Shark River to Marco Island

April 3, 2009
We’re gonna try to get current on my blogs but not tonight. We’re tired. We left Shark River at about 8:00 A.M. I know that’s late but we sleep really well and we don’t get up till about seven. We swung on anchor in Shark River. When we anchored, our boat faced out toward the Gulf. I woke to check it in the middle of the night and we had swung 180 degrees to face into the river. The next morning, we were facing back toward the Gulf. The ebb and flow of the current controlled the direction of our boat, as opposed to wind when we are anchored in a bay.
As we headed out, we could hear the surf. That was a pretty clear indication to us that we needed to reef the main. As we were leaving, a man in a trawler visited with us. They were headed the same direction we were but a trawler doesn’t do well in beam seas. He assured me that a sailboat would. We headed out. I put one reef in the main and off we went, main only and motor running. The seas were choppy near shore and more rolling offshore. We never felt in danger. We spent the day sailing downwind, down current and with winds between 16 and 23 knots and seas of 3 to 4.5 feet with absolutely no problem. It was a tiring sail but the boat was very comfortable.
In order to plan safely, we decided to just go a short distance to Everglades City but the boat did so well we continued on to Marco Island which meant we went about 55 miles. That’s a long way in those seas but with wind and current in our favor we were making about 8 knots over ground.
When we got to the Marco Island inlet, we started rolling in the jib. The roller furling was tangled. So, I went to the bow to untangle it. I felt a little like Captain Dan in Forest Gump. I’m referring to the scene where he rode on the mast in a storm, except I was on the bow. Maybe it is a blend of Captain Dan and Titanic. Anyway, I got up there and straddled my legs on either side of the bow as the boat sailed in four foot seas. I couldn’t get it untangled. I went back to the cockpit and tried to force it a little but that did not work either so, back to the bow Captain Dan style. I realized I needed to furl the sail as far as I could then lock the drum with the roller furling line slack until I could untangle the line. So, back to the cockpit for a screwdriver (phillips, not vodka) and back to the bow where I succeeded in untangling the line. The sail rolled in nicely.
We docked at a really nice marina and took a shower on shore. That was nice. The rest of the night was pretty boring so I’ll stop for tonight.
Everyone is interested in how Linda is handling all this. She’s a trooper. She kinda gets fed up every once in a while but she sailed the boat while I was on the bow and didn’t drown me so I know she is okay.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.
PS. I posted some new pictures.

Shark River

April 2, 2009
Okay. We are sitting on a river in the Everglades. Shark River. Bill, our mentor, and Mark, another mentor, have helped us all day by cell phone. Tonight, we are out of cell phone range so we will be on our own.
Our itinerary was to travel to Channel 5, cut through the Keys, head north, then jog around to either Flamingo or Shark River to anchor overnight.
We left Tavernier Key at 8:00 AM. We motored across Hawk’s Channel and set the sails for Channel 5. It was great sailing, if you were headed in any direction other than the direction we were going. So, we motored. It was a pretty day, the breeze was nice and we wanted to let the wind blow through the boat so we opened a couple of the forward hatches. "What a comfortable breez through the boat," we thought. Wrong. We were beating into the wind, spray blowing over the bow, and all that spray blew into the boat, which we didn’t discovery for an hour or so. Okay, a wet floor and a few wet things. We’ll remember next time.
We made Channel Five around midday. I called Mark to get through the Channel. He had described it to me on our checkout sail. I confirmed what I thought he previously told me and headed through just fine. It was a little weird to see our mast so close to the underside of the bridge. It seemed to almost touch. Thank goodness it didn’t.
We then zig zagged by motor, through the craziest series of channels, to start heading north. The eerie thing was that we have a 4'10" draft and we were sailing in six to eight feet of water with occasional shallow spots. I just knew that at any time I would run aground. In fact we softly bumped once. Oh, and the crab traps. Crabtraps were everywhere and we were motoring. I could just see the lines from a trap wrapping around our prop. So, we spent the midday dodging crab traps.
As if that wasn’t enough, there was a hum in the boat. It hummed because the propeller was spinning under water. It spins in forward or neutral; however, don't shift to reverse. The reason is, if you put the transmission in reverse while it is spinning from sailing, it stops the spinning but jams the transmission. No one told me that. So, I shove it in reverse. The noise stopped but we could not shift it back into neutral or forward. That meant we could not start the motor. So, out came the repair manuals and in about an hour I had it fixed. Linda was at the helm, sailing the boat in that skinny water. She did great. While I was down there, I changed fuel filters for the first time too.
We thought about stopping at Flamingo, FL but when we read the waterway guide it said if your draft is over 4 feet, don’t go. So on we went to Shark River. Bill, told us about Shark River, a secluded but deep river in the Everglades. We made it just before sunset and dropped anchor. Shark River is in the middle of the Everglades. It was beautiful but we were so tired, we ate Dirty Rice with nothing else and went to bed.
Kudos to Joan and Ed who sold us our boat. We were laying at anchor in Shark River and the wind was still. The boat was hot and stuffy until I found the DC fans that they left on the boat. We had a great breeze from the fans all night.
Post again tomorrow.
Royal Crescent

Living the Dream

April 1, 2009

Okay, we are at anchor. The skies have little fluffy clouds in the distance. Off the back of the boat are houses lined along the water, like in Galveston. They are probably three quarters of a mile away. The water is turquoise blue. We’re tucked in behind a small island called Tavernier Key. The sun is setting. There are these gentle waves lapping around our boat. Two other sailboats have chosen to anchor here. We’re in about eight feet of water at mean low tide. We draw 4'10", so say 5 feet. I snorkeled around the boat for a minute or so just to see it under water. It was weird to see my keel only about 3 feet over the ground but, it was low tide and I know that is the lowest the water will get until 6 pm tomorrow.
Now, if you look at a map–it’s called a chart in boat lingo–you will see we only made about six miles and that’s really an exaggeration. At today’s speed we will not get back until 2011! So, tomorrow we pick it up a little.
We’ve crammed about two weeks worth of work into four days. We are both exhausted. We have added a second anchor and roller, a motor lift, a grill, a motor for the dinghy, the dinghy which we have not blown up, and hundreds, okay, thousands, actually millions of things. You cannot believe what all we have done. But, it’s done. We completed almost every task, which is cool.
Tomorrow, we will try to get to Channel Five in the Keys. That will cut us across the Keys and into the Gulf, heading north. We are going to try to make it to Shark River. If we get there, we will anchor in a bend in the river. It’s in the edge of the Everglades.
Okay, I will post more tomorrow. BTW, we did not leave till 2:20 pm Eastern and anchored at around 6:00 pm.
One last thing. We met Felicia and Dan. They were a few boats away from us. They are the official first couple we met on a cruise and hung out with. They took us to a great restaurant and we shot pool. Their boat, the Rare Ruby, stays in Key Largo Harbor till they want to move back home to North Carolina. They leave their boat here and they visited it forty five days this year. Tough life!
Post again tomorrow.
Royal Crescent

Key Largo, FL

We are in Key Largo. We spent last night on the boat and it was great. The AC is working perfectly. We will not leave Key Largo for a couple of days. The winds are too high, there is a front blowing in, and we have things to do to the boat. I doubt we make it to Key West. That's not bad though, we are in paradise and having a good time when we aren't working! We have a lot to learn about the boat systems and that is taking some time. I need to install the motor lift and install another motor bracket for the outboard for the dinghy. I also need to install the grill, empty the waste water tanks, and do all the work required for an extended trip.

Getting here was a little bit of a chore. The bad weather was blowing in just as we were ready to leave. We actually had hail on the way to the airport. The weather delayed our flight for an hour and so we were a little late getting in. On Saturday, we ran errands in Miami and then headed for the boat to load our stuff. Anyone who has travelled with us knows that we have plenty of stuff. We worked hard all day and finally got it all on the boat about 8:00 PM. We ate at a great restaurant, the Fish House, recommended to us by Anna and Bill (the Key Largo boat brokers who had this boat listed). We then came back to the boat, sat in the cockpit and marvelled at the fact that we were on this boat.

Things are a little disorganized today because there is so much to do, it is kind of daunting. We'll get it done though and when the bad weather blows through we should be ready to head out.

We have friends in a 35 Catalina trying to get out from somewhere along the Florida west coast and head to Kemah. They will be ahead of us but they are going straight across. We are going to do it the leisurely way and head along the coast.

See you soon.

Almost Time

Our flight leaves Friday evening. We fly from Houston to Miami, get in late, and our daughter, Lauren, will pick us up at the airport. We spend the night in Miami then start shopping to prepare for our trip. We arrive in Key Largo to load the boat on Saturday, March 28. We hope to do a test sail on Saturday, taking Lauren and friends. Then, leave either on the 29th (our 29th anniversary) or on the 30th. Our first goal is Key West. We hope a nice sail to Key West will be a great way to learn our boat.

Royal Crescent is a 1999 Catalina 42, pullman berth. We liked this layout because there is ample room and storage. Plus, we have two berths with two heads. The "guest" berth has an attached head as does the master berth. The guest berth has a high enough ceiling so, when Julie and Pete stay with us, Pete (over 6 feet tall) can stand...or at least we think so.

I added electronics such as radar, gps, satellite weather and different safety gear, such as a life raft, personal locator beacon, life vests, and flares. We also will have a 10' inflatable tender with an 8 hp Tohatsu engine.

We are going to try to get the boat from Key Largo, Florida to Seabrook, Texas by way of Key West, the west coast of Florida, and across from Pensacola to Galveston. We may pick up some friends along the way. We may travel in the Gulf or in the Intracoastal Waterway.

We invite you on our adventure.