This blog post will be short on words and long on photos. Words to explain what it's like to motor your sailboat across Biscayne Bay through downtown Miami would fall short. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate a New Year!

Sunset photos from Coconut Grove on December 30










Photos from the Intracoastal Waterway in Miami on December 31














Photos from the Turnberry Isle Marina









Our neighbor in the marina, complete with Mini Cooper on Deck!

Happy 2012 to all!

Location:Happy New Year from Miami

Miami...from the south

How many times in your live will you approach Miami, Florida from the south? Not many, I'm guessing. But we did on Thursday and what a day it was.

We left Rodriguez Key at 7:30 a.m. after the sun woke us up. An alarm clock is a torture device of corporate America. We turned northeast in Hawks Channel only to find that the wind was NNW! The forecasted direction was due north, and I was expecting to have to motor into the wind all day. NNW allowed just enough of an angle for us to sail "close hauled" to the northeast. About 8:30, I noticed a Juneau sailboat the same size as Agaliha was motor-sailing past us with all her sails up. My competitive juices kicked in and I raised all the sails (with no reefs) and it added a full knot to our boat speed. It also raised my spirits as we were now sailing to Miami.

(By the way, my knot meter cleaning the night before did the trick. We had a full compliment of instruments and it eased my mind.)

We kicked along over very shallow ground making time toward the big city for New Year's. In some places the depth gauge read in single digits. The seas were calm and the winds were light (seven knots). I hadn't seen this since I got to the Keys in November. Finally, the wind gods were calming down.

Linda basked in the sun as we turned the corner toward Key Biscayne with big Miami in the distance. I could almost feel the head cold cooking out of her as the sun baked down in Agaliha's cockpit. The compass read 000, or due north, for the first time in weeks. I spent the day tweaking sail trim to eek out a small bit of energy to add to the engine ticking away below us.


At 2:00 we turned into the Biscayne Cut which carried us toward Dinner Key Marina, our next home for the night. Along this cut are the remnants of about six "stilt houses" that were built in the sixties before someone realized it was a bad idea to allow these to clog the bay.


A "Stilt House" in Biscayne Bay


The Dinner Key Marina is one of the largest in the U.S. with 535 slips (not including their mooring field)! There are several large sailing clubs in the area and they were hosting a huge regatta for young skippers. There were Optimist Prams, 420s, Lasers, and 29ers. There were over 400 boats involved.











We ate dinner at a great little Italian restaurant and walked beck to the boat to sleep like mummies. It got down to 55 degrees and we loved it.

We finished 2011 by sailing 100 miles in two days to get from Marathon to Miami. The calm conditions in Miami were almost strange after the howling winds in the Keys for the last month.


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Good bye Marathon

Linda and I flew to Miami on December 27 and rented a car to drive to Agaliha, who was on a mooring ball on Boot Key Harbor (Marathon). We stopped at the Publix grocery store to provision the boat on our way. My sweet friends (Stan and Judy) left us a dingy at the dock to get our luggage and groceries to the boat. Agaliha was none the worse for neglect..and we fired up her systems and motored back to Keys Fisheries to eat Stone Crab Claws with Stan and Judy.

At 7:30 on Wednesday, I threw off the lines from the mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor and starting motoring for Hawks Channel (the Atlantic side of the Keys). Linda was a little slow to rise because of the the cold she had contracted in Boston. As we turned east toward Rodriguez Key, the wind built to 25 knots and I was glad I had reefed the main. We rolled out a little of the genoa until our angle was too narrow to carry it. The seas built to about four feet and we slammed into the waves. This killed our forward progress. Linda was unphased while reading book on her Kindle and I was relieved that she was not sick.


It was so rough that our horse-shoe buoy got thrown off of the transom after lunch. We decided to to use it as a man overboard drill and circled a few times until I retrieved it with a boat hook. We were both glad it was not a human.

The 48 miles to Rodriguez Key became a slow slog as we banged into the waves. But it was not uncomfortable for either of us...just slow. We finally anchored in the lee of Rodriguez Key at 4:00 p.m. I put on a wet suit and dove under the boat to clear the knot meter while Linda showered and dried her hair with the generator. I cut my finger on a barnacle that was clogging the knot meter sending unit. Lesson learned -- those bastards are sharp! I hope the instruments will work tomorrow.


We grilled steaks and Linda cooked rice and made a great salad as the sun set behind us.


We enjoyed a great anchorage after a full day of sailing toward Miami for New Years. I had to break out the bugle and play "Taps" as the sun disappeared below the horizon.


I called Dinner Key Marina (in Biscayne Bay) on the phone and they took our reservation for Thursday night. The marina market is still slow.

It was the first day that Linda had been aboard during a transit and it felt so good. She even went below in four-foot seas to make lunch. Her steel stomach is impressive. We were tired and had another 50-mile trip ahead of us to make Coconut Grove on Thursday.

It was sweet to be back on the boat after a cold and gray Christmas week in Chattanooga. The fireplace was good, but no substitute for the sun in the Keys. We were ready to get to Miami and ring out 2011...and ring in 2012.


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Daughters on board!

Months ago when planning this trip, I wanted to have my daughters share the experience with me. Given their work obligations, we decided that Christmas would be the best opportunity for us all to be together. I didn't know where I would be at that point, so we decided on Key West as a good guess -- and we made plane reservations. I had to do a little backtracking to get back to Key West, but it was no problem.

Ginny and Betsy arrived on Friday as scheduled. Too bad Betsy's luggage didn't. She was forced to check it by Delta because all the overhead bins were full. Then they lost it. We didn't worry too much about it on Friday night because we washed our worries away at Schooner's Wharf, the best "sailor's bar" in Key West. The food and music were great. The lost bag was delivered before midnight, so no worries.


Saturday morning, after Cuban coffee con leche, we walked to the "Southern most Point" of the continental U.S. We swung by the Hemingway House and the Little White House. After 3 weeks here, I was a walking tour guide. Then, the girls enjoyed a beautiful sunny day by the pool at the Marina where Agaliha was docked.


Late in the afternoon, we walked to Mallory Square to see the sideshows and the trademark Key West sunset. Then we had a great dinner at the Conch Republic Seafood Company. It was a perfect day in paradise.


I have rented a mooring ball in Marathon for the month of December, mostly so I could go home with the girls for Christmas. So, we needed to get the boat back to Marathon. Unfortunately, the only day the weather would permit that was Sunday. On Monday, the Christmas winds were going to pipe up again -- 30 mph out of the east. So, we made our plans to depart at first light on Sunday headed east to Marathon.


Ginny takes the first turn at the helm before sunrise

The weather forecast said the Atlantic could whip up to four foot waves by mid-day. I was a little worried that it might be a little wild for my girls. The wind did blow at 16 to 18 mph as predicted. And we had a few four-foot waves hit us, but all in all, it was a better sea than predicted. Agaliha made great time, averaging 7 knots into the wind with a reefed main, partial genoa and a boost from the engine. This combination gave us the smoothest ride and shortened the trip.





Captain Ron is happy to have his girls on board




By 1:30 we were tied up at the Marathon Marina, where there is a beautiful pool and a great restaurant called Lazy Days. After rinsing all the salt water off of the boat, we lay by the pool and rested up from our voyage in the big water.


Our slip had a great western view of the sunset, and a bugle rendition of "Taps" was in order. We were a tired but happy crew.


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Back to Key West

After sleeping in a regular bed for the first time since September, I departed the Canyon Ranch hotel in Miami Beach -- headed back to the boat in Marathon. I picked up my next crew, David, in Miami and we had a fun drive down the keys highway in a rental car.

Our schedule was blown up by a car wreck that closed the bridge at Grassy Key. (We learned later that it was a single-car fatality.) After the wreck cleared, we met our trawler friends, Stan and Judy, at Keys Fisheries in Marathon for more stone crab claws -- to get over the trauma of the traffic backup. Damn, those things are good. They are $1.25 each and we devoured a dozen each. At Joe's in Miami that would have cost us $90 each. Gotta love cheap Marathon.



Stan and Judy motored us back to Agaliha "on the ball" and we fired up her systems and settled in for the night.

David had a short window, by sailor standards, for his visit. He had an airline reservation on Thursday to fly out of Key West. My daughters had reservations to fly into Key West on Friday. Our motivations were high to get Agaliha from Marathon back to Key West by Wednesday night.

The locals are telling me that this is a very windy December in the Keys. As the winds howled over 20 knots Tuesday afternoon and night, I believed them. Winds were out of the east and we were headed west. The forecast was calling for 5-foot seas and winds over 20 knots out of the east on Wednesday. We decided to go for it. With the waves...good. Against the waves...no way.

We got up early on Wednesday and threw our lines off of the ball before sun up. By 6:45 we were underway with the wind blowing 18 knots (over 20 mph). As soon as we got out of the harbor and into Hawks Channel in the Atlantic, I was relieved. It was rough, as predicted, but manageable. We raised the mainsail with one reef in. The sail stabilized our "motion" in the rough seas. I kept the engine running at low rpms to wash water over the rudder and assist the autopilot to steer us through the big waves. As the morning wore on, we had five-foot seas following us. "Wild" would be too strong a word for it. It was rough and tumble, but neither of us were "green." We talked, and even snacked, as the boat flew west to Key West.

The hazard for the day was, once again, crab pots. Since my propeller was turning, I had to be vigilant of the floats. I finally decided that I could steer the boat as well as the autopilot and I could avoid the crab floats, which the auto pilot could not "see.". David took his turn at steering, too, and I was very impressed with his intuitive abilities. He got in the rhythm of the sea very quickly. Photos of a rough sea never seem to do it justice, but here's an attempt.



By 1:00 o'clock we had reached the ship's channel to Key West. Just to remind us who is in charge, the wind built to 26 knots (30 mph) as we turned north toward the marina. David had the helm as I trimmed the sails. Damn. We were both ready for calmer waters.

A half hour later we were tied up in the Galleon Marina. When I called them on the radio they said, "Agaliha, we've been waiting in you to come back!". I think they were waiting on my MasterCard, but whatever, it made me feel good.


Captain Ron and David in the Galleon Marina.

David and I made a valiant attempt to bar hop that evening, but we were both exhausted and went back to Agaliha to crash. He flew out on Thursday morning and I set into a day of boat chores -- washing the salt water off of everything, cleaning strainers and filters and doing laundry to prepare for my daughters to arrive.

Since the earliest days of planning this voyage, I have looked forward to being able to share it with my girls. They have endured a lifetime of my fascination with boats and I wanted them to share in the "booty" of a trip to America's Caribbean. Getting both of their schedules to coincide was a feat and I can't wait for them to get here. I know this is an event that won't happen again.

I need to figure out how to get Agaliha back to Marathon, where I have rented a mooring ball for the month of December, so that we can go home for Christmas. This will be a challenge, given the high winds and big seas out of the east. I'm watching my weather resources carefully.

All three of us will fly home to Chattanooga for Christmas. The only shoes I have are sandals. The only jacket I have is a lifejacket. This could be interesting.


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From Marathon to marathon

Many months ago, Linda made plans to run in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Miami Beach. I rented a car in Marathon and drove up the keys to join her for the weekend and to deliver John to the airport.

Along the way, we went searching for the "African Queen" -- the original steamboat from the classic movie by the same name. We had read in the local papers that she had a new owner and was being restored. We found her in a boatyard in Key Largo and the young man that was working on her was very friendly. He took a short break to show us what he was doing and even gave me some rust bits from her hull as a souvenir.

The people of Key Largo love Humphrey Bogart from his role in the movie "Key Largo," so years ago someone had brought the "African Queen" here from Africa as a tourist attraction.








I'm sure the restored craft will make her an even bigger attraction.

The marathon was a big event, benefitting St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. It was a little warm and muggy for a marathon but no one was complaining given the weather in the rest of the country.


Renee and David



Me and Linda at 6:30 a.m before the race



My favorite runner at the finish!

The headline entertainment was an "artist" named Pit Bull." He's from Miami and everyone seemed to know about him but us. He doesn't sing, he raps to a high energy latin beat with overpowering bass and drums. I won't be asking for his CD for Christmas.


Pit Bull



And his faithful fans.

Now I am waiting in the airport for my next crew, David. The weather forecast is calling for more extremely high winds out of the east, so it might be an interesting week! The Florida Keys are windy in December.

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Life "on the ball"

The stay in Marathon has been different than any other on the trip so far for one major reason: we are on a mooring ball. That means we are a floating island isolated from any resources other than those in the boat. And, if you want to go somewhere you have to do it in your dinghy.


As part of my preparations in Chattanooga over two months ago, I had stored an eight-foot inflatable dingy in the bottom of my storage locker. I also had packed a 3.5 horsepower outboard motor to power it. When we arrived in Marathon one of our first chores was to liberate the little boat from the locker and assemble it. It has worked very well, but it is just enough trouble that you think twice about every trip away from the mother ship.


With 300 boats in this harbor, each with their own dinghy, the management of all those little boats is a major issue. I was not surprised when the marina here asked to see the registration for Agaliha. I WAS surprised when they asked to see the registration documents for my dinghy. Fortunately, I had them. I also received a dinghy tag that had to be displayed on the little boat so that they would know I was entitled to one of the many "dinghy docks" at the marina.

Another major consideration "on the mooring ball" is that we have no electricity or water. We don't need much electricity, except for our freezer/refrigerator. It runs off of the batteries, as long as I recharge the batteries each day. I can do this with the engine or with a little portable generator that I brought for that purpose. Lack of attention to this could lead to spoiled food, or worse yet, warm beer and warm martinis.

We also have to be very aware of how much water we use. Agaliha had full tanks when we arrived here -- which is 90 gallons of water. We go ashore each morning to shower in the marina's shower house to conserve our ship's water for dishwashing and drinking. Ninety gallons sounds like a lot until you spend a week on a mooring ball.

Also, there is no WiFi or television signal here. Marathon is far enough from Miami that you can't get direct television signals and, of course, there is no cable to our "boat-island." The marina building has a big "Day Room" with several televisions, so we pass by them a couple of times a day to see what's going on in the world.

All of this would be bad enough in good conditions. It has been made even more challenging by the howling east wind that has been with us since shortly after we arrived. For four days the wind has blown all night and all day at 20 to 30 miles an hour. This makes a dinghy ride a small version of the flume ride at Lake Winnepesauka. The wind and chop sprays water on everything in the dinghy, especially the humans.


The wind and waves also make it very exciting when you are getting on and off of your boat. Yesterday when we were returning to the boat late in the afternoon, John misjudged his handhold and went unceremoniously into the drink. Fortunately, he had put his smart phone in a zip-lock baggie before we started out. He warned me to do the same thing and I did.

The forecast says that the wind will subside starting tomorrow. The slang for this among the sailors here is, "The wind is going to lay down tomorrow." Whatever the terminology...I'm ready for it. (I know sailors shouldn't complain about the wind, but...)

This frothed-up harbor also makes it harder to be sociable. We took a very wet dinghy ride on our second day in the harbor to find Walt, who used to keep his 42-footer next to me at Gold Point Marina in Chattanooga. He left about three years ago. We had a great visit and it was one more reminder how small the world is.

Some boats come to this harbor and live on a mooring ball all winter. There are lots of Canadian flags flying and many boats have homeports of Michigan and New England states. Snowbirds. This is a very inexpensive way to live in a warm climate. In fact, some of the boats look like they haven't moved in years. Other boats are sitting here waiting on a weather window to head east to the Bahamas or north to Miami and beyond on the Atlantic seaboard.

As they wait, there are some unusual solutions that have arisen to solve the social communication challenges. The first is called "The Cruiser Net." It is a hosted radio broadcast on VHF Channel 68, where all kinds of information is exchanged. There are discussions about the weather and windows for destinations. There are opportunities for boats to "buddy up" -- travel together to the next port. The broadcast ends with a "swap shop" where boaters trade and sell stuff to each other. There are some expensive electronic items and there is a lot of junk. John and I joked that we were going to advertise our Sunday newspaper on Monday for sale -- "read only once!"

The other solution is a bunch of duct-taped lawn chairs under a tropical tree on the edge of the parking lot, lovingly referred to as "The Tree of Knowledge." We have passed by it many times and overheard some interesting conversations. Lots of sailing talk, and lots of social policy talk -- taxes, health care and politics. We haven't had the nerve to sit down yet.


The "Tree of Knowledge"



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The Atlantic Ocean to Marathon

My new crew, John, arrived in Key West on Wednesday afternoon. He had not been to Key West in 30 years, so he could hardly recognize the place. We spent the afternoon and evening doing the obligatory Mallory Square Sunset, Sloppy Joes for a cocktail and Schooners Wharf for dinner and music. We had lots to celebrate, not the least of which was the official end of hurricane season on December 1!

At Schooners Wharf, I told our cute young waitress that I was from Chattanooga and she said, "Wow, our general manager is from Chattanooga and came down here on a sailboat." A few minutes later she brought him over and we had a great visit. He was the photography manager for the Times Free Press and left on a Beneteau 27 several years ago and headed south. He has since sold the boat and will be moving to Colorado in a few months for a new job. One of the best aspects of the trip has been the interesting people I have met.

The Schooners Wharf Bar has live music several times a day. Wednesday night's "band" was two guitar players that were loaded with talent. We heard a lot of good, casual music in Key West. It wasn't all Jimmy Buffet, either, and we were thankful as that can get old pretty quickly.

We turned in fairly early because we were headed into the unknown again to sail to Marathon Key on Thursday morning. The weather forecast was calling for strong northerly winds as a result of the same front that dumped snow on Memphis earlier in the week. On Friday, the winds were predicted to come out of the east at 20 to 30. Since we were headed east, we didn't any any part of that. Once again, I was pushing a weather envelope, but that seems to be the only way to get anywhere this time of year.

I didn't sleep very well, which is normal for me the night before a big unknown voyage. I awoke at 5:30 a.m., made coffee and set about preparing the boat for 42 nautical miles in rough water.

Our track for the day would take us from Key West Bight on the north side of Key West around the west end of the island. Then, as soon as the water got deep enough, we would turn due east. The Keys bend gradually north, so our track would too. I was concerned about what time the winds would start swinging to the east and that is why I wanted to get an early start.

As we exited the marina at 6:45 and hoisted the sails, we only hoisted them 2/3rds of the way up (for sailors -- the first reef point). I knew I could always raise them the rest of the way later if the winds were light. As we turned east about 7:00, I looked at my instruments and saw that the forecast was spot on -- 18 knots of wind from the north. Our reefed sails were perfect. Better yet, the waves were very small (1 - 2 feet) from the northwest, so we had a very comfortable ride. After about an hour the winds started to build and pretty soon it was blowing a steady 23 knots with gusts to 28. The seas built a little, too, but the waves were coming from the beam, so it wasn't bad. We were clipping off the miles to Marathon at about 7.2 per hour.

So we settled into an exhilarating ride for two old sailors. I think a lot of people wouldn't have liked it, but sailors are hard to explain. I don't have any pictures of this part because it was too wild to bring out a camera. In the early part of this leg, as the wind came directly across the deck, we were heeled about 15 degrees. As our track turned more and more to the north, the wind was coming more from the bow, and our heeling increased. In some puffs, we would tilt 30 degrees and you had to place your feet on the sides of the cockpit (not the bottom) to stay upright. It was a good thing that I had taken great care to stow everything carefully for the trip, everything would have been in the floor of the cabin.

Also, as we turned more north, we started getting some waves breaking over the bow of the boat. It was really kind of pretty to watch, because Agaliha just ate them and powered on. John and I were protected by the canvas "dodger" except for one particularly big crest that splashed a few fat drops of salt water in my face. John enjoyed this much more than a respectful crew should have.

The wind stayed strong and from the north. A little before 1:00 p.m. we arrived at the buoy that marks the entrance channel to Boot Key Harbor, our destination in Marathon. We arrived several hours earlier than I thought we would.

As we motored into the harbor, we passed a couple of marinas and fuel docks. Then we looked up ahead and there was an abandoned bascule bridge with the moving portion totally removed. As we advanced through it, we could see hundreds of boats ahead in the largest mooring field I have ever seen in my life. Most of the boats were sailboats. It is quite a sight.


I spotted the trawler that belongs to the couple we had met at Cabbage Key. I called them on the cell phone and they said, "Call us back as soon as you tie off to a mooring ball and we'll come pick you up in our dingy and take you to get some stone crab claws!" This was agreed to, without delay.

Marathon was the next oyster to be discovered...or should I say, crab claw.


Our first sunset in Marathon...in the mooring field.



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More Key West

Well, I got an email from a friend who was giving me a hard time for not posting anything new in a while. I haven't posted because I haven't moved. I'm still in Key West...and still enjoying it.

I've learned a lot about Key West. The town was founded by "wreckers," those gutsy fortune hunters who scavenged the cargoes of the many shipwrecks that were lost on the reefs of the Florida Keys. In the early 1800s, a hundred ships a day would pass by Key West carrying cargos from Europe and New England to New Orleans and Mobile. Each year, nearly a hundred of those ships would crash on the reefs. The "wreckers" would save the lives of the crews and passengers and then claim the cargo. They made so much money that Key West had the highest per capita income in the U.S. in the mid-1800s.

The richest of these shipwreck scavengers built a fine home that was bought by Ernest Hemingway decades later. We toured the house and got a great tour guide who revealed a lot about Hemingway's genius and insanity.


Hemingway's typewriter in his studio


Hemingway's bed.

The chains were there to keep tourists out, not to keep his wife in. :)

Since it's snowing in Tennessee today, I'll include some more photos of Key West to keep my friends there warm.


Banyan Trees




The flags of Key West




An anchor in our marina that was recovered from a wreck that went down in 1622!



Agaliha in the Marina, with a sweet addition...



...a first mate.




A drink at the Hogs Breath Saloon




Another Key West sunset


Another lifelong sailing friend will join me tomorrow and we plan to set sail for the rest of the Keys. Time to move on into the great Atlantic Ocean.

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