After a month back in Yorktown, it was time to return to Tides Inn and start the trek back home. When we arrived in Punta Gorda, Sally and Conrad had Tides Inn in sparkling condition and ready to go. The moon even cooperated providing us several nights of near full moon conditions for our overnight passages back to the Keys, around Miami and up the Florida east coast.
After waiting a day for a cold front with strong thunderstorms to blow through, we were underway early Saturday, 20 Apr, with brisk northwest winds forecasted and good sailing conditions. As we sailed down Charlotte Harbor towards Boca Grande inlet and the Gulf of Mexico, the winds and seas steadily built. Even worse, the wind was more west than forecasted and I could see large breakers on either side of the inlet. We would have to motor into the wind and waves to get through the inlet before we could turn more downwind to the south. And then we were looking at downwind sailing in choppy seas that rock you extensively side to side. Not looking like a fun time.
Sue asked politely if we "had" to go out into the ocean today and after giving it a quick assessment, I agreed "no, not really." We could head down the protected intracoastal route for at least one day and exit to the Gulf at Fort Myers the next day. It would cost us a delay of one day and the winds would be light the next day requiring us to motor more but, hey we are retired and we have a great motor sailor boat that would have no problems. So, decision made. We turned left down the ICW.
Sue asked politely if we "had" to go out into the ocean today and after giving it a quick assessment, I agreed "no, not really." We could head down the protected intracoastal route for at least one day and exit to the Gulf at Fort Myers the next day. It would cost us a delay of one day and the winds would be light the next day requiring us to motor more but, hey we are retired and we have a great motor sailor boat that would have no problems. So, decision made. We turned left down the ICW.
That turned out to be a very wise decision. We comfortably sailed down the ICW all afternoon towards Fort Myers until we found a nice spot to anchor with some protection from the strong winds. Over the night the winds and seas calmed down and we departed the next morning into much more comfortable conditions. Here is a photo of the anchor down and snubber attached to our chain anchor rode. Anchored just off Pine Island.
Early Sunday morning we were off, departing Fort Myers enroute the Florida Keys and inside route to Miami. The winds were forecasted to be light and directly astern. That makes it hard to sail with the main sail blanketing the foresails. The solution is to hold the foresail out opposite to the mainsail with a whisker pole. Setting the 22ft long whisker pole is a chore that we normally avoid, but it would be required for these conditions. Prior to exiting the protected ICW and entering the rougher ocean, we rigged the pole with its topping lift, forward and aft guy securing lines. Once the pole is in place, you can unfurl the headsail and reef it into the proper position for the winds. Unfortunately, if you have to jibe because of a wind shift, it requires the pole to be reset on the opposite side which is a tough job if the waves are up. When the wind shifted on us (and dropped to under 5kts), we just furled in the genoa and motored with mainsail only.
Sue and Rivah were very happy we delayed a day and they both enjoyed the passage in much calmer conditions.
As we proceeded south towards the Florida Keys, with a cloudless sky, the Gulf waters took on a very turquoise appearance. Looking through our sunglasses it was quite a surreal "impressionistic art" appearance. The picture doesn't really reflect the blue and green pastel shades we were seeing.
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Sunsets are always an emotional event afloat. We were hoping for a green flash with the clear conditions but didn't see it. There was an interesting lingering of yellow sunlight beams shining directly vertical above the sun as it dropped below the horizon. I haven't noticed that phenomena before, but was obviously related to the unique atmospherics.
We were able to sail throughout the night which was great since it is not safe to motor at night in this area because of all the crab pots you might run over and foul their float line around your propeller. At dawn we were just ready to enter the "Yacht Channel" that leads from the Gulf waters through the very shallow Gulf of Florida waters directly to the Channel 5 bridge in the Keys. According to our chart, the waters were supposed to be 9ft deep with some shallow spots and a well marked channel through the shallow areas. As we approached the first shallow spots and had the markers in clear sight just ahead, the waters went from 9ft to 8, 7, 6. 5....and at that point I stopped and turned around. We had to backtrack, fortunately only about1 hour, to a longer but deeper route. It would cost us another hour, but a 2-hr delay was far better than running aground and losing a day waiting for Towboat USA to come get us. As we transited along the deeper route, I was still getting fathometer readings that were 2 feet too shallow. We broke out our trusty manual fathometer (a lead weight on a graduated string) and lowered it over the side and confirmed the water was 9ft and the boat depth sounder was reading too shallow. My suspicion is that we were getting returns from the sea grass (probably about 2feet high) instead of the true bottom. The sea grass should not echo the fathometer but it could be that a water temperature gradient boundary was being created by the grass and a temperature gradient will reflect the fathometer signals.
With these inaccurate fathometer readings, I was very uncomfortable proceeding to Miami along the inside route which is only a true 5ft deep in several spots (providing us 2-3 inches of clearance between our keel and the bottom). We decided we would take the much deeper (14-18ft) Hawk channel outside the Keys. That would be rougher ride into the wind and seas but a much less stressful trip. So, we headed under the Channel 5 bridge and by mid-afternoon were approaching Indian Key, a potential anchor spot. We had daylight to proceed onwards but the ride was rough and forecasted to be worse the next day. We decided to stop and wait a day until more favorable conditions were forecasted. It's great to be retired and not on a schedule. We were now safely anchored behind Indian Key and relatively well protected in the brisk winds.
Of course, boating is always an adventure with a good deal of stressful situations. Just before sunset, a sailboat was towed into the Indian Key anchorage and set on a mooring ball right behind us. There was just enough room for our two boats to stay apart during the night, but it made a relatively okay windy anchorage into a potentially dangerous situation if our anchor were to drag. It would have been better if they had selected a different mooring ball, but we were actually the offending party by anchoring alongside the mooring field, so we couldn't complain. I ended up sleeping in the salon for most of the night so I could jump up and get us out of danger if something went wrong. About 2am, I awoke and the wind and seas were calmer, our boat had not moved a bit, and so I went up to the front cabin and to bed and slept soundly until dawn.
At dawn, the broken down sailboat was towed away. We spent the day at the anchorage as the wind blew strong from the northeast directly in our path to Miami. By the 24th, the wind had died down to under 5kts and we set out for Miami, motoring into the light headwinds. Another wise decision.
