<p>So we got up the morning of Friday the 30th, and while Brian worked on putting the autopilot back together, I cooked us up some breakfast and connected with Jamie about my credit card - which actually arrived around 11. We coordinated with Jamie to pull up alongside the Dorothy Moran, where we collapsed our portabote, got rid of a bag of garbage, collected my package, and after a goodbye and thanks, we cast off, heading under the bridge and out to the Hawk Channel where we’d be able to continue our journey down to the Keys with the protection of the reef on one side and the Keys on the other. So far of all our sails, this was the best, hands down. It was warm, with calm turquoise seas and about 15-20 knots of consistent breeze off our stern and aft quarter. We passed out of Miami harbor, passing an International 470 regatta on our way through, and out into the Hawk Channel, all sails flying with one reef in the main and making an easy and comfortable 6.5+ knots.
About two hours into our trip down the Hawk Channel the breeze decided to start to pick up (which we’d been expecting given the weather forecast), so Brian and I put on our harnesses and moved forward to reef in the main. As we started adjusting the sail from 1 reef to 2, I noticed something… the bolt holding the boom to the mast was working free!! The lock nut had worked it’s way off, and the bolt was slowly working itself out! S***!!! Fortunately the nut hadn’t fallen overboard, but was sitting on the deck amongst the pile of rope from the staysail halyard. We quickly doused the main all the way, and while I threw a couple of quick sail ties around it, Brian scooted downstairs - with the nut - to get the tools to lock that bolt back down. A few minutes later, we breathed a sigh of relief as Brian got the bolt and nut secured… crisis averted, and we took advantage of having the sail all the way down to do an easy 2nd reef into the main. Even with our reduced sail configuration, and having pulled some of the Genny in we were still cruising along at 6+ knots, up to 7 or 8 when we were able to coast with the waves… and we still had some ground to cover.
One of the challenges with the Hawk Channel is that there are few places where a boat can safely put in at anchor. Many of the channels to access the keys nearby are too shallow for our 5′1″ draft, so we had picked an anchorage about halfway to our destination (45 SM) to anchor for the night. We knew that we’d be dropping anchor in the semi dark or dark, even with the great speed we were making, but since both Reed’s and Skipper Bob’s had ID’d Rodriguez Key as a good and relatively sheltered location to anchor, with pretty good holding, we were feeling pretty good about making it to this location…. also the only other close choice was only 3 miles sooner, and would require us to make our way up a winding and narrow channel to make it to the anchorage, not something that we really wanted to attempt in the dark or near dark.
Just as sunlight was beginning to fade we passed our last marker before reaching Rodriguez Key. All around the marker thousands of flying fish were jumping which was an amazing sight! Brian went down to study the charts and put in a couple of waypoints to help to guide us to our chosen anchorage. The winds and chop had picked up substantially, and we were glad to turn into the shelter of the islands. We were in about 8′ of water, and on Brian’s cue, I dropped the hook, and put out 100′ of chain. We waited to make sure that the anchor had set, and then fired up some dinner. Although it was rough out, we had a lovely dinner and then settled in with our books for a bit before turning off the lights to go to sleep… except we didn’t get quite that far. Just as I reached up to switch off the light “HONK HONK HONK!!!” the anchor alarm started going off! We both BOLTED out of bed and threw on our foulies and boots and raced topsides. Brian fired up the engine, and I threw on my harness and ran up to the foredeck. We were still moving, so we made the decision to haul up the anchor, which thank god for adrenaline, was no small feat… but we got the anchor aboard (covered with some nasty kind of seagrass) and Brian sounded our way to a new anchorage. Again we went through the exercise of setting the anchor, this time putting out our full rode, which is almost 200′. We waited, making sure that the hook had set, and after a little restless waiting finally drifted off to sleep, feeling pretty good that with that much chain out, and that the anchor had set, that we’d be able to catch some sleep before we set off for Marathon in the morning, where we were planning to spend the night before heading over to Little Palm Island the following day.
4AM HONK HONK HONK! We were dragging AGAIN!! We again threw on our foulies, and raced topsides. I’ll tell you, there’s nothing quite like that for an adrenaline rush when you’re sound asleep! We pulled some of the anchor chain in, and tried to get the hook to reset, and once it had hooked (we thought) attached the “pig” (a 30lb dumbell) to the chain and dropped it, plus the 60′ of chain we’d hauled aboard and waited. 5 minutes later, we were dragging again. At this point it was about 4:30 in the morning, and we looked at eachother, knowing that neither of us would be able to sleep even if we did pull the anchor, re-anchor and get it set, so we said to hell with it, and for the third time that night, I pulled anchor, gathering in the “pig” and setting it aside clipped to the port webbing, and kept hauling up the remaining chain and finally the anchor. Of course, NONE of the chain wanted to go down the hawse pipe into the anchor locker… so while Brian piloted us out of the harbor at Rodriguez Key, I secured the anchor in the bow, and then proceeded to make a half a dozen trips up and down between the bow of the boat, and the v-berth, where I’d had to pull the cushions up and open the compartment where the chain is stowed, pulling the chain down from the deck through the hawse pipe until I got to the point that I couldn’t bring any more below, then going topsides to uncastle the chain I’d brought up on deck. Finally at about 5:15AM we had the anchor and all it’s chain safely put away, and we were back in Hawk Channel and heading South.
After making some coffee, I took Brian’s suggestion to try to catch a little sleep wich I was able to do from about 7-9. Today’s sail was not nearly as pleasant as the previous day’s had been. With about 2/3 of the Genny out (only) we were making about 6.5 knots but it was a much choppier ride, and the wind was extremely gusty. We finally got to Marathon, where we’d been plannning to stay for the night, at about 11:30 having covered about another 40 miles, and as we were coming into the harbor, I hailed the bridge, who asked whether we’d made any arrangements with the marina. No we replied, because supposedly they don’t take reservations. We hailed the marina on his advice, only to find out that they were full - with a waiting list! No mooring balls, no slips, and even their anchorage was full. The gal at the marina suggested an anchorage off of Whiskey Creek, but it would be chancy with our draft. We thanked her, hailed the bridge and let them know that we were turning around, and we continued on south to Bahia Honda Key (pronounced Buy a Honda). I drove while Brian napped - and I have NEVER in my life seen as many crab and lobster pots as I did during that two hours! We finally reached Bahia Honda, and turned in the channel into the protected (at least somewhat) area passing through the opening of a defunct railroad bridge and dropped anchor in the cove that is between the railroad bridge and the highway. Only one other boat there, so we were able to put out plenty of scope in the 8′ deep water. We waited to make sure that our anchor held, and finally Brian got to catch up on some of the sleep he’d missed the night before.
We were now only about 7 miles from Little Palm, so I called the resort to see if it would be all right for us to arrive earlier in the day than we’d initially thought - not a problem. We settled in for the night, and though I knew that the anchor was well set, and had been for hours, it was not a very restful night’s sleep for either of us… but we got up in the morning knowing that we were heading to Little Palm Island for a couple of days of extreme relaxation and recuperation.
Miami and onwards South
