Traversing through the Boot Key Cut we left the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico for the deep Atlantic Ocean waters. We left Marathon behind to head for a day of snorkeling at a place called Sombrero reef recommended by the locals. Karen and I took advantage of the flat water and fried ourselves some more on the large sun pad on Blue Moon's bow. Every now and then a little ocean mist would cool us off. Felt good.
When we reached the reef there were already 8 other boats there. We were happy to find a mooring ball since you aren't allowed to drop anchor and tear up the fragile, disappearing Florida reefs. In all these years of boating, Dave and I have never used a mooring ball! If I'd known how easy it was we would have done it alot sooner. You just snag the line that is attached to the mooring ball and hook it on the bow cleat. Simple!
Karen, John and Dave donned their wet suits and snorkels and jumped in the crystal blue water. I am more of a shore snorkeler. (translation: " chicken"). Later they shed the wet suits as the water wasn't as cold as they thought it would be. Minimum shrinkage....
After lunch we headed for Islamorada (where our son Ryan had a beautiful wedding to his beautiful Adrianna a few years ago). The marina had warned us when we made the reservation that the inlet was very shallow and to arrive at high tide.
This guy was standing pretty far offshore! We kicked up alot of mud but made it to the seawall to tie up for the night. After getting some laundry going we walked around looking for a place to provision up. Not much luck, just the marina store that had the bare essentials. So we had their little stale donuts for breakfast ! Reminded me of all the Dollar General shopping we did on the rivers last fall. Seems every little burg has a Dollar General. After dinner we crashed early. The sun and water and just boating in general wipe you out!
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
The shoal keel of Blue Moon was dragging in the sand and mud bottom as we left the next morning but we made it out of the inlet and back into the Atlantic. The ocean has been much kinder to us than Lake Michigan ever was! Do not underestimate the Great Lakes people!
Heading towards Alligator Reef for some more snorkeling we picked up another mooring ball. The three snorkelers jumped into the wavy water and the verdict was that there wasn't as much to see as the day before so we didn't stay long.
We traveled east to Key Largo for our first ever anchorage on the Atlantic side. Blue Moon has a 40 k.g. polished stainless steel plow anchor with 250 feet of 3/8" stainless steel rode (chain). The shear weight of the chain laying on the sea floor keeps the anchor dug in deep and provides a secure anchorage. This night it was pretty wavy and the 18-20 knot winds were a true test of our ground tackle(anchoring system) even though we were tucked in behind some mangroves we were protected on three sides only.
Note: 2,400 nautical miles ( apx. 2,700 statute miles) covered to date!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Continuing on the "outside" (ocean) we cruised up to Government Cut where we entered the Miami shipyards.
This was quite an extreme change of scenery as compared to the everglades just days before!
After the unobstructed, open waters of the ocean we once again had no wake zones and manatee zones to deal with (well we did anyway, not so much the Florida macho boater guys!).
There are endless bridges to deal with on the Inter Coastal Waterway. Blue Moon is about 19' high so we can make it under alot of them but some are really short so we wait. While waiting for one that opens on the quarter hour this guy flew up and said hello to us!
He was like a giant hummingbird and was having a really good time!
He paused right in front of us and then was on his way.
Once the entertainment was over and we made it under a few more bridges we were in search of an urban anchorage among the condos. Our handy Garmin Bluewater Charts Mobile app on the ipad has been invaluable to us on the trip. I first overhead come Loopers talking about it back in Pebble Isle Marina in Tennessee and downloaded it. For $49.99 it has been more user friendly and detailed that our Raymarine set up! It pinpoints anchorages and marinas and you can link it to Active Captain
(another valuable online cruiser's tool) for free and get reviews from other boaters. HIGHLY recommend to traveling boaters.
The Garmin brought us to an anchorage that we would have never found on our own. We went thru a very narrow canal into an open lake surrounded by tall condos with docks.
Our Garmin told us that there was a Walmart, Publix, etc. within walking distance so after John consulted Google Earth we found a place where we could dock the dinghy and walk to the stores and restaurants. It is a bit of a challenge to find somewhere to take your dinghy in the city and even though there were docks all around us the private condos do not really want the boaters at anchor to use them. I totally get that. I would not want just every one who comes down Oak Orchard River to crawl up our docks at home and walk past our door. There are many derelict sailboats and sailboaters that have taken advantage of other people's property and not always respected it. Ruins it for the rest of us.
We locked the dinghy to a post and then went into the town of Hallandale and after much debate over whether we wanted Cuban food or Italian we ended up at Matteo's Italian Restaurant and had the best restaurant meal of the voyage. Thank you John and Karen! It was served family style so we ate ourselves silly. It started to rain pretty hard so while riding the storm out (forgive me, I can't help myself!) we ordered a giant canioli and cheesecake. I'm not much one for food pictures but this was extreme!
We know that Brandon loves canioli's so we texted him a picture of it to harass him. He texted back a picture of an egg salad sandwich he was eating! Sorry kid!
So we waddled back to the boat and tried to keep awake watching a movie (Master and Commander) but soon crashed.
Tomorrow it's on to Ft. Lauderdale.
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