Hour of Work, Day of Play

We have spent the past two months trying to ignore the bottom of the boat. Finally, on Monday, we took turns diving with scraper in hand. Let me assure my readers that the aquatic flora and fauna of southern Florida is flourishing.

After about an hour of tag-teaming we had the bottom back to a semi-smooth condition; however the prop and shaft would wait for another day.

Tuesday we rewarded our hour of work on Monday with a trip to south beach. Note in the photo below that the young lady in the background had just raised her left arm as I snapped the picture allowing me to publish this picture in my G-rated blog. As you can see she is wearing all her clothes on her head.


The outboard came back from the shop and worked fine..... for 2 days. Only 3 items on the repair list today, but tomorrow is a new day.
Our view of downtown Miami:

Continuing repairs

We got the refrigeration unit back and working again. Yeah!!

Under the tropical sun, the stitching in the dodger and bimini have deterorated. De Anne fixed the bimini, but the dodger required a heavy-duty sewing machine. We made a trip back to the UK sail loft where another boat buck ($100) fixed that problem.

I ordered the special glue needed to repair a leak in the dingy. The day after that repair was successfully completed the dingy motor demanded my attention. De Anne was using the dingy solo when the motor starting misbehaving so I quite naturally delivered my customary spiel about how hard she is on equipment. The motor is in the shop and hopfully covered by warranty.

Even the grill has caused trouble. A few nights ago, with my carnivorous instincts at full throttle, I filled the grill with ribs. The grill mounts on the back rail - hanging over the water. This turned out to be a good thing when the overburdened grill tipped under the load of meat I had piled on. Ribs, ashes, and burning charcoal churned the water and my cries of "shucks", ""darn", and perhaps even a "heck" rolled through the mooring field. The fish under our boat are now pork fed.

De Anne has emitted a shriek or two lately. Occasionally at night shrimp will jump into our dingy. De Anne has tried to evict them in the morning, but if one is still alive and jumps at her, the response is ear-splitting. I don't want to eat shrimp that are dead in the dingy for who knows how many hours; but perhaps some evening soon I will pump an inch of water in the bottom to keep them alive for hors d'oeuvres the next afternoon.

CCoconut Grove skyline from our boat:

Beach Vacation

DeLinda and Lisa invited us to spend the week with them on Longboat Key. They rented a fabulous beach house and once Denise and David and family arrived the three sisters were together again.
Lisa, Delinda, Denise, with James, Luke, and friend Chris:

Our "pet" who ate out of my hand:
DeLinda in the pool, Ha....the hard life:
Obligatory Sunset picture:
Obligatory biniki shots from a sister-in-law who wishs to remain nameless:

Catch-up

I have been remiss in posting to the blog so this effort will be an attempt at a quick catch-up.

Our repairs continue. The mainsail has been repaired and the refrigeration unit should arrive back from the California plant next week. We buy a bag of ice every day - very low tech but effective.

As mentioned in an earlier blog we put the boat on the market having tired of multiple repairs every time we moved a few miles, so far no nibbles and no other plans.

I had a small health scare this week, but apparently will live to do more boat repairs.

Linda and Larry caught up with us last weekend and we played tourist in the big city with a trip to town last Saturday. They left Monday and are working their way up the coast slowly. Larry's rule is to anchor by 2:00 PM. A good rule that I may adopt.

We have made 2 trips to South Beach in tha past 2 weeks. De Anne likes the sand, sun, and clear water. I enjoy watching the wildlife. On South Beach it seems thongs are required and tops are not.
Heading to the beach at Surfside:
A model shoot on South beach:
De Anne walking the surf:
South beach 100 yards "inland":

Electric Motor Convert

As the sun set yesterday De Anne joined me in the cockpit carrying two G&T's - one of which she graciously shared with me. Lounging back she said "You know, I kinda like our electric motor". I reeled back trying to keep my bearings. I checked to see if the sun was setting in the east suddenly.

My wife, bless her heart, has not shared my belief in electric propulsion. I understand. She was raised as a child on a big powerboat. Our first sailboat was a Macgregor 26X - a cross between a sailboat and a powerboat. She likes to go fast!

I needed to get to the bottom of this. I asked if it was seeing San-San with a dead diesel, under tow by the Pump-out boat earlier in the day:


"No" she replied.
I asked if it was the guy at the dock yesterday complaining about spending $11,000 to fix his diesel, only to now discover he needed to replace it.
"No" she replied.
I asked if it was the accumulation of folks we have met along the way with major diesel problems. (There have been a lot!).
No" she replied.
I gave up guessing and asked "Why the change of heart?".
She explained that during the last day of our trip up the keys when we faced wind and current on the nose inside a couple of narrow cuts she had goosed up the throttle and discovered it did have the power to make the cuts. She was afraid she was running down the batteries too much, but when - after the second cut - I checked the battery level and told her we were in good shape with plenty of reserve she was secretly relieved.

Further discussion revealed the truth. I was "babying" the motor and batteries too much and not letting her have the power she needed. Now I was on solid ground again! De Anne not liking the electric motor had always been my fault.

Day Tripping

We took a bus connector, train, then another bus, and finally a hike to reach Cape Florida. We had a picnic at the entrance of the much fabled (at least to cruisers) No Name Harbor. It's not as big as we expected and all the mangroves and thick scrub looked like perfect bug territory. We walked the entire bay edge of the Cape, visited the lighthouse and walked the Atlantic beach at the surf edge.

Back in downtown Miami we rode the free downtown people mover. It runs above ground and at one point was at least 60 feet above street level. It was a great tour of downtown and we marked a couple stops for a return trip and places to explore in more detail.

In our own neighborhood - Coconut Grove - is every shopping, gallery, and dining possibility required by your average millionaire. All within a few blocks of the marina.
Entrance to No Name Harbor with Biscayne beyond:
Cruiser passing by and stilt houses in the distance:
De Anne headed to the Cape Florida lighthouse:

The Last Leg

We left Tarpon Basin Friday morning with the intent of making 18 miles to Pumpkin Key. An adverse wind that was stronger than forecast cut the anticipated trip down to 2.3 miles. Now we were on the expensive side of Key Largo. Beautiful homes and landscaping. A professional water skier was the afternoon's entertainment. A chase boat was filming his midair sommersaults, flips and rolls.

Saturday, with slightly calmer winds and a little better angle we started at dawn. We had the first 2 cuts to ourselves and enjoyed watching several dozen racing catamarans fly by in the opposite direction. Then, we saw the rest of the fleet. Over the next hour at least 100 sailboats passed us. The first few were just south of a narrow mile and a half cut called Cutter Bank. We met the main body of racers in the narrow channel. They were sometimes racing 3 abreast in the 80 foot wide channel. Just for added fun a few big powerboats were mixed in. We were the only boat headed north. It is a miracle that we missed them all; although, more than once, I could have boarded another boat with just a quick step over.

Finally we were in Biscayne Bay and turning a few more degrees north were able to sail on a fast and comfortable broad reach. The only problems of the day were when the generator quit working and the refrigerator died. Remember the cruisers motto - "The definition of cruising is: Fixing your boat in exotic locations".

We are now on a mooring ball at Dinner Key Marina, just south of Miami. Now we start replacing/repairing things broken during the 100 mile trip up the calm, protected waters of Florida Bay.
Our water ski show:
The end of the racers, of course I was too busy to take any pictures in the midst of the channel and racers: