January 19 Coconut Grove to Pumpkin Key 24 8 Miles

We had first feline drama last night: It was dark. I opened the cafe doors of the companionway to let the cats in but Alfie didnt come. So flashlight in hand I walked around the deck, opened the stack pack (a favorite Alfie hiding place by day) and checked atop the canvas, under the helm seat and in the dink. No Alfie. But then we heard the first of her cries and they were from behind the boat. So I swept the water with our strong flashlight, but no Alfie. Time for the 2,000,000 candle power floodlight, but we had trouble hooking it up to the cigarette lighter socket and stretching out the cord. Time to lower the dink and search for Alfie in the water behind the boat (where the current would be taking her. But her cry was not the powerful piercing "Im in trouble" scream, but rather her petulant mewl. Lowering the dink takes me five minutes -- Ive timed myself -- perhaps longer in the dark. Lene has now started whimpering and I asked her to please stop because such is not useful.
Before actually completing the lowering we found her. With the possible fuel flow problem that morning, I had advised Lene to take the hand held VHF radio that morning: "Just in case -- so you can call for help if you need it". It was in the little compartment in the bow of the dink created by an aft opening hinged padded seat there. I had forgotten to take it out when hauling the dink up that evening and the lifting lines run across the opening edge of the seat, making it hard to lift the seat once the dink is raised.

But I had gotten the seat up enough to reach in with my hand and retrieve the radio, for use the next day. And the seat was left raised -- just enough for Alfie to squeeze herself in. But with lower footing on the inside of the cabinet, she was not strong enough to get herself out, without help. She craves small spaces. What a relief!

Today we were underway for about five hours and I looked forward to a good sail because except for two dredged and charted channels, one a quarter mile long and the other a mile or so, the water was open. Shallow at 8 to 11 feet, but open. But though I put up sails as soon as we cleared the Dinner Key Channel, the wind did not cooperate, until the last half hour, a time when one is always eager to get the passage done. The wind was from behind us and too light to move the boat at a reasonable speed.

Pumpkin Key is a roundish lump of an island on the ICW side of the Keys, just off the northeast end of Key Largo. No services or shore activities, just a hangout place for boaters on the go.

 There are about ten boats here, mostly power, with plenty of swinging room. The water is ten feet deep all around, and we have 60 feet of snubbed chain out and do not expect heavy wind tonight. All of the boats are on the south side (lee side) of the island; the other side becomes the anchorage if the winds come from the South.
The Keys are stretched out in a mostly east-west direction with just a bit of southing as you head west for Key West. There are two routes to Key West from Miami: one way is the ICW route which is north of the Keys, in the Gulf of Mexico. It has many marinas but is quite shallow, too shallow for us after this point. The alternative is called the Hawk Channel which runs south of the Keys in the Caribbean/Atlantic. It is called a channel because there is an off shore underwater coral reef running parallel to the Keys. Hawk Channel is deep enough and wide, ideal for sailing, if the wind cooperates, but has few marinas or anchorages along the way. From here we expect and hope to be mostly separated from the wake-making power boats which prefer the ICW route.
There are several passages by which one can switch between ICW and Hawk. Our plan for tomorrow, subject to weather, is to go through Angelfish Creek and the Hawk Channel to Rodriquez Key, off the other end of Key Largo  -- before reaching Marathon, which is a rest station for cruisers, the next day. The only potential problem is that some books and folks say that Angelfish Creek is too shallow for ILENEs 5 8" draft. Others say we can make it if we go shortly before the high tide, which is scheduled for 8:10 a.m. tomorrow. And the entrance to the Creek is only about a mile away -- I already have it loaded in as our next waypoint. So we plan to leave at daybreak. And we will check in and let you know how it went, in our next post -- either from Rodriguez or Marathon.

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January 20 Pumpkin Key to Rodriguez Key 27 7 miles

It worked like clockwork. The alarm got us up at 6:30 and after coffee we were underway at 6:50 and Angelfish, which we feared, was easy; no soundings of less than 8.2 feet. We were through it by 7:50.

The tide flowed strongly against us in the Creek, with surface eddys swirling, as in the East River back home, and the wind in our faces, both of which slowed us down, which is good if you fear a grounding. So you can chalk us up in the group that holds that Angelfish is doable in a 5 8" draft hull. (High tide was at 8:10.)

Once out in Hawk Channel the depths were in the teens and we ran under Genoa alone at speeds of up to 7.5 knots with the wind a bit forward of the port beam. Yes, we actually got to sail!!!  Yesterday and today we were greeted by dolphins again after a long absence from them in Dade County. Hawk Channel is wide and marked by buoys.

We were anchored behind Rodriguez Key by 11:30 am.  The key is a big uninhabited, wooded oval l.8 miles long and 1/4 mile wide, which lays east to west. It is a nature preserve, girded by mangroves, with no apparent means to reach it by land, sea or air. On its north side, between it and Key Largo there is room for a hundred boats to anchor in 7 to 9 feet of water. We were the only boat here when we arrived, later joined by eight others. The winds were from the SE and hence the key provided little protection from them or the waves they kick up, but mild winds were predicted for the evening and night.

We were here so early that I wondered if one could tie up a dinghy on Key Largo (Spanish for Long Island?), a mile away. Yes, but only by the payment of $20! My curiosity to explore a bit of Key Largo was not that strong. We also thought to play with the SUP which has not been used since we rented it back in Miami Beach. But the day was not pleasant, cool, grey over head and showers predicted, so we did not do that either. And not many chores -- a low tie of the genoa to its roller furler was redone, as was the lower tie of Old Glory to her staff. The hose from the gas tank to the outboard now works again. I am so lazy these days. reading, writing and laying around. Is it possible that Im slowing down?

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January 21 Rodriguez Key to Marathon 49 1 Miles

Sunrise at Rodriguez was with glassy water.

Lene took the next one without my knowledge. My left foot is holding the thin green rubber hose in place so it doesnt kink. My right foot is on the "UP" button of the windlass. The hose is squirting salt water on the anchor chain as it comes up to wash off sand, mud and rust.

This big ugly storm was east of us but once we rounded Rodriguez, we headed west, away from it.

The wind came up at 10:30 and we put up sails, but except for the next half hour, they were not strong enough to sail without the engine. We had shifted to our second fuel tank last night after running since Titusville on the first tank. We will fill both tanks before leaving Marathon.

Hawk channel has many small round crab trap floats. Not as many as Maine has lobster pots, but enough that one has to keep a careful watch to avoid hitting them. I guess the crabs like to live in water that is 20 - 25 feet deep, where we like to sail, because that is where the traps are. I have been told that the crabs, whose legs folks like to eat, have an unusual ability -- to regenerate lost limbs. So the watermen pull off one claw and throw the critters back into the sea to live another day and grow another claw.

We passed the 65 foot high Channel Five Bridge, under which we could have passed to the Gulf of Mexico side of the Keys, but for the fact that once we get there, the water gets too shallow for us. You can see the former low bridge, removed at the highest spans. And a crab pot is in the photo, the white dot.

Marathons municipal Marina has dockage for perhaps 20 boats and 260 moorings. But that is not enough, because we were placed as number 14 on their waiting list and told where we could anchor in the harbor. There was a low bascule bridge across the harbor that we had prepared to hail, but the bascule center span of that bridge has been taken down since our chart was printed. Im not really happy with the crowded nature of the anchorage area, and we may decide to go outside the harbor and anchor west of the island where there is lots of room for a longer scope, if stronger winds come.

We registered and paid for dinghy dock privileges for a week and got a paper wrist band that we attached to the dink showing that we have paid (to be credited against mooring fees is we get a mooring, pro rata for the number of days in each status). We unloaded garbage, bought and mailed a postcard to my grand daughter, got some Benadryl for Lenes sun rash, learned where to fill our propane tank, filled four of our one gallon bottles of drinking water ($.05 per gallon), and did three loads of laundry.  

We met Katrina, from Annapolis, on the dock. She is aboard an Island Packet, "Sea Monkey" with her son for a week while her husband is doing his reserve duty. And while dinking back to ILENE we saw another Saga 43, "Remora," our first this trip, and introduced ourselves to the owners. More, later.

We have heard so much about this place from Dean and Susan of Autumn Born. They, as do many others, like to stay here for months. With a waiting period for a mooring, it pays to stay rather than give up your mooring to move on. A mooring rental of $300 per month is easy on the budget. This is not St. Maarten where egomaniacal big spending boaters go seemingly for the primary purpose of being seen by others. This is more a harbor for older and smaller boats. It has a "homey" feel to it. We will learn a lot more in the morning when the boaters all talk on a net on VHF 68 at 9 am.

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February 8 10 Last Three Lay Days in Key West Zero Miles

We ended up with eleven days in Key West or west of here and found we liked a lot in this town. Ilene was here in the late 70s and fondly remembered snorkeling on the reef a few miles south of the Island. We were told that, running from Miami to here and beyond, it is the third largest coral reef in the world with Australias being first and I dont know about the second. And we have had remarkably little time in the water and no snorkeling since October due to coldness, dirtiness or windiness. We booked passage on the catamaran Sebago,

with its severely raked 70 foot mast. Captain Neil

took her out to his mooring near but not on the reef. Anchoring would destroy the coral. Neil is from Zimbabwe, married to a Kentucky girl and has lived in Key West for 18 years. I enjoyed talking with him during the ride out and back.
Sara was the cruise director who welcomed the 30 of us, took care of us and taught folks how to snorkel and poured the wine on the trip back. I regret I did not take her photo earlier, before her sweatshirt blocked the view of her lovely bikini.

The snorkeling was fun though not nearly as luxuriant of fish or corals as several sites in the Caribbean we have visited. Im thinking that we saw about eight species of tropical fish including the brilliantly multi-colored parrotfish. And one more species. About 2.5 feet long, round in the body, about 4 inches in diameter and silver colored with a down turned mouth: yes, barracuda! First a pair and then a single one later.

I visited the old Custom House, near Mallory Square,

now the museum of art and history. The new Custom House is part of the "Post Office -- Customs house - Court House" which looks to have been built in the 1930s.

The museum had a lot about Hemingway and fishing, but I stayed with the history section in the little time I had available.  For one thing, Flaglers railroad, now the bed of Route 1, operated  only from 1912 until it was washed out by the hurricane of 1935. It being the depression, a lot of folks were put to work on rebuilding it as a roadway for cars and trucks, which was completed by 1938. Flagler, former partner of John D. Rockefeller, had to borrow money to complete his Railroad and never came to Key West again after the gala opening, dying at his mansion in Palm Springs a few years after that.
And the USS Maine

which was sunk after an explosion in Havana Harbor, had followed a familiar route: From New York, where she was commissioned in 1895,  to Key West to her last port, Havana, in 1898. She was 324 feet long, with a beam of 27 feet and her maximum speed was only 17 knots. Hammerbergs figures were 306 in length, 30 wide and she could do 30 knots, albeit for only a minute, all out, with most everything shaking itself to bits. Only 91 of her 350 men survived, some of them in being nursed in hospitals in Key West.

Dinner at El Siboney, Cuban and named after a native American tribe. It was such a lovely evening to stroll back to our boat across half of the west end of this island; warm but not hot, groups of folks walking peaceably, music wafting out from bars and private homes. Our menu selection was a mistake, however.  Or was it?  Paella Valenciana. It was quite tasty but it required an order for two ($42), with an hours advanced notice, was the most expensive item on the menu by far and is not Cuban. The problem was that they served enough for six people! So we had our next two dinners from doggie bags. Six can dine for $42; quite a bargain!
We took in the sunset at crowded Mallory Square and saw the schooner Hindu sailing out through the sunset.

This was followed by an inexpensive dinner at Carolines, at Duval and Caroline Streets, a block from this landmark.

Amazing how many of the places have live music, blaring out into the streets.

I toured the USS Ingham, the most decorated Coast Guard cutter in history. Launched in 1936, she was not decommissioned until 1988, 52 years later. She was well served by her officers and crew, and better still -- lucky. The Maine was not lucky! Hammerberg (only very slightly smaller) lasted only about 20 years and was constructed very cheaply. I had not known this but Coast Guard cutters were used like destroyers on convoy duty in WWII. Ingram killed a German U-boat and was then reassigned to the Pacific. With her 5 inch 38 gun,

she also served off Vietnam and helped save lives during the Mariel exodus from Cuba. The familiar, pleasant, characteristic odor of a naval vessel remains in her, 79 years after her birth!  She served as McArthurs flagship in the Philippines, which may account for her uncharacteristically large Captains quarters.
 I searched for the Sonar School I attended. I learned that it closed in the late sixties and its function transferred to San Diego.  Only the air branch of the navy now occupies the island. The MP guard was very polite and interested in my story but no one is allowed on the base without active duty military ID.  Later I learned that when the navy left, the building had been torn down.

My navy friend, Hugh, inspired by my burst of nostalgia, posted an article with photo on Facebook about how he and a sonarman won the Key West inter-service sailing regatta of 1967.
Walkng through town as we did daily we noticed a sign on St. Pauls church on Duval announcing that the Friends of the Library were having a speaker, David Garrard Lowe, on Dorothy Parker, the acid penned female member of the Algonquin Club between the world wars. I love that sort of thing and we went and enjoyed the lecture. "Every morning I brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue." Or maybe you will like this one better: " If all the women who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, it wouldnt surprise me a bit."
Next day we visited the Tennessee Williams Exhibit at the Gay and Lesbian Welcome Center. He was born in Mississippi, educated in the Midwest, traveled the world, died in New York and is buried in Missouri. But as an adult he made his primary home in Key West  where he had  a long standing relationship with a younger Italo-American man, who died shortly before Williams did.
So we ended up staying here eleven days and met Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker and Tennessee Williams. Lene was blah at first but ended up loving this two by four mile island.

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