The Last stretch to Marathon

Leaving Miami behind

The last days of our travel down to Marathon went as smoothly as we could have wished for. The days were pleasantly warm with enough breeze to help the boat move along and keep bugs away at night. Once we departed the lights and sounds of the city of Miami Beach, we traveled a path we'd not tried before. Instead of heading out past Key Biscayne to the ocean and Hawk Channel, we sailed down Biscayne Bay and into Card Sound. It was good sailing with no real problems going through two shallow banks on the way. We anchored for the night by Pumpkin Key, a small island at the north end of Key Largo. What a change from Miami. No lights; no noise – just a quiet, peaceful anchorage. While it is difficult to say exactly why, it did feel like the Keys. A mix of mangroves and palm trees along the shoreline probably helped provide the sense of the place.

If we had lots of time to kill and felt adventurous, we might have continued down this path on the west side of the Keys all the way to Marathon. The route on the “Bay side” includes a few areas that are charted shallower than our boat's draft, but the tides have been running higher than normal, so we might have been successful using that route. However, the challenges we had faced further north with shallow water made us less anxious to tempt our fate. If we couldn't make the entire route through the shallows, we'd have to retrace our route back to this point and head out to Hawk Channel. We decided to try it another year...maybe. On this day we'd be first passing through Angelfish Creek to get out to Hawk Channel. The chart tells us that this too is shallow for us, but all the reports indicated that we could make it with no problems as long as we did so at high tide. We went through near that point in the tide and made it through without difficulty. It is a passage that we might use again to avoid rough ocean weather. (The route from here south is more protected by the reef than the Channel is between here and Miami.)

From here the remainder of the travel was really nice with lots of sun and, again, just enough breeze to help us along and keep us cool. We spent a night at Rodriguez Key and then on to Boot Key Harbor, our winter home.

Sunrise in Boot Key Harbor

This is the earliest we've arrived in Boot Key Harbor, so we were surprised to find the mooring field more full than it had appeared upon arrival in past years. There is still room for many more boats, just not as many more as we would have expected. Our favorite mooring was available to us again this year, so life is good.

Upon arrival, we were welcomed by friends we'd gained in previous years here, making it all the more like a homecoming. As of this point, we've been to Tai Chi already, stopped by the library for movies and made our first run (or rather walk) to the grocery store. As some may be aware, the reason for getting movies at

One of the regular customers at the Keys Fishery

the library is that there is no TV reception this far from the cities. We get our news from our phones and our entertainment from the library's movie collection and from Red Box. As is one of our traditions here, we head out to the Keys Fishery for our first meal, although we didn't get a lobster reuben this year.

Once we get the boat arranged for our current setting, I'll begin the work on boat projects. It seems that whenever we travel, something on the boat needs attention. I have enough work to keep me busy for some time...on a part-time basis, of course.

While we enjoyed the brief visit to the cities of West Palm Beach and Miami Beach, we prefer the small town atmosphere we find here in Marathon where passing dinghies offer a wave of greeting and there are lots of other friendly greetings once ashore.

South from Vero (Velcro) Beach, Finally

A good deal of time has passed since I last made an entry into this blog. During much of the time we were not on the boat, but were visiting family up north. We had great visits friends, with my sisters, Sandra's sisters and our daughters and their families including our three grandsons. One of Sandra's sisters made the trip south to spend nearly a week with us on the boat in Vero Beach...great visit.

Saying "Good-by" to Vero as the sun rises

After we returned from all our visiting, we decided that once we got into October, we'd begin thinking about heading back south to Marathon. After a couple of attempts which got delayed due to weather and other issues, we finally made the move this past Monday. Given our lengthy period without traveling by boat, our first day was less than perfect, due to human error. Nothing serious, and we always try to learn from our mistakes. We had hoped to spend the night in a quiet anchorage off the ICW at a state park. The anchorage is misnamed Peck Lake. It's really not a lake – just a wide spot in the waterway. But it was closed to us due to a dredging operation. We found another good spot a bit further south and enjoyed a pleasant evening.

The next day we kept moving south, this time to Lake Worth – another area misnamed. It's a wide swath of salty to brackish water between the barrier island and the mainland. We anchored by the West Palm Beach city docks that made it possible for us to go ashore and walk a bit in downtown WPB. Across “Lake Worth” is Palm Beach, home of many of the rich and famous. Of course this group is hardly limited to Palm Beach. From Vero Beach south we've seen ample evidence of wealth equal to or exceeding that of Palm Beach. And as I've mentioned in earlier blog entries, this evidence of conspicuous consumption extends all the way to Maimi and beyond.

The day we traveled south from WPB to Ft. Lauderdale could be described as a day of bridge openings.

A bascule bridge in the open position

We face bridges regularly on the ICW which are lift bridges called bascule bridges. (The two segments which form the bridge over the channel lift in the middle providing a space for our mast to get through without issue.) In fact we must call and request bridge openings 36 times between Vero Beach and Miami. Several additional fixed bridges span the ICW in this stretch, but they are high enough for us to slide under without issue. Needless to say, this slows our travel down a bit, especially since many of these bridges open on a schedule. If we arrive at another time, we must wait till the scheduled opening time.

Of course, like all mechanical contraptions, these bridges require maintenance from time to time or upgrades. Some even require replacement. On this particular trip we were surprised by the number of bridges being worked on while we passed. In a couple of cases, this work required adjustment to their schedule. For those who might be heading through the area this fall or winter, you might want to note that the Royal Park Bridge and Southern Blvd Bridge, both in Lake Worth, open 15 minutes later than normal. Not far south of these, the Lantana Bridge is undergoing a rebuilding. There is no bridge tender (the person you talk to about opening the bridge). The work crew must manually work the controls to open. They don't seem to have a schedule but will make plans to open it when called upon to do so. In our case, they first reported that they would get it open in an hour which stretched to an additional half hour before we could pass. Then there is the Las Olas Blvd Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale which now opens only once at 15 minutes past the hour instead of the normal every half hour. The remaining bridges opened as scheduled although in one case only one span opened. There was still enough room, but we had to be careful to keep the mast in the middle of the smaller opening.

Then there was a bridge just north of Miami that closed off traffic at the appointed time and then must have been distracted. A few minutes later, he let the traffic pass over the bridge again without ever opening it. He did see the error of his ways thanks to a phone call from the next bridge tender. He then promptly opened the bridge to allow my passage. That next bridge tender then delayed is opening till I got there – very nice of him.

My final message to those who might follow our path this fall relates to a stretch of water just after the Bakers Haulover Inlet. There's been a bit of shoaling there, nothing new I guess. But this year it has gotten worse. I read about others who had run aground there when passing at low tide who also mentioned where the water was particularly skinny. Based on that, I arranged to pass through the area two hours prior to low tide. It wasn't soon enough as it turned out. I still managed to find the bottom. There was a handy tow boat ready to help at a high cost. I chose rather to call TowBoatUS with whom I have insurance to cover such problems. He came quickly, and we were once again on our way. Another sailboat traveling the other direction quickly went aground also. I think he may have paid the price and also got off quickly. In the future, I'll not pass that way unless it's at high tide.

So as this is written, we are enjoying a little quiet time anchored near South Beach in Miami. We've already been ashore to visit a grocery store (several are within easy walking distance). We'll get some fresh water and do a little people watching in an interesting city. We took a couple of photos here. The first is a night scene of Miami. The building most lighted at the time of the photo was using the lights to create a video of a woman dancing. The photo may not show that clearly. The second shows what happens when plans go wrong...or perhaps when planning was not done as thoroughly as needed. This truck, at a boat launch ramp, had a trailer attached, though at the moment still invisible.

Finally, I've included one of Sandra's latest basket creations. She is still busy at this craft and is doing some oil painting. Perhaps I'll include one of her works in a blog at some point.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob