Aborted trip to Grassy Key

Day 32: Thursday, March 24, 2016

It rained last night and was misting when we arose.  It was nice sleeping in a

I am intrigued by the forms in the dead trees

windy environment but secure and knowing that you were not going to crash into another boat or be driven into shallow waters.  We did, however, have an interesting noise that was a bit annoying.  The mooring tether has a loop with a plastic sleeve in it to protect it and as the boat swings around, as this boat does a lot. The rope that ran from the boat through that loop and back to the other side of the boat would make the sound much like that of an old sow rooting through sod looking for grubs.  I had nothing to lubricate it with.  I tried spraying cooking oil on it to no avail.  It just grunted all night long.

On the advice of Keith, whom we met on his Seaward 26RK in the everglades, we cut out just after sunup in the Dink headed for the Stuffed Pig Restaurant.  Keith commented that they served a fine breakfast and I must say that they lived up to their reputation.  It appeared to be a really small room with a number of serving staff.  We realized after we left that they had a huge eating area out back under a thatched roof.  They have received numerous awards for their fine food.  Their sausage gravy ranked about an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale with Bob Evans hitting about a 9.5.  Janine had raisin cinnamon French toast and reported that it was excellent.

From Stuffed Pig, we walked back to the Keys Fisheries Market to get a couple of

Back at our familiar anchorage near Marathon

lobsters for dinner but they had not delivered the daily catch at that time.  We settled for 4 small frozen lobster tails.  I also bought 25 pounds of ice.  Their ice is fairly close to block ice and lasts longer than any other that we have purchased on this trip.  My mistake was to buy 25 pounds of cold ice with a half mile walk back to the dinghy.  About half way back to the Dink, it began to rain so we stopped and put on our Frogg Toggs and marched happily on in the rain.

When we got back to Second Wind I immediately began filling our ice chest.  The frozen block was too big so I went to the back of the boat to break it in half.  When

The Coast Guard loves cormorants and sea gulls

I banged it on the edge of the boat, the bottom blew out of the bag and the ice fell into the bay.  I grabbed the smaller of the two chunks that popped out but the larger one quickly floated out of my reach.  I jumped in Dink and rowed after the big chunk and by the time I got there, it had turned into 500 ice cubes floating randomly away.  So much for 25 pounds of ice.

I needed to check out of the marina so I got into the Dink and went back to the dock.  While there, I purchased another 10 pounds of ice to finish filling the cooler.

Lots of big beautiful boats down here.

At about 10:00, with first mate Janine at the helm, I slipped the mooring line and we were off.  Our goal was to make it to Grassy Key.  As soon as we reached the open waters of the Hawk Channel, I unfurled the jib and we road for about 4 miles in relatively rough seas and strong winds.  It was a fun, exhilarating ride. As we approached the Seven Mile Bridge and the Moser channel, we turned north, jibed the jib and sailed through the bridges.  On the other side of the bridge, the waves, although still quite bumpy, were much smaller than on the Atlantic side.  I was unable to point in the easterly direction of our course so I ran the motor keeping the jib unfurled.  We motor sailed for probably 5 miles moving along at between 5 and 6 knots. It was really fun.  As the track to be followed swung further east, we could no longer keep the jib filled so I furled it.  Our speed immediately dropped to between 2 and 3 knots.  In the rough seas and slow passage, making it to Grassy Key began to seem like a futile exercise so we swung southeast and headed back to the anchorage where we had spent several days on the north side of Marathon.  We nestled in close to the shore and dropped our anchor in about 6 feet of water.  The weather forecasts told us that the winds would continue from the southeast for the next several days and also that they would diminish to down around 10 knots tomorrow.

Janine spent the majority of the remaining afternoon reading and I completed several little projects on the boat.  The winds did not abate throughout the afternoon so we decided to stick it out here until tomorrow. 

Grilled chicken thighs and green beans with salad

We enjoyed Kipper Snacks on crackers with a cold beer as our appetizer and grilled chicken thighs for our main course.  We accompanied the chicken with green beans.  (Yes, I know that they have chlorophyll but I ate them anyway.) 

After dinner we read and as usual were in bed by around 9:00.