Final Days

Day 32: March 31, 2013

Where was I?  Things have happened rapidly and busily over the last several days.  Sunday morning and Easter as well.  We awoke after a really bumpy night.  The wind blew in from the east and there was no protection so the boat rocked.  We had been invited to join Scott, Claire and her brother, Christian, and his wife, Renita, for breakfast and mass.  We contacted the marina for a ride on their shuttle but were informed that the shuttle was down for maintenance and that they were only transporting folks who didn’t have a dinghy or had dinghy problems.  I explained that our Dink was unstable in these rough waters and that the electric motor was not particularly effective so they agreed to pick us up with the Pump Out Boat.  It was an interesting ride. 

Scott came by and picked us up and we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast prepared by Claire.  We bowed out of the invitation to Mass since I feel that wearing shorts and a tee shirt would be inappropriate dress for Easter Mass.  We opted instead to take care of our two special grandsons.  We had a great time playing jump on the air mattress and Thomas.  A new most important interest is cars and the Cars video!.  Wyatt was truly great fun.  He really loves to play with an energetic grandma!

After church we spent time interacting with our family and Claire’s brother and his wife.  She then prepared another great meal.  We have realized that we have been overeating during this whole trip, however, neither of us turn down good food.

Janine borrowed Scott’s car to return to the marina so that we could catch the 4:00 shuttle ride back to the boat.  We have contracted for the use of a slip for the night.  We have had enough of the bouncing sleep times and we needed to start taking the boat apart in preparation for pulling the boat out of the water.  We pulled the sails off of the boat while on the mooring ball then headed for the dock.  The wind made sure that my landing was much less than perfect.  I finally ended up backing into the spot.  A gentleman on the dock offered to catch our stern line and help us secure the boat.  When finished, the guy on the dock offered a Samuel Adams but I insisted that we dip into our supply of Black and Tan.  We talked for a while then went back to preparing the mast to be lowered.  We really weren’t hungry so our dinner consisted of some dried fruit, cupcakes, “Bunny Bread,” and homemade cookies from Claire.   We went to bed at around 9:00, anticipating an early morning start in Scott’s car heading for Fort Myers. 

I almost forgot to make note that this marina, Dinner Key Marina, was originally built back, I believe in the 30’s, as an airport for Pan American Airway’s clipper fleet, those huge flying boats, that flew around the world.  They had numerous models and pictures around the lobby showing how it was back then.  The building  was an interesting structure.

Day 33: April 1, 2013

We awoke at about 5:00 and were on the road by 5:45.  The early morning drive was great with little traffic on the usually jammed US 1 and I-95.  Our planned route was to take I-75 across Alligator Alley and on to Fort Myers but the Alley was closed due to smoke and poor visibility.  We picked another route that took us to the south side of Lake Okeechobee.  It was an interesting drive through the Everglades and the saw grass regions of southern Florida.  We saw a lot of sugar cane being grown and harvested.

Once we got to Fort Myers, the truck was where we left it and started on the first attempt.  We traveled to the storage area where we had parked our trailer and I pulled all of the grease caps off of all of the wheels to be sure that the grease had no water in it.  All appeared to be dry.  Just in case, I stopped at an auto parts store and bought a cheap grease gun and a tube of synthetic grease that was labeled as water proof.  I don’t know for sure that it will improve my chances of not having another bearing failure, but it is worth a shot.  I have spring loaded Bearing Buddies and I added enough grease to move the plungers about half way out.  My thought is that the pressure on the back seal will help prevent water from entering the hub.  We shall see. 

Janine got to drive Scott’s really neat “hotrod” Audi  She started the engine, slipped it into gear and drove a away with a completely smooth start.  Her first car was a VW beetle and she has not lost her touch.  We started our trip back to Miami.  It took about 2 ½ hours to travel back.  When we finally got onto I-95, we met bumper to bumper traffic traveling about 65 to 70 mph.  We were amazed by the way people dive into any tiny spot in front of you.  We read somewhere that the drivers in Miami are the rudest in the country and are proud of it.  I think we both agree with it.

To make matters more interesting, it began to rain really hard.  The traffic slowed down to 10 to 15 mph.  When we got back to the marina, the parking lot was a lake about a foot to foot and a half deep.  We sat in the car/truck until the rain let up.  We finally got into the boat, it continued to rain heavily.  Our goal was to pull the boat out, drop the mast and spend the night on the boat in the parking lot.  We were concerned that if we didn’t get started by 5:00, we would not get the boat packaged before dark.  It did, however, stop raining at 4:45 so we headed for the ramp and pulled the boat out of the water.  We had a bit of trouble getting the boat pulled all the way up on the trailer; however, the rest of the mast dropping process went without a hitch.  We got the boat ready to move by about 7:30.  We felt really relieved that we had gotten back to our old timeline for mast dropping.  Claire called and offered that we could come over and spend the night with them.  She ordered in Chinese food for us.  We were tired enough that our after dinner conversation was quite short and we were soon sleeping.

Day 34: April 2, 2013

Scott took us to the boat at around 7:00 and we were on the road by about 8:00.  We had a few odds and ends that we needed to clean up before we left.  The traffic was much heavier on our trip as we headed back up I-95.  Again today, the Alligator Alley was closed so we followed our yesterday’s tract to Fort Myers and headed north on I-75.  We had a good trip for about 8 hours and decided that we were tired enough that it would be wise to pull off for the night when we got to Gainesville where we found a Baymont Inn motel.   The gal in charge suggested an Italian restaurant and we enjoyed a wonderful meal of shrimp and scallops linguini which we shared.  A glass of chardonnay added a great touch and the peanut butter pie topped it off.. We then called it a night. 

Day 35: April 3, 2013

We got on the road at around 7:00 and had a routine driving day.  Our original plan was to make it to Cincinnati.  I called our son Trevor and confirmed that they were willing to take us in but as the day wore on, I realized that a 12/13 hour day was not going to cut it.  We found a Fairfield Inn in Berea, Ky.  We have been eating at fast foods along the way,  except for last night.  I swam in a nice pool and walked on an elliptical machine to burn off a few calories. And then bed!

Day 36: April 4, 2013

We have yet to leave Berea but we assume that we will be home in about 6 hours after we get on the road.  This has been an interesting, great trip.  My friend, John Carr, asked where this trip fits with all of those taken in the past.  He noted that we had spent a number of weather delay days in port, but my reply is that this is what we do.  This trip, except for the Dry Tortugas run, we had no particular goals other than to enjoy what there was to see and do and that is how it all came down.  It was a bit different than what I expected.  I assumed that we would be swimming off of sandy beaches snorkeling on reefs enjoying beautiful fish and coral.  Well, the area isn’t really built that way. The beaches are there, but we would have to travel over a half to a whole mile of very shallow water to get there and also, the temperatures were not all that conducive to swimming so we did only a little bit of that.

In the final analysis, we were able to sail a lot, see a lot of neat scenery and meet a many great interesting folks along the way.  We also enjoyed getting to spend time with our son and his family. So it was a good one!

Barnes Sound to Miami Dinner Key Marina

Day 30: March 29, 2013

Our goal for the day was to make it to Miami.  We arose early and made our last chipped beef  gravy on toast and got the boat ready for the trip.  We were able to raise the anchor at about 7:45.  The water was relatively calm in our anchorage so the departure was easy.  It had been a quiet night so we both were well rested for the trip.

I had spent a significant amount of time preplanning a route to the Dinner Key Marina and putting it into the GPS.  This is the process that the course in navigation suggests one uses when heading into an area in which you had not traveled.  It still requires the use of charts and a closely-monitored GPS.  Along this particular route, I had about 15 significant course changes.  The GPS tells you the direction to sail and the distance to the next turn.  It also calculates the estimated time of arrival.  It really worked well except when I was setting up the pathway that I would follow, I missed a spot in the middle of about an 8 mile passage that had a very shallow area and narrow channel that needed to be navigated through.  Sometime after noon, I was motoring along, following the course and periodically checking the chart, when I noticed a set of markers about 100 yards off to the port side of the boat.  Not understanding why they were there, I jumped up, checked the chart and GPS and realized I was heading for a sand bank that was about 2 feet deep.  I immediately made a 90 degree turn toward the markers, entered the channel and continued on our way.  A couple of lessons learned.  One must be ever vigilant and double check a route before navigating it.

The wind was out of the east northeast, the direction that we were traveling so we had wind and waves on the nose virtually all day.  The wave heights were between 2 and 3 feet, making it a bumpy ride.  The last 20 miles or so were in the open waters of Biscayne Bay so the fetch allowed for the waves to build.  

We made the turn into the long channel that leads back to Dinner Key Marina at around 3:00, called the dockmaster for a mooring ball assignment, and found our spot.  It was out in a mooring field that was completely exposed to northeasterly winds so the night promised to be a rocking one.  The actual snaring of the mooring line on the ball is a tricky maneuver.  The ball needs to be approached from directly downwind, captured with a long boat hook and then secured to the boat with two bow lines.  As you approach if you are going too fast, you have a hard time both catching the line and also stopping the boat after you do catch it.  If you approach too slowly, the wind will blow the bow off course and you miss the ring.  Janine masterfully picked the exact speed and maneuvered the boat exactly to the right place to make the capture. 

We were planning on spending the night on the boat, but we had a gracious invitation from our daughter-in-law, Claire, to come to their condo and spend the night.  We elected to take her up on the invitation and took our last steak and two pork chops as well as a blog carrot cake mix that we could prepare for supper.  We climbed into Damn Dink and motored to the Dinghy dock where Claire and her boys were waiting to whisk us away to civilization. We had a wonderful meal, a well-developed blob cake and a fun evening with the grandsons and Claire and Scott.  We watched our first television in a month and it seemed that the news was just the same as the day we left. 

It was good to sleep in a nice bed.

Day 31: March 30, 2013

We slept soundly and got up a late, for us, 7:15.  Claire fixed us a nice breakfast and Scott and I headed off for the marina and boat.  We needed to do a formal registration for our mooring and I needed to check on the boat.  After a slow bumpy dinghy ride, we arrived at Panache that had survived a somewhat bumpy ride in fine shape.  The wind was blowing from the northeast and there are absolutely no land masses to break up the waves for as far as Africa.  Scott suggested that we take the boat out for a brief sail so we cast off our lines and motored back out to the Intracoastal Waterway heading for the Rickenbacker Bridge and the Port of Miami.

The wind was brisk and we raised our sail and began beating toward our goal.  The winds were stiff enough that we buried the port rail in the water so I reduced the jib so as to soften up the ride.  We sailed the old fashioned way, tacking to move up on the wind so that we could make the cut in the bridge.  The passage under the bridge was a tremendously busy as we sailed through.  We were passed by boats of all shapes and sizes.  Supposedly, we had the right of way; however, some of the pilots caused us to wonder.

Looking down from 34 floors up

From  the Rickenbacker bridge, we traveled down past Brickle Island and turned into the Miami River.  Several hundred yards up the river we were greeted by Janine, Wyatt and Claire who were waving from the 34^th floor of their condo.  We dropped our sails, motored past the huge yachts parked next to their apartment and then turned about heading back toward the harbor.  We were again able to sail back to the bridge and back to the marina.  It was a great sail.

Wyatt watching dad and grandpap down in the boat

After catching the mooring ball, we battened down Panache and headed back to the dinghy dock in Dink.  When Scott and I returned to their condo, we all piled in the car for a leisurely drive trough Miami Beach and the various villages to the north.  We were amazed by the number of huge hotels and condominium buildings that line the coast.  Donald Trump has at least 4 of the most luxurious structures that we saw. 

Spray Can Mural - one of many

We then traveled to the Hialeah area of North Miami.  There we passed through an old run down district which was covered with graffiti. As we looked at the street art, we realized that this area had been decorated by a group of extremely talented artists.  It seems that a gentleman bought a number of the old rundown buildings and commissioned street artists from around the world to paint the walls.  All of the walls were painted for blocks on end.  We stopped at a restaurant called Wynwood Kitchen which was one of these old buildings that was beautifully painted with this contemporary street art, floor to ceiling.  The food was presented in the “tapas” tradition in which a number of different dishes were ordered by the 4 of us and then shared.  The dishes were contemporary foods prepared in a way that we were unaccustomed but really good.  The picture I have included happens to be the artist Fairey from NYC.  Our table was backed up against the wall in its finished form

Next to the kitchen, was the “Wynwood Walls” which is a gated area with numerous paintings by a diverse group of artists.  The facial painting that I have added is framed by a roll up door and painted with spray cans of paint.  I highly recommend a visit to this unique area.  There are reported to be 70 different art galleries in the metropolis of art.

After dinner, Scott and Claire took us back to the dock where we crawled into Damn Dink and headed out to the boat.  We were pushing it close on darkness so we cranked up the trolling motor and got to the boat as fast as we could.  We were both tired so bed came early as usual.