Preppy Aboard

Downtown Fort Myers

I had been waiting for a good friend of mine, Preppy to fly into Fort Myers. That day has arrived. As soon as he had stowed his bag in the guest stateroom we dropped the Segway scooters on the dock and it was to explore downtown Fort Myers. First stop… Ford’s Garage for a burger and some IPAs.

Ford’s Garage’s bar has a beer cooling feature that I had never seen. It’s a refrigerated chill plate the runs the whole length of the bar. The bartenders and customers place their schooner beer glass on the chill plate to keep their drinks cold. The humid Florida air has the effect of creating a layer of frost on the chill plate that makes a great low friction, melted frost, beer spinning activity. I felt some strange addiction to spinning my IPA. Like a fidget spinner but for an IPA.

IPA spinning addiction… It’s real folks!

Fort Myers Beach

A day after Preppy arrived and my slip rental at Fort Myers Yacht Basin has come to an end. I need to push on to Key West and eventually start making my journey back home to RI. Schedules in long-range transient boating rarely work due to issues with weather, repairs, etc. You must plan to have downtime.

Preppy & I got a late start leaving Fort Myers and made a short cruise to Salty Sam’s in FMB for the night. Fort Myers Beach is a fun location and it was time to put the dink in the water and go out for some drinks. First stop… Matanzas Inn.

Oklahoma!, Oklahoma! It’s not the Safe Word but the bartender’s name!

Back aboard, Preppy wasted no time cooking up Bubba burgers with peppers & onions on buttered buns.

Naples Not Marco Island

We were planning on stopping in Marco Island as a HS friend has a place there and I thought it might be nice to ping her and see if she and husband could meet up for a drink. However, the weather and Covid-19 were not making that a reality.

Windfinder Pro app shows a strong East wind that made our trip a bit lumpy

We decided that we would come in from the Gulf at the Naples inlet and find a place to anchor inside for a day or two until the weather settled. The inlet was rough with breakers on both sides but once inside it was peaceful. We motored all the way into downtown Naples searching for a marina or anchorage deep enough to hold Simple Life’s 5′ draft. Repeatedly we ran into shallows at each anchorage we attempted. With no open slips at marinas either, I thought we’d have to go back out the Naples inlet into a lumpy gulf of Mexico and forge on to Marco Island? However, there was one last anchorage just inside the inlet. Our anchorage of last resort turned out to be safe haven.

Naples Inlet and our anchorage can be seen

This Naples anchorage was peaceful and turned out to the first of two stops along our route to Key West.

Shark River in the Everglades

When we left Naples we set a course directly for the Lower Keys and ultimately, Key West. I have read that Marathon is defined as the “Middle Keys” between Key Largo in the “Upper Keys” and Key West in the “Lower Keys”. The wind was 20+kts out of the East with gusts much higher. The path I had chosen took us quite some distance from the shore and thus gave the wind more water to blow across (properly referred to as “fetch” or the distance traveled by wind or waves across open water). The larger the fetch, the taller the waves. We needed to seek out smaller waves as taking large waves on our beam was not enjoyable. So we decided to make a 90′ turn to port and run head-on into the waves till we were closer to shore before turning southward again. This also meant that we were going to have to anchor somewhere along the shore rather than our original plan to make it to Key West before nightfall.

Our trip from Naples to the Everglades to Key West and then the inside Keys route to Miami and points north

The depths were shallow for a long way in as we approached the Little Shark River anchorage just north of Cape Sable. We found a sailboat anchored here and chatted a bit on the VHF as we dropped anchor. A friendly couple who told us she was local to the Everglades area and he was from Alaska. They said they spend quite a bit of time in this particular anchorage.

The next morning we ran south down the coast till the southern edge of Cape Sable. At this point it was advantageous to do another 90 degree turn, this time to starboard and put the now increasing waves on our stern. The rest of the trip down the lower keys was spent with a following sea.

Caldera or Northwest Channel?

We were looking to get out of the following sea and into Key West. I decided to take the narrow and winding Calda Channel which I had successfully navigated in 2018. It’s much faster to take this channel then have to continue west till you get to the larger, much deeper Northwest Channel. The NW Channel is used by the Key West Express high speed ferries that run between Fort Myers Beach or Marco Island and Key West.

Big waves and shallow water are not a captains friend. Still traversing the Calda Channel would shave off over an hour of travel. However, we only made it to the first Green #1 Daymark before we slowly ran aground. The shallow water alarm is set at 6′ and it was blaring away. I backed up and attempted to poke the bow around to see if I could find deeper water and a path further into Calda Channel. No luck! We had to spin in the wind & waves and make our way further west to the official Northwest Channel. (see picture below)

As we entered the proper Key West Northwest Channel we found plenty of water and a wide easy to navigate channel (pictured below)

There are two ways into Key West.

1. Key West Main Channel as it is called which comes in from Hawk’s Channel which runs the whole south side of the Florida Keys.

2. The NorthWest Channel that comes in from the inside of the Lower Keys or Gulf of Mexico.

As we approached the end of the NW Channel where it meets the Key West Main Channel we saw the cruise ship which is often docked in port. It was March 9th and Covid-19 virus infections were increasing in each US state. We could only guess that the people we saw on the room balconies were crew disinfecting rooms and not passengers?

As we passed this cruise ship I’m guessing the people aboard during the Covid-19 pandemic were disinfecting it?

Wisteria Island

Now in the main channel we are passing Tank & Wisteria Islands (pictured above on left side of Key West). All around Wisteria Island is the Key West Anchorage and the boats here are mostly permanent liveaboards. Sadly, their boats are often lost to frequent hurricanes ex. Wilma, Irma, etc. Many who homes got sunk moved onto Wisteria Island and setup tents to live. There is a legal battle about who owns Wisteria Island and if it is dangerous. I have wanted to dinghy over to the island but have never done so yet. What is the truth about this island? Is it safe? IDK

Feel good story about the Children who grew up on Wisteria Island after the 2005 Hurricane season shipwrecked them – 10 min

Is Wisteria Island safe? IDK But when $ is involved you can expect corruption – 10 mins long

When you motor through the anchorage you will be amused at how creative some are with building floating log cabins or sheds to hold the things they need. It reminds me of the 1995 movie Waterworld.

I had called several marinas and finally booked a 10 day reservation at Sunset Marina on Stock Island. Stock Island is the first island as you leave Key West.

Sunset Marina

Nobody from the marina was there to catch our lines but a couple cleaning the bottom of their boat were kind enough to catch a line as we backed in.

Once tied up at the dock it was time for some IPA and steaks.

Pub Crawl

Then drop the scooters on the dock and ride into Duval St. in Key West for some bar hoping.

Scooters

Exploring Key West on scooters is a blast. Have I mentioned that I believe the pair of scooters was a perfect addition to MV Simple Life? I bought them on Amazon if anyone is interested.

Now driving around on a scooter with a big dorky helmet can look a little silly but be sure to make sure your friend has not stuck childish pins in your helmet to make it look even worse. I did not notice this pin until I had already driven all around Duval St.

Beer Run Turned Police Crash

Even funnier was what happened on our way scootering back to the boat from a beer run. So Preppy and I are scootering past a pair of policemen who are sitting on the hood of their car which is blocking the road that leads to our boat. I’m not sure of the legality of scootering down the road so you try to avoid any law enforcement of such behavior. So I’m in the lead and I say “hello officers” as I speed by the front of them and prepare to stop and take a hard left turn onto the sidewalk. It’s in that moment that I hear Preppy look over at them and say “Hi guys” as I feel Preppy slam into the back of me now that I stopped to turn. It sends me flying forward on the scooter off the sidewalk and into the grass but somehow I managed to stay up even with a 20 lb. backpack full of beer. I knew the right thing to do in that moment was… DON’T STOP. Just keep on scooting like nothing happened. I was dying laughing but I’ll bet not as hard as the two officers!

Preppy Fly Home

When the day came for Preppy to fly out we called an Uber and walked past the tarpon swimming in the marina

It was lots of fun having Preppy aboard but he must get back to New England especially with this Covid-19 Pandemic worsening.

Boot Key Harbor – Week 2

We spent a total of two weeks in BKH (Boot Key Harbor). While there, a go-fast boat poker run paraded by.

We got to see a manatee even if the video evidence is quite brief.

We spent time at the Sunset Grille which is at the start of the famous Seven Mile Bridge

One of the best things about being a cruiser in BKH is the “BKH Cruiser’s Net” that is broadcast every 9AM on VHF channel 68. This communications link (along with their FB page) ties the live-aboard boater community together in a way I wish landlubbers did. Communicating with your boating neighbors everyday in just the two weeks connected us with more neighbors than our 13 years in our previous land-based home.

There is a format to “the net” that starts by allowing new cruisers to introduce themselves and departing cruisers to say goodbye. They then do announcements about rules of the harbor, weather, meet-ups, Charity work, etc. They allow boaters to ask questions of the group (ex. Can anyone help me program my Raymarine autopilot?) The amount of boating knowledge in the community is impressive. They hold a buy/sell/trade/give-away/ask-for different items cruisers want/don’t want. They do a trivia section and end with different boaters contacting each other on other channels to discuss business of sorts.

Through the Net, I learned of a cruiser, Capt. David of S/V Expectations who was offering to share his knowledge of the NW Caribbean.

David shared a book and his notes about sailing in the NE Caribbean. A popular route from Key West is to sail along Cuba’s coast to Cozumel, MX then down to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Roatán and Honduras. I and many other captains jumped at the opportunity to talk with this life-long boater to pick his brain about navigating these areas as well as his fishing tips. Below are two lures David was suggesting as well a pneumatic spear gun in lieu of a gaff.

David spent many years in Rio Dulce, Guatemala where it cost him $125/month for a slip. Not a bad deal to live in paradise.

Living on a boat we often spend time staring at the night sky. When you look around boat the sailboat anchor lights sway to and fro like dancing stars.

On one particular night I was staring up at the stars when I saw a meteorite or possibly a piece of “space junk” come flaming down to Earth. It only lasted about 2-3 seconds but it was an amazing sight to see. I was moved enough that I submitted an online “Fireball Report” at amsmeteors.org

While we were in the harbor there was a salvage operation going on that included an old sport-fisher with a bar and block on it’s bow being used to raise up a sunken vessel (possible Hurricane Irma victim).

Yes, that is an outboard mounted to the back of that sport fisher. You’ll see all kinds of things like this moment where boaters just dropped a full-size fridge on the bow of their runabout to deliver to a larger boat in the harbor. The community here donates items to fellow boaters in need. Many of the boaters here live life on a shoestring budget and donations are used when the budget is dry.

While listening to the net you’ll hear requests like the one from a family of 4 living aboard a 28’ sailboat bound for Guatemala that were looking for play dates for their children as well as home-school lesson plan swapping. I look up to these cruisers for their self-sufficient life style.

Each night we join in blowing our conch horn to announce that the sun has set.

We enjoyed dinking around the harbor with the dogs

We motored through Sister’s Creek and found many great sights of birds, boats and one spectacular tree.

But best of all were the sunsets in BKH

Jacksonville Florida

Breakfast in Delaroche Creek, griddle style. YUMM!

We don’t know if we are gaining or losing weight? We don’t have a scale onboard. I’m sure cooking my favorite breakfast this morning is not helping but how can you say no to hash-n-eggs with wheat toast?

Our trip today took us from Delaroche Creek (about the middle of Cumberland Island, GA) to Jacksonville, FL.

On our way into Cumberland Sound the VHF radio crackled with a warning from the US Navy. There was a warship in the area and they advised all vessels to heed the 500 yard perimeter around the ship. M/V Simple Life does not have guns or armor plate so we made our way cautiously into Cumberland Sound with two other boats, “S/V Whiskey Me Away” and “M/V Redtail”.

M/V Redtail (pictured below) appears to be a 42′ Kadey Krogen which is similar in size and style to our 43′ North Pacific raised pilothouse. Kelly and I love the classic lines of a Kadey Krogen.

As we approached Kings Bay, this Navy patrol boat with blue lights flashing moved out of my way after we hailed them on 16. (Note the machine gun on the bow)

We passed some sort of observation tower (maybe connected to the Navy base or the nearby plant/factory?)

Next it was into the Amelia River near Fernandina Beach. As we made our way South along Amelia Island, the current was strong and there were many sights to see.

The mast pictured above was the only thing sticking above the water of this boat.

This sailboats keel was missing as she laid on the shore.

Below this Amelia Research and Recovery vessel was jacked out of the water on pilings. Note the black marine day shapes on her pilothouse roof. They are signaling her as “restricted in her ability to maneuver”.

Pictured below is a guy on some kind of tiny single chair dingy with a cooler. He seemed to be enjoying himself just cruising around.

The barge below passed us with what looks like vessel debris from Atlantic hurricane season 2017 and especially hurricane Irma which hit Jacksonville hard.

Three simultaneous hurricanes active on September 8, with Katia (left), Irma (center), and Jose (right), the first such occurrence since 2010.

Below is a boat that landed on the shore. She appears in good shape but I would not want my propeller and thru-hulls sitting in the mud like that. Especially when the tide comes back in and the wakes are rocking the boat.

A Tip of the Hat: Navigating around the shallows in this area was made easier by the .gpx downloadable routes provided by Mr. Robert Sherer. Bob and his wife Ann have a great Fleetwing sailing blog that I follow. Bob has been cruising the ICW for a few years now and helps other sailors avoid running aground.

Even the crab pots seem to find themselves aground at low tide.

When we arrived at our planned anchorage, it was clear that it was far too narrow for us to be able to anchor in for the night. We pushed on and tried several other anchorages but they were either full like the free-docks in Jacksonville or just extremely exposed to current, wakes and wind. We made the decision to go up the St. John’s River as the sun was setting. I quickly realized that this was not a good idea when I felt the strong current that was running against us. There was also large commercial traffic moving swiftly down current. This tug and barge that hailed us by name before the captain ever saw us. The captain was able to do this because of the AIS (Automatic Identification System) that Kelly & I installed. You don’t want to be stuck in that current in the path of something like this when the current is pushing her hard at you.

AIS made us aware in time to stay out of her path.

We did not want to wind up like this poor motor yacht along the shores of the St. John’s River.

We scoured the charts looking for a good location that would protect us from this strong current and picked the backside of an unnamed island near Jacksonville center.

The only challenge was there was not enough water for us to enter. It was too shallow. With the sun quickly setting, we probed to find a way in. The first two attempts had the bow pushing into a soft silty shoal. The third attempt and we found a way over the shoal with an inch or two to spare. We quickly found our way into deeper water behind the island. We anchored up and it turned out to be a wonderful peaceful anchorage for the night.