Rodriguez Key

We have been anchored out in Rodriguez Key waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream, but we have had no such luck. It has been a week since we left Marathon and we can't see any weather window with all the weather prediction sites available to us. We made an attempt to cross the Gulf Stream on March 25th, but we got our butts handed to us. We both took ginger pills after a pasta dinner to help prevent sea sickness. We both tried to take a nap before leaving, but neither one of us could sleep. We left Rodriguez Key at 11 pm with 10-15 knot winds and a bright moon. We looked at the weather prediction and Passage Weather said it was supposed to get a bit rough 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave. At this point we both decide this is our only chance to cross and if we don't try we won't be going anywhere for a while because the weather didn't look good for the rest of predicted days. We pull up anchor and head out with our foul weather gear on. It wasn't too bad when we first left, but then the winds picked up and the waves started to get really big. The winds were holding steady at 22 knots and the wave height got up to ~6 feet. We made it past the reef and the weather just got worse in the Gulf Stream so we decided to turn back. The weather got worse and it began to rain and get cloudy so we had no moonlight. We could only see some lights off on the distance, which were occluded by the crest of the waves. When we turned around, we had the wind on our backs blowing the exhaust from the engine into the cockpit and I began getting sick. But then the hand held GPS device was running low on batteries and JR needed me to go into the cabin and get new batteries for him. So I went in and got the batteries for him, but then I proceeded to get seasick. Before long I was hanging my upper body over the lifelines on the port side of boat and revisiting my dinner. Needless to say I was feeling awful and had the nausea for the following day too. It took forever to return to Rodriguez Key, but I was going in and out of consciousness falling asleep while JR and the autopilot navigated us back through the reef and into the bay. It turns out that we traveled 30 miles round trip and we put 17 hours on the engine. We got back to our original anchorage at 5:40am and we slept immediately after throwing our anchors down. I didn't want to turn back because I felt we were getting the worse of the weather and if we just continued going we would eventually get there and all of it would be worth it. But we suffered through the weather and ended up where we started. It was quite a demoralizing attempt to get to the Bahamas. So I don't think about it and enjoy reading some books while relaxing on the boat. The water is clear here and I would like to jump in, but it is not warm enough for me. The water bottom is dark due to the sea grass and JR saw a sting ray jump out of the water when we first put down our anchor. We haven't seen much marine life from the deck. On the last day here, I saw two sting rays jump out of the water, clear jellyfish and a small cuttlefish swimming around our anchor chain. It is pretty quiet here and we like that, but we don't like the speeding power boats that cause big wakes around us. We didn't see too many boats anchored here until the weather started to get bad and then several came in to wait out the storm. We have been hit by the worst winds we have ever seen with it reaching 40 knots yesterday! Luckily, JR dug up and threw out our huge Danforth quick set storm anchor before it got really bad and we had our own personal mooring. The holding here in Rodriguez Key is bad with the slick sea grass bottom so beware if you ever come here to make sure you take all precautions to secure the boat because if you aren't careful your boat could float away. We originally put out our two primary anchors (a Delta and CQR anchor), which we found the Delta anchor held better with this bottom. The winds at 15-20 knots were coming from the East, which of course is where there is no protection (land) so we were getting tossed around by the big waves slapping against our hull. This was not a pleasant time to be on the boat, but it wasn't bad. Then the cold front rolled in with heavy rains and strong winds gusting at or above 40 knots. We felt like we were in a washing machine with the rough seas and not being able to see much further than 100 feet. I tried to capture the moment in photos and videos, but they just don't do it justice. When the rain passed we went out to the cockpit and found several jellyfish floating around. I believe they were Portuguese Man of War, but they didn't look like the ones I saw at Sombrero Beach because their sails were different and I couldn't see any tentacles underneath. The wind slowed down now to 20-25 knots and gusting up to 30 knots. We then found we grounded the boat because the charts were wrong (yet again) and this was the lowest tide of the month due to the full moon. Luckily, we have fin keels which kept us upright and more comfortable. However, we didn't enjoy our time being aground because of the waves beating against our hull from the side and rocking our boat unpleasantly. It sounded like the water was punching our hull from inside the cabin. On the bright side, we had plenty of power with the wind generator needing to only run for a few minutes to charge our batteries after hours of use. The storm anchor was a very good idea and definitely worth the trouble of getting it out, exchanging it with one of the primary anchors, and heaving over the bow. We didn't drag much, if at all, during the entire onslaught of bad weather and rough seas. When the weather lightened up we saw that the Islander (boat) anchored in front of us was now drifting past us on our port side in the distance, but the weather was still too rough for us to move our dinghy from deck into the water and getting the outboard motor onto the dinghy was a whole different issue. It would have been dangerous for us to get out there in such weather and so we watched and waited, hoping the boats anchors (yes, he had two anchors with rope rode out that both dragged) would catch and miraculously they did in a few minutes. We had actually just lent our oars and oarlocks along with some sandpaper (?) to the owner of that boat, Jason. He had drifted to our boat in his dinghy because his outboard motor died (remember, the winds were strong already and the seas quite choppy). So he sanded something in his motor, which I don't know how it would help it start in the first place. I am not the only one wondering how that would fix his problem. But it didn't work and he was tied up to our boat for a while until we lent him our oars and oarlocks because he only had one oar and no oarlocks on his dinghy. Either someone stole his other oar or it fell off the boat was his excuse, but we are wondering how he put himself in this situation. His outboard was not the most reliable as he told us it broke down just yesterday. Then he had no back up method of propulsion, aside from his single oar with no oarlocks. On top of everything he was going out into the water with his dinghy to get to shore when the seas were raging. He said he would only be on shore for an hour, but then the huge storm rolled through and he couldn't return if he wanted. He was very lucky his boat didn't drift into Hawks Channel and float away into the ocean or go crashing into the rocks on shore. When we talked to him the next day, he didn't seem too concerned that his boat wasn't where he left it. Amazing. But I guess that was because he found his boat unharmed. No one should ever expect to be that lucky. We take enough precautions to make sure we don't need to be that lucky I suppose. The winds calmed down at night and we were able to sleep without the boat rocking. The full moon looked really neat as the clouds passed by and the light reflecting off the water. It's really too bad the weather is not right to cross the Gulf Stream because the moon light would have been very helpful to see.
The next day was a complete 180 with respect to the weather. It started out a little windy with 15 knot winds, but as the day progressed the wind dropped down to 5 knots and was sunny and nice. I even put on my swimsuit and got in the water to check out the hull growth and swam for a few minutes near the boat. The water was pretty cold, but it was not so bad after I got my entire body in the water for a little while. It would feel really great if it was hot. This trial run allowed me to test our swim ladder and I found that I couldn't really climb up without JR's help on deck. I also noticed that I kept getting pulled under the hull when I just held onto the ladder while I was in the water next to the boat. It was either due to the slight wind or water current that we believe caused me to be pulled under the boat. But it is a good thing that we found out I need a rigid ladder to pull myself up out of the water. JR says that he can use our ladder to get up onto the boat and so he would get on first and then pull me up, but I think we need to modify our ladder or get a "real" one (professionally made). I believe we saw the Italian boat at Marathon in the mooring field when we were there and I wonder where they are heading. JR looked at the weather and even with the calm waters we are seeing today he says that the weather is not right because tomorrow the wind will be 5-10 knots from the north, which means it will make the Gulf Stream choppy. He already said we aren't going unless it is calm and blowing from the south with less than 1 meter waves. I wonder how long it will be before we get such weather.

Departing Marathon

We left Boot Key Harbor on March 23rd, 2010, a Tuesday morning at 7:50am. The weather was nice and sunny but cool. We were motoring for an hour until the wind picked up and we were able to put out our sails and turn off the engine. The wind speed was up to 14.4 knots allowing us to travel at 4.6 knots without the engine running and with both sails up and the engine on we were traveling up to 5.6 knots. We arrived Long Key Bight at 2pm and anchored out for the night. The next day we left Long Key Bight at 8am, but the wind wasn't even blowing 10 knots so we couldn't put out any sails. We motored the entire way to Rodriguez Key at 4.5 knots arriving at 2:30pm. At this point we ran the engine for 4 hours using 6 gallons of our diesel fuel so we refilled our tanks to have full tanks when we cross the Stream. We anchored out for the night and watched the weather, winds, and wave height for crossing the Gulf Stream. There was supposed to be a window early Wednesday morning, but the window disappeared by the time we got to Long Key Bight. So we decided to look for a second window and found that there would be small seas on Thursday early morning. We ate dinner (pasta) early and JR tried to take a nap while I cleaned up the galley and got everything remaining strapped down for the trip. I also tried to get some sleep before the crossing but was unable to fall asleep. Neither of us were able to get any of the much needed rest for this trip, but there wasn't anything we could do. We checked the weather 20 minutes before we were going to pull up our anchors and found that there was a small patch of rougher seas we would have to cross. We debated about whether or not we should leave and then continued looking for the next weather window, which was supposed to be on Saturday. However, that window had also disappeared so we decided to try and cross because the weather was just going to get worse with two cold fronts coming back to back. We put on some warm clothes and my foul weather gear. We were on our way at 11pm leaving Rodriguez Key. The wind was blowing ~12 knots with ~2-3 ft. waves inside the reef, but as we traveled out further the wind picked up along with the wave height and frequency. When we got into the Gulf Stream the wind was blowing ~22 knots with 5-6 ft. waves every 3 seconds! I tried to keep my gaze on the horizon, but it was nighttime and I could only see some red or white lights in the distance when the waves were occluding them. I did my best to not get seasick and we even took a ginger supplement right after dinner just in case. I get motion sickness in a car so I knew that I would probably get seasick on this trip. But I was holding my own until we decided to turn around and go back to Rodriguez Key due to the rough seas. I had to go into the cabin to retrieve batteries for the hand-held GPS device because it was low and we needed to know where we were going so I did my best getting tossed around in the cabin with the rolling seas. I was able to get the batteries and back out to the cockpit within a couple minutes, but I was not feeling good. Then due to us turning around the wind was blowing from behind us and we could not get any fresh air due to the exhaust fumes from the engine blowing in the cockpit. That was the last straw and put me over the edge with the seasickness. I got up and walked to the side of the boat and stood over the lifelines waiting for the inevitable. After I vomited some of my dinner I felt better, but don't get me wrong I wasn't all better. If I did anything to make my seasickness worse I am sure I would have over the side of the boat again, but luckily I was able to just lay in the cockpit and watch the rolling seas go by as we traveled slowly back to our starting point. I fell in and out of sleep because I had to hold on to the side of the cockpit to make sure I didn't roll off the seat and fall onto the floor when we hit a big wave. JR lay in the other seat and kept us on the right course, checked for other vessels, monitored the computer and put in way points for the autopilot and verified everything with the hand-held GPS. He did awesome in getting us back to the same place we were because the moon had disappeared behind the clouds and we were traveling in utter darkness with the rough seas. We threw out both anchors because there isn't a good holding in this area with a slick sea grass bottom. It was 5:40am by the time we entered the cabin for some much needed rest and we both slept soundly. We traveled 30 miles round trip and put now 17 hours on the engine. We were both not feeling good as we still were affected from seasickness. We rested and slept the day away to recuperate from the rough trip. We decided to stay at Rodriguez Key and watch the weather. We didn't want to travel with the cold fronts coming through so we pulled out our huge storm anchor and set it for peace of mind when the wind really picks up. We have seen more sailboats coming in and out of this anchorage ever since we arrived, but we noticed they moved away this morning and more now have come closer to us to anchor instead of being closer to Rodriguez Key. We are disheartened by the rough passage or trip that lead nowhere, which didn't allow us to cross the Gulf Stream even though we endured such high seas. We have forgotten now why this was a good idea to go sailing because we have spent enough money to fly around the world already. We have unfortunately still not left Florida and we are tired of this state. The Bimini Islands of the Bahamas are only 50 miles away, but it almost seems like we need a miracle for the weather to be right before we can cross the now dreaded Gulf Stream. We talked with other cruisers and this year has been really bad for everyone. The weather has been unpredictable and abnormal, which lends to our frustration. We use NOAA, GRIB files, PassageWeather, and the Weather Channel to determine whether or not we should travel. It gets really irritating when they are wrong about even the CURRENT weather! How can it be so difficult we wonder. It is one thing to be wrong when you are predicting weather and it is a whole different issue when they can't tell me what is going on right now with the weather outside. It is so sad that we are so close to getting to our destination, but yet so far due to the weather not allowing us to cross the Stream. I wonder how long we will have to wait before the weather is right. I hope we can be patient enough to make it to the Caribbean because we worked so hard to get this boat in such good condition and ready to sail that it would be a shame to sell it now and go back to land. I am not ready to give up on Frodo and our plans to sail around the Caribbean. We are too close and we worked to hard to turn back now without crossing the Gulf Stream.

Getting Ready to Leave Marathon

We called Barnacle Bill from the harbor to clean our bottom (hull) and because he was really busy we had to wait two days for our appointment. He spent a total of an hour and fifteen minutes cleaning the bottom of our boat with 20 minutes of it just on our propeller. He charged us $2.50 per foot of boat length and we believe he did a good job, but we won't be able to really tell until we get to the Bahamas and see for ourselves. He complained about how much surface area we had due to our bilge (fin) keels and said our boat had more surface area and a 40 footer, which I don't believe for one second because we have a very shallow draft (3'8”) and narrow beam (9') on top of the fact our hull is only 31' long. He was totally exaggerating and just wanted to try and milk more money out of us, but we talked about the price before hand and settled on it so a deal is a deal. He even tried to tell me that we had 6” of growth (he couldn't tell me what kind, but not barnacles) on our bilge keels, which is ridiculous considering the time we have been in the harbor was 3 months and it didn't look bad at all from the surface near the waterline. I gave him what we owed after listening to his prognosis of our bottom, but we could hear from inside the boat when he was scraping barnacles (not many) and other stuff (not sure what the identity of those organisms were but it was green and slimy). The time he was working on our propeller we could feel his scraping through the floorboards. Now we are really able to leave the harbor, because we weren't really able to move very well through the water before the bottom and propeller was cleaned.

The next day was nice so we decided to clean our dinghy bottom and outboard motor. We went to Sombrero Beach to clean the bottom of the dinghy so we could bring it on the beach and use the ocean water to clean the stuff growing on the bottom of our little boat. We saw a miniature reef growing inside the hole for the center board because no anti-fouling paint was put on that portion. I saw tiny feather duster worms amongst other marine creatures growing in the opening. Due to the south winds we saw tons of Portuguese Man of War jellyfish floating around the beach and in Sisters Creek on the way to the beach. I also saw a purple moon snail with a clear inflated balloon-like protrusion and a sea slug of some sort that washed up on the beach. When I turned the moon snail upside-down I saw a purple liquid leak out of the shell. It was quite interesting and reminded me of a squid shooting ink as a defense mechanism. After my brief marine exploration I got back on task and finished cleaning the dinghy. We were able to clean the entire dinghy in a short period because we both were working on different parts of the boat at the same time.

We have a few other small projects to work on for the boat before we leave, but they are minor and could be done at a later time. We will wait here in Marathon until we find a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and in the mean time we will enjoy the fresh foods, hangout with the people we have met, reading books, going to the beach when the weather permitted, and work on the boat when the urge strikes. The weather has been back to back cold fronts with northern winds, which has kept many people in the harbor for more than a month in some cases. Some people just left even in weather that wasn't allowing a comfortable and sometimes safe passage across the Gulf Stream. We will wait until the weather is right and hopefully the Stream will be flat and we can motor over to the Bimini Islands without getting seasick. Fingers crossed.

Marathon Weather

The weather has been so cold all over the Northern Hemisphere this winter and it is unusual for these temperatures here in the Florida Keys. There have been many deaths of fish, manatees, iguanas, and other creatures that can't adapt to such cold temperatures. Now I mostly see birds taking refuge in the mangroves or flying around looking for fish to eat. When the temperatures dropped down to the 30's and warmed up a little afterward we found many of the fish that died rise to the surface of the water and balloon, which gave off quite a foul smell in the harbor. The fish that died from the cold temperatures were not limited to small fish as we saw many parrot fish and even tarpon floating around the waters, which we would have to dodge with the dinghy. I have to say sometimes we hit them because we didn't see them in time and we would hear the thud against the bottom of the dinghy, which would freak me out. The full moon has been giving really low tides and this was the lowest tide we have ever seen with the sea grass exposed in very large quantities.

Eating in Marathon

We have enjoyed eating the Stone Crab claws (now $1.25 per claw) at Keys Fisheries, the Pad Thai and Massaman Curry at the restaurant across from the city marina, and being social at Hurricane's for 25 cents Wing night on Thursdays. We stopped going to wing night due to bad service resulting in cold food and warm beer. It takes an hour or so to get our food and sometimes if you aren't lucky it doesn't come at all. You can see Gia fell asleep while we waited around for our food. We had some bad experiences with various waitresses so we aren't inclined to go there anymore. But in the end, we enjoy our home cooking much better. We enjoy eating Spanish Tortilla, delicious creamy and broth soups, wontons, stir-fried rice noodles, tasty burgers and thick-cut pork chops on the grill. We are fortunate to have a Publix nearby the marina so we can get fresh foods and eat well on the boat while we have been on the mooring ball. I am getting hungry... lunch time. :)

National Pig Days

In Marathon, the Stuffed Pig Restaurant hosts pig races during the "National Pig Days" on Feb. 26-28, 2010. We ate some tasty BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches and peanut butter pie. Then we watched some pig races, which was legal to bet on some pigs like horse races. We didn't bet anything, but we did enjoy watching the pigs run or in the last race, walk to the finish line. I had never seen anything like it before and I don't foresee I will again. The track was very small, but enough for some interesting entertainment. I was surprised to see the crowd of people that came out to watch the pig races, but then again not much goes on around here so maybe I am not really all that surprised about the turnout. I don't think I have seen this many pigs (15) in one place, but then again I have never visited a pig farm. :) This was definitely an interesting event that I never would have imagined I would attend. The pot-bellied pig race shown in the pics was completely unpredictable with No. 3, The Admiral, the largest pig (350 lbs. or more) taking the lead towards the end of the race and then out of nowhere No. 5, the smallest pig in last place for the entire race ended up winning! FYI, there were cookies for the pigs at the finish line and I believe there were some sprinkled on the track to keep them moving in the right direction. It was pretty funny to see when the pigs would just stop and block the traffic as they ate whatever they found on the track or to leave some "debris" (poop) on the track. Hehe. :)

The Engine Saga

The engine broke down on our way down to Marathon and we have not moved since early December. It turned out that everything that JR took apart from the engine to check its status was broken or almost unusable. We got new gaskets, new fuel injectors, new pistons, new water jackets, rebuild kits for the water pump, new thermostat (because there wasn't one installed at the time), a remote oil filter (because there wasn't any oil filter due to space in the engine compartment), and a new alternator. We got some sound proofing material to help insulate and reduce the noise coming from the engine compartment, which should get installed today. I am sure I missed some stuff that we got for the engine, but now the engine runs well. Before we were getting a lot of black carbon, oil, and diesel in the water exhausted from the engine, which we found out was due to several factors. We were surprised the engine took us as far as it did due to all the problems it had. Luckily, we were able to get new parts or rebuild the parts that we had for the engine and now everything has been reassembled and running as best as it can for an engine being over 30 years old. There is a little black discharge when the engine has full load, but we haven't gotten our hull and propeller cleaned yet so we believe that will help matters. Our boat was sitting at the marina in Miami for a couple months and then here in the harbor for another three so there is a lot of stuff growing on the bottom of our boat due to the fertilizer run off from the golf course nearby and fecal matter in the harbor doesn't help. Hopefully, we can get our bottom cleaned today and be ready to set sail next week. The pics show how dirty the engine was and we had to use hydrochloric acid to clean the engine heads and then we painted them and reinstalled them into the engine with new pistons, piston rings and etc. This engine has taken a lot of money and more importantly time. If we would have known this engine was so bad we would have just bought another one and replaced it all together. But this engine weighs over 600 lbs. so we would have to get a big battery bank to balance out the weight on the boat to make it level. If this engine breaks again we have vowed to junk it and get one that has parts easier to obtain instead of from England or from the one shop in the US that carries Lister Petter engine parts out in Kansas. I have to give the engine some credit because it did run for over 30 years and from what we can tell the previous owners didn't take care of the engine properly. We can only hope that the engine will last a while before we need to fix it again. I'll take another 30 years of operation before another engine overhaul, which took 3 months. I will be happy for that trade in time for reliable operation. :) My fingers are crossed...