We left the gracious friendship and hospitality of the Boot Key Harbor the morning of Friday April, 10. As our friend Christopher on Tiffany Rose would say – we officially began Part 3 of our journey – the trip home. While disappointing to be leaving our winter haven of the Florida Keys, the trip is far from over. Even in the last week Mother Nature has made sure that our cruising is far from uneventful. Read on for the details….
If you recall, our journey down the ocean side of the Keys was done in darkness. We went offshore in central Florida and about 28 hours later arrived in Marathon. So our journey back up the Keys was entirely new to us – we sailed in both daylight and also chose the Gulf side of the Keys from which to cruise. We were surprised at how much territory we were able to cover our first day out of Marathon. We dropped the hook that day in Key Largo (the northern most part of the Keys) after a wonderful Easterly reach propelled us ahead while the Keys shoreline protected us from the waves.
By Saturday evening we reached Key Biscayne. It was very evident we were not in the Keys anymore. The weekend warriors were out in force in power boats, jet skis, you name it. While we would have enjoyed popping into one of the many state and national park anchorages for the evening, scanning the shoreline through binoculars found much of the area covered with wall to wall boats. Learning – avoid Key Biscayne on the weekends. Plan B was to pop into Dinner Key and drop the hook in the anchorage. As we entered the Dinner Key channel a menacing cloud hovered above. Suddenly it began to mutate and take on a larger much darker form. It seemed like only seconds later the winds and rain ensued. So imagine yourself in a fairly restricted channel with winds of 30-35 knots being pelted by droplets of rain which stung as it hit your skin and cringing as the lightening strikes lit the sky overhead and thunder so loud it rattled the boat. There was not much we could do except try to keep ourselves in the channel and avoid hitting other boats who struggled under the changed weather. Once in the channel there was little place to maneuver given the conditions and instead exited the way we came in, waiting out the storm in the open bay. Fortuntately, as quickly as the storm emerged it was gone and within an hour we were back to the pleasantness of the southern Florida sun.
Easter Sunday was an R&R day for us. We anticipated going offshore early Monday morning so elected to be idle on Sunday. Dave was disappointed that the Easter bunny couldn’t find Tropical Breeze and bring him chocolates. He, however, forgot the oversight when Sunday afternoon I realized that we could probably get TV reception being so close to Miami. What a treat – our first bit of TV reception in almost 3 months. After an hour of channel surfing we realized we hadn’t missed much in programming. Instead it was the restaurant commercials that tempted us with their delicious menu offerings.
As planned, we left Key Biscayne Monday morning and headed offshore for Fort Worth (Monday) and then Ft. Pierce (Tuesday) inlets. Both days were uneventful until Tuesday afternoon another one of those menacing clouds lingered over the Ft. Pierce inlet. When we were about a mile and a half offshore, Mother Nature decided to test us. The winds started gusting over 40 knots. The southerly swells almost immediately took on a northerly chop and the rain and lightning dropped out of the sky. Dave and I gave each other that look – you know the look – the one where spouses just stare at each other searching for an answer to the question what next? For us it was Dave who responded suggesting we either take it head on or turn tail and head back south. We elected to take it head on and an hour later we had finally traveled the last one and a half miles and were safely inside the inlet. Thank heavens!
The Admiral
4/10/09-4/14/09
