Jewfish Creek to Tavernier Harbor

Day 20:  April 14, 2014

We started our day with a wonderful warm shower.  It was the first hot showe we have had enjoyed in two weeks.  We put on our wading shoes and let the soothing water massage our bodies. 

Our neighborhood in Jewfish Creek

From the shower, Janine started two loads of laundry while I fixed bacon and eggs for breakfast. We spent the remainder of the morning doing the domestic things that we let slip while on an anchor.  I hosed the salt off of the boat and cleaned the film off of the windows.

For lunch, we went back to the Tiki bar and each ordered a French dip sandwich that turned out too big for either of us to eat more than half so we will have that great sandwich again tomorrow.

Immediately after lunch, we backed the boat out of the narrow slip and headed

The Tiki Bar at Gilbert's Resort

out of the narrow creek on our way back to the ICW.  The wind was directly in our face as we headed southwest so sailing was again out of the question.  I am amazed that the waters in the wide open expanses areas so very shallow. Had it been a deep body of water, we would have probably tacked rather than drone on. 

High Cass Dining in Jewfish Cr

We have figured out more of the quirks of the GPS and developing more confidence in it.  At one point we were on a favorable course for a broad reach so we raised the sails and at the end, we fired up the motor, but this time, just before I started it, I switched the battery selector switch to the “#2 battery selection” and when I started the motor, the GPS did not shut off.  Ah, a solution to that troublesome problem. 

We didn’t have a particular destination in mind for our anchorage but noticed in the chart book that the village of Tavernier is located on a neat little harbor and they advertize that they are dinghy friendly and that a super market is close at

One more shot of the Tiki Bar

hand.  So we left the ICW and slowly motored across a large shallow bay using the GPS as our guide.  The book advised to travel carefully and to follow the local markers in the water near the little harbor. 

We entered the little harbor and found a grassy bottom with a depth of about 3 to 3 ½ feet so anchorage would not be a problem.  I found a nice spot that I assumed was far enough away from all of the other boats, dropped the anchor and backed off about 30 feet and settled down.  That gave us a respectable 10:1 anchor rode ratio.  I am usually happy with a 6:1 ratio so I was very confident in this arrangement.  (That ratio is 10 feet of anchor rode [line] to 1 foot of depth.) 

What we see a lot of down here.

It was about 4:30 and I was anxious to get to shore before the marinas closed so as to find out where we could park the dinghy.  As we were getting ready to start Dink’s motor, a guy in a boat about 100 feet from us yelled “YOU’RE TOO CLOSE.”  I responded that I had only 30 feet of rode out and he yelled back that if the wind would shift, I would be on top of him.  (I didn’t agree, however,) I yelled back that I would move after we returned from the store. 

We motored over to the Mangrove Marina and the guy who seemed to be in charge

The neighborhood in Tavernier.
The yellowboat is the happy neighbor.

offered that we could stay on his floating dock.  We got off of the dinghy and headed for the Winn-Dixie for a few groceries.  It as an easy walk of about a mile.  We bought our groceries and headed back to the marina.

As we approached Second Wind, we realized that she was not in the same place where we had left her.  She was dragging her anchor.  We had plenty of drag room before we were in the mangrove behind us and there were no boats directly behind us so we hurriedly secured the dinghy and got ready to reset the anchor.  Meanwhile, two

Full Moon over Tavernier.  I saw the total
eclipse of that moon at 3:00am.

guys from a 30 foot ketch rowed over to help us get reset.  One of the two guys had been in the area a long time and explained that the grassy bottom made for terrible holding and we needed two anchors and a lot of anchor rode to keep the boat secure.  He said that there were patches of bottom that had little grass and that would be the best place to drop our anchor.  He and the young man with him rowed a way and found a spot to which we motored and reset out anchor.  I then let out 90 feet of anchor rode.  He then offered to carry our backup anchor out and drop it for us in another spot somewhat off to the side of the original anchor.  On the second anchor, I put out about 80 feet of rode and as it turned out, the system was satisfactory and we stayed put for the night.

The two guys rowed back and we spent the next hour talking about all sorts of interesting topics.  The older fellow was waiting for a weather window to go to the Bahamas and he had met the younger guy who was from Vancouver BC who was on a 5 year trek across the US and the hopefully South America.  They were both really interesting.

After they left, we grilled a really great NY Strip steak and supplemented it with garlic potatoes and a nice fresh salad.  After we cleaned up the dishes, we sat out on the deck watching the full moon rise and enjoyed the cool evening breeze until about 9:00 when the bed came calling.