Day Sail

Day Sail

Sunday January 31, 2021

After breakfast, we summoned up our courage and went out for a day sail.  I think we really did it to see that we could get out of the slip and back into the slip.  If we could manage those transitions we should be able to take day sails with Tasha and McKenzie while they are visiting.  This type of slip seems like such a different thing and reversing Cotinga is no mean feat under the best of circumstances.  We hung up the lines on the hooks that Mike installed a few days ago.  The wind was pushing us against the port side piling.  I was able to push us off the piling and we were soon out of the slip.  

Once we were outside the breakwater, we put up the main and motored along trying to dodge the traffic.  When the timer on the fridge clicked off, we turned off the engine and unrolled the genoa.  We were sailing.  The wind was from the south and 10-15 knots as forecast.  Our initial objective was Sand Key, a little sandbank with a lighthouse.  A fellow on our dock had said it was one of his favorite places.  Our course meant that we were fairly tight to the wind—plenty of heeling. The seas were quite choppy.  Part way to Sand Key we realized that it wasn’t the day to pick up a mooring there.  So, we had a change of plan—sail to the waypoint north of Sand Key light and then head back on a reverse parallel course.

On the return trip we listened to a set of radio transmissions between the Coast Guard, a Navy plane and a sailing vessel in distress.  The navy plane was relaying radio communications from the vessel to the Coast Guard.  The vessel, called Segue, was taking on water and reported that they thought they had 30 minutes before they would have to abandon ship.  These are not the kinds of things you like to hear about while out sailing!  I should say that the Coast Guard did send a small boat to assist and some nearby vessels also went to the aid of Segue. The navy plane maintained station above the stricken sail boat to help communication and direct the other vessels.

As we approached Key West we saw a sailing race setting off.  Dozens of boats were streaming past in the opposite direction.  It was amazing.  

The captain skillfully backed the boat down the fairway and turned it into the slip.  I managed to get the spring line off the post and tied onto the cleat (a little too snugly—making it tough for Mike to get the stern lines!)  After a bit of darting around and re-adjusting we were tied up on all sides and corners.  That was a successful day sail and some genius driving! 

Gloria

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

Charter sailboat off Key West

Charter sailboat off Key West

Charter sailboat off Key West

Blasting back to Key West on a broad reach under great conditions

This is literally my first ever time-lapse photography. It was shot from the dock looking the opposite way from our slip ... not too exciting but I'll try and keep working on the technique!

Refrigerators and Nutcases

Refrigerators and Nutcases

Saturday 30th January 2021

Recently we’ve been finding it challenging to keep the food in our freezer frozen. There could be a number of reasons, first and foremost is that’s it’s a lot warmer here in southern Florida in January than it was heading down the east coast in the autumn. It could also be that we don’t have much food in there at the minute so there’s a lot of dead space. Our refrigeration system relies on a compressor that runs directly on a belt off the engine. Then the refrigerant is circulated through two aluminum cooling plates, filled with a liquid that freezes down at sub-zero temperatures and these plates then cool the freezer compartment. The problem with a direct drive system is that we end up still needing to run the engine twice a day even though we are on a dock with mains electricity and we probably haven’t been running it as long as it really needs. In the future we may upgrade to a system that has both direct drive and electric driven cooling. The only other issue that we can think of is that the refrigerant in the system is running low. We do know that we tend to lose the coolant over the winter in New England but we presumed this was due to the extreme cold and the junctions in the piping not sealing so well. In any event we purchased a small refill bottle of R-134a coolant (relatively low ozone depletion potential) and added it to the system. Hopefully that will help.

Having completed this job we were just about to set out for a walk when a gentleman on the dock started chatting to us about the marina. He told us he was planning to buy a boat up in Fort Myers and he seemed normal enough … that is until he looked up to the sky, pointed to the vapor trails from a passing jet and told us he wanted to get away from the chemicals that are being dropped on us from these “chem-trails”. I said I thought these jet trails were mostly just condensation but he insisted it was much more than that and tried to give us a business card, which I declined. We departed and Gloria, being the nice person she is, suggested that he was perhaps referring to insect (mosquito) spraying. However, a little later we saw his car, painted out with bright signs about “chem-trails” and how we are being “implanted”. I think I was right … a complete nut job. Glad I didn’t mention that Gloria and I were chemists or that I’d just been pumping R-134a into our refrigerator!

Mike

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

A bougainvillea  hedgerow of four different colors in the heart of Key West 

Orchid at the Key West Garden club

Orchid at the Key West Garden club

Orchid at the Key West Garden club

"Red flower" Key West Garden club (not a very helpful description!)

An abundance of wings

An abundance of wings

Friday January 29, 2021

After breakfast, Mike worked on repairing the forward head.  It seems hard to believe but it seems to be leaking.  Thankfully, it’s a leak on the ‘clean water’ side but we don’t really want seawater all over the inside of the boat anyway.  Hopefully, that’s fixed now but time will tell.  After the toilet repairs, we set off to the butterfly garden.

Once inside the large greenhouse, the movement of the insects was perplexing.  There were so many fluttering wings of different colors and shapes moving in unpredictable directions that, initially, I felt overwhelmed.  The warm humidity of the greenhouse was in contrast to the cool breezes outside.  After a time, I felt more adjusted to the conditions.  The display of butterflies was magnificent.  Additionally, there were birds free flying in the space.  Not just flying either, many little button quail were making their way in and out of the plants with little regard for the visitors.  A pair of Caribbean Flamingos provided an intermittent noisy sound track.  Many of the other birds produced much more subtle noises. I wish I could say that I was able to identify all these birds but alas not so.  I think these are tropical species, perhaps from all over the world.  Perhaps the only significant downside was that the space did get quite crowded at some points.  If we go again we will try to arrive just at opening time.

We found a cafe with outside seating for some lunch. Then we walked along to Higgs beach further to the east of Fort Taylor State Park.  It’s not as scenic as the aforementioned beach but seemed less densely occupied.  As we wandered along we found the grounds of the Key West garden club and took a walk around.  The orchid displays were particularly numerous.  I would imagine that there must be some species blooming at any time of year. 

By the time we returned to the boat, I could tell that I’d been on my feet for several hours.    

Before we close, I do want to mention that we lost a close friend today. Our next-door neighbor Ken Schwartz passed away this morning after a long battle with glioblastoma. He was a wonderful man and our hearts go out to all of his family.

Gloria

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

A selection of butterfly and bird photos taken at the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. A spectacular place to visit. It can feel hard to get good shots because the both birds and butterflies are constantly on the move. But once I got into the swing of things and figured out what works best it was really fun. Most of these are taken with 105 Nikkor micro lens using SB500 flashgun and setting both speed and aperture manually and letting the flash get the right exposure. Getting adequate depth of field is a challenge. I have little or no idea what any of these species are !

The first of two cold fronts

The first of two cold fronts

Thursday 28th January 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT...

Synopsis: A strong cold front will blast through the coastal waters of the Florida Keys this morning, followed by strong northerly breezes and quickly building seas.

This is an excerpt from the NOAA marine forecast and they were right. We woke at 7 am and it was relatively calm. By 9 am it was blowing 20 knots from a generally northerly direction. The marina is very well protected and there is next to no swell in the harbor, but the effects of the wind pushing Cotinga to one side of the slip and back towards the dock were a little un-nerving. So we doubled up our lines on the windward side and stayed around the boat this morning to make sure all was well.

This afternoon we did get out for a walk around town and ended up on the south side of the island where the water was as flat as a pancake. It looks like the entire fishing fleet has moved around and anchored on what is currently the protected side of Key West. The anchorage areas to the north looked really rough from shore. This evening I wandered over to see the sunset from near Mallory Square and was quite surprised to see several of the charter sailboats out for their sunset cruises, albeit with reduced sails. It looked choppy in the waters to the west but sand banks seem to stop any big swells developing. Although it was mostly sunny today, the temperature drop compared to yesterday is remarkable. It was quite chilly hanging around for the sun to set. The winds are expected to stay fairly fresh through tomorrow night and then settle briefly over the weekend before the next cold front arrives on Monday. I think we timed our arrival at the marina perfectly!

Mike

24 33.709 N, 81 48.093W

There are chickens and roosters running around all over Key West. Our friends Lynn and Lee remember  me chasing after the pigs at Big Major in the Bahamas ... well L&L I have to tell you that I made a fine sight chasing after chickens today ... passers-by were stopping to stare and giggle!

This particular rooster seemed a little put out by my advances!

A derelict building in downtown Key West

The beach at the south end of Simonton Street ... notice how flat the water is with the wind blowing off the land to the north

Sunset cruise on a charter sailing ship

Sunset from Key West

A Trip to the Lumber Yard

A Trip to the Lumber Yard

January 27, 2021

My brother once recounted a tale of this phrase being used in the review of a wine that was “like a trip to the lumber yard”. (I gather that is to suggest that there was rather too much oak for the reviewer’s taste.)  In our case it was literally a trip to the lumber-yard and hardware store.  We were after some 2 by 4s and some 1 by 2s to use in the construction of a gangplank.  As we are tied up stern-to at a fixed dock (not floating) it’s sometimes a very large height difference along with some gap between the stern of the boat and the dock.  For short, tentative boaters this can be a problem.  It seemed worth constructing something as we are going to be here for a month.  As it was a “real” lumber-yard, the 2 by 4s came in 8 foot lengths.  I was glad to see that mornings are not a very busy time in Key West, so we weren’t knocking loads of people off the sidewalks.

Once we got back to the boat with our purchases, Mike started right in on the construction.  The first order of business was connecting to the shore power so that we could use the power tools!  As it turned out the sawing had to be done by hand—worst luck.  The 2 by 4s were trimmed to length and then joined together with strips of the small stuff.  These will act as braces to keep your feet from sliding. The drill was employed to make pilot holes for the screws that did the joining.  Now we have a sturdy gangplank and an easy way to get on and off the boat.  

The second project was attaching some “hooks” to the pilings of our dock.  The idea here is that these hooks can hold our lines when we go out for day sails.  Then on return, all we would need to do is unhook the line and tie it onto the boat.  If you don’t want to feel stuck in the dock it’s important to make these modifications.  This was a tad tricky to achieve as we have positioned the boat nicely between these pilings and now we wanted to get close to each one in turn.  Let me just say that once again it’s obvious that my strength is not what it might be! 

By this point the day had really warmed up.  We had a quick lunch and set out to walk to Fort Zachary Taylor.  That was a hot experience!  It seemed to take quite a while and some of us were feeling a tad wilted by the time we arrived.  The fort is a Civil war era construction that saw service until the Second World War.  In fact there was still a radar station at the fort during the Cuban missile crisis. The fort and surrounding area is now a Florida state park.  Interestingly it seems to be wedged between a naval air station and a navy base.  Could the proximity of Cuba have something to do with this military presence?

In addition to the fort the park has a nice beach and some shady picnic table areas.  It might become our “go-to” spot. 

Gloria

24 33.709 N, 81 48.093W

Mike building the gangplank (photo Gloria)

Cotinga in Key West dock with gangplank in place

Inside Fort Zachary Taylor

Canon alley - Fort Zachary Taylor

Steps up to the battlements - Fort Zachary Taylor

The awesome beach - Fort Taylor State Park

Iguana on rocks close to the water

We Arrive in Key West

We Arrive in Key West

Tuesday 26th January 2021

Our journey down from Boot Key harbor, Marathon to Key west went well. The predicted 10-15 knots of SE wind turned out to be 5-10 knots, so we ended up motor sailing. Heading down the Hawk Channel we had wondered how much protection from ocean swells the fringing reefs to the south provide. Today we got our answer – not much! Despite very little wind and seas that at times were glassy there was still a significant short period swell that made it uncomfortable below. When I went down to make breakfast I decided to take a single meclizine tablet to ward off any mal-de-mer. The consequence of this was what we call the “meclizine munchies”. For the next three hours my mind was singularly focused on what to eat next! We pulled up anchor in Boot Key harbor shortly after 7 am and arrived in Key West at 1.30 pm. A radio call to the marina gave us good directions of where to go to our slip. We proceeded up the channel with the slips off to the side and found our spot. We then did a nifty pirouette and backed Cotinga between the pilings that mark the side of the slip. Gloria managed to get a spring line on one of the pilings and friendly boater took our stern lines to tie us up to the dock. It was a little stressful coming in but to be honest it couldn’t have gone much better. We are now docked “Mediterranean” style with our stern 2 feet from a fixed dock and lines from the two pilings to our mid-section (spring lines) and bow (bow lines). It’s a little bit of an adventure climbing off the stern of the boat onto the dock but not too bad.

We tidied up the boat, checked in with the dock master and had a very pleasant shower. Now we are cooking coq-au-vin and looking forward to a relaxing evening. We have the slip for a month so you will no doubt hear a lot more about the area in the days to come

Mike

24 33.709 N, 81 48.093W

Boot Key Harbor at sunrise - the perfect stillness was broken by the sound of dolphins breathing as a pod of four or five swam through the anchorage

Cotinga ready for departure from Boot Key Harbor

We spent a lot of time dodging crab pot floats on our journey today. We also tried to steer away from this fishing vessel, which proved tricky. He had priority (if he was fishing) and as the "stand on" vessel has a responsibility to maintain course and speed, but he was weaving all over the place.

Double Trouble

Double Trouble

Monday January 25, 2021

As part of our preparations for departing Marathon tomorrow, we took a trip to shore to get a few items of shopping, take showers and retrieve our bikes.  To facilitate an early start, we decided that we should pull up the secondary anchor that we had set on the first day.  Mike hopped into the dinghy and tried to pull the fortress anchor up by hand.  That didn’t work at all.  He became convinced that the two anchor chains were twisted together.  His efforts to pull the secondary anchor could potentially lead to the primary anchor coming loose from the bottom.  This was particularly troubling as a catamaran that arrived yesterday seemed to be shockingly close to our bow now that the wind was more southeast.  We decided to have some lunch and think things over.

Fortunately a boater in a dingy came past the catamaran and told the owners he thought the cat was dragging its anchor.  This prompted that boat to re-anchor giving us the opportunity to have another go at our anchor “issue”. We got the engine started in case both anchors pulled and Cotinga started to drift.  Then Mike pulled in the line to the secondary anchor.  Once he got to chain, he attached a rope to the chain and ran that line to a winch.  Progress seemed very slow.  Eventually, he shouted to me that he could tell that the chains were tangled.  We tried motoring forward gently but that didn’t seem to help much.  Were it not for our friend Glen, we might still be struggling with big anchor knot.  At some point the two guys were able to get the fortress anchor near the surface of the water.  Then it was possible to see the way that the main anchor chain was wrapped around the fortress.  They managed to get a “snubber” line attached to the chain so they could take the weight off the secondary anchor and the tangled section of chain and with great effort it was possible to untangle the flukes of the secondary anchor.  Our final position on the primary anchor (now with a decent amount of scope out) was too close to a powerboat astern of us.  So we had to pull up the primary anchor and re-set it.  

Thank goodness for Glen coming to our aid.  I can’t imagine how we would have solved that problem without his help.  I’m pretty sure that if we had left the two anchors until the morning, we would not have been making an early start! It might be a long time before we choose to set two anchors again. Glenn told us his technique was to set the two anchors 30 degrees apart, but in my mind if you turn 360 degrees around the anchors during the course of weather changes then the two chains are still going to get tangled!

Gloria

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

Glen - who was a great help in sorting out our tangled anchor chains

 A manatee drinking fresh water from an AC cooling system run-off, from the dock at "Castaways" (iPhone)

Another view of the manatee mom and her baby (iPhone)

NFL Playoffs – Championship Round

NFL Playoffs – Championship Round

Sunday 24th January 2021

This is going to be a short blog post because it’s already 10.30pm and I’m only just staring to write! This morning we finished up the fourth and final coat of varnish on the “eye-brow” rail. All that remains is to peel off the masking tape, which can sometimes be easier said than done. It hasn’t been on for long so hopefully will come off pretty easily tomorrow. We had a monster breakfast of blueberry pancakes so we skipped lunch and went ashore for another walk around Crane Point preserve. It was another beautiful day and fun to walk around. We even saw two new bird species for this trip … an oven-bird, which is a small warbler that mostly hangs around on the ground, and a white crowned pigeon which in the USA is only found in southern Florida. We have seen one before, but only in the Bahamas. 

Then this evening we turned our attention to the NFL Championship games. With NFL Game Pass we can only watch after the event so around 7pm we started to watch the Tampa Bay – Green Bay game. We had decided to support Tampa Bay and were happy to see Tom Brady and team win and go forward to another super bowl. He did appear to play well despite throwing three interceptions that made the game much closer than it should have been. Yesterday when chatting to Tasha she confessed that she had only found out this week that Tom Brady had left the Patriots. I was deeply shocked! Is she really my daughter? … She doesn’t look like the milk-man! Tomorrow morning we’ll watch the second game between Buffalo and Kansas City.

Mike

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

Just a quick comment on photos … below are some additional hibiscus shots. I realize that I’ve taken plenty of these in the past and I apologize if it’s getting repetitive. The reason that I continue to take them (apart from the fact that I like these flowers) is that I am trying to build up a set that could be submitted to a competition in the future and I keep trying to take better or complementary shots. The same argument goes for bridges, abstract waves, rusty boat etc and also sunsets that I just can’t resist even though it’s the most over-photographed subject of all. Sorry if it gets boring.

Hibiscus - shot straight on with 40 frames focus - stacked (105mm micro lens, F6.3, 1/200s)

Hibiscus - offset with 50 frames focus stacked (105mm micro lens, F8.0, 1/100s)

Hibiscus - as above but selecting front 20 out of 50 frames to leave the background out of focus

A beautiful spider at Cranes Point preserve

Bill - a rare (for this trip) portrait. Bill is a former army sniper who served in Dessert Storm and now lives on a boat here in Boot Key Harbor. I got chatting with him at the marina vegetable garden when I was taking photos yesterday

Formulating Plans

Formulating Plans

Saturday January 23, 2021

We have been following the weather forecast for a few days.  It looks like a strong cold front will be coming through on Thursday.  After the front there will be strong winds from the north.  We contacted the marina in Key West and luckily heard that our slip would be available early.  So our plan is to move down to Key West on Tuesday in advance of the cold front and small craft advisory.  We should be securely tied up to the dock for the fierce weather.  

This is a bit of a change of plans and meant that we needed to make some arrangements with the marina.  We are now booked for a “departure pump-out” on Monday.  We turned back our laundry card (for a refund of the $10 deposit).  We poured the contents of the diesel jerry cans into the main fuel tank and re-filled the jerries at Pancho’s fuel dock 

Additionally, we took a trip to Home Depot looking for N95 masks—no luck.  Apparently all of these are reserved for medical personnel. It is quite astonishing that one year into the pandemic, the US still is not producing enough N95 masks to equip the population.  Currently, we believe that masks provide the best method for reducing the spread of the virus. But, we don’t have a ready supply of high quality masks—even after 12 months.  If I can’t get vaccinated (a rant for another day), are protective masks too much to ask?

Gloria

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

The following are a set of abstract shots taken in the late afternoon at the marina dinghy dock. They are simply reflections of the dock structure in the water as the sun dipped towards the horizon and provided beautifully rich lighting. These photos have been edited to optimize brightness, contrast and clarity but are otherwise unchanged

Water reflections abstract #1

Water reflections abstract #2

Water reflections abstract #3

Water reflections abstract #4

Thought Provoking Discussions

Thought Provoking Discussions

Friday 22nd January 2021

We were hanging out in the Tiki Hut at the marina waiting for out laundry to dry when our next-door neighbor Glen appeared, also on his way to the laundry. Gloria asked him where the name of his boat “Belleauwood” came from. He told us that it was a 1st World War battle ground in France where the US marines held off the Germans from entering Paris in 1918. Glen himself was a career marine and served in numerous places around the world including a two-year assignment to London. He seems like a lovely guy and we’ve chatted with him quite a lot over the past week … and he’s a Trump supporter based on the flag on his boat. This morning we talked at some length about history, politics and the state of the USA. It’s clear that he thinks a lot about things and feels the partisan divide in this country every bit as much as the people who are anti-Trump. It made me realize that we need to put Trump behind us. We can either wait for a generation of staunch believers (on both sides) to die out or we can start to bridge the chasm that has grown between factions in this country. I don’t know how this will happen, but it’s going to take outstanding leadership at all levels, a clear view of what we are trying to achieve and people working together across political divides to start to build some trust and respect. I think it’s important to recognize that for too long (decades) the government of this country (in its broadest sense) has failed the people. It has failed to address the short and long-term challenges that we face. Individuals within the government have focused heavily on perpetuating their own positions of power and exchanged insults instead of taking action. These are the very conditions that lead to the rise of authoritarian regimes. I certainly have my own views on who is more responsible for the gridlock, but I recognize that opinions are probably fairly evenly split on that question. As I look at the new government and particularly the senate, which is so closely balanced, I think it’s critical that the two parties start working together. It will be interesting to see who steps up and if they don’t then I would suggest that the future of this country looks really bleak. 

With these lofty thoughts in mind Gloria and I turned our attention to lunch and then a dinghy ride down “Sisters Creek” to the lovely Sombrero Beach. This time we went prepared with swim suits, towels and our two excellent camp chairs. We had an excellent afternoon and enjoyed our first swim in the ocean since Rhode Island in September (??)

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mike

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

The Dumb Dog anchored at the southern end of Sisters Creek close to Sombrero Beach

Lots of families enjoying perfect conditions at Sombrero Beach

Even the dog was having fun

A stream of boats heading into the Boot Key channel after sunset

Couple deep in conversation as they head out of the channel ... possible anchored outside

The wake from other boats

Ripples below the bascule bridge