Marathon 24-28 Feb

 

   We're underway from Key Biscayne for the transit down the Hawk Channel outside the Keys for Marathon, which is nearly all the way to Key West.

   The weather is great for the westerly transit with light prevailing easterly trade winds.

  Actually sailing with all 3 sails out. The winds are light but we have turned the motor off for one of the first times since leaving Yorktown. 

   This entire trip has been a motoring trip, not that we are complaining. For the two months we have been traveling we have mainly been under high pressure systems with clear blue skies and light winds. There have been very few rain showers and no really bad weather.

   Yes, we are finally in the Florida Keys and in the tropical trade winds. Its short sleeves and shorts weather.  First time on the trip I have been able to open the full rear enclosure and use the great corner seats. Doesn't get much better.

   

   The view looking out towards Cuba as we transit down the Hawk Channel. You can see some of the Sargasso weed on the water that folks are talking about. There is a larger than normal amount of Sargasso weed approaching Florida from the Atlantic. We saw a bunch but nothing out of the normal yet.

   Our anchorage spot for the night off Indian Key which is about half way to Marathon. The wind is down and its not a good idea to motor in the Hawk Channel during the night as it is full of crab pots with float lines that can wrap around your prop.

   Sunset at our anchorage off Indian Key. This is the calmest the wind has been off Indian Key during our previous trips down the Keys, but it still was an uncomfortable night with the rolling from the swells. Next time we will proceed on through the Channel 5 bridge and anchor on the inside of the Key.

Its the Marathon welcoming committee. Our friends came out in their dinghy to meet us just outside the channel and guide us into the anchorage and mooring area. Its a good thing because we would be very apprehensive about entering the busy channel not knowing if there was any room to anchor. They told us they had seen a couple areas we could anchor  so we followed them in.

   Marathon is a very popular and busy place in the winter as it is the only anchorage/mooring area in the Keys where you are fully protected from strong winds and waves on all sides. There are normally over 400 boats moored or anchored there in February. We were lucky to find a small spot inside the old lift bridge with just enough room for us to anchor.

    Its been several years since we last saw our cruising buddies, Sally and Conrad, and we had to celebrate by playing dominos and sipping Nassau Royale spiced rum. The Nassau Royale from the Bahamas is not produced any more but we still have a bottle onboard from our trip to the Bahamas in 2012. 

   Another Marathon tradition is to go to the Castaways and order off the "Seniors" happy hour appetizer menu. While most of items were appropriately small servings, you get a whole plate full of fried chicken livers. Sue and I both enjoy chicken livers and they were great. 

  The big entertainment at the Castaways is the manatees that come up to the restaurant and drink the fresh water dripping from the drain pipe of the air conditioner system. The manatees spend hours lounging there and pushing each other out of the way for their turn to catch the drips. We have about 20 photos of manatees to pick from for the blog.

Uniform of the day for sightseeing around Marathon, blue shirt and khaki shorts with broad brimmed hat. 

   Another interesting sight in Marathon, this is a real Cuban homemade boat that refugees had motored to Marathon in just a couple weeks before we arrived. They had welded a bunch of 50gal oil drums together and built a boat skin out of metal house siding. Then they mounted a old construction diesel engine connected to a shaft and prop. Very amazing that they made it across the 100 mile ocean trip which can be quite rough at times as the Gulf Stream races through this passage against the prevailing winds.

   Our visit was way too short but our schedule is dictated by the weather and the fact we have to be back to Daytona Beach to fly to New York City to see our granddaughter play at Carnegie Hall on Mar 14th. So tomorrow its back to Miami. 

   We're glad we were able to make the trek down to Marathon, it was worth it for the couple of great days we spent there with our friends.

Miami - South Beach 21-22 Feb

 

   We anchored one night off of South Beach. We can dinghy into the police dock and public boat launch area where you can land your dinghy for several hours (no overnight tying up). There are no services here but there is a water spigot where we can fill our jerry cans.

   First on the agenda is a good walk across the causeway to the Miami mainland - about a 6 mile walk. The Miami boat show was the previous weekend and they were disassembling all the temporary docks where the boats were displayed. 

  No need to go to the zoo in Miami. The iguanas live right out in the trees along the causeway road. 

   In the afternoon, we run the dinghy down the drainage canal on South Beach where there is a small dock across the street from Publix and Trader Joes. Its also a relatively short, 1 mile, walk to the laundry.

   Laundry done and groceries acquired its time to load the dinghy and head back to the boat. All set to push on to Marathon.

   We'll move our anchorage spot from off South Beach to over in the Biscayne Bay where we can depart in the morning out the Florida Channel to run down the Keys. Here's a view of the mouth of the Miami River right downtown.

  We were concerned it was going to be rough over off Key Biscayne, but the conditions weren't bad at all and we had a comfortable night. Here's a shot of the moon over Jupiter and Venus from our anchorage.

West Palm Beach to Miami 20-21 Feb

   Sunrise on the 21st as we motor down the coast to Miami. Its a no-wind morning so we will be motoring the whole 14 hour trip. The winds have been coming up strong from the south (the direction we're trying to go) every afternoon for the past week, so we had to leave WPB at 10pm the previous evening and we should arrive in Miami by noon before the wind comes up.  

   WPB is normally an easy inlet to exit at night, but this time a dredge was operating right in the channel and boaters were confused how to pass him. Fortunately we had listened to him on the radio all the previous day explaining where to go and we had no problems. 

   Miami in sight. It was 14hr motor trip but one of the smoothest trips we've made to Miami. You can see the wind and waves have yet to come up. It'll be quite rough by 3pm this afternoon out here. 

   Right on schedule, arriving in Miami at noon. Passing by Miami Beach Marina just inside the inlet. We were able to proceed down the main channel for the first time ever as there were no cruise boats in port, a rarity. 

   An hour later we are anchored off South Beach where we will wait a couple days for the next weather window to head on down to Marathon.

Stuart - West Palm Beach 19 Feb

 OMG!  We haven't been through here since 2005 - and, we never intend to be here ever again. The ICW from Stuart to WPB was absolutely insane with so many boats and crazy drivers. Of course it was a holiday weekend and the boaters were out in big numbers.

  There are 8 opening bridges to pass through between Stuart and WPB and most of them are timed so that you should pass through each of them at 30 minute intervals, assuming you can make the expected speed while dodging the crazies. 

   Here's a typical southern Florida boater passing by in the narrow channel. Not only do they exhibit no common sense boating skills, they also don't display any common sense political views.

   8 white knuckled hours later we are passing through our last bridge. Only a short passage now to the anchorage area in Lake Worth. 

   Of course as we were approaching this last bridge the engine started sputtering and losing RPMs. I checked and, yes our fuel filter suction gauge was in the yellow, approaching the red, needing to be changed. We were able to limp through the bridge and proceed on at a reduced speed.

   Still a steady stream of boats passing each way but a bit more settled as we exit the constricted canal waters into Lake Worth. The engine is running ok at 2000 rpm.

   We entered the lake and pulled over and anchored and changed the fuel filter. Only a 15 min job but you need room to pull over into a safe area to anchor without any crazies.  Filter changed - we thought of staying put for the night but there were too many boats rocking us with huge wakes. Need to push to a more protected area.

   Well, we're not in Kansas anymore, or the Chesapeake for that matter. A different scale of yachts here in West Palm Beach. 

   Another "typical" sailing yacht passing by our anchorage spot. They anchored just down from us but never invited us over for cocktails.

   And then, the other side of the southern Florida boating community.  And boaters wonder why Florida home owners are concerned about boats anchoring permanently in front of their million dollar homes. 

  We moved on from this guy and found a spot to anchor close to the inlet where no speed boats were racing by.

Melbourne - Stuart 15-17 Feb

 

   After a quick stop in Melbourne it was time to push on south towards Stuart where we had friends staying on their Island Packet.

   Not much picture worthy along this transit of the Indian River, a stretch of the ICW in Florida we have made many times.

  We did get to see the Goodyear blimp heading northward, I expect to Daytona for the 500.

We made good progress the first day, transiting to Vero Beach where we anchored for the night. The next day we were planning to get to Stuart but the 20kt winds were on the nose and we could only make it to Jensen Beach.

   We have not been on this stretch of the ICW since 2005 as we normally head out to the ocean at Fort Pearce. We weren't overly impressed with Jensen Beach, but maybe because the high winds and rough conditions made it an uncomfortable day and night.

   We did get to watch a high school regatta and learned it was the Southeast spring sailing championships.

   The next day we made it to Stuart and anchored across from the Sunset Marina where our friends were on a mooring ball. This area of Stuart is a good spot to hangout in Florida with good weather protection and all the supplies and comforts you need a short dinghy ride away. 

  You can see from the nearby beach that many other boaters like hanging out in the Stuart area. A bit too crowded for our liking.

   We had picked up a coconut in Melbourne on got out our machete to dehusk it. 

 

   Fresh coconut. Reminds us of the days we lived in Guam and had several coconut trees in our yard. We learned there to be careful not to eat too much, tough on the digestion system.

   It was soon time to hit the ICW again pushing south. Now we are heading to visit other Island Packet friends who are in Marathon, in the Keys. But first we have to transit down to West Palm Beach and wait for the right weather to make the ocean transit to Miami.

   Here's a typical home in Stuart with your multi-million dollar boat docked at your multi-million dollar house.

Melbourne, FL 14 Feb

    We have never stopped at Melbourne before in our trips to Florida, mainly because there is no anchorage area there. We were in no hurry so we decided to pull in to town and spend one night in the city marina. 

   One nice thing about Melbourne is you can walk across the bridge to the ocean. It is a 5-6 mile walk to the ocean and back, a good distance for us. We have been walking between 5-10 miles almost every day on the trip.

   We walked over to the beach the next morning to check out the sunrise. A bit cloudy but always a pretty sight.

   Melbourne had a very nice brewery with an enclosed beergarten area that was very busy. Our photos didn't come out so good of the brewery so here's a picture of the egrets we see along our walk over the bridge. 

Cocoa Village 12-13 Feb

 

   On the 12th the wind was forecasted to come up to 25-30kts in the afternoon but it was still fairly calm in the morning, so we pushed off for Cocoa Village.  We should have waited till the next day. Within an hour the wind was up to 30 and we had a bouncy and salt sprayed transit to Cocoa.  But we made it in a few hours.

   The next day the sun was out and the wind down and we took a nice walk to shore. Rivah posted for a picture with the young girl reading. 

   Cocoa Village has a couple good breweries and the Bugnutty Brewery was actually open on Monday evening. They probably shouldn't have been as we were the only customers the whole time we were there. But the beer was good.

  Compare to the 30kt crazy passage down to Cocoa, the couple days there were dead calm. It is one of the stops in Florida we enjoy the most with its small town atmosphere, lots of restaurants and breweries, and pretty places to walk. Too bad you can't walk across the bridge here to the beach as there is no separate sidewalk for pedestrians on the busy bridge.

 Soon, time to move on.

Titusville, FL 8-11 Feb

 

   It was time to start moving on south so we departed New Smyrna for Titusville on the 8th.  The winds were unusually calm so we decided to stop at an anchorage in the Mosquito Lagoon south of New Smyrna.  You can actually transit across the couple mile wide lagoon to the ocean side but we decided to just go about halfway and anchor in the middle of the lagoon.  It was a quiet and smooth night.

   The next day we were anchored off the Titusville marina mooring field. The anchorage is a bit off the shore as its outside the mooring field, meaning it can be a wet ride in the dinghy to shore.  Fortunately the winds initially were mild. When the winds rose a couple days later we saw that folks were anchoring inside the buoys but away from the mooring balls closer to shore so we moved up as well.

   Stopping in Titusville means visits to the Playalinda brewery. This visit they were again featuring the beers and Girl Scout Cookies pairings. It turned out I would have never selected any of these beers to drink, but they came with the cookies. Most all were too sweet for my taste, although probably good pairs for the cookies.  

   Good news was I got to eat all the cookies and Sue drank most of the beers.

   Across from the anchorage is an island in the middle of the Indian River. We had always wanted to visit the island and the weather was cooperating so we dinghied over.

   One of the first things we noticed was that it was apparently horseshoe crab mating and/or egg laying season. The shore was covered with horseshoe crabs, many which had already died. Many were stranded and upside down ashore which we returned to the water and they promptly swam back ashore.

   The island was obviously a popular landing spot for local boaters. There were well worn trails and evidence of several campsites. On the backside we saw the decaying carcass of a manatee that had washed up on the beach. 

   Sue found an abandoned lawn chair and had a nice restful sitdown for awhile enjoying the view. 

   The Titusville anchorage is a great place to watch launches from Cape Canaveral. Unfortunately it was cloudy and we lost sight of the rocket shortly after liftoff, but it lit up the clouds as it rose. Its still an impressive sight even though this was one of the smaller Starlink satellite rockets. It would be great to watch one of the large moon rockets go up.

   Here's the latest in RV styles you can see in Florida. Even comes with solar panels.

   After a couple days it was time to move on further south.