As some of you know we have grown children who were born and raised on these islands and grew up on the sea. Now with the economy in the tank, tourism down and house values half what they were it is coming increasingly hard for them to remain in the Conch Republic, one of the most expensive places to live in N. America, our youngest daughter has given Mom and I many stressful times during her teenage years...telling Noah about the flood to most of you I'm sure. Anyway she came to me and said "Dad I'm gonna have to leave the Keys, I can't afford my rent"
Even though she gave us fits for years, she is my baby and I can't bear to see her leave the islands she loves dearly and respects so much. She is now 23 and has matured nicely, loves to sail, dive, fish and kayak, so what's a Dad to do? I suggested she live on a boat and become part of a great liveaboard community in Boot Key Harbor, she got excited because she can afford the mooring ball, pump out, dingy dock and bathhouse deal offered by the Marathon Marina and it is secure in a Hurricane!! Great we said, but....we gotta find a boat you can't use ours, we all lost boats in Oct. 05 due to Wilma, so Ebay and Craigs were hunted until we found the right boat, we needed the right size as a starter, but with lots of goodies, she wanted shoal keel, holding tank and pump out, roller furling and a nice cabin. Well she found it....on the Mainland and it had almost everything she wanted (she forgot the very important Bimini) anyway so started the journeys to prepare the boat for the 160 NM trip home, driving was 280 miles to the SW Florida coast after a month we had it ready to bring home (geez we hate going up there) we left last wed. for Cape Coral in a one way rent a car loaded with provisions and safety gear and I mean LOADED! she needs a new outboard so I gave her a 5hp Nissan 4 stroke we have on one of the dingys ( my mistake) had it tuned and carb done. We left thursday after getting stuck in spring break traffic returning the rental (enterprise next time) set sail at 11:00 am trying to make Marco Island by sunset, we had E/SE winds 10-15 and perfect seas, we hoped to make the seven mile bridge by the second day, after a great anchorage at Marco and a wonderful dinner we went over how the boat performed and got some sleep, departing at dawn we had decent winds...and then they died, we had still not cleared the Mainland and the 5hp was not cutting it, and....the carb was leaking, we were too far west to try and make Flamingo or Everglades City by dark and the dolphins were leaving a bigger wake, not really but really not cutting the mustard, I had not planned on motorsailing much, gas with the leak was getting iffy and no way to anchor, people die out there all the time down here and I was ready to sail all night because we had check ins on sat. and she wanted to get home(next mistake) we had good wind finally and 2 foot seas so we kept sailing south, just after sunset and out of weather radio contact we encountered increasing winds that "Windward" would have lov ed....20 Knot winds gusting to 25 four to six foot seas out 60 nautical miles
it was a harrowing night in a untested boat but by dawn we could see the out islands and made Moser channel by 11 to go oceanside and go home.
Now safe and sound and burned to a crisp we have to give one of our safety items a plug.
Many of you may have this or have seen it at West Marine: "Spot" or
find me spot as some call it was a great way to let family know we are OK and exactly where we were and showed our track via email, you can call the CG ask family for help and just send we are OK emails showing our GPS position and our track since it updates every 10 minutes, whether we are underway or at anchor, call it the poor mans Ebirpb (sic) if you will it is worth the money it costs and for the service yearly service rate, even if you don't blue water and travel out of radio range as we do, you must check it out. It gave us and ffriends peace of mind as cell service is a joke out there and anything can happen as we all saw with the 3 football players lost at sea last week, sorry to be so long winded but any good sailor knows safety is key and you can never be too safe.
KSTodays weather from Key West: High 81 Low 72 East winds 15 seas 3-4 feet higher in the Gulf Stream.
I am sending pics to Ron to post as old salty still can't do it, somebody help me.
