Return To Boot Key, Marathon

Return To Boot Key, Marathon

Wednesday March 3rd – Thursday March 4, 2021

We were lucky with the weather this past week. We had fine winds for our sail down to the Dry Tortugas, the heavier winds whilst we were out there were less fierce than forecast and the passage of a mild cold front provided favorable winds for the journey back. We left the Garden Key anchorage at 4 am in the dark, using our electronics to keep us on a  safe course. It took us 8 or 9 hours to cover the 60 miles back to Key West, mostly on a broad reach with winds of 8-10 knots out of the southwest. By far the most exciting part of the journey was when a navy jet flew overhead a few hundred feet above us at high speed. We didn’t see it coming, we barely saw it leaving, but it left us cowering in the cockpit with sweaty palms and wishing we’d worn our brown trousers. The navy jets flying out of Key West practice on the west side of the Marquesas Islands and we have seen plenty of them in the past weeks but never as close and personal as this! A second jet flew past shortly after, prompting one witty sailor to comment on channel 16 (the hailing and emergency channel) … “there goes your tax dollars in action!” 

With the wind predicted to strengthen and clock to the northwest overnight, we were not keen to spend Wednesday night in Key West, where the anchorages are less than ideal. So we kept sailing up the keys with the intention of stopping someway short of Marathon before proceeding the following day. Around 4.30 pm we pulled into a wide-open anchorage on the north east side of Key Lois and dropped the anchor. The wind by this point was steady at 15 knots out of the northwest. Despite only limited protection from the land the anchorage turned out to be quite comfortable because the island blocked the offshore swells and shallow water minimized the wind driven chop. We had completed just over 80 nm in a little over 12 hours, making it one of the longest single day passages we have ever done. We were both exhausted.

Overnight the wind velocity picked up, leading to a lot of creaking from the anchor snubber.  I’d like to be able to say that we both had a good night of sleep but that would be lying.  Over breakfast, Mike said to me that he thought we had been a bit premature congratulating ourselves the previous evening.  In his view the twenty miles we had to do this morning would be plenty challenging.  Somehow I didn’t find those words very comforting.

We pulled up the anchor and got underway.  When we raised the mainsail we put in a reef so that we wouldn’t be overpowered.  The northwest wind was blowing 15-20 and we would be heading northeast.  The good aspect of wind from the northwest was that the islands gave us some protection from the swell.  It seemed a bit of a wild sail with plenty of pots as well as the gusty winds.  Everything did go quite well and after about two and a half hours we were nearing Boot Key (Marathon).  

We had tried to time our arrival to correspond with high tide.  Interestingly we did see depths of 9.2 feet in the outer portion of the channel.  Once again the anchorage seemed to be teeming with boats.  We found a space that we thought was adequate but had a hard time getting centered in the space in a satisfactory manner.  Our good humor was starting to slip due to a combination of hunger and tiredness.  We decided that we should try to deploy the (dreaded) second anchor!  Mike started on inflating the dinghy while I threw together some lunch.  After lunch the wind seemed to be coming more from the northwest rather than west, we decided to postpose the second anchor.

We went to the marina to register for dinghy dockage, get a laundry card, pay for some water, dump some trash, get a pair of cards for the heads and get our name on the mooring list.  The very helpful woman at the desk told us that we were number one on the list.  We are quite excited about the possibility of a mooring.  The forecast for the next few days has the winds making a complete 360 degree circuit followed by an extended period of very strong winds from the northeast – east.  In a crowded anchorage, figuring out how to position the boat for all these options is more or less impossible.  The mooring could be just dandy.  I hate to get my hopes up too much.

After our trip to shore, we elected to start on the boat jobs list (rather than placing the second anchor).  At the top of the list was repair of the forward head.  Faithful readers will remember that Mike had worked on this in Carolina Beach sometime in November.  He had beat the hoses against the dock to remove the mineral build up.  Well in the interval, the minerals had returned.  The hoses have been cleared, the toilet parts have been de-scaled. Reassembly will have to wait until tomorrow. 

Our next post will bring you right up to date ...

Gloria

~ 24 42.274 N, 81 06.002 W

I didn’t take any pictures over the past two days but the following photo taken the day after shows you just how busy the Boot Key harbor is. There are 220 moorings in the harbor and maybe another 50 or 60 boats anchored. It is a real challenge to find space to anchor.

Mike