Pre-dawn departure

We staged the boat over at hurricane harbour and inched our way out at 5am following our boat buddies. I had not yet figured out how to turn down the power on the new chart plotter so was temprarily blinded.  Brenda sheilded the screen from me and I focussed on following the leghts of our buddies.  We made it past all the anchored boats and out of the Key Biscayne Channel.  We had a great crossing, despite the N/NE winds of 10-17 knots.  We had the advantage of the night lees with the early morning departure and were more than halfway accross before the seas could build to  anything. We landed exactly as planned by about 2pm at North Bimini channel, Alicetown and checked into the Big Game Club Marina - a 5 star resort catering to the sport fishing crowd but virtually deserted this time of year.  We had full use of the facilities including a nice pool  for our dockfees @$1.75 per ft.  After checking in with Customs and Immigration where we obtained our cruising and fishing permit9$300 for a 40 ft boat), we walked around this quaint Bhamian town. Houses are brightly coloured and small. Transportation is by 16 seat Golf cart train, which also takes the smartly uniformed children to school in the morning.
As the weather looked like we may be staying a few days we moved next day over to the Bimini Sands Condo/Resort/Marina which is has a more protected harbour and is cheaper - about $50/day dockage all in for the use of the same facilities others pay much more for when staying at their condo or renting same.  Brenda woke up to an aquariaum of fish at our dock behind our boat with dominoes, angel fish barricuda, sting rays etc. We went out the beach a short dingy ride away and had it to ourselves.  Here we cleaned the barnacles off the bottom of the dingy that had accumulated while moored in nutrient rich Boot Key Harbour.  We noticed another local man in distress as his motor had quit & he was a ways out.  He had a shark circling his boat and poured a bit of  gasoline on it to chase it away. We put the motor back on our dingy and went out to rescue him and give him a tow...we found out later from another local the man we had rescued Maggio, was in fact an ex US Marine and he likely could have swam to ashore and fought off the shark as he told us he was about to do.

On Wed. we went to the weekly local get happy hour and Karaoke get together at the end of the Island Sand |Bar owned by the same complex.  The transportation was provided by a rickety old bus, steel on steel brakes which made us glad it was a flat road and whose door would not close so the dust blew through.  Our driver, complete with shiny Rasta braids just turned up the Bob Marley music and we bumped along and enjoyed the short trip.  We quickly made friends with the bartender and he was the first singer to kick-off the Karaoke.  He did a credible rendition of Hotel California and we and the whole bar sang along.  Subsequent singers got progressively worse and the bartenders continued to ring a large ships bell to try to get them to stop -- they ignored this, the place got noisier as it filled up and everyone had a fun time.  The beer was cheap at $9 for a bucket 6 of the local Bahamian beer and the food was great.  We left at 10:30 (late bedtime for boaters) just as the place was getting full...same driver got us safely back to the resort at the other end.
After five days of strong winds we were glad to see a 2 day window for our trip to Nassau.  We had to wait for the tide to rise a bit so Ron & Jan could get out of the harbour as they draw 5 1/2 feet so we left at a respectable 9am.  We got to NW Channel light at about 7pm and anchored just at dark on the Bahamas Bank, with no land in sight.  Next day we finished our perfect crossing to Nassua where we are now.  We will likely leave here on Wed or so, weather permitting bound for Rose Island then southward.  Seems communications and wifi may be a little more scarce in some places so we will post when we can.  Wifi in Nassau is harder to come by, we had to lug the computer to the Texaco where it is free but I am running on battery alone (no place to plug in) so can't upload the many great pictures - will try to do this later for the Miami and this post when technology and time allows.

Miami Beach

We arrived back in Miami Beach the next day and Ron guided us to a new anchorage near the Miami Yacht Club in the lee of Belle Island(previously we stayed at Coconut Grove - another great part of Miami).  On the way in I spied Breathless, a 39 Beneteau owned by Rick & Doreen Itensen who had provided me some sage advice via email & phone before our trip began.  While in this harbour we also met 2 other Canadian sailing couples - more Canadian sailor friends we expect to see in the Exumas.

This anchorage is perfectly located and  has a dingy dock where you can get rid of garbage and access the City.  Shopping is close by for groceries, liquor, laundry, restaurants etc. and convenient access to South Beach Miami via a 25 cent bus.  The sunset and night view of the City from the harbour is spectacular - we will come back here.  We stayed a couple of days here and determined the right weather window for us to cross the Gulf stream was approaching so we prepared and planned to leave in the morning.

A Night in the Mangroves

We left you dear readers in Marathon.  There we had several sets of familial visitors which we enjoyed over the holidays and into early January.  The installation of the new E120W Chartplotter went well and we struck out up island toward Miami at the first opportunity...about  a week and a half ago (my watch has been idle since arriving here).  We  met two other Canadian couples with similar destination goals and set off in a small flotilla with Captain Ron (yes!) and Jan aboard their  45 foot Gulfstar S/V Wind Warrior and Captain Peter (also a Chef!) and France aboard their 39ft Mainship Trawler.  The first night we made Angelfish Creek, about 2/3 the way to Miami.  After a convivial time aboard the trawler, we tried to row back to our boat which was down current.  We blew right by it, this being the first time Brenda had rowed the rubber beast we call Manana.  Then we lost an oar and by the time we retrieved it we had blown by the other boat anchored in a side creek east of us...we were headed out to sea!...I took over the rowing task and got us back to  within 50 feet of our boat  but the current was so strong we could not achieve the boat...We rowed to the Mangroves and hung on, thinking we might be spending the night with the crab who jumped in the boat....Ron & Jan heard us, called out and came  with their dingy, avec motoer.  Lesson learned...pay close attention to tides and currents currents before setting off.

New Years Eve in Key West

One of our objectives on this trip was to attend the New Years eve celebrations in Key West. As mentioned before, Key West is a very Bohemian, fun party town, full of beautiful well kept Victorian homes, tropical tree and flower lined streets.

Chris has never been a big fan of New Years eve parties unless they are shared with close friends.  I have always been intrigued by and watched the TV pan around the globe to the best parties in Moscow, Bejing, New York and Key West.   Chris promised to sail us to the Key West Party this year before we went to the Bahamas.  Well we had the best time in Key West.  We sailed down (1 day sail from Marathon) and anchored off Fleming Key just off the channel.  It was quite rolly during the day so we went ashore.  Chris's brother Gary and his wife Heather visited for one overnight.  Then  his sister Leslie and brother-in-law Tim came for two nights, one of which was New Years Eve.  The main street was closed off to most traffic so it was one big street party. 

People were better dressed than I expected.  All the young girls had sparkly tops and high heels, the boys all were cleaned up and even the older chicks (like me) looked nice.  We had a light supper on the boat and then went over to town about 9 pm.  We picked up a refreshment at the Schooner Wharf Bar and walked up a side street to Duval.  We started at the Bourbon Street Bar, where they have the ruby slipper drop at midnight.  They had a stage set up outside with some dancing young men, in their undies. 

We watched them for awhile and collected 20 necklaces thrown from the balconies.  It was fun.  Then we wandered further down the street to Aqua to watch a drag queen show for awhile... Cher and Lady Gaga female impersonators  plus the local queen performed. We went back into the street and threaded our way through the throngs of folks at Sloppy Joes. At Sloppy Joes a Conch shell decends at midnight.  Lots of great music etc.  We went back to the Schooner Bar for the descent of the pirate wench down the 75 foot mast of the Schooner America, again at midnight.

The crowd was a little tamer there. I think people were nervous about falling off the docks into the tarpons  (1.5 metre fish ) that live in the basin.  Then we jumped into the dinghy and returned to the boat.  It was a blast.  It was warm and everyone was happy.  While we were out, no one was barfing drunk, all just having a good time.   Les and Tim were spending the next day in KW but we headed back to Marathon as the forecast would have locked us in there for a week.

A knock on the Hull

 

There is a boat in the marina from Hamilton.  We met him last night and we have some mutual acquaintances.  We invited him aboard and offered him a margarita.  He is quite a character.  He has had more calamities than our good friend JB.  I didn't think that was possible.  Last year he was sailing in the Bahamas and was dismasted when his 30 year old rigging let go. Stranded, at anchor on the Bahamas bank,  he waited for the US Coast Guard to contact Tow Boat US…it took them many hours to get to him, meantime he received several strange calls from others who offered to come get him if he would only tell them his exact location.   Feeling they were possibly pirates or salvagers (similar thing down here), he maintained radio silence until Tow Boat showed up.  They towed him to Bimini and offered to leave him there, but he opted to get them to tow him back to the US for repairs.  Winds came up out of the Northeast and they had a horrific crossing of the Gulf Stream.  His dingy  came loose and had to be rescued by Tow Boat which meant they had to abandon him for a while as they did that, then the deck cleat he was being towed from pulled right out of the deck, requiring more dangerous manoeuvres, in the dark,large, stormy seas and he started to ship a lot more water.    He did make it back, only to discover his insurance policy would not payout and he was on the hook for all the damage and repairs. Also, his good friend who was with him, essentially was in shock with PTSD and their friendship hasn’t been  quite the same since.  

This year, on the way down here, with a totally refit boat, a  great white shark attacked his boat,  bit  and strongly shook the keel of his boat in Georgia a couple of weeks ago and tried to sink his boat. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8238651/Great-white-shark-attacks-fishing-boat.html 

Now, this next bit is true also, as Chris assures me there is  documented evidence of similar experiences or very real hallucinations at least  from extreme adventurers.  He had an exchange with a talking dolphin - twice – once the dolphin rose on it’s tail and asked him telepathically “what are you doing here? ”  I forgot his response, but then the dolphin looked him right in the eye (I have seen them do this) and said “you are not alone”.   S turned out to be a good friend, gave Chris a spare little bit rusty machete to fight pirates and loaned us a spare motor key on xmas day when Chris dropped his in the drink.

 Whew!  You've got to love boaters for stories – JB and Chris can tell some wild but true tales – can we mix you another margarita?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028115.400-talk-with-a-dolphin-via-underwater-translation-machine.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UlxJB3tH0&feature=related

Marooned in Marathon and the Tree of Knowledge



Boot Key Harbour Mooring Field

We are waiting here in Boot key harbour Marathon for a teak mounting bracket for the Chart plotter  we bought.  Hopefully this will be done this week and we can then wait  some more for the right weather window to cross to the Bahamas.  The teak guy is a Canadian who came here 23 years ago and never went home.  This is recurring story we have heard,  from the waitress at the Schooner Warf bar, the clerk at the southernmost hotel and many expat Canadians anchored here.   We have blogged earlier about the place and some about the interesting neighbours in “the hood”.  Brenda has some additional observations on the men  and life here in "the hood".

What is it with men and their hair?  I am sitting opposite a young fellow, mid 20’s, working on his computer.  He has gross dreadlocks.  I was wondering if I offered him some shampoo and scissors would he do the world a favour and cut his hair.  Another young guy in here had long curly red hair but it is tied back so he doesn't look too bad.  There are many old guys here in the marina with long straggly gray hair and beards.  Are they angry at their mothers, their ex-wives or the world?  They certainly are hoping to be single for the rest of their lives that is for sure.

Tree of Knowledge

Remember when you were in high school and there was a designated smoking area?  Well here at the marina there is a smoking tree.  The taxi drivers refer to this tree as the Tree of Knowledge.  All the smokers go out to the tree in the morning with their coffee, case of beer (yes! - a true breakfast club) newspapers and crossword puzzles and spend some time, discussing world problems and solutions and  telling some wild stories no doubt.  There are a couple of rickety chairs, a log to sit on and a blue box where everyone puts their tin cans for the local homeless man.   

Only tin cans have recycling trade in value in Florida.

Marathon is okay.  It is narrow with the highway running right through the middle but we have met some folks here, everything is handy and we get daily long walks to the grocery, the raw bar (fresh seafood) & West Marine.   We have been here in Boot Key Harbour for four weeks. You may wonder how we entertain ourselves.  The Harbour is a busy place. There are 275 boats all liveaboards and cruisers. So that is about 500 people, likely 100 dogs and an unknown number of cats. Everyone makes several trips daily to the marina for showers, garbage dumping, grocery getting or pet walkies .  It is a small village.  Several days a week there is a line up in the laundry room. Usually one of either the six washers or dryers isn’t working. It is an opportunity to meet the neighbours, get caught up on gossip, or compare notes on stain removal. Occasional harsh words are spoken if the lineup is too long six washers isn’t a lot for 500 people.
 

One of the Dingy Docks

This week we attended a very informative session at the Chiki hut  about celestial navigation. The presenter was a very knowledgeable and made it seem easy.  Yoga takes place three mornings a week at the Chiki hut. There is also boccie, dominoes ,baseball and tennis.

One thing we don’t do is watch TV. The Capt.and I made a decision not to install one on Tango. We have watched some of our favs on the computer but here in Marathon our wifi reception is not good enough.  So we have learned to love the radio again.  We have 2 favourite stations.  One is NPR(National Public Radio) from Miami. Currently I am listening to Garrrison Keillor - A Prairie Home Companion. There are other great shows on NPR. Unfortunately unless the boat is pointing in the right direction we can’t get NPR.   The other station is  Conch Country Radio out of KW. The morning show is BigD and Bubba. There is a little bit of news a little chatter and a whole lot of C &W music.  I have several favourite songs.     My Red Solo Cup,   Why Don’t You Love me Like My Dog Do,  a song about a car painted camouflage and one about wondering if the tide will be coming up to my chair. 

 In the harbour there are several hardcore sailors.  They are young keeners.They delight in putting the rest of us to shame by using sailing dingys to get from their vessels to the marina.  They usually sail faster than the motorized dinghies because motorized dinghies leave a wake if they are driven at any speed at all.  Wakes are big no nos.  We have been yelled at more than once for travelling at greater than 1 mile an hour.

And of course we read. We read all the free newspapers thoroughly.  We read all the other papers through the glass box windows. We read all the Bahamas charts and Bahamas books.  We read other books,too . Currently I am reading a book of France, Chris a book of Viet Nam.  Gotta jet, er, I mean, walk leisurely  up to get my laundry. Boot key has a live cam here http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/index.aspx?NID=600