I wanna go to Miami!

We've rounded the corner and are now headed north. We left Marathon for Rodregiuz Key on Sunday. Anchored out there for the night and continued on Monday morning. Had some rain in the AM which we welcome to wash the boat. The afternoon was beautiful. Arrived Miami via Government Cut around 4pm. We had to stand off to wait for the cruise ships to exit; homeland security. But they reopened the cut before the last one was out. So we had to make room for a very large ship. Not a big deal since the cut is huge. Dropped anchor around sunset. Then moved to a better location Tuesday. We're right off Miami Beach, near the police dock. We can tie to the launch ramp for access to the city. First stop, Burger n Beer Joint! 1/2 lb. Prime angus beef burger, all the trimmings and duck fat fries! Oh yea, a beer too. Yummmmm! Easy walk to publix and Fresh Market. We decided to hang out for several days. We'll take the 25 cent bus down to South Beach this afternoon for some sight seeing and dinner.

More 85 degrees and sunny weather! Life is excellent!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Fail

The McGyver in me failed with the depth finder. As I suspected, the keel, rudder, propeller turbulance messed with the depth finder. No joy. I could have mounted it off the side of the boat and that would have worked...if I had a pole long enough to rig to the side stanchions and reach down to the water. The painters pole would have snapped under the strain if I extended it that far.

So on to plan B. We re-anchored outside the harbor & called the local West Marine. They have a type of depth finder that can drop in replace the existing display. But, I have heard contrary opinions if the old transducer will work with the new display. The only transducer available for the new display requires drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. I can't work that fast! So I took a chance that the new display would work with the old transducer.

Launch the dink, run to a marina, pay $8 to tie up for an hour (everybody has their hand out around here), walk a mile to the West Marine, discuss options with the manager for a half hour, buy the depth finder, walk back to the dink, run back to the boat, temporarily hook up everything in a manner that would allow return, EUREKA, rewire everything permanently, tie up the dink, go motor around for a while to test, re-anchor, clean up, relax and wait for tomorrow to get underway. Hope we get another great sunset tonite I can actually enjoy. And pray this solution works long term.

Now if I could only figure out what is causing the tach to act up...

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

The Great Escape

3 long weeks stuck in Marathon is enough. A nice place, but when you expect to spend 1 week and are boxed in for 3, it gets frustrating.  The wind is finally going to switch direction after 3 weeks of continuously blowing out of the east, the only bad wind direction. So it's time to git!

But, earlier this week a boat with an extra tall mast caught a telephone wire that drapes across the entrance to Boot Key Harbor, which pulled the wire about 5' lower. It was set to 65' at high tide. We need about 62' plus another foot for the whip antenna. The wire is now 60' at high tide and 62' at low tide. Now what?

A few guys went to the bridge next to the wire for an elevated view to spot for us. We waited for dead low tide at 1630 (4:30pm) to make our escape. The lowest droop is right at the channel so if you go around the droop, you gain elevation...but the channel shoals to about 5' very quickly and we draw about 5' 6" and this is at dead low tide! Truly ZERO room to spare.

So we cut through the bridge, forced a small power boat out of our way and listened for the guy on the bridge with a radio to tell us how we looked. Looking up from our boat doesn't tell anything. We've gone through 90' bridges and it looks like you're going to hit it. I turned left after the bridge toward the shallow water and then turned back as soon as I heard from the spotter. I didn't know it at the time but he reported that I hit the wire with the top 1" of my whip antenna! Another boat after us caught the wire with their mast and were lucky to be able to maneuver back off the wire while not running aground. Oh, the wind was blowing 15 at our back pushing us toward the wire. Oh, another minor issue; the depth finder decided to crap out! So when I was heading to the shallow water, I was blind to the depth. That's why I turned very quickly as soon as I got the word. But we made it and we're now anchored in the open ocean behind Boot Key ready to sail east in the morning.

AT&T is wrangling the only barge in the keys big enough to fix the wire. They'll be there in another week. And, BTW, the wire is no longer in use and this is the third time in 2 years for this sort of issue. Lots of unhappy people stuck there another week. We felt like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape. We made it under the wire!

As for the depth finder, we still need one. During a most fantastic sunset over 7 Mile bridge, I scrambled to McGuyver a backup. I have a little fishfinder in the dingy. I removed the finder & the transducer from the dink. I have a fiberglass painters pole for extended reach scrubbing. So I cut off the end of the pole and mounted a stainless 1" bracket I have in the parts bin. Bolted the transducer to the end of the pole and tied the pole to the swim ladder. Spliced on a cigarette lighter plug to the power wire and instant depth readings! I just hope the turbulance from the boat, engine and exhaust don't interfere with the readings. Stay tuned!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Dirty dink

This is what the bottom of our dink looks like half cleaned...after 3 weeks in the water at Boot Key Harbor. Most of that is crusty barnacles that have to be scraped with a putty knife.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Hey, it's not all cocktails & sunsets

We've reached Marathon in the Florida Keys. This will be our farthest point south. Time to head east & north. But the wind has been strong out of the east every day now for 3 weeks. We need 2 days to sail to Miami and there is no place for a deep draft boat to hide from an east wind. So here we sit. We did take a side trip to Key West but mostly we hang around here and work on the boat.

Some of the projects we've been working on...

The varnish on the teak needs regular refreshing. I recoated the trim around the cockpit and about 1/3 of the toe rail. Sand, wipe, varnish, resand, wipe and apply a second coat of varnish.

One of the burners on our 3 burner stove top has never worked right. Now, a second one stopped working. One burner just isn't enough. I called the factory, they haven't made stoves in 10+ years. No parts at all for the back burner but maybe something left for the front one...called back with the last thermocouple for that stove in existence! $50 & an hour of work and we avoid having to spend another BOAT unit. BOAT unit? What? Everything for a boat seems to run in multiples of $1000. BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand. The pilot light in the oven also quit so I pulled it out and cleaned the orifice with a needle. The stove is propane and that means tank refilling. Strap the 20 lb tank to the bike rack and run it up to the fill station. 

The 12 volt refrigeration I installed in '08 is working great. But we also have a parallel system that is engine driven. I upgraded that in 2010. But engine drive systems are notorious for leaks and this one is no different. The leaks are very hard to find. I spent several hours here to no avail.

Chris regularly spends time waxing parts of the exterior. We use a cleaner/wax first and then a hard paste wax. Tedious labor but the boat looks good for it. She's also done several touch ups to her excellent canvas work. We bought a second bike and that means a second zippered bike bag was needed. Nicely done.

We're tied to a mooring ball for $125/week instead of at a marina for $125/day. But we have to shlep jugs of water almost every day. We don't like using the communal bath house so showering aboard plus dishes & drinking water is about 10 gallons per day. So we go to the marina office and fill 2 or 3 5 gallon jugs, bring them back & poor them into the water tank.

Our 10' dingy is our mini van. We run it to the dingy dock at the marina to gain shore access. We keep our bikes there to extend our range.

Publix & Winn-Dixie groceries are about a mile away. We bought new backpacks at K-Mart to carry dry goods and we use soft sided coolers for cold stuff. Chris needed a new USB to 12 volt cigarette plug to charge her I Pad. That was a 4 mile bike ride to Radio Shack. Good excercise!

Our wind generator had an obnoxious rattle. I climbed up and removed the nose cone and put some putty inside it. Snapped it back on and it runs much quieter. I just wish it provided more power. I'll estimate it provides no more than half of our electricity. The rest we get from a little Honda generator that powers 2 40 amp battery chargers. And of course the honda needs refueling and oil changes.

The honda also powers my hookah. Not that kind! A snorkel for shallow diving. This harbor is very warm water with very high growth. So I had to dive under the boat to clean it. No bottom paint works well enough in these conditions. This was my first time using the hookah, I'm not comfortable breathing under water. Very stressful. I'll get used to it, I have to. But I didn't do a very good job first time out, I need to get back down. The water is VERY murky and I couldn't see squat. We need to take muriatic acid to the dink bottom, stuff has grown FAST on it also. A project for tomorrow.

The engine tachometer started bouncing and battery charging from the engine was erratic. Removed the alternator and took it to a shop for testing. Works fine. But it had the wrong size pulley! Changed that and reinstalled. The bouncing tach problem went away...for a while! It's back and I need to dig further to fix it. We need to have full charging capability when underway.

Now you know why I post pix of cocktails! The definition of cruising "fixing boats in exotic places".

We're off to the Wednesday evening meet n greet where I can make some more enemies!

E

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Key West

We took the bus to Key West on Saturday the 25th. We have friends Tom & Brenda staying there so we met up with them for a quick tour and a great lunch dockside. Spent the afternoon wandering the streets, then sunset at Mallory Square. Not quite the freak show I was expecting. We watched jugglers, sword swallowers, fire eaters and the sunset. Off to dinner at another great open air restaurant. The dining scene is much better than I expected, I figured tourist trap food.

After dinner we headed to the famous Sloppy Joes. Usually I stay out of tourist traps but Tom & Brenda knew Pat Dailey was performing. Pat spends the winter in Key West and the summer at Put-In-Bay, party central of the Great Lakes. Twas fun listening to his mix of Great Lakes songs & tales and his bawdy banter. The performances of a few of the ladies in the crowd was worth the trip alone. A few more cocktails didn't hurt either!

Gettin late, havin too much fun, we missed the bus back to Marathon and stayed at T&B's place. Excellent hosts for sure. To top it off, breakfast at a little French restaurant! Again, The food was excellent.

We missed one of the buses so we stopped in at the Green Parrot, last bar on A1A. We almost passed up the next bus 2 hours later to continue soaking in a great jazz band. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon. Our whirlwind trip ended with a long ride back on the bus with a cast of local characters.

Thanks again to Tom & Brenda for their hospitality.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Am I crazy?

This blogging is beginning to feel like I'm talking to myself.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Slaloming across Florida Bay

We told you about the billions of stars in the sky on our overnight trip from the Panhandle. Now for the millions of crab traps all across Florida Bay.

We spent a beautiful night at Little Shark River and headed out early Thursday, due south to Marathon, across Florida Bay. The crab traps were everywhere. We usually use the autopilot to steer, which takes away some of the monotony & stress of sitting at the wheel. Not this long day. Constant steering back and forth dodging endless bouys really made holding a course difficult. What a pain in the neck, literally.

As we approached 7 Mile bridge, I went forward and looked in the water. I could clearly see hard bottom..."what's the depth?!" I shouted back to Chris..."ten feet!" Oh, never mind. Passing under the Eighth Wonder of the World officially puts us out of the Gulf and into the Atlantic Ocean!

We called Marathon City marina on the radio several hours ahead to ask about mooring balls. They reported there was one left. About an hour later, we hear another boat get assigned that ball. First come first served. Looks like we're out of luck. But we pressed on into Marathon and radioed back as we entered the inlet. Sure enough one more had opened up. It was in a much better location too. This mooring field must be at least a mile long. Totally full. We do have some luck on our side.

So we'll stay here for a week getting MORE projects done. I have an anomaly with the alternator, another one with the depth finder, I'd like to recharge the freon in the engine drive refer, we have some more shopping to do and the boat needs a bath to rinse all the salt spray off.

AND, we're off to Key West Saturday. We'll get a VIP tour courtesy of Tom & Brenda who we know from Jefferson Beach Marina and who have a place in Key West! Can't wait for the freak show! No, I'm not talking about Tom & Brenda (I think!).

Hopefully, we'll make it back from Key West relatively soon to post more for our faithful followers. Pray for us!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

The horror

We cruised from Indian Key, a nice anchorage, to Little Shark River. Another beautiful day on the water.

Little Shark is in the southwest corner of the Everglades. Very remote. So remote, there's no internet, no 3G, not even cell phone reception! The horror! No internet? No e-mail? No cell phone? No FACEBOOK? We were relegated to listening to music and talking!

Well, thank God it was only one night. We survived. I'm not sure I can do that again.

Actually it was a beautiful evening. The marinated pork loin was ready to go on the grill as soon as we dropped anchor. A tasty salad & garlic mashed potatoes with shiraz completed the feast. Fish jumping, pelicans diving and a spectacular red sunset accompanied by some Gershwin piano. Other selections included KD Lang, Marvin Gaye, REM, Seal and Tom Waits wrapped things up.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Hangin with the swells

We finally pulled out of Ft. Myers Beach Thursday to continue our sloooow treck south. It was an easy day of cruising down past Naples to Marco Island. We were able to sail for a few hours but the wind drifted around onto our nose and we had to motor yet again. We ran a very long twisting channel in Marco to anchor in Smokehouse Bay next to The Esplanade, which is in the background of the picture posted here.

Around the corner, under a low bridge is a Winn-Dixie grocery with a dingy dock. We've been building a 4 page list of provisions to stock up for the Bahamas and we knocked off about 3 pages here. Very convenient. Thank you Winn Dixie. Got in a few other stocking trips as well during the 4 days here.

We chose to stay extra long because a front with strong winds was predicted for Sunday. Give it up for the weather-guessers; they got it right this time. Sunday night was brisk with a 180 degree wind shift. We were anchored in a fairly small bay and as we swung around we were relatively close to the various seawalls. But our Manson Supreme held perfectly yet again. We still got up every hour to check!

We're departing Tuesday morning for Indian Key and then Little Shark River before making Marathon late in the week. We may not have cell/data reception along the way, especially at Little Shark River. It's a pretty desolate corner of the Everglades. We will be running the spot tracker. Pray that we make it back to civilization, surviving a few days without facebook.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

More high life

I mentioned earlier we had more friends to meet in Ft. Myers. We first met Gary & Lori in a VERY cold Mackinaw City back in September. Ft. Myers is where they winter. Gary tells me they all get together for $1 taco Tuesday at Yo Taco. Sure I say, sounds great. Its sneak your own booze in and cheap but good eats. We'll see ya there.

Ooooops, Tuesday is the 14th! Valentines day. Our anniversary. Our SILVER anniversary. Holy Crap! I offered to Chris, at least a half dozen times, to change the venue. I swear! She insisted $1 taco night would be just fine! Should I send her to the shrink?



We also talked Ray & Cynde into meeting us there. They were the owners of the sailing charter we took to evaluate going with sail instead of power. They are very proud to have played an important role in our decision to sail. It was great to see them again since our epic sail in 2006.

So our silver wedding anniversary was truly unique. We've done the uber deluxe dining experience, stayed at 5 star resorts all that stuff. This one will be much more memorable!

We're livin large!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

More celebrating

Early that evening we had to crack open the nice gift from Tim & Stephanie. Extra smooth Patron. Yummmm!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Time to celebrate

Here we are on the beach enjoying lunch and a pina colada on a spectacular sunny day!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Valentines Day

Valentines Day 2011, our 25th wedding anniversary! Happy silver anniversary Chris. The blocks for the dingy davit have stainless steel parts. They're silver, that counts right? Well, just in case, I bought her some sterling dolfin earings. She likes them both.

The bud vase was a wedding present 25 years ago.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Crowded parking lot

This is how you get from your boat on a mooring to shore. Parking at the dingy dock can get worse than the mall at Christmas!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Hitchcock is here

BIRDS! Thousands of them. This is at the Ft. Myers Beach mooring field.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Ft. Myers Beach

We made it to Ft. Myers Beach Saturday the 11th and took a mooring ball for the low price of $13/day! We have several folks to catch up with, it's a popular place. First up is Chris' nephew Tim & his squeeze Stephanie. We all wanted to go sailing but it was honkin out on the Gulf and COLD so we wandered around town instead. We had a very nice time seeing Tim again and meeting Stephanie. Nice catch, Tim!

We also managed to get in some shopping. Steph drove us to several stores searching out storage containers of a certain size to match up with some we have. Struck out. Oh well. I also took the trolley to West Marine to pick up some new blocks for the dingy davits. They make a huge difference. Hoisting the dink is now much easier. That has been a thorn for a while.

Fueled up at the cheapest place in SW Florida, Ballard Oil, 3.77/gallon. They used to sell a million a month to the shrimp fleet. Business is WAY down. Wish I had a larger tank!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Sarasota tiki bar

Wifi is extremely limited so I'm posting via my Droid. It only allows one pic per post so I've posted 2 extra posts to add these pictures. I'll get the hang of this eventually.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Cayo costa state park

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Continuing the slow crawl south

We left Palmetto and took the ICW south. Winds were not cooperating, blowing out of the south, so motoring inside worked fine. It allowed us to stop as we pleased at any number of places along the way. That included Sarasota on Superbowl Sunday where there is plenty of room to anchor near the city. We dingyed in to O'Leary's Tiki bar, beached the dink & found a table with a good view of the TV. Evidently tiki bars don't make an ideal atmosphere for superbowl. That's fine, we actually got to watch the game. We jumped back in the dink at halftime and watched the second half aboard Freedom. Great game! Congrats to the Gints. We didn't really care for either team, we're looking forward to seeing the Lions there soon!

Next day we had to pass through 10 draw bridges. We refined our timing as best we could. Some bridges open on a schedule & some on demand.

Tuesday was bright and calm as we crossed Charlotte Harbor headed to Cayo Costa state park. We'd sailed here once before on a charter with Ray & Cynde and wanted to get back in our own boat. The entrance is very shallow. I timed our arrival for mid-tide rising and we had no problems at all. We spent 3 days here hangin out, doing the chores and going ashore to the state park beach. A very relaxing time. This is the first time I really felt like we're 'cruisin'. It's been more of a delivery run south to warm weather mixed in with some work.

Next stop, party central...Ft. Myers Beach. Bars, bars, bars.

Chris' nephew Tim had perfect timing, coming down from Mass to visit his girlfriend and look for work. We spent a very nice day Sunday, despite the chill & high winds, visiting with them. Got in some shopping too!

Monday we took a 2 mile dingy ride to a marina located right next to a Publix grocery store. We're starting to load up with provisions for the trip to the Bahamas. Most stuff is double the price there, so we'll stock up before crossing.

Tuesday is Valentines Day...and our 25th Anniversary. Stay tuned for a report on our exotic anniversary day!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom