2/11/09 - A very long day

We left Boot Key in Marathon at about 4:30 a.m. to time our arrival at Pumpkin Key at the north end of Key Largo for late afternoon. Motor-sailing into the waves made it not so comfortable to start with, but after turning north we had a lovely afternoon sail.

Midday I was down below when Wayne yelled to me, "Hey, I think that's another Island Packet 445! I'll bet it's Gail C." As they passed us from the opposite direction we caught the name of their boat, and it was indeed them. We met Frank and Gail two years ago - after we bought Lena Bea but before we commissioned her. Frank and Gail had Gail C. docked at Burnt Store Marina (which is in Punta Gorda) and invited us over so we could see how they had done things, where and how they had installed various equipment, etc., which helped Wayne a great deal. We knew they left for the Bahamas in January so were very surprised to see them. Wayne called them on the VHF and we learned that they had waited 18 days to cross the Gulf Stream and finally had to turn back due to a family matter. We think it was an unplanned family matter in their case, but cruisers with deadlines or schedules frequently have to cancel their trips when that ubiquitous weather-window just doesn't come along in time. The Gulf Stream is like a river in the middle of the ocean and it flows north at about 2.5-3 knots. When there are winds from any northerly direction, crossing can be miserable (depending on how strong they are) and even treacherous because the wind and current work against each other causing large, turbulent waves. After the wind changes to a favorable direction it takes a day or two for the seas to calm down enough for a comfortable crossing, which is why we'll probably wait until Friday.

We were cruising along, happy as clams, until we reached the entrance to Angelfish Creek. Some of you already know what I'm going to say, don't you? Yep, we ran aground. I fixed dinner and we ate while waiting an hour and a half for the tide to come up enough to get off the rocks, then waited another 45 minutes for good measure. Some people think Wayne never gets angry, but those folks have never been with him when he ran aground. I'll let Wayne fill you in on the details for the sake of accuracy, but basically he was looking at tide tables that had conflicting information. Leo and Betty had called to let us know the tide was unusually low due to the full moon and that we should probably wait until high tide to come in (they were already anchored at the other end). Wayne checked tide tables and charts again and called Captain Jim to get his input. Boaters entering the channel ahead of us didn't think we'd have a problem (note to selves: don't trust depth sounders on other boats to give the same readings as ours).

We turned left when we reached Card Sound just before sunset and I grabbed the binoculars to look for Dues Paid - Leo and Betty's catamaran - so we could anchor near them. As I looked around the anchorage at boat names, I noticed several boaters with THEIR binoculars trained on US. Guess they wanted to see who the poor suckers were who ran aground. As the saying goes, there are two kinds of boaters: those who have run aground and those who will. So they either have been or will be some day, in the same boat (so to speak).

We couldn't find Leo and Betty and finally had to call them to ask where they were anchored, and found out we should have turned right instead of left when we reached the sound. Oh well. As we were preparing to anchor and I was finishing up with Betty, someone called us on the VHF. It was a nearby sailboat, Brilliant, and they invited us over to share a bottle of wine. We agreed before thinking it through, then called back and pleaded exhaustion - getting up at 4 a.m., sailing all day, and sitting sideways in the channel for two hours will do that to you. I'm sure it would have been interesting to visit with the folks on Brilliant, though - they've spent the past seven years living on their boat.

Besides - had we not been so tired, we would have liked to get together with Leo and Betty. A couple from the Mariners of PGI, our boating club, put us in touch with them a couple weeks ago because Leo and Betty (neighbors of theirs) were planning to leave for the Exumas about the same time we were. Betty and Leo have cruised to the Bahamas 8-10 times and have shared lots of information with us; they and Wayne spoke on the phone many times, but we haven't met them yet. It looks like our meeting will have to wait longer because they are leaving for the Bahamas tomorrow and we've decided to wait until Friday and the slight possibility of a calmer crossing. We agonized over this and Wayne spent hours poring over wind and wave charts before deciding. The group from Boot Key is leaving on Friday (from Rodriguez Key), as are others we've talked to, so it's probably a toss-up and we'll be more ready after a day at anchor anyway.