A Great Day of Cruising

Day 16: April 10, 2014

We awoke to light winds and decided to head to a small key Boca Chita, at the north end of Florida Keys.  Wally, the Sail Magazine writer, suggested that it was a beautiful place with a small quiet anchorage.    

Out in Biscayne Bay, the wind had picked up to a nice sailing breeze.  We were traveling south and the wind was blowing from the east northeast so we were able to smoke along on a nice broad reach.  I had programmed a route into my chart plotter and we slaved the auto pilot so we allowed technology to steer us  toward our destination.  The wind increased to over 15 knots in the gusts so we partially furled the jib to balance the helm.  On one leg of the trip, we sailed for 8 miles reaching speeds of 6 knots without having to touch the helm. When we come to a turning point in the route, the chart plotter sounds an alarm asking us if it is ok to make the turn.  If we say, “yes”, the autopilot makes the turn, again without our assistance. 

When we got to the turning point at the end of the 8 mile stretch, we made the turn and the chart plotter promptly shut down.  I don’t know why , but now we had to revert to old fashion chart and compass navigation to get us into the little harbor of Boca Chita Key.  We obviously got off course and into shallow water while we were sorting out our navigation problems, however, our boat has a shallow enough draft that it was not a problem. 

In the little circular harbor, there were 5 other boats already tied to the wall.  The most wide open spot available was on the windward side of the bay and so I made an attempt to slide up there but as I slowed to make my dockage, the wind would blow me away.  I made two attempts at the landing and changed my plan to park in front of a 42 foot sailboat that was pointing up wind.  It was an easy landing and the skipper of that sailboat came out to catch our line.  He was a really friendly guy who introduced his wife and hung around to make casual conversation. He told us that he was a member of a sailing club out of Miami and that the club was holding an annual rendezvous in this basin starting tomorrow, and it would quickly fill up with sailboats.  I offered that we would be leaving and he insisted that our being here would not be a problem.  When the basin was finally full, the overflow of boaters would anchor out in a small key to the south. 

We made lunch.  I broke out my Spam, Janine turned her back, shook her head and said, “If you’re going to eat it, you’re going to slice it!”  And, So I Did!  She didn’t even notice that I had broken down and bought Spam “lite.”  I made a spam taco.  I put the spam on a tortilla, smeared sour cream on it and slathered it with salsa.  Heaven!

After lunch, we took a walk to the back side of this neat little key.  Boca Chita Key is owned by and is a part of the Biscayne Bay National Park.  It was originally owned by the founder of Honeywell Controls who bought and began to develop it in the early thirties.  In 1939, the owner’s wife died from injuries she sustained in a fall on the island so the development stopped at that point.  There are only a few remnants of the original development.  He built a beautiful light house out of native coral and also a lavish stone gate at one spot that I assume was an entrance.  I also assume he developed the harbor. 

Toward the end of our walk, we ran into the owners of the boat moored behind us and again struck up a conversation as we walked out to the light house.  Bill spent 40 years selling airplanes for Cessna and had obviously done very well.  He sold planes internationally and spent those years flying the planes to various shows and to clients for demonstrations.  He was born in Columbia and sent a boarding school in the US at the age of nine.  He remained here where he got his education and then joined the Navy as a naval flyer.  Bill’s wife, Maria, is from Mexico and is an accomplished professional artist. 

At the end of our walk, I offered that we had a bottle of wine and some cheese and asked them to join us and Bill said no that we should come to his boat because there was more room.  Well, their boat not only has a lot more room, it is luxurious.  He offered that we should have a beer with our cheese and so we spent the next 2 hours getting to know the interesting new friends.  While sitting there, Bill noticed that a sailboat had wondered out of the channel and appeared to have grounded.  I suggested that I would join him if he wanted to take his dinghy out to assist the guy.  He agreed so we put his motor on the new dinghy and met the owner, another club member. 

The owner had put out an anchor and tried without success to pull himself off.  To make a long story short, we used the dinghy to retrieve the anchor and in the process turned the stuck boat toward the deeper water channel and pulled him loose.  We rode most of the way into the harbor with the anchor chain and anchor in my lap being pulled along with the other boat. 

Once moored safely behind Bill and Maria’s boat, the relieved couple joined the group.  As the evening progressed, Bill fired up his grill and prepared pork chops, ribs and sausages for the group.  We provided a bag of salad and a bottle of wine and the other young couple, Alex and Sandra, brought beer onions, peppers, and cookies.  We hung around and told stories until the chill of the evening dictated that sleep was in order.  It was a great day!