Ship's Logs and Trip Diaries 

Key West, Florida

Detailed information on provisioning, checking in, marinas/anchorages, etc. is available at our SaltySailors.com website.

January - April, 2006:  Key West, Florida

As warned by many a folk that it would happen ...  we are stuck in the Keys! 

Thane is working as a pink taxi cab driver and I am working on my websites.  Our typical day starts at 5:30 am.  We get up and if the weather forecast is good, I take Thane into the marina and then return to the boat, if the weather is bad he drives himself in and I am stuck on the boat all day with no way off.

Thane showers and then rides his bike to the taxi office about a 20 minute bike ride away.  He then plays taxi driver until about 7:30 pm.  He then hops on his bike and rides home.  I go and pick him up at about 8:15 pm.  Back to the boat and we are in bed by 9:00 pm as 5:30 am comes really fast. 

There are many days that I do not leave the boat.  I am working on boat projects such as re-doing all the interior teak, cleaning the stainless, compounding and waxing the topsides.  Working on the websites takes lots of time and there is a big learning curve as so much has changed since my days of working with a computer on a regular basis.

Thane likes driving the cab and has met a lot of interesting people.  He is also now in the "know" about what's going on in town.  He is getting tired of it though and we both can't wait for April when we plan to leave for Isla.

I've written a things to do while in Key West kind of review on SaltySailors.com, click here if you'd like to read it.   

April 9, 2006:  Key West - Back out to the Anchorage

After 4 months on a mooring ball, we are moving the boat back out to the anchorage.  Thane's last day of work was Wednesday (5th).  Winds have been blowing about 20 knots.  Today's winds are mild, however, more 20 knotters are expected.  Boat didn't want to start  (even after her new starter).  We finally got her started and headed out to the anchorage.  Decided to give the autopilot a try and make sure we were good there.  No go ... no data error. 

Turns out my placing our big box fan right up against the the wall where the autopilot is on the other side was a mistake.  We pulled out the book and reset the autopilot by turning big, slow circles in the mooring field! 

We found a nice spot to anchor right behind Fleming Key so the north winds won't get us with the chop.  However, it's a long, long way to the dinghy dock from here.  We spent a very long, windy night not sleeping.  It's been a long time since having to worry about dragging.

April 10 - 14:  Waiting for weather

I'm sick of Northers & 20+ knot winds.  We've done everything we need to do and it's too windy and choppy to go into town.  Looks like Saturday will be the day.

April 15 - :  Key West to Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Day 1:  And we are off ....  Left Key West about 10:00 am and headed for the Marquesas Keys.  Figure we will jump back into this slowly and spend the night at Marguesas Keys and then head over to the Dry Tortugas.  As expected, we motor sailed all the way there.  If you don't have 20 knot winds, you don't have any!  We spent a very rolly night at Marquesas Keys.

Day 2:  Thane saw a turtle on the way to the Dry Tortugas and we had a dolphin swim with us for awhile.  That's about all the excitement of the day.  The Dry Tortugas has changed since were there last.  The hurricanes have separated the Fort from the rookery island.  Most of the trees on all the islands are gone.  We decided not to put the dinghy down so were stuck on the boat.  The birds from the rookery were extremely loud ... almost as loud as the generator running on the boat next to us all evening.  Beautiful night sky ... I forgot how many stars are out there when no other light competes with them.

Day 3 - Day 6:  Left the Dry Tortugas at 9:45 am.  Flat seas and motor sailing.  Thane saw 3 sharks, but by the time I grabbed the camera and came up they were gone.  Nothing exciting happening ... we've both read 2 books already.  We don't have radar so while we are out we do 3 hour watches.  This works out pretty well for us.  It's always amazing how in that great big ocean, you always run across at least one ship that would plow you down if you weren't keeping an eye out. 

We have found the Gulf Stream counter-current and are flying.  As fast as 8 knots at time.  I will have Thane post the route we have taken on the SaltySailors.com website.  This is the first time we have successfully found the counter-current and it's great! 

On the 5th day out, the engine died.  After changing the fuel filter, it died again.  Apparently we have sucked up junk from the bottom of the tank.  Thane blew the line clear and we got the engine started again.  We decided that we would just sail her in thru the south entrance. Figure there is a good chance that whatever is floating around in the gas tank will find its way back into the fuel line pretty quickly and we will need the motor once we turn into the anchorage as we will have to go dead into the wind.  So here we go at about 2 knots!

As we get into further into the Yucatan Channel, we have lost our counter-current and have about 15 knots of wind, however, we now have about a 5 knot current against us.  It's getting really rolly.  We are cruising at about 1.5-2 knots.  Evening comes and we made the decision not to reef down (we ALWAYS reef down at night).  There has been no wind at all through-out the entire trip up until now and we are going so slow already.  Guess what ????  Big squall that night and we had to reef down at about 3:00 am in high winds.  Tell me again why we go sailing? 

Dawn finally arrives and we sail into the anchorage without any problems.  When we had to turn into the wind, the motor started and we found a nice spot, put the anchor down, took a shower and went over to see Carl & Kim on Querencia.  Ate lunch at our favorite restaurant for pescado frito (fried fish) then went home and passed out for the night!  We are in Isla and it feels great.  Yep, this is why we go sailing.

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