Saturday, 3/14/19 ~ Last minute preps, dog walked, lines
retrieved and we were away from the dock by 7:45. As we emerged from the slip, there was a 20’
run-about with 7 on board, but the captain’s head was towards her guests and
never saw us. She promptly increased her
speed when I yelled “boat!” There seems to be quite a few boaters who forget to
look, be it in the marina or on the open water.
We have come across 6 or 7 this trip.
Once clear of the
marina, the winds were as predicted, out of the east at 15-20 mph with higher
gusts. Great sailing weather providing
you are going in another direction. We
were headed east all day. That meant all
day long, we were dealing with the “noserlies” and beating into the 2 to 3-foot
waves. That also meant that we were only making 4.3-5 mph. As a result, the 8-hour ride became a 10-hour
ride. At one point, Pete noticed that the engine temp had climbed a bit and the
engine sounded like it was straining.
Since there is a possibility that we might have picked up something on
the prop or in the sea chest, Pete came to a stop and then reversed. That
seemed to help. He also decided to try
going the opposite direction to make sure that we were cruising at the right
RPMs since it was readjusted. Yep, there must have been something around the
prop, because the temp returned to normal and the engine sounded right. And, yes, we were at cruising speed, but we
were hindered by those damn “noserlies!
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| Shades of blue |
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| Hawksbill courtesy of the internet |
Pete thinks he
saw 3-4 loggerhead turtles today. One definitely - it was right by the boat
before it dove. I spotted a much lighter
greenish large turtle on the surface. Pete saw it also. After checking online,
we had spotted a rarely seen Hawksbill turtle!
We pulled up to
Marathon Marina at 5:30. Pete had called the dock master earlier for a dock
assignment knowing that we would arrive after closing. To our surprise, one of the dock hands was
waiting at the end of the finger pier to help us in. Our neighbor to the port, Rob, also caught
some lines and even at low tide, we were still had 10 inches below our 5.5-ft keel.
Bailey has become
more anxious about travel. In the car
she is constantly on alert, never sleeping.
Unfortunately, in any sea, she simply pants and can’t find a place to
settle. We were able to get anti-anxiety
prescription for her and we gave it as we departed. Unfortunately, it takes a while to work. She panted for hours and kept jumping onto
the seats or lying on the floor and then, after about 10 minutes, up to find
another spot. This went on for hours,
but thankfully, the panting stopped after the first few hours. Remember. I
mentioned coming in at low tide. Well,
with docking at one of the fixed docks, there was a good 2+ foot jump from our deck
up to the dock. Bailey was so sore, her
hind quarters were barely supporting her.
We had to lift her up to the dock.
Her walk with Pete was slow and stiff.
Thankfully, the walking helped to loosen thing a bit. She was able to get herself onto the boat.
After a quick dinner and watching the sunset from our aft, we spoke for quite a
while with our starboard neighbors, Rick and Melissa, MV SOUTHERN LATTITUDE. We definitely missed this in Key West!
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| Sunset from our "porch" |
As we caught up
on Facebook, we found that Key West has closed Mallory Square. Today was the last day that cruise ships were
to be in port as all cruise lines have suspended service due to the Corona
virus-19. Pete also expressed his concern for possible closure of all The Keys
due to the virus. We made plans to
retrieve the car when we get to Key Largo.
To insure that we have dockage, Pete made reservations for Monday at
Pilot House Marina, in Key Largo for 2 nights and immediately reserved a car
for Tuesday.
Things are
getting unnerving. My brother, Wayne in
Milan has been house bound for 2 weeks; Italy has completely shut down. They are only permitted to go outside to walk
the dog or to go to the food market or pharmacy. Many other nations are
following suit. Here in the US, schools
have closed, colleges and universities are closed, with courses are held
on-line. Businesses are closing or
having their staff work from home. Heather starts this new reality from home on
Monday. The affected patients increase exponentially as unfortunately the
deaths do also. It feels like a scary movie or book, but unfortunately this pandemic
is very real. Thankfully, our family and
friends are currently well.
Sunday, 3/15/20 ~ After breakfast, Pete
started prep work for tomorrow’s conference calls, while I headed up above to catch
up on the blog. Instead of working on
the computer, I spoke with our neighbors, helped a sailboat into the dock after
it had been towed into the marina with engine problems, and was visited by Ed from
MV SERENITY. Since I mentioned our route north, he wanted to confirm some of
the information with the charts. Pete came up to help. Since they are heading
up to Connecticut with plans to come up The Bay, we promised to stay in touch.
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| Catching some rays |
Once Pete was
done with work, we partially emptied the back cabin so he could check the sea
chest. Sure enough, there was some
debris inside the strainer, but not much.
Now it is clean and things put back in their place.
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| Cool Marathon Mailbox |
We walked over to
Castaways Waterfront and Sushi Bar to meet for the last time with Mike and Deb,
SV RESOLVE. We had a great lunch and still plenty to talk about. Tomorrow they begin their cruise up Florida’s
western coastline, then back to Vero Beach while we head up the eastern shore.
After “linner” we all got into the dinghy so they could drop us off at our
marina. It is only a 5-minute direct
dinghy ride, but a roundabout 20-minute walk. As always, it is hard to say
good-byes knowing it will be a while before we see them again.
Visitors to our boat ~
Once back we were
content to read and enjoy the water and sunset.
It was an early
night as we have to be up by 6:30 am to be gone by first light. It will
probably be a repeat of Saturday, with more miles to cover.
~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~ P & K
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