2001 - 4/19 to 4/24 - Elliot Key - Miami

Friday, April 20th - Winds 15 East, light chop, chilly. At 2 pm we moved to the East side of Lignumvite Key and went ashore. We got all the way in, tied up, walked to the gate and found a tiny sign: “NO DOGS ALLOWED”. Not even little Molly?  I was rather pissed. Since Wayne had been here before, he stayed with Molly and I did a whirlwind tour of the old house. I tried to read about the history without my glasses. I roamed the grounds a little before the bugs came after me. In the meantime, Wayne got into a conversation with a guy who thinks he’s a ‘local’ (but really a New York transplant) and who was one of those knows-it-alls. One thing led to another and the guy said, (get this) “I never heard of a powerboat that draws five feet”! WHAT??  unbelievable - you meet all kinds.We dragged bottom as we approached the bay side of Islamorada and anchored...went ashore for happy hour at the Lorei-Lei – another place I’ve never visited but (of course) Wayne has. We’re going to try real hard to visit places neither of us has been. I’m glad I remembered to bring the camera to capture

this floating Lincoln Town at the dock!! It was a water taxi – what a concept.The whole thing was built by hand out of fiberglass by, yet another, eccentric Keys person. April 21st  - Brisk & sunny. We continued north, dingy in tow. I always wanted to go under the Jewfish Creek bridge. Of course, Wayne has done this many times. Whenever I’ve crossed the

bridge by car it was always quiet, with little boat traffic. Now, in keeping with our ‘luck’, there was a sailing club rendezvous with boats anchored everywhere, even in the channel. Lots of current, wind, boats and drunken sailors! We had to make a careful, slow approach so as to time our arrival with the scheduled opening of the bridge, because there was no room to maneuver if we had to wait. While underway in Biscayne Bay we saw a boat called “XANAX 2mg” – very clever and perhaps the best name for a boat I’ve seen in a long time. We anchored at Elliott Key just in time to see a nice sunset, had happy hour and dinner. We’re getting pretty good at timing our days and ordering up those special sunsets. The weather forecast is for more wind…but, ‘we’ll worry about that tomorrow’. Sunday, April 22nd    Breezy, clear and warm. Welcome to Elliott Key, a National Park. Fabulous place. I, of course, have never been here. (OK, I won’t go there again) We explored with Molly in tow. Followed the trails through woods and along the beach. After following a marked trail for a mile or so we came to a well-constructed boardwalk along the beach. Next, we saw a sign, “closed, damaged from hurricane Irene, Trespass is a Federal Offense”. We broke the law. It’s been several years since ‘Irene’ came through and I can’t imagine them not making repairs yet but they had money to buy several "go-fast' boats

Elliot Key on Biscayne Bay

Molly...the Queen

Our tax dollars at work!? We saw a camp site and boat docks for only $15 a day. Nice docks well built and protected. It’s a shame the depth was only 3 feet and BLUE MAX draws 5 feet. 4/23 - windy, sunny, perfect & comfortable. Good day to go fishing. Besides, since we couldn’t ‘cross’ it was better to stay in Biscayne Bay than in Miami.We decided to go to the south end of Elliott Key to Caesar’s Cut. On the charts it looked like a perfect place to fish. It is a beautiful place by lots of current and not much elbowroom for maneuvering. Other fishing boats trolled through but I didn’t see any action. Of course, all good fishermen must be somewhere else – that it has to be better fishing than where you currently are…I’m no exception to that rule so I took the dingy, equipped with fishing stuff and hand held radio, to the outer edges of the pass while Wayne and Molly remained on BLUE MAX to watch. (nap). No fish nibbled my line so I moved to docks on the other side of the channel, where of course, the fish were.Yea-right! The motor wouldn’t start. “OK, don't panic, I can do this”. I reviewed all systems and tried again. No go. Fortunately, I was still securely anchored. Wayne saw that I was having trouble and called me on the radio.I grabbed my hand-held. I thought how smart was I to bring this thing. I couldn’t get that to work either! By now I knew Wayne was thinking I could only ‘talk the talk’ (that’s another story) so we used hand signals. I heard BLUE MAX start up and Wayne was raising the anchor. I would have to row back to the boat - that would be pretty interesting with the wind and currents. Luckily, I had practice rowing at Bahia Honda. Captain Wayne expertly maneuvered BLUE MAX into my path as the current was taking me swiftly out to sea. I grabbed hold of BLUE MAX and once safely aboard, we discussed our options: do we stay anchored in the cut or leave before the tide gets too low.  The tide was going out as we spoke but I still wanted to fish. On the chart a nice looking side channel with a depth of 18 feet – looked like a perfect place to fish the night away, but it seemed not to have enough swing room. We decided to go have a look. I said, “after all, what’s the worst that could happen?” I forgot about the “gods”. It really was gorgeous with Mangroves on either side-I had visions of catching red fish, snook and snapper – good current and plenty of swing room. We dropped the hook but it didn’t feel right to Wayne but he knew I really wanted to stay so we tried several more attempts. It finally caught but with the way she laid to the wind and current, he was afraid we would end up in the Mangroves during the night. He was especially concerned if the anchor would hold when the tide changed and the current and wind would be in the same direction. Sooo…Wayne decided to raise the anchor and get the hell out of there before the tide locked us in. Oh-oh, now the anchor was snagged. But on what? We tried several approaches without success.  I was at the helm praying it would come up (after all, it was my idea to do this) -Wayne was cussing. The wind was coming up, the tide was going down and it would be dark soon. Finally, after much maneuvering and prayer and when we were resigned to spending the night, the anchor simply came loose. We got the hell out of there PDQ. We anchored back by Elliott Key. 4/23  The wind continues but sunny and comfortable. The NOAA weather forecast, which had been for 20 knot winds for the next several days, changed. According to NOAA, the winds should abate and clock to the South on Wednesday.  NOW WE HAVE A WINDOW TO CROSS THE GULF STREAM! YEA!! We tried an experiment to grow tomatoes on-board & it worked. we picked our first batch.

We readied the boat and left for Miami to get fuel and more supplies.Molly supervised the fueling process. We took on  
202 gallons - $302. We anchored near Belle Isle on the Venetian Causeway, Miami Beach. I was putting away the dock lines when a stranger came alongside and said, “You must be Winnie”.What??? He turned out to be an old friend of Wayne's, Pete from WOODJA

Miami skyline

(they were anchored about 500 yards South of us) I invited him aboard and surprised Wayne who was in the engine room at the time. He invited us over for happy hour. We were there definitely more than an hour and after many drinks later, we still had to get ourselves into the dinghy to go home...Captain Wayne wound up with one foot in the dinghy & one foot in the water. Somehow, I manged to get him onto BLUE MAX & to bed. So this is what it's like to live-aboard?? I'm lovin it...
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2001- March - April - Preeaparation & on our way up the Keys

Wayne had his work cut out for him in the last few months before departure. Some work was truly necessary. Some, he just always wanted to do but never seemed to get ‘round tuit’. So, like most men, being “under the gun” made it the perfect time to accomplish these tedious tasks. (Replaced the exhaust elbow and installed an exhaust over-temp switch, adjusted the valves and installed a bypass lube oil filter on the generator. Also installed an automatic fresh water flush system, replaced the reverse osmosis elements and pressure vessels as well as the boost pump on the water maker. Meanwhile, a palm frond fell on BLUE MAX – one of the teak hand rails had to be replaced. There was more…refer to the BLUE MAX log book for more details) I had my own work cut out for me as I had the monumental job of educating Meredith in being adept at all I do, planning a network of people so my mom’s needs would be met and working together with Wayne to provision the boat. I came home on my last day of work extremely excited, just like a little kid again. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 12^th    SUMMERLAND KEY

The good news was: Captain Wayne was successful in getting BLUE MAX out of the canal and she was anchored in Niles Channel.  The bad new was: 

a message on the answering machine… “The dingy won’t go into forward…” he was stranded and that wasn’t all.  While waiting for me to get home, he opened the port lazerette and found a steady stream of water pouring into the bilge! There was a broken bolt on the swim platform bracket. (Probably a result of backing down on a snagged fishing line in big seas on our way home from Ft. Lauderdale last Christmas) Fortunately, we had not yet put my boat, TIGGER TOO, in storage so I was able to use her as a dingy.  This seemed to be yet another bad omen…was “someone” really trying to tell us not to go?

FRIDAY, APRIL 13^th       NILES CHANNEL

 For the sake of simplicity, I’ll summarize what happened on Friday the 13^th. The dink motor was taken to Marathon for repair. Wayne hitched a ride back to Summerland with his friend, Bob Lloyd.  My car remained in Marathon. I closed the house up and hauled the last of the provisions out to BLUE MAX. Next, we took TIGGER TOO to Keys Sea Center on Big Pine for dry storage.  Our neighbor, Tom, picked us up and drove us home. We then hitched a ride out to BLUE MAX with Jim, another neighbor.

SATURDAY, APRIL 14^th  Wind, SE, less than 10 knots, clear skies. At 1040 we proceeded out in the Atlantic about 10 miles. I had a troll line out but no luck. For some reason, one of the depth sounders was not reading. The seas were rough and confused in the Gulf Stream.

We arrived at the Bahia Honda anchorage at 1430. We put the dingy in and went ashore. I rowed.  Meredith was working (her 2^nd job). She helped secure our lines, got some water for Molly and offered some smart ass comments about me having to row shore (God, I’ll miss her).  We explored Bahia Honda and took the road up to the old bridge…Wayne’s first time up there. (now that’s a first – I’ve been, he hasn’t) We used the digital camera for the first time and took some pictures in the woods,  BLUE MAX in the harbor from the bridge and a magnificent sunset. 

 

 

Old bridge on the left - new one on the right

SUNDAY, APRIL 15^th (Easter) Calm, in the 80’s. Gorgeous day. We left Bahia Honda even though we would rather stay here than in a boat yard but we called ahead - Keys Boat Works suggested to come in on Sunday night so they could haul us first thing on Monday.

I got the car and spent the afternoon with mom and took her to dinner. Wayne stayed aboard and changed the oil in the main engine. Later, we joined Bob, Annabelle and Mable poolside at Sombrero Resort for happy hour and live music.

MONDAY, APRIL 16^th Calm and warm. Another beautiful day in paradise but, unfortunately, the Gods were against us once again – trouble with the travel lift which delayed the haul out until Tuesday. Meanwhile, Wayne picked up the outboard for the dink, hopefully, repaired. They said the linkage had come out of adjustment. Cost: $41.  He took the depth sounder to Jon Johnson for evaluation and repair. We spent another $100 or so at Publix on more last minute shopping. (with this much food onboard, we shouldn’t have to buy anything more!)

TUESDAY, APRIL 17^th  Calm and warm. Hauled BLUE MAX just before noon.

Wayne changed all the zincs and replaced the Genset through hull intake screen with a larger one. (the Genset always seemed to not have enough water flow even though it never overheated; the exhaust was noisier than it should have been.) I went to surprise mom at the senior’s meal center and to meet Bob and the rest of the ‘gang’ she hangs out with every day. What great people!! & they fed me too.  I brought mom over to see the boat on the lift. The broken bolt was replaced and the boat was back in the water by 1700.  Cost: $542. Ouch!

We went to Faro Blanco for happy hour then to Banana Bay Resort for dinner. (Wayne’s favorite place in Marathon). What a beautiful resort. I had been there only once and only to the Tiki hut. The Tiki hut had burned down since I was there so we went to see the newly built structure. 

It was good to see they kept the sand ‘floors’. We checked out the marina. Wayne’s friends, Pete and Geneva, who live aboard WOODJA, already left the marina.
By the time we got back to the boat yard, the wind had picked up & a commercial fishing boat, ROBERTO JR., was crossways in the channel. BLUE MAX was directly in her path if she came loose.  Wayne called the Coast Guard, who, in turn, called the Marine Patrol. I flashed the Q beam around in an attempt to get someone’s attention on ROBERTO. Finally, someone showed up and secured the boat. (the gods were still playing with us)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18^th Brisk North winds: 20-25 knots. Cold. Wayne picked up the depth sounder. (another $117, but it works better than ever) We took the car home, grabbed a few things we forgot and put away things we overlooked. (will we ever be ready to go?)

Bob Lloyd & family picked us up at the cottage with their van which was filled to capacity with provisions for Irrational’s trip to Ohio. (Wayne owned IRRATIONAL for 10 years before selling it to Bob) Bob and Annabelle plan to leave May 1^st for Cincinnati taking their boat up the Tom-Bigbee and Ohio River.

When we got back wind from the North was so strong BLUE MAX was pinned to the dock. It looked ominous for our planned departure in the morning.

THURSDAY, APRIL 19^th North wind: 25 knots; whitecaps in the bay and was cold. To leave or not to leave today – that is the question. After much discussion & in consideration of my depressed state for only being in Marathon, we left at 1400.