Marathon...a Week and Counting

Day #134; Loop Miles to Date = 1,740

We have been relaxing in the Keys for over a week now, and the time just seems to ooze away a day at a time. We left the last blog post with an unresolved fuel leak, and are happy to report that this has been resolved. New fuel lines were delivered on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon, Rob had the repair complete...everything appears to be good as new. So, no more major projects on the boat right now...just routine minor chores as we laze around here in the Keys.

We want to give a belated shout out to our friends aboard California Lady. They have been here since before Christmas, and have been a great resource here as we get our bearings. And, knowing that we were coming in a bit late on the day when we arrived, they were gracious enough to have us and Inspeyered 2 over for dinner the night we arrived. It was great...and much appreciated! They were also instrumental in organizing a pig roast for the staff and boat owners last night. We had a tremendous spread, catered by a local Cuban Restaurant, and there must have been 75 or 80 folks in attendance. Too much food...and all delicious!

So now for some pics of the goings on over the last week...



View of the Faro Blanco Lighthouse from our slip.

 

  

The Old 7 Mile bridge is now a pedestrian bridge, and only about a mile walk from the marina. And once there you can walk for another 2 or 3 miles.

 

The is the section that we came under when we arrived coming into the Marina. It's hard to tell from this shot, but there is a pretty stiff current that often runs through here...we had some of this to deal with when we came in.

One day, we took a day trip to Key West with Inspeyered2 (thanks to California Lady for walking our pups so we could spend the day away!). We rode the bus for 2 hours each way to get there...that was an interesting part of the day. We had a really nice day...the highlight was probably the breakfast that we had at Bagatello...it was really, really good. Most of the day we wandered the streets like most of the tourists...lots and lots of shops and bars and restaurants. We're glad we went, but have no inclination to spend another day doing it again. 

Obligatory photo of the Southernmost point in the continental US. There was a line about 50 people deep that we would have had to wait in to include ourselves in this shot...we opted for just the buoy.

Not sure why we chose this particular spot to take a selfie...but why not?

This weekend, some serious power boaters from Miami visited the marina and used it as a stop over for their Keys weekend Poker Run. (Basically it's just an excuse to get their boats together and burn a whole lot of expensive fuel for the weekend.) These boats are mostly $1Million + and can run at 70 to 80 mph with no problem. Amazing to see the contrast between these machines and the trawlers that we travel with!

 

We heard them coming before we could see them...there were 12 - 15 of them in total.

 

This one basically looked like the Batmobile.

Most of these carry 2700 horsepower...that's roughly 8 times the amount of horsepower that we have on our boat.



And some of them were outboards...nothing like 1600 hp on your transom. Yikes!

The other happening of note this week was that we temporarily said goodbye to our friends on Inspeyered2. Their plans dictated that it was time for them to move onward on Thursday. We've been lucky to travel with them for the past few weeks, and look forward to when we meet up with them next...we are hoping that it will be soon.  



Yes, it's been a bit breezy...this day it was blowing at 20-25 mph. But we're not complaining!

 



Ft Lauderdale to Rodriguez Key to Marathon - THE KEYS!

Day # 126; Loop Miles to date = 1,740

We are officially in the Keys!

We finally "escaped" Fort Lauderdale after a week there. The weather finally gave us the window we were looking for, so we grabbed it. On Wednesday morning, we and Inspeyered 2 set off at 7am with the intent to head south on the outside...meaning that we would bypass the Intercoastal Waterway and go out in the Atlantic and cruise in open water. We found the weather, wind and seas to be ideal, with the wind at our backs. We had planned to travel about 40 miles to an anchorage we had chosen, but with the early start and great weather, we ran for about 78 miles to Rodriguez Key (Key Largo area). This put us more than halfway to Marathon, and we had a quiet night at anchorage here. The only downside, was that it was a longer dinghy ride to shore than we would have liked, and made for a chilly ride in the morning.

The Miami skyline from a couple of miles offshore.

The color of the water changed noticeably as we ventured south.

Inspeyered 2 at anchor...sunset at Rodriguez Key.

To add to our adventure, we decided that having some minor engine difficulty would make things more interesting. When we performed our engine room checks on Wednesday evening, we were greeted by the distinct smell of diesel fuel, and found about a quart or two puddled under the engine...typically this is not a good thing! The really short version of the story is that we had a pinhole leak in one of our fuel lines that was spraying diesel onto the floor of the engine room. Fast forward to 11am on Thursday morning, and the line had been patched, and deemed safe for venturing on. The patch lasted about 2 hours and then it failed and we were leaking fuel again. After anchoring for a short while, a second more aggressive patch was applied, and we were good to go. It was safe to travel with this patch, but stressful none the less...with engine room checks every 15 to 30 minutes assuring us that this second patch was holding. We finally arrived at our destination just after sunset, and pulled into our slip at dark.

So...we made it safe and sound, and added another page to our adventure. Now that we are camped out here for a few weeks, we will be able to order replacement fuel lines and fix this issue more permanently. Whew...we're glad that one is behind us!

And now for some catch-up photos from our time in Fort Lauderdale:

One more shot of some really big boats...

Our day at the beach with our friends from Inspeyered 2.

Waiting in the dockmasters office for Rob to finish up some paperwork.

And finally, our first official picture in the Keys...this was our Wednesday afternoon puppy run to shore...since we used this restaurant's dinghy dock, we decided to give them a small bit of patronage...

 

Camped Out in Fort Lauderdale

Day #119

Although it was never our intention, we are hanging out in Fort Lauderdale for a spell. Not only do we have a fair dockage rate in a pretty neat location, but the weather is being a bit uncooperative for our journey further south. The El Nino that we are in the midst of is causing the winds in this part of the world to really kick up this winter. Folks in Florida, including the Keys, as well as the Bahamas are all complaining about high winds. And for us, we have some open water to traverse between here and the Keys, so we are keeping an eye on it and waiting for the most opportune time to head south.

In the meantime, we thought we'd catch you up on a few pictures that we left out of an earlier post, and as well, share some additional pics of some of the scenery that we are experiencing right here at our slip.

First...we had a new sign made for us to display our name on the upper deck. While our signage on our stern meets all Coast Guard requirements, the position of our dinghy makes it nearly impossible for folks to spot our name while on the water...so...

This is the sign being made...

And here it is on our upper rail.

For the last year or so, Sandy has been campaigning for a new table for the salon. The original table is a really nice teak and holly table, but it is rather large for the space available.  Rob has been dragging his feet because it would mean replacing something that is original equipment, and he just wasn't sure it was needed. Finally, wisdom prevailed and we decided to have a new table custom built for us. The folks at Stuart Yacht Builders made this new teak table top for us and we are thrilled with it. It really opens up the salon, and allows for greater ease of movement in this relatively small space.

 



And now for some fun pics of boats...more aptly, pics of yachts and super yachts...all taken from our cockpit here at the dock.

As these 2 crossed, we could practically reach out and touch the closer one.

 

Traffic jam in the making...

The Superyacht Antithesis being towed by. We've seen many of these, this just being an example of a typical 135 footer. This part of the river is too narrow for these bigger boats to maneuver under their own power, so we see them with a tow boat in front, and another on the stern.

And here we sit, parked between 2 smaller yachts...65 and 85 feet respectively...it's almost comical!

Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale

Day #116; Loop miles = 1613

Wow...what a long day! We traveled 47 miles, but it felt like 100. We had 20 bridges to clear, of which 9 needed to be opened for us. Plus countless no wake zones and slow zones, and so many boat wakes to deal with in rather narrow waterways. It really wasn't a fun day, but one that we'll remember. We ended the day docked in downtown Ft Lauderdale on the New River...action everywhere! And we were beat - on top of all of the very busy navigating, sensory overload from all of the tremendous yachts and mega yachts was mind numbing. Here is just a sampling of some of what we saw...

For perspective, look at the lower deck on the left middle portion of the picture...those are crew members standing there.

Typical scene at a bridge opening today...everyone jostling for position.

This following picture deserves a special note. These types of signs are all over the place, directing you to drive a certain speed or with a certain wake. At the very least, it is confusing sometimes. Not only are you supposed to obey these, you have to interpret what they mean while you are driving by. This one was laughable, as the large print at the bottom was supposed to override all other information. We were getting rocked left and right with 3 foot wakes all day long within sight of these signs.

So now we are settled for a few days, planning to enjoy the vibrancy of this area. We are right on the river (only about 100 feet wide where we are parked,) and boats, yachts and mega yachts of all shapes and sizes cruise right past us all day long...it's like a parade. It is amazing to see the size of some of these in such a relatively small waterway. Perhaps the best challenge that we had all day, was getting docked. There was a $2 million boat in front of our spot, and a $1 million boat behind our spot...and we needed to parallel park between them, with the wind blowing, traffic going by, and only about 4 or 5 feet of wiggle room on either end of our boat. It took us an extra pass to make sure we didn't hit anyone, but not a problem in the end. Now that we're here...we're not moving until we're ready to leave!

One of our views from the boat...yes it is windy.

Sitting on our back deck...yes that is a big boat behind us.

The narrow, busy river where we are docked.

Stuart Yacht builders to Peck Lake to Lake Worth

Day #115; Loop miles = 1,566

After a handful of days at Stuart Yacht Builders, we once again headed south. Our good friends on InSpeyered 2 also finished up their list of repairs so we were able to time our departure together as we had hoped. We know that we have a bit of a long slog now to get south to the Keys if we choose to stay in the AICW...it is very slow going as we make our way south through West Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, etc. There are dozens and dozens of bridges, some that we will need to have opened...miles and miles of No Wake and Minimum Wake zones, and lots of boat traffic. The option is to travel "on the outside" in the Atlantic, but unfortunately, the winds do not look promising for this route. So...we will take it one step at a time.

Our home at Stuart Yacht Builders

On Sunday, we made our way up through the St Lucie inlet area...a traffic jam on the water...and stopped at an anchorage on Peck Lake. It was a nice anchorage adjacent to a wildlife refuge that had a short 50 yard path from the shore of the Intercoastal to the Atlantic Ocean. The only issue we had was some restriction on where we could walk the dogs, but that worked itself out. The beach was empty...the 4 of us had miles of beach to ourselves, and enjoyed a nice long walk on Monday morning.

Monday found us making our way south to Palm Beach. As expected, as we made our way south, it got ever more congested, and the real estate and boats got larger and larger along the way. We anticipate that this trend will continue as we make our way to Ft Lauderdale and Miami. The size of the boats, and the beauty of the real estate becomes almost mind numbing...it's hard to imagine it until you see it for yourself. Here's a smattering of what we saw...

Houses and boats like these are more than commonplace...literally thousands and thousands of them.

Yes this is someone's "boat" in the dock behind their home.

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse.

Now this one was huge. It was being moved from one slip to another just as we were passing in a smallish part of the ICW on Lake Worth. We found out later that it was 223 feet long. It looked like a small cruise ship, and required 2 tow boats to move it. Incredible.

Monday night finds us anchored in a mooring field in Lake Worth (Palm Beach area). It is a very large field with tons of moored sailboats, but there was ample room for us. We found that a sailing club just across the Intercoastal from us allows folks to use their docks for dinghy access to land for a small fee. So, a short dinghy ride from our anchorage, we have a relatively convenient spot to walk the pups. The wind is light tonight, so we expect a quiet and peaceful night. Tomorrow, we plan to try to make it to a marina in Ft Lauderdale, but will have to see if we can make it that far with all the bridges and slow zones...time will tell. All for now...