Key West to Ft. Lauderdale (Part 2)

I was a little tired at the end of the day when I got to Tavernier. I didn’t mention in the last post that Jenny acted up about an hour before I planned to stop, she threw her belts off and started getting hot (and not in a good way). So, I had to throw out the anchor and replace her belts. When I got her started back, I discovered that the belts had beat on one of the water hoses and it was still crying (leaking). So, I pulled up the anchor and proceeded on to the nearest anchorage area and set the anchor for the night. I found a hose in my stash that would work to replace the damaged hose and went to work. I apologized to Jenny for whatever I did to cause her to act up, but I also explained to her that this was unacceptable behavior.

I had a peaceful night at anchor. The wind died down over night and was blowing about 8 kts when I got started in the morning. The Captain of Seven C’s spoke the truth about the shallow water near Tavernier. For the first hour and half I don’t think my shallow water alarm stopped beeping at me. My draft is 4.5’ and I have my alarm set at 6’. This area was consistently just less than 6’ of depth, 5’6” to 6’. Thankfully there were no crab traps to dodge in this area. I kept thinking about Lesson Plan, at 10,000 lb., is going along with only one foot between her keel and the bottom. A random something on the bottom (i.e. crab trap) could cause an issue. Finally, after about 10 miles, the depths got back to 8’ to 10’, I could breathe easy again.

After I passed Key Largo I started seeing A LOT of super-fast boats. They seemed to be traveling about 70 MPH. They were the large off-shore racing boats, some with inboard engines and some with outboard engines. I must have met 15 of them in a two-hour period. They seemed to travel in packs of 3. The first ones I saw I was unclear about what I was seeing. I could see these three white clouds on the water (turns out it was a 20’ high rooster-tail). Then I could hear the rumbling like an airplane was coming. And then it was zoom, zoom, zoom, about 30 yards from me. Thankfully, they really didn’t make much wake. I later found out there was a poker run from Miami to Key Largo on the day I was traveling.

I was heading for an anchorage in Key Biscayne, about 2 hours south of Miami. I was making great time. My chart plotter was consistently showing I would arrive about 4:00. Hmmm, maybe I could make it to Miami for the night. I looked at Active Captain and found that Miamarina has a rate of $2.50 per foot per night, not bad (great for this area). I called to see if they had space. They did so I changed my route to Miamarina and headed straight up the middle of Biscayne Bay.

The wind was directly on my back at about 7 knts. I put out the sail for a while, but I had to keep going off course to keep the sail full. I was motor sailing and didn’t really pick up any speed, so after a couple of hours of tacking the head sail back and forth, I could see the first bridge entering Miami Harbor, so I reeled it in.

This area is a very active boating area. More fast boats passing close. Sailboats under full sail. I ended up in the middle of a sailboat race at one time. They were using one of the channel marks as the course mark. One rounded the corner right in front of me and another right after me, they both threw up big spinnakers and took off. It was kind of embarrassing to see the one pass me as I motored along. They were lucky I had already reeled in my sails, or I would have smoked them. Cruiser vs racing sailboat.

I got to Miamarina and found out that the great rate that was listed, was to good to be true. The rate turned out to be $5 per foot per night, ouch. But I am already in and tied up, so …..

The next morning, I shoved off early to head to Ft. Lauderdale. It was a fairly quiet trip up the ICW to Ft. Lauderdale. There are about 12 lift bridges between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Some open on the hour and half hour, others open on the quarter and three-quarter hour. I was able to time my arrival to most of these bridges where I didn’t lose to much time. There were only two where I arrived just after the opening time and had to wait 25 minutes for the next opening.

I made it to Ft. Lauderdale about 2:30 PM and got Lesson Plan backed into her slip (which involved a little luck that there was a break in that the river traffic). Theresa will arrive tomorrow and is going to ride the rest of the way to Beaufort, SC with me.

Lesson RE-Learned: If the rate at a marina sounds to good to be true, ask when you call to make the reservation.

NEBO Log 2019-02-24
NEBO Log 2019-02-25

I am closing in on closing my Loop My Great Loop Map