The Trip from the Florida Keys to Ohio Via Baltimore MD

Day 23:  April 17, 2014

And Now the Trip North

Our original plan for this trip upon completion of our journey, was to take the boat to the home of our friend, Stuart Harshbarger, in the Baltimore MD area where we would leave it for about three weeks.  We plan to return and sail in the Chesapeake, Janine in a women’s sailing class and me sailing Second Wind single handedly for about a week.  But now with a broken motor, we had a dilemma.  I contacted Stuart and he found a Suzuki dealer who seemed to be able to solve our problems.  There were problems, however.  This was Thursday, and the repair shop closes at 5:00 on Saturday and closed on Sunday and Monday.  The boat is still in the water fully rigged, and our truck and trailer are in Stuart, some three plus hours north of Plantation Key.

The Dock Master told us that the Thrifty rental car company would bring a car to us at the marina so getting to Stuart would be easy.  I called Thrifty at 8:00 and she said she was short-handed and would not be able to get a car to us until 10:00.  We realized that we had a significant deadline (one of several coming up).  The marina puts a gate across the launch ramp at 6:00pm so everything would have to go smoothly for us to get to Stuart and back and get the boat out of the water before 6:00.  We opted to rent a cab and go to the office.  

We were underway north by about 9:00.  It was past rush hour and the Florida Turnpike is designed to handle large volumes of traffic so the trip towards Stuart, although busy, was relatively uneventful.  We needed to stop by the Seaward factory to pick up some supplies for the finish repair on the boat but we got there at 12:00 and they were all at lunch.  We went to lunch ourselves and were waiting at the office door at 1:00.  

From the factory, we picked up the truck and trailer and headed south, Janine in the rental, me in the truck.  The time was now 2:00.  Plantation Key was 3 plus hours away.  The Deadline!  As we traveled south, the traffic continued to build and by about 3:30, we noticed a sign alerting us to the fact that the Turnpike was blocked north of Miami and that we were to find an alternate route.  UGH!  I didn’t have a city map so we pulled into a service area and found a guy who worked there who advised us of an alternate route.  It was good, busy but longer.  We began to see our window for getting the boat out of the water slowly closing.  We pulled in to marina at 6:15.  There would be no way to get the boat out before 8:00 tomorrow morning.

I decided to walk down and look at the ramp any way and realized that they were still pulling a boat out of the water.  The gate was still open.  I ran to the Dock Master and asked if we could still get our boat out.  She literally pulled her hair and gnashed her teeth but finally agreed with, “Are you actually going to pull that sailboat out tonight?”  I quickly backed the trailer in and with the help of the Dock Master and another fellow on the dock, we had the boat loaded in about 15 minutes.  That would have never have happened with the Balboa.

We began taking down the mast and got the boat ready to move to the parking area a bit after dark.  We still needed to tie down the entire rig and load Damn Dink, but by now we were really tired so we decided to go to bed and get up early to finish the job.  We crawled up into the boat and fell asleep.

Day 24: April 18, 2014

“On the Road Again”

Mapquest informed us that the trip to Baltimore would take 18 hours and we interpolated that to mean at least 20 if not more.  I awoke at 3:00 and began packaging the boat and truck.  Janine joined me at around 4:00 and we found ourselves heading north at about 6:00.  We got to Miami at about 7:30 – the heart of rush hour.  The boat is wide; the traffic was heavy and fast.  I was pushing the truck trying to maintain traffic speed but at the expense of lower gas mileage.

A bit of a "Red Sky in the Morning" as we passed Miami

Over the course of the next two days, we averaged around 6.8 miles per gallon.  We encountered a few showers but nothing that would slow us down significantly.

But, in the middle of the afternoon, the sky indicated that there was a massive storm blocking our pathway and soon we were driving in a true “gully washer.”  Visibility was not good but during the daylight hours, traffic continued to move at a relatively good pace.  However, as night began to fall, traffic started slowing down.  Our goal was to make a good 12 hour, 70 mph day, but, by around 7:00, the very heavy traffic was moving along at about 30 mph.  We were just not making the miles we needed to make so that we could meet our deadline tomorrow. 

 

At near Savanna GA, we saw a sign that alerted us to the fact that there was an accident on the highway about 20 miles north of us and that the Interstate was closed.  We decided to pull into a motel and get some sleep before beginning journey early tomorrow morning.  We had been on the road 13 hours and had not made the progresses we needed. 

In our room, we turned on the TV to check on the weather and they reported that the storm in which we had been driving was massive and was causing potential flash flooding in South Carolina.  Of course, our continued path to Maryland passed through South Carolina.  So, to bed with a plan to get on the road very early in the morning. 

Day 25:  April 19, 2014

Still Traveling

I was again up at 3:00.  While Janine got ready for the day, I walked to a McDonalds and got a couple of breakfast sandwiches in an attempt to jumpstart our bodies. 

We were on the road by 4:00.  The heavy rain had stopped but a light annoying mist kept visibility down for the first half of the day.  Traffic was light in the early morning but began to build as daylight approached.

We droned on north in heavy traffic.  Near Richmond VA, MapQuest suggested that we take the outer belt around the city but the map showed that it was quite a bit out of the way so I opted to head straight through the city.  It turned out to be a good decision. 

Traffic was heavy all of the way from Richmond to Washington DC.  During this stretch, we encountered several groups of guys driving high-powered “crotch rocket” motorcycles who would swarm at a very high rate of speed through, around and between the slower moving traffic.  It was amazing.  There would be no way that law enforcement would be able to apprehend these guys.  It was really denerving. 

We came out of DC heading for Baltimore between 3:30 and 4:00, again in very heavy, bumper to bumper traffic traveling well below normal Interstate speed.  I contacted the outboard motor repair shop, Goose Harbor Marina, and told them that I had gotten close but that the traffic was slow and we might not make it by 5:00.  The guy I spoke with told me to continue coming that he would wait for us.  A Relief.

It turned out that we pulled into his lot at 4:55.  He helped us unload the motor, filled out some paperwork and agreed to have it fixed by the time we returned in about 3 weeks.  And then he was out of there. 

From there, we drove another 1 ½ hour to the home of our friend, Stuart Harshbarger.  Stuart has a nice storage building that he has recently rented. We backed the boat in andput a few more items that we would need on the next phase of our adventure into the truck and went in search of bed.  We found one in Fredrick MD.  We were both asleep by 8:30.  We had met our deadline!

Day 26: April 20, 2014

And Then Home

We slept until around 6:00 with on this trip is fairly late, ate a leisurely breakfast in the motel and drove leisurely home with no deadline to stress usS. 

We pulled into the drive and were merrily greeted by our ever enthusiastic dogs.  They were obviously most happy to see us.  We had arrived at about 3:00.  Our own home bed will really feel good tonight.

 

Long Key Bight to Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina

Day 22:  April 16, 2014

At around 3:00 this morning, we were both awakened by the sound of rain on the cabin roof.  We had left the port holes open so we both got up to shut them. As I was standing there, I remembered that I had taken a saltwater plunge in the late afternoon the day before and decided that this natural shower would serve me well to remove the residual salt from my body.  So, it’s 3:00 in the morning on a dark night with no boats near – off come my night clothes and out into the cold rain I go.  As I am dancing around in the chill of the shower, I look up and there I see my lovely wife, bar of soap in hand, in a similar state of undress climbing out onto the cockpit.  There we were, two 70 year old fogies dancing naked in the rain on a boat in the middle of the night in the Gulf of Mexico!  But!  It was fun!

Heading Back North

In the morning, while fixing our last pancake breakfast, I noticed that the closest boat to us was actually very close.  Much closer that he had been when we went to bed.  I checked the other boats and they were also in what appeared to be a different location.  Our anchor had again drug.  I had not felt that the wind during the night had been particularly strong, but it had happened again. 

After breakfast, I contacted a local marina to check on the feasibility of getting some ice.  They were located on the opposite side of Long Key and I questioned the lady about taking the dinghy to the shore of the Bight and walking across the road to her establishment and she acknowledged that it was doable.  So I put the motor on the Dink loaded up my partner, and began trying to start the motor.  It wouldn’t fire.  After removing the plug, burning out the flooded cylinder, and pulling too many more times, I realized that the safety clip that shuts off the motor if the operator is lost overboard was missing.  I took the one off the big motor, put it on the little motor and away we went.

Coming back from the marina, I looked out at Second Wind and was surprised that

Entrance into Founders Park, Plantation Yacht Harbor

it was so much farther away from the shore that I had remembered.  As we approached her, we realized that she was again dragging her anchor and heading really fast for the very shallow waters on a distant island.  We got onto the boat secured the dinghy, pulled up the anchor and when I went to get the safety clip off of the dinghy motor, found that the second one was now missing.  We were getting very close to the island shore but I got the big motor running by manually holding the safety switch closed.  Janine then steered the boat into deeper water while I sat on the boat’s stern holding the switch.  Once we were safely clear of the lee shore, I found a piece of wire that I wrapped around the safety switch and we were able to proceed on our way.

Beach at Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina

We decided that we would head back toward the place where we were going to pull the boat out of the water and spend the rest of the trip exploring anchorages and reefs on the western side of the Keys.  The wind had shifted around to the northeast so we were again motoring into a headwind during the entire trip.  Later in the afternoon, our propeller again became intimately involved in a lobster buoy line.  I am amazed.  Last year, we traversed this same area and didn’t kiss one of these things.  This one was our fourth one this year.

At around 4:00, we were passing Plantation Key and decided that with our track record of dragging anchors, we would pull into the Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina for the night.  The wind had piped up to around 15 to 18 knots and I didn’t feel like worrying about ending up on a lee shore in the middle of the night.  I called the marina and they did have a slip available.  I asked if they could stand by to lend assistance because of the strong winds and they agreed to do so.

 

We came in looking for the helpers and not seeing them, I headed for the fuel dock.  I was making a perfect slow approach but at the point where we were to land, the wind caught us and blew us sideways away from the dock.  I put the boat in reverse and began trying to maneuver her into position.  The second time I put her in reverse, there was a bang and the motor, although running, stopped pulling us backwards.  It seemed that the transmission had self- destructed.  We were in a very narrow confined area with big yachts lining the dock and we had no control over the boat.  Luckily, the boat blew toward the only open spot along the dock wall all be it that it was heading straight for that spot.  One of the dock hands saw our dilemma and was able to stop the boat before any damage was done.  The dock master told us that we could stay in the open space. 

Disabled Second Wind in Plantation Yacht Harbor

 

Upon checking the motor, I found that a clamp that attached the motor proper to the motor mount had parted and ½ of it was missing.  Since the motor was in reverse when it separated, the motor had pulled back and bent the shift rod that connects the motor power head to the lower unit, hence, disabling the reverse gear.  The motor was not fixable without replacement parts and there are no Suzuki outboard dealers in the area.  

Nothing to do but call a cab, head for the Islamorada Fish Company for a wonderful grouper dinner (Janine had fried oysters), and make plans for the rest of our trip.  

Islamorada Fish Company

We resigned ourselves to the fact that the sailing portion of the trip were abruptly terminated and that we needed to start figuring out how to get the boat back on the trailer and on up the highway.  Back at the boat, we began removing sails in preparation for lowering the mast once we pulled her out of the water.