South Florida "Loop" finally under way (I hope!)

[jimyoung]

Hi Guys,

After a brief delay (two months) I am finally making the last of my improvements / modifications to Miss B. and am planning a Feb 4th departure.  My plan is to cross Florida via the OWW then south through the Ten Thousand Islands to Key West by way of Cape Sable and Flamingo then up the Keys back home to Ft. Lauderdale. (some of you may have seen the itinerary I posted a while back)

I am watching the Lake levels closely and may have to head south through the Keys then up the west coast for a while and back down to the keys again (poor me) before returning home to Ft. Lauderdale.

I am still asking for favorite anchorages / must-see's / restaurants and marinas along the way as well as any current personal info on Lake Okeechobee levels.

21 days and counting! 

[Glenn Basore]

Sounds like it will be a great sail......take lots of pictures and if you get a chances to post a long the way please do you, I'm sure the rest of us would like to read some up dates as you sail along,

Fair winds to you.

Glenn

[Salty19]

I am not an expert on South Florida, but since you're asking.

Definitely plan a stop at Bahia Honda State Park if you've never been.
It's about 10 or so miles south of Marathon.
http://www.reserveamerica.com/campgroundDetails.do?subTabIndex=0&agency=fl&parkCode=bahi

Just plain gorgeous, peaceful, natural, and perhaps one of the best beaches in the country. Camping there is absolutely fabulous.  Not many tourists there, either.  No resorts or accomodations that attract the usual "tourons".  And there is a marina there, although I know nothing about it.

And ouf course you have to stop in Key West and have a Rumrunner at Hog's Breath or a Mojito at The Reach.  But you probably know this

Watch out for coral and have a GREAT TIME!!!!!!

[jimyoung]

Salty16,
Thanks for the input.... and yes Bahia Honda State Park is a definite stop over destination. Besides the beautiful beaches there are a couple of very nice snorkel spots within dingy distance.

As a side-note the trip has again been pushed back until the 18th so my sister can come out from Texas on her spring break and spend a week with me on the boat. I'm really getting anxious but it gives me an opportunity to have a new Bimini made for the adventure, a luxury I was going to forgo due to time restraints.

Also it is beginning to look very doubtful across the OWW. The lake is at a navigable 4.01' and for a 27' that is too close for me to "intentionally" challenge.

I plan on keeping a daily log and if there is an intrest I will post.

[Paul]

Post away!  I, for one, would like to keep up with the adventure.

Fair winds!

[B.Hart]

   I would enjoy reading your post. If I can't be there in real life at least I can couch sail. I think all sailers have dreamers in them!    HAPPY SAILING     BILL

[mrb]

another yes vote for your posting on trip.  I have been checking every few days hopping to see a update.

good sailing
mrb

[jimyoung]

Hey guys, I am home again and would enjoy posting an account of the trip, complete with pictures, that I put together for the family and friends that either joined me or asked about the trip but am not sure of the best way to do this. I have been sending an attached .pdf file of each day to these people via e-mail but am not sure how to post here so everyone can get it.

The trip was a wonderful experience, but was cut short due to business concerns (I was about to loose a major client if I didn't return) and will have to be continued at a later date. However, the time spent (about five weeks) on the water was both relaxing and exciting and I look forward to the comments and reactions of all intrested parties.

Again, thanks for the intrest, the documenting of the trip has offered me the opportunity to peruse my log book and re-live the trip day by day.

[jimyoung]

Day Nineteen; March 7

Matecumbe Bight to Caloosa Cove

Thus far in this adventure I have been enjoying the brisk winds from the east and southeast that precludes each new cold front. To keep from having to endure the matching rough seas I have been hugging the lee side of the Keys, hiding away in safe harbor as each cold front arrives, then enjoying crystal clear skies and easterly to south easterly trade winds of 15-25 knots until the next new cold front approaches from the northeast. With yet another front approaching, the winds are forecasted to increase again today with possible rain, hail, and thunderstorms likely by late evening. I have made plans to meet my next crew at the Caloosa Cove Marina tomorrow morning and to do this I will need to cross over to the Atlantic side. I will need to sail from my anchorage in Matecumbe Bight around Lower Matecumbe Key, under the bridge that separates Lower Matecumbe Key from Long Key then east and northeast back to Caloosa Cove. The cross-over access, known as Channel Five, is one of only a few places that a sailboat can cross from the Florida Bay/Intercostals side to the Atlantic Ocean/Hawk Channel side in the Keys.

                                  Sailing around the protected side of Matacumbe Key
 
I get an early start under main and jib and make good time under way around the southeast tip of Lower Matecumbe Key. As I reach to the open area of the bridge, pulling in on the sheets, trying to pinch more and more into the wind, the seas really pick up. I approach the marked span under the bridge, reef the headsail and fire up the big iron sail below decks. I am now running dead to weather in twenty-five to thirty knots of wind and very rough, short, choppy seas. As if to punish me for not studying the prevailing currents when planning today's leg of this journey there is also the steady drag of an opposing tidal current trying to push the boat backwards. It is taking what seems like forever, making at times no forward headway motion at all, to get enough beyond the bridge for the channel to widen so I can bear off and get some help from the main. I am making all kinds of promises to the big guy upstairs that he not allow the little disel engine to choose this moment to act up again and finally round the day marker that lets me know I am in Hawks Channel and deeper water again. The seas and winds have not diminished but I am now able to round off enough that I am sailing again. The remainder of the trip into Caloosa Cove is, by comparison, uneventful until my approach into the Caloosa Cove Marina.  Once inside the marina I have only one chance to swing the boat around 180 degrees, drop and secure the sail, then guide Miss B. in to the correct slip under power without allowing the wind to push me into the dock, or one of the several million-dollar fishing vessels that call this marina home.  With a little help from the dock master slowing Miss B. down as I come alongside the finger pier, I get us safely secured and connected to Tera-firma.

            The turning basin in the Marina is well protected from waves, but not the wind.

While I am getting Miss B. cleaned up and rinsed down with fresh water, a good friend of mine from Ft. Lauderdale, Jim Fitzgerald, calls and informs me that he and some other buddies are in the Keys with his new fishing skiff for the weekend. They'd had a very successful day fishing yesterday but hadn't been out yet in today's weather. Having spent most of the day recovering from hangovers and replacing a bad battery they were now going to get in some fishing on the lee side of Windley Key. Jim invites me to join them and of course I jumped at the chance to hang out with friends on a boat and drink beer. The fishing is unfruitful but fun, I spend most of my time enjoying being a passenger on someone else's boat.  Later we have dinner at the cabana that the guys have rented for their stay and Jim returns me to Miss B. full of steak and Captain Morgan. I hardly even notice when the storm rolls in about three in the morning.