2010 Log
2/1 to 2/15/2010
This is the current period of our log for 2010. At the bottom of the page are links to this year's pass weeks; our earlier voyages are in Prior Voyages.
The Google Custom Search box immediately below is an internet search tool for more information on subjects and locations mentioned in our site.
Updated on 01/28/2011
|
2/1/10 - It started raining at sometime dark-o-clock and rained into the morning. After starting coffee I checked the headsets and found that the "new" battery I'd put in mine was dead; replacing it solved the communications problems. We did the tourist thing again, attacking Duval with vigor (no Duval Crawl in our plans). Bill & Jill picked up a few mementos of their visit. We had dinner at the Turtle Karral, very good treat. Back at the boat we played a round of Gin 13. In conversation Bill noted the past few days of sailing had been invigorating though he normally sailed at much higher speeds this time of the year (He's an avid ice boater). 2/2/10 - Gray day, the sun poked it's head out at dawn, saw it's shadow and retreated behind the clouds... 6 more weeks of iceboating. We dropped Jill & Bill of at the Key West Bight Marina at 9:30a and headed out the channel. By 10:15 we were turning east reminiscing about the great times we had during their way too short a vacation. Our trip east in Hawk Channel was punctuated by a couple of strikes and a 24" Spanish Mackerel that we released to grow bigger. We arrived at Marathon to find no room in the inn forcing us to anchor in the lee of the island for the night. We talked to Bradd last night. He and Maeve are anchored in South Beach after a great overnight run from Cuba. Now they have to seriously get ready for the Miami Boat Show. 2/3/10 - Nice night at anchor, very smooth; woke to overcast skies and 10 knot winds from the NW. The boat seems empty without the "ill's" aboard. Buddy keeps waiting for Bill to emerge from the forward berth. Ooops, my brother sez I'm looking into the future again. Only a day this time but we got it corrected. Sooo, today, the third, we motored against a 13 knot wind 44 miles to the lee of Rodriguez Key where we'll anchor for the night. 2/4/10 - Up with the sun... during the night the wind had clocked to the NE bringing some 1' swells into our anchorage, no problem. We motored for a half hour to Hawk Channel and turned North. Wow, we could carry our sails. Up went the main and out rolled the genoa; we're sailing! What a great ride to Miami! AA was chugging along at 7 - 8 knots all the way. 54 miles were behind us as we waited for the Venetian Causeway bridge west. We ran east to the Venetian East bridge, anchoring past Flagler Island near the MacArthur Causeway bridge, next to Sampatecho. Bradd, Lara and Patrick stopped by to say hello as they returned to Sampatecho and dinner. We fired up our grill for 'burgers and a quiet evening. 2/5/10 - Woke to a gray morning. Last night we had a light show as a couple dozen squad cars crossed the bridge running in a row with lights and sirens. I love it when they go overboard on their official Super Bowl welcomes. We went to the Miami Marina with Bradd & Maeve to borrow Patrick's car for a Costco run. Plan b, Brad Pitt's boat (and helicopter) were next to the boat Patrick crews on so we got a look a the boat but not Brad. We did provide a little entertainment for his guests as the four of us motored by in the dinghy loaded with groceries from Costco. They waved and laughed thanking God that they had a crew to handle the mundane tasks. South Beach was alive with creatures, beings here for the Super Bowl whether they saw the game or not. It sure made for interesting people watching. I saw skirts so short they barely covered the wearers' navels. Dinner aboard Sampatecho was, as always, a pleasure. We caught up with their recent Cuban visit and shared experiences from the time we'd been apart. 2/6/10 - Windy and partly cloudy. Blimps and airplanes and lots of helicopters overhead, the planes towing banners promoting a variety of products. They sure know where their audience is. What they don't seem to realize is with all the scantily clad curvaceous booty roaming the streets no one is looking up. Buddy has already forgotten Bill now that Bradd is around; fickle bird. Ruth has been doing more research on her to try to determine what phase of life she's in. We've learned that Amazon is a misnomer, her species is from Central America (the name must have been a marketing ploy). We had several more yachts anchor around us for the afternoon; a groups of water lice from Plan b congregated by the bridge buzzing in circles. "It's the Pitts" exclaimed Ruth. A small 80' yacht anchored next to us with their sound system blaring while a group of lithe teens in bikinis danced on deck; party time! 2/7/10 - Yesterday's 20+ knot winds died during the night as a cold front settled over us. This morning we could see folks bundled up in their winter garb as they walked along the seawall. Most of our evening neighbors had moved on... too cold for bikinis. By the time we went out to do wash and pick up some groceries the wind was back creating some very interesting waves in our anchorage. We ran into Miles & Laureen downtown as we were ogling cheerleaders. There were cheerleaders on virtually every street and corner. At least we thought they were cheerleaders with their skimpy little costumes. Looking for a calmer anchorage we moved AA and Sampatecho to a channel by the Miami Yacht Club. Great plan, we were soon snugly anchored in calm water with little boat traffic. No sirens, music and rock 'n roll tonight. We elected to pass on the Super Bowl. I know, I know, my man card is now at risk. Just didn't have a dog in the fight and Miami was a zoo. Instead we settled down to a movie and a big bowl of homemade chili. 2/8/10 - Cool again this morning, 60 degrees in the cabin when I got up. Sunny and clear outside. Saw on the internet that the Saints won. Seems they were due after 43 years. Boat maintenance this morning, some sanding and varnishing on a pair of teak rails on the deck and disassembly and cleaning of a horn switch. I keep a list of projects as I find them, finishing them when I get a chance. We're anchored near Monkey Island and Buddy is totally intrigued by the howls and calls of the jungle animals. Ruth reviewed photos today for an article I'm starting. She made a list for me to consider and write a story around them. 2/9/10 - We had a nice quiet night at anchor. Scattered clouds accompanied dawn. We moved to anchor near Ariel so I could do a few small tasks for Miles and Don on Silver Girl. Tomorrow will finish that up and we'll move back by Sampatecho to visit the show. The Ariel work was all enhancements... those "wouldn't it be nice" things. Miles and Laureen are getting her dialed in. Right now Laureen is provisioning her for the Bahamas. Ruth was on a housekeeping binge today. She took down all the curtains and cleaned them, used her Green Machine on half the cushions and generally clean while working on our taxes and her biz. What a gal! Our Customs User sticker and Buddy's visa arrived in our mail packet. We are good to go! The sad thing is this all has no meaning other than it's another form of taxes and nothing else. The Bahamas pocketed their five dollar surcharge for faxing the form and mailed it... go figure. 2/10/10 - Woke to strong NW winds, beyond that forecast yesterday. We're rocking pretty good in the flats by Ariel's marina. It's sunny, clear and 60. We putted around on the boat during the morning, then I went in an worked with Miles finishing up his projects. I need to get some material to finish up the last two items. Late afternoon we motored back over to Miami Yacht Club and anchored next to Sampatecho. Maeve dropped off exhibitor badges for us... kewl. 2/11/09 - We took the dinghy to the Strictly Sail show. It's a little lame this year due to several builders being in trouble and cutting back on their show presence. Tough times in the boating industry. The show is still one of the biggest, 2 million square feet with over 2000 exhibitors. We're not working this show as it's expected to be slow. We did tour the entire show today. Lots of power and fishing boats as well as all the gear that goes with them. Only about a dozen sailboats... Jeanneau, Benneteau, and Hunter had only a couple of boats each through dealers. Many builders were absent. Yes, we were consumers, picking up a few things we'd been searching for. Didn't make anyone rich though. We got a Local Boaters' Option pass from Customs that will make clearing back from the Bahamas a single phone call... nice! We had Maeve, Bradd and Jeff onboard for a spaghetti dinner. Ruth figured Maeve would like a break after working the show all day. We enjoyed the evening with them. 2/12/10 - Morning dawned warmer but overcast. We took the dinghy to the show about 10am for a cup of coffee and to pick up a replacement coffeemaker. The one John & Nell presented to us died after a couple of weeks. John had arranged for a warranty replacement. Big thanks John. We hung around the show watching John & Nell research a catamaran they are interested in. We heard a gale warning had been issued and headed back to watch over AA and Sampatecho. While the winds were in the 20's neither boat was at risk. About 6:10 Bradd, Maeve and Jeff arrived on Sampatecho. At 6:20 we heard a wave of wind screaming toward us. Ruth ran topside and started the engine while I booted our instruments. I came topside to witness the water turn white in front of us as the squall hit. For 10 minutes we were blind... unable to see the boats around us. Ruth saw 29 knots late in the storm. Jeff estimated the winds in the low 50's, I suspect he was low in that NOAA reported the storm was moving 45mph and weather stations around us were reporting gusts as high as 70. One bolt of lightning hit close enough for Ruth to jump about 4'! The mega yacht Patrick crews on took some minor damage when all their fenders exploded. 2/13/10 - Seventeen years ago today Ruth and I wed in a log lodge in northern WI. Wow, where did the time go? I doubt either of us thought our path would take us here... what a great trip our life has been! We again went to the show today - that's what Ruth wanted to do. Turned out it was a good thing as Jeff had been called away for a presentation in Germany so we filled in his place. It's actually a lot of fun meeting and talking to a wide variety of boaters. We made water yesterday and again today. It currently appears that the more we run the system the better the water quality is... huh? We tested 142ppm yesterday and 442ppm today, then back to 142? Ruth sez there is a problem with the watermaker... we can drink it as mix faster than we can generate it. 2/14/10 - Happy Valentines Day! Our day started cool but sunny. We went in to work the show late in the morning. It was cold and quiet today though we always had visitors in the booth. I asked Ruth what she'd like for lunch or dinner as it was Valentines Day. She responded pizza! So off we went to the deli in the Marriott for an excellent pizza. We brought a couple of slices back for Bradd & Maeve; Bradd loved them! About 4pm Ruth and I headed back to AA as we could see the crowd was thinning out and that Bradd & Maeve could handle the booth alone. Back at the boat I read the book we'd bought at the show, "Black Wave", by John & Jean Silverwood. It's the true story of their family's adventures at sea and the disaster that saved their family. 2/15/10 - Brrr! We must have made a serious navigational error... this can't be Florida. We had the diesel heater running again last night as the temperature reached 49. We are making a little water daily; actually just enough to keep from running out. We can generate about 5 pints per hour. Our goal is to prove the water quality before we leave for the Bahamas. Today's output tested 142ppm, well in the potable range. I took advantage of a warm calm day today to sand and apply a two coats of varnish on the swim platform. I'll put on a third coat as soon as I get a chance. After a year and 3 months for the epoxy/varnish combination I can see where moisture is lifting small areas of epoxy. I think my next test will be to strip to wood and try a two-part polyurethane coating. AA sure makes a good test bed. |
Google searches Use the custom Google search at the top of the page to look for boating, sailing and cruising information. At the bottom of the page is a custom search box that looks specifically at our site for reference to the subject you enter.
Ruth and I went exploring outside Boot Key, finding a sailboat wreck in the mangroves...
a hidden inlet that was home to a small fleet...
including... could it be? The famous yellow submarine of Beatles' song?
Girls just wanna have fun... and really loud boring music!
World's biggest duck blind? Nope, it's a party barge.
Miami Yacht Club
Yacht club anchorage Belated photos from Jill & Bill's visit (photos by Jill & Bill)
Bill sailing slow in January
Gotta be Key West...
Bill's first catch, hey, where's the rest of it
Second catch... You're loosing ground Bill
Barry & Bill messing up the galley
A different look at Key West
Little Goliath Grouper (they get bigger than VW Beetles)
End of the trip; Jill blows off Key West. Okay, Jill blows our conch off Key West The rest of the story Yes, both of Bill's fish were bitten off, the underwater shots were in the Key West Aquarium (too cold to snorkel), and Jill blows a real mean conch.
|
Use this Google Custom Search for finding subjects on our site:
View our 2010 Logs
| Boca Raton, 1/1 to 1/15/10 | Key West, 1/16 to 1/31/10 |
|
|