Back to Boot Key Harbor

Day 27: Saturday, March 19, 2016

Sunrise over Marlin Bay Yacht Club

Today is a day of decisions.  After a fine breakfast of SOS, I checked the weather forecast and it continues to look like we will be in for some windy weather during the first part of next week.  On the Bay side of the Keys, there are few places where one is protected from northerly winds and it appears that there will be at least 2 days of up to 30 mph winds from the northerly quadrant.  I located one place on the south side of Long Key that looks good for winds from the north, however, after the northerlies, the wind will shift to the east and that anchorage is wide open to the Atlantic swells from that direction. 

So, I decided that we would be wise to backtrack into Boot Key Harbor.  It is deep

The sun is intense with heat index temps of 85 degrees

and protected from all sides.  The drawback is that it is a crowded anchorage.  Most boats have taken the 300 mooring balls leaving only anchorage around the outer perimeter of the bay.  That area is crowded as well and in a real blow, there is always a chance that one would drag anchor or, just as bad, your neighbor will drag into you.  It is our best option.

I raised the main and sailed away from the anchor heading west in a nice stiff southerly breeze.  I unfurled the jib and we had an exhilarating ride for the 5 miles to Moser Channel and the cut under the Seven Mile Bridge.  At times, we were healing significantly, a phenomenon that we have rarely felt on this boat.  It was really fun.

I like donphing

At the cut, the wind was blowing straight through the opening so I furled the jib and left the main up as we motored though.  On the Atlantic side of the bridge, the winds were the same, but the rollers and chop were higher so as we turned back east, I set the main and motor sailed all the way back to the entrance to Boot Key Harbor.  We dropped the main and once inside of the entrance channel, the waves were gone and the wind became less of a problem.  Part way inside, we met the Morgan, White Pearl, the owner of which we had joined at the Dockside Tropical Café a couple of nights ago.  Temple (I believe is his name) had his main up heading out with several others on board.  This is the guy that I described as an interesting salty

Piles of Lobster traps at Keys Fisheries Market

character who was single handing this big boat all around the warm waters south of the US. 

Further in, a small dinghy came motoring near us and it turned out to be Mike and Frankie from the motor sailor Bumbye.  They told us where they were anchored and indicated that there was room for us near them.  On inside we did indeed locate a potential spot and dropped our hook.

A few of our many neighborw

 Knowing that there was wind coming, we set our second anchor as security and also to tame the wild swings that this boat does while moored.  We were actually quite close to two other boats but I felt that we were probably OK where we were.  

We went inside for a bit of lunch and while we were eating, we heard some hail our boat.  We went out to meet a young man who was watching a friend’s 23 foot boat next to us.  He pointed out that his ground tackle was not the best and that there would be no one on the boat in case it began to drift.  We thanked him and spent time talking with him.  He is an employee of the City Marina.  His job is to drive the pump-out boat.  The marina provides a service of pumping out the holding tanks of boats whose owners have paid for either a mooring ball or a dinghy dock pass. 

After lunch, we took the Dink over to the marina and paid for a dinghy dock pass and put our name on a list for a mooring ball.  I would feel more secure on a ball than on the anchor, however, I hold out little hope of getting one before we leave. 

On our way back, we stopped by Bumbye and invited Mike and Frankie over for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres for later in the evening.  They accepted.   

Back at the boat, I was uncomfortable with our anchorage spot and decided to move to a spot that was more wide open.  While pulling up the small anchor, I pulled up the mooring line that had been lost by another boat.  It was quite a bit bigger than what I use.  I raised it up until I reached a fairly large chain which was severely rusted.  I was unable to raise the anchor to which it was attached so I had to let it go. 

Once I got the main anchor up, we motored back to the new spot and we began trying to get into a favorable position to drop the hook.  The wind had other ideas and it took us three tries to get to where I felt we would be safe.  With the main anchor set and holding, we then motored into position to drop the little Danforth.  It also held so I now feel more secure.

At about 5:00 Frankie and Mike joined us for cheese, crackers and a beer.  As mentioned earlier, these are really interesting folks.  They have decided that they are going to pull their boat out of the water and head home.  They trailer their boat, as do we, but Mike doesn’t like to submerge his trailer brakes in salt water so they have their boat lifted out of the water and put on their trailer. 

We also decided to head back to the Dockside Tropical Café for our evening meal so we got into or respective dinghies and motored away.  At the Café, a couple of young men, one playing the guitar and the other playing a violin, were the evening’s entertainment.  They were quite good and obviously part of the local culture.  During the break, they joined a table of groupies, a number of whom we had seen there on our previous visit.  Later one of the young ladies from the groupie table joined the entertainers in some rousing 70’s song which had obviously been popular prior to their appearance on the earth. They were fun.  I had a Cuban BBQ beef sandwich which, like the blackened sandwich I had previously, was very lip burning spicy.  It was good but a bit painful.

We again made our return trip to Second Wind in the dark but this time I took our big spotlight along so as to insure safe passage.  Back safely at the boat, we wasted no time going to bed.