by Brian
So one day our neighbour Tom at Pasadena Marina was over visiting on our boat. He is doing as we all do in the boating community, just checking out the other guy’s boat when he turns our wheel and hears clang! clang!. He then said I should look at that. Well it took a while but I did and this is what I found. Two pulleys and some cables and some type of pins all worn out. First I pulled the bed apart to get at the steering. Then I looked at the cables and tubes they ran through, and then the pulleys and pins including the bracket that holds the pulleys. No big deal I can fix anything.
So off I go to this marina to see if I can order parts. I walk up to the parts desk. Lots of crab boat guys and a few local boat repair guys all having morning coffee telling crap to each other. I tell him I have a sailboat and need parts. The crowd goes quiet. He asks what I need and I tell him I need some steering parts. Ok, he says. I need some pulleys. Pulleys? I then say the pins also. Pins? And while I am in there I should replace the bushings. You know the brass tube things the pins fit in. This guy clearly has no idea what the hell I just said. As I was about to explain, this old weather beaten guy, Vic says what kinda boat ya got? I tell him a Morgan. That’s a good one ya know. Then he pipes up and says to Tony the parts guy and store manager “Order him a pair of number 7 sheaves (pulleys) then get him a pair of 1/2 by 2 sheave slides (pins) and a pair of 5/8 bronze bearings (bushings for the pins) and throw in some cotter pins” (ok I got that one ) Oh and young fella you got some grease? You gotta grease the hell out of everything. The guy leaves and doesn’t even say goodbye. Thank you! I say. That guy knows his stuff! He should he worked on the arc I think. Seemed like a nice guy. No, he just likes to show off. Made my day easier, anything else? This is when the guy says sorry we can’t order from them.
the old slide pin cut half way through,
and the new one
(I used lots of Superlube Chuck)
So next door to West Marine I go. West Marine is a great store if you like to spend twice as much as you should . And yes I did , I walked right in and said I would like to order some parts for my rear quadrant. I need 2 number 7 sheaves and a pair of 1/2 by 2 inch sheave slides and two 5/8 bronze sheave bearings please. Oh throw in four 1/8 cotter pins. That’s when the guy hollers over to his coworkers “anyone know how to order sailboat steering parts?”
everything installed new, just need a couple of bolts
Saturday night the lighted boat parade came right past us. There weren’t a lot of boats but the ones who participated went all out on their decorations.
this was my favourite
sunrise from our boat
Yesterday, (Sunday) morning we woke to absolutely flat calm. A beautiful morning and a good day to go to the beach. Two of the boats moored near us had mentioned the beach and that they were going to try some lobster hunting and we were up for an adventure.
the guys getting ready to go out
The four guys went out and the girls stayed on the beach. I would have gone too but I’m not sure I could grab a lobster. They don’t have claws but they slap their tail and it makes me jump every time. Brian was the only successful hunter today but we have plans to go back.
Some things you just don’t pass up when cruising. Free water, a hot shower and a real bathroom. So, I’m going to take advantage of the wifi today and post twice. I think I’m a little behind.
new wallet $4.99
I used to carry a purse. Now I carry a backpack. I used to have a crazy wallet full of discount cards for everywhere and receipts dating back 18 months. I now have a small wallet that only carries the essentials. Credit cards, debit card, driver’s license and cash. (Lynn, you would be proud of me)
For anyone that knows me you know my purse. Always heavy, constantly overflowing. If you need it, I have it. Advil, hairbrush, half a dozen pens, 8 lip glosses, glasses, hand sanitizer, Tic Tacs, gum, notepad, yada, yada, yada.
new high tech waterproof Iphone case
In my backpack I have my little wallet, a raincoat, lights for the dinghy in case we get back after dark, a camera, ONE Chapstick and quite often a beer. You never know when you’ll get invited to someone’s boat to socialize.
Coffee. I think I took my drip coffee maker for granted. The coffee maker takes too much power so we use a percolator on the gas stove. I think I have the heat, the timing and the amount of coffee down pat. I take a regular basket filter, cut a little hole in the middle and use it in the percolator basket. Then I put the coffee in and fold the edges down. I hate grounds in the last mouthful of coffee. Start to finish is about 30 minutes. A Keurig? Coffee in less than a minute? That would be heaven some days.
When living in a house, or even at the dock I didn’t really pay attention to how much electricity I was using. Now, once the sun has gone down we rarely have more than one LED light on and quite often sit in the cockpit with candles. I am conditioned to look at the volt meter every time I turn something on. The toaster in another no no. I don’t have toast when I feel like it, I have toast when the generator is running.
Unlimited hot water? Showers on the boat are timed to after the engine or generator are running and I can be in and out in about 3 minutes. That goes for the amount of water too. The two of us can go nearly a week on 85 gallons. That’s probably less than what I would use just to do laundry at home. I don’t dry my hair. The wind does it for me and sometimes on a particularly gusty day the effects are a little scary.
I don’t wear shoes. I wear flip flops. It’s embarrassing when you climb out of the dinghy and realize you have to go bare foot because you forgot to bring your flip flops.
We take our rain coats everywhere because our dinghy is like a convertible. No roof. If it rains, we get wet. We often suffer from soggy butts because the seats are wet or we hit a wave at the wrong angle.
We used to have 4 cars between us. Now we have none. We have 2 fold up mountain bikes and our feet. Wow! It’s amazing how much you can carry in a backpack and a milk crate. The last trip we had 24 beers, 2 jugs of juice, a package of steaks, a loaf of bread, a stalk of brocolli, 3 tomatoes, 3 big cans of iced tea mix, 24 water filters and a partridge in a pear tree. Well, you get the idea.
TV. None. Well, Brian is getting his TV fix while I do this.
Blue Moose tip: I would get a big bunch of DVD’s to fill in the nights when you need a little TV. I should have scrounged garage sales.
If you were wondering if our life is just sunshine and rainbows, it's not. To get a rainbow, you have to have a little rain.
Rain it did yesterday, conveniently timed to when Brian was out running errands in town. The first run was to take our single sideband radio into the shop to get it checked out....again. It was suggested to have it there by 8am. No big deal, right? This just involved pulling the mattress off the bed and disconnecting the guts from underneath. Brian rode by bike down to the shop then stopped to get a few groceries. He wasn't back on the boat 5 minutes before the phone rang from West Marine letting us know that our steering parts were in. We paid $29.95 for an overnight shipment (in Keys terms 3 days). Off he went again. This time when he came back it was a torrential downpour. He took his jacket off to help keep his backpack dry because the Ipad was inside in a Ziplock. Why was the Ipad with him? Because we got a coupon for West Marine which we couldn't print because we have no internet connection on the boat so I did the next best thing and did a screen capture so he could take it to the store. We got Brian's soggy clothes hung up and they were just about dry... when while we were below working on the steering there was another downpour. Back to the beginning we go again. 4:15 the phone rings again. Marathon Boat Yard calling to let us know our generator parts are in. There isn't enough time to get there today and they are closed till Monday. I'm not sure if it's just us but this is why it takes so long to get anything done. By 4:45 the steering was fixed. Yay Brian! If we hurried, we could make Happy Hour at Castaways. Cheap shrimp and live entertainment.
a stray bar cat
and Bart, a sailor dog
the jaws from an 9ft 4inch Bull shark caught off a dock just around the corner yesterday
Once we were on our mooring ball, had a shower and had something to eat both of us needed a nap. I don’t remember the last time I stayed up for 31 hours.
The City of Marathon City Marina in Boot Key Harbor is it’s own little community. There are boats who have come for a day or a week, ones that are waiting for a weather window or boats that have just never gotten around to leaving. They are all here.
one of the dinghy docks
The main building is like a community centre. Along with the marina office they have tables for wifi, a lending library, TV rooms and workshops. There are plenty of showers and a laundry room, two large dinghy docks and bike racks. Included in your mooring fee is a weekly pump out by boat. Note – stay upwind of the pump out boat.
This little girl caught an iguana right here
the office, laundry, wifi and showers
Every morning at 9am you can listen to the cruiser’s net on channel 68. Here they welcome newcomers, those with things to buy, sell and trade can offer them, and anyone who needs help can ask for it. Almost every day there will be somebody announcing that they lost a dinghy and someone else will report that they found one stuck in the mangroves.
Just yesterday a boat was looking to expand a hole in his electrical panel and was wondering if anyone knew of a tool to do this. Brian just so happened to have that hard to find tool (hard to imagine isn’t it?) A quick chat on the radio and Shannon came to pick up the bit. Later in the afternoon we picked it up and admired each other’s boats. He has the bigger, younger sister to ours, a 45’ Morgan.
Today Baby Blue is looking for a hair dryer. I have 2 (neither of which I use) so I offered it. He didn’t have a dinghy today and we weren’t going that way so Coup D’Amour offered to pick it up and deliver it. Cruisers are a helpful bunch.
Almost everything you could want is within walking or biking distance. Home Depot, West Marine, Publix, propane, and plenty of bars and eateries. Just ask and you will receive tips on the best places.
Down a little channel lined with mangroves we found Castaways. From the water it’s hard to tell what you’re going to get and once inside it looks like your typical on the water bar. A little shabby and weather worn with the chairs held together by rivets. The football game is on TV and the bar is stacked with the boys and their beer. Burgers and wings are not the highlights on the menu. Sushi is. Fresh off the fishing boats we got tuna sashimi and buffalo shrimp. I ate raw tuna and liked it!
Castaways
sashimi and buffalo shrimp, yum!
crab claws, double yum!
Just across the street from the marina is 35th Street. There are no obvious signs to tell you what you’ll find at the end except a small one for a fish market. Along with the fish market is Keys Fisheries Market & Marina. Upstairs in their tiki hut you can get fresh stone crab claws for $1.25 each. When we asked why they didn’t advertise we were told that it’s kind of a local thing. Good find.
umbrella drinks thanks to Laura & Hans
It probably looks like all we do is eat, but that’s not the case. We are actually both losing weight. Brian a lot, me a little. Not fair but still a good thing.
Last night we joined a group having a cruiser’s forum on the Bahamas. What started out as an exchange of where to go and what to see turned into a discussion on technology. Shannon on Solmate (the one who borrowed the bit) showed us a new Garmin Bluechart app for the IPad. The app is free and you just pay for the charts you want. For $3.99 extra you can get a weather overlay. I’m really excited to check this out because it looks so much better than what we have been using.
it looks like the rain is really going to
get us, but it just passed us by
Blue Moose tip: always have your camera with you because the light will change in a flash and the image is gone
Our first overnight sail from Marco Island to Marathon was 96 nautical miles. The winds were forecast to be 9 to 11 knots and 2 to 4 foot seas. That looked good. Once about 4 miles out into the Gulf it was basically a straight run south.
I was a little anxious about this being a night sail and there really aren’t many options of places to duck into if the weather turned. We’re prepared, our course is plotted. We can do this!
We left Marco with almost no wind. It looked like we were going to be motoring.
The autopilot was on and working perfectly..that is until it got bored. About every 60 minutes it would take a hard turn to port. Something else to put on Brian’s fix it list.
About 4pm we were joined by a big pod of dolphins and no matter how many times I see them, it’s still pure magic. I watched for a bit while they raced along beside us, every once in a while turning sideways I’m sure to look up at me. I did grab the camera for a video and then let Brian come up to see. That’s when they left us, of course.
As the sun set it was very quiet. Only the occasional Coast Guard transmission on channel 16. Then the moon came up. A full moon! You have to love that. At one point I came up from below and thought we had turned around because what I thought was the sun on the wrong side of the boat was in fact the moon. We were 25 miles offshore and hadn’t seen another boat in hours. That’s when you really feel alone.
By 10pm the waves were really starting to kick up. Our dinghy which was secured to the davits started to do a little slip and we were worried it would fill with water. Brian tied himself off and went back in the wind and the waves and did his best to secure it while I tried to keep us out of the biggest waves. OK, that was scary! I made him keep yelling so that I knew he was still there. Another thing for the list. Make a permanent harness that works.
Crab pots, or maybe lobster pots. Who knows. Thousands of little bombs planted right where we want to go. In the daylight they are easy to dodge but at night I saw plenty of them pass just a few feet from the boat. I know we hit some because I heard them hit the hull and drag the whole length of the boat. If we snagged one we didn’t know about it.
By midnight we were getting 6 to 8 footers and steady 25 to 28 knot winds with gusts over 30. Not to worry, the Moose is made for this. It does make for an uncomfortable ride though. All the things we had thought we had carefully lashed down were not necessarily where we put them any more. Every time we heard a crash I would head below and survey the mess. At one point there were batteries rolling everywhere on the floor. Our wall of beer and diet coke which was held together with ratchet straps fell over in one big wave making a huge obstacle to climb over to get to the head.
Cricket had been really quite calm up until this point. When I did find her she was inside my pillow case with the pillow on her back. She looked like a Ninja Turtle. A little comforting and all is well. I’m sure she was wondering – are we there yet?
We just kind of snacked on and off the whole night. I have a whole new appreciation for flight attendants. The best way we found to make coffee was to put the coffee maker in the sink while it brewed. No mess, nothing broken. Pouring it, added the milk and getting it up to the cockpit has to be timed with the waves. Sometimes you need three hands.
With the motor running at idle and our jib out about 30% were were doing between 7.9 and 8.2 knots. The hull speed for the boat is 7.4 knots. Now I was worried we were going to get to Marathon too early, before sunrise. There are some shallow spots and that wouldn’t be good.
Brian stayed at the helm, in the cold and sometimes rain while I stayed out of the wind behind the dodger. I supplied him with coffee, gum, baby Snickers bars, dry gloves and a hat. He’s always looking after me.
By 6 we were getting close. Only 18 miles to go. While below, I heard the engine suddenly slow way down. I could hear Brian cursing a blue streak. A fishing boat came flying out of who knows where right in front of us. The wake wasn’t a problem because everything was already on the floor.
We were pretty happy to see the sky start to lighten. Then…land ho! As we approached the Seven Mile Bridge we were almost there. Funny thing, when you cross into the Atlantic. It smells different. It smells like the sea. The Gulf doesn’t smell the same. The water is different too. Blue, green, turquoise, beautiful.
There are two channels into Boot Key Harbor. One is shallow and one is not. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep but what I read in the guide book and what my brain understood were two different things. I put us a few miles out of our way and we had to backtrack to get into the harbor. However, we did come almost all the way in under sail.
A call to the marina office got us a mooring ball and directions on how to find it. Once our messy boat was put back together we got the dinghy in the water and headed to the office to register.
I feel like I have done ten thousand crunches. The effects of your body trying to stay level all night.
Boot Key Harbor is quite a place, but that’s a story for tomorrow.
After an uneventful day sail on Tuesday we made it to Marco Island. Our guide book suggested a couple of different anchorages. The first one was pretty exposed, so we opted for the second. There was already a boat anchored just outside Factory Bay so we decided that was as good a place as any. The sheriff came to visit within a few minutes and he didn't think so. He asked us to move because we were a little close to the channel. Once we were relocated the scenery was pretty nice.
No TV but we did have a nice view
We anchored in their back yard
I hope they didn't mind
Brian, Sally and Cricket the cat sailing on our 41 foot Morgan Classic sailboat.
In October 2011 we sold our house, quit our jobs and set out for Florida in search of a sailboat.
We found her in Madeira Beach Florida. A 1987 41 foot Morgan Classic.
Our plan is to sail for a couple of years. First to the Bahamas, after that...who knows.
