being reluctant to give up the perfect
conditions until it looked like they'd need to reverse in order
to get inside on a timely basis. Of course, we paid for that on
the way back down to Ft. Lauderdale, with the conditions being
boisterous in the opposite direction.

You'll also recall that Lydia and I returned to Miami in
perfectly lousy conditions. A private mooring, with no way to
effectively get a line up, or attached, resulted in a fouling
when we arrived in the area on the first time, but we got that
resolved in short order. That's because after the unfouling, I
made it so that picking up a mooring was "normal" instead of
having to hoist the entire ball to attach! We don't have a "float and
stick" but at least the line can be reached with a boat hook...

We went about our medical stuff, successfully, and Lydia's son
Oliver joined us for a few days. You'll recall, perhaps, that
Oliver's been accepted into the Air Force, and will be shipping
out for basic training in mid-March. He joined us to spend some
alone-time with us before he went. We spent a few days in Miami,
including one on Miami Beach, taking in the sights. However, the
reason he came here was to sail with us.

As is so often the case, however, despite his desire to go
sailing, the wind and weather again didn't cooperate - and thus,
the reason for spending the first few days in Miami. So, just to
get out of Miami, we "drove" up to Ft. Lauderdale, again,
contacting our new buddy Ricki to see if there was space
available, and if so, about that marina's real world pricing. She
thought it likely would be free or nominal, and directed us to a
slip next to a similar ship, a Morgan45 in great shape.

That was late that day, but unfortunately for us, the manager was
there the next day, and it was very stiff for our pocketbooks,
despite the pleading and "setup" Ricki had done with him on our
behalf . Even though it was well under their "normal" rates
(given the state of affairs in the marina, I can't imagine their
getting "normal" rates from transients, let alone having nobody
there to take their calls if someone were to try), it was still
way more than we wanted to spend. In reality, there was no real
effective alternative, having already stayed the previous night,
so we stayed where we were, and paid the price.

However, Oliver's childhood buddy, who's in acting as a
profession, lives in Ft. Lauderdale, and was shooting two gigs
that day, with a very long lunch hour in between. He came to the
boat where, over lunch, we renewed his acquaintance, talked about what
he was doing with his life, and reminisced over all the good times
which had happened in their home town. After much conversation, as
that was a Friday, after lunch Oliver and he elected to take Oliver
off the boat to stay with him, see the sights, fetch his car in Miami,
and otherwise just hang out.

Lydia and I checked out early the next day, in building seas and
winds. Once again it was a very uncomfortable ride south, but we
arrived back on our mooring in due course. On the way in, the
cruise ships had not yet left, and, as the rules are that if there are
two or more cruise ships in Government Cut, one may not transit that
zone.

So, we had to go around, on the south, more commercial, side of
the Port of Miami. Along the way, we met a Seven Seas Cruising
Association boat that we later realized was behind us on the
MegaDock in Charleston. As we'd not recalled their boat name, it
was a bit of a surprise to have them say, "How are you, Skip? Did
Lydia's mother get off all right?" and follow up with commentary
about our challenges which put us in Charleston in the first
place. So, we had a bit of a chat, catching up on what we'd both
been doing since that time. Small world, this cruising community.

We had both gotten caught in the cruise ship rules, and had to
wend our way through the narrow channel which goes on the
southern route up to where we'd go under the bridge to the Miami
Yacht Club. As that's also a channel that leads to where they
wanted to go, having scheduled to meet some friends close to
Miami Beach, but they'd navigated the twists south of the bridge
before, we followed them through that unfamiliar area up to the
bridge.

However, they went aground right before us, too, as we turned
after clearing the bridge. I thought it had been because we'd
been cut off by the "head boat" "Pirate Cruises" (a head boat is
a cruise or other part-day excursion which charges by the head
rather than by the trip) which turned in front of us as we
cleared the bridge. We'd arrived at dead low tide. With their 6'
full keel, our shorter keel but deeper draft was going nowhere.

They elected to turn south and go to No Name Harbor in Biscayne
Bay, as they were headed south later, so we said goodbye to them.
We just threw out the hook in the small turning basin in front of
the Miami Herald building and enjoyed our dinner while the tide
came in. After dinner, we proceeded over the now-thicker water
without incident and picked up our mooring. Having modified it
from the way we found it, it was now a routine mooring pickup,
despite it not having a "float and stick" to grab, and we settled
in for the night.

Fast forward to Valentine's day, when Steve and Vicki are going
to take another run at going sailing with us. Steve's company
drafted him for another day's duty, so not only was he unable to
come until Friday, he still had to be back at his home base on
Wednesday. Because he flies a small plane, weather is always a
concern, and the standard is to leave another day as "insurance" - and
even then, sometimes, a private pilot winds up having to leave their
plane somewhere and go commercially when the weather doesn't
cooperate. So, they needed to be back by
Monday, in order to assure his timely arrival for work on Thursday.

The weatherman looked like he was finally going to grant us some
leverage. The forecast was for perfect winds in both directions.
They arrived after some traffic delays (yes, even private
airports have traffic delays!), but because I was tied up in
traffic, it all worked out to pick them up very shortly after
they got to the terminal.

Once aboard, we elected to go out to Fisher's Island, a staging
point mentioned by several of those we've met going to the
Bahamas from this area. That entailed a trip through the winding
channel of the south side of the Port of Miami, the cruise ships
having not departed before we left. After making that passage, we
turned into the harbor after the channel jetty, and set about
anchoring for the night. Oops.

We have no clue where the folks who use Fisher's Island as a
staging point go, but it can't be here, because despite multiple
attempts we could not get our primary anchor to even bite, let
alone hold. I finally gave up and threw out both of them on a 60*
spread, and we had dinner. With ample room behind us, and more
than 200 pounds of anchor and chain on the bottom, we'd not drift
far, if at all, and even then, if we had, it would have been of
no consequence. And, after dinner, we pulled up our anchors and
drove back to the same turning basin in which we'd anchored while
waiting for the tide to rise a few days earlier!

We joked that we drove down to Fisher's Island for dinner, making
the best of it, and turned in early. Bright and early the next
morning, I started the coffee and the engine pretty much
simultaneously, and we headed back out. Unfortunately, all the
cruise ships had arrived by the time we left, and we again were
forced to transit the south side of the Port of Miami. We managed
to find a shallow spot on the way out, but our MaxProp allowed us
to reverse-power off in short order, and we continued motoring on
our way. However, once clear of the restricted area, we turned off
Perky, our faithful 4-154, set our sails and were off and sailing.

This time, the weather was perfect. A marvelous broad reach sail
all the way down, to and through the Hawk Channel marks, put us
in the Rodriguez Key area well before dark. We motored around a
bit, checking the charted very shallow depths, and anchored next
to an attractive boat which looked familiar. Much to our
surprise, who should we see but the boat which had been behind us
in Charleston, and who had gone aground with us in Miami?? "Welcome
to the nieghborhood!" they said.

They were headed to the Bahamas (sob! - we'll not get to go for
close to a year), and were using this as a staging point before
moving a bit further south on the next day's forecasted East
wind. Because it was a north wind when we arrived, we had a lumpy
anchorage, but it wasn't difficult in any way, and we had a
lovely dinner.

That's because we'd been fishing on the way down, and caught a
baby king mackerel. That would not be enough for 4, but I threw
out the hook in the anchorage, and, after several casts and one
nibble, I shortly caught an 18" shark. Between the two, we had a
marvelous dinner over the grill, accompanied by Lydia's tasty
rice concoction.

Once again, when we were anchored, we found a nice internet
connection. Our setup, now relatively stable, has allowed us
internet telephony in good connection areas. This one was
marginal, but Lydia, our guests and my computer all
simultaneously enjoyed wifi connectivity (along with another boat
in the anchorage which surfed our connection). That's been the
case nearly anywhere we've anchored this entire voyage since we
left in July '07. In any event, thanks to that, we were able to
look at the weather in detail. All looked promising for not only
our time there but also the ride home.

Well, I see by the calculator that I've rattled on, yet again.
The rest of this story will have to wait until the next time!

Stay Tuned.

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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