I think I figured out why so many people prefer the Hawk Channel route rather than going straight across the gulf, crab pots a plenty. I dodged crab pots all day long, even when I was 22 miles out. At first, I was surprised to see them out this far, even though it’s only 20’ deep out here. And then I thought of a book I read called Trapped in Key West, a book about a family who grew up in Key West and owns a fish house. They went all the way to the Bahamas to lay lobster and crab traps, from Key West. So, no, I should not be surprised.
I was able to dodge all but one of the crab pots. Crab Pots are the floating balls that are attached to the crab trap by a rope/line. The danger is the rope can get caught in your prop shaft and reel the crab trap up to the bottom of the boat. Or the rope can get wound around the shaft and shaft support. Either of these can cause the shaft to stop turning.
I was watching carefully for the dreaded crab pots. When I saw that Lesson Plan (Otto) was heading right toward one, I would put him on standby and manually steer around it. About 2/3 of the way across, I caught a glimpse of a float just as it disappeared under the nose of the boat. I pulled the throttle back to neutral and waited. I new the prop would still be turning not under power, so it shouldn’t be pulling water toward the prop. I heard the thump, thump, thump of the float hitting prop. Oh crap. It stopped but it had not come out from the back of the boat. Ok, let’s see if I put the transmission in reverse, could I unwind the line (I am assuming it got wrapped). I bumped it into idle reverse for about 3 seconds. I heard another thump, thump, thump and though, looks like I am going diving. Momentum was still moving Lesson Plan forward. I prayed and looked back to see the float coming out from under the boat, in 3 pieces. I took a big breath and refocused myself on watching for crab pots for the rest of the trip.
We made it to the Northwest Key West Pass about 3:40, now just 2 more hours to go. The northwest pass inlet is a long wide channel. As I get closer to the turn onto the main ship channel, I start hearing more and more announcements from the tour and fishing boats about their pulling away from this dock or that dock. It sounds like it is going to be a busy area. And then I hear “This is the Majesty of the Seas preparing to cast lines with local pilot on board standing by on channel 16, 14, 13 for all concerned traffic”. I raised my hand, I’m concerned. I know the channel is a little narrow right by the cruise ship dock. I hope this is his first announcement and I can slide by them before they start moving. As I approached the main ship channel, I see lines from the ship still attached to the shore. As I pass by, I see lines being dropped from the shore and reeled onto the boat. Great timing.
I proceed around Fleming Key to the Key West City Marina and arrive about 20 minutes before sunset. I get the boat all tied up and only then realize how taxing the day was on me, I feel exhausted. The stress of dodging crab pots took its toll. I have three weeks in Key West to recover. I will try to stay out of trouble.
NEBO Logs
NEBO 2019-01-29
NEBO 2019-01-30
Lesson Learned (maybe): If you see a crab pot disappeared under the front of the boat, put the transmission in reverse immediately.
No comments:
Post a Comment