We arrived in Key West at the southern end of the Florida Keys after a wonderful 2 day sail – the conditions were perfect. We sailed in company with “Equinox” – their draft is 6ft compared to our 7ft so they went along the entrance channels in front of us and read out the depths over the VHF – it meant we could get to a mooring ball field which we would normally not have tried for. The difficulty upon arrival for us was we were required to phone a particular number which would give us a very long code which was to be used when contacting Customs and Border Patrol - we were supposed to set foot on land until having "checked into the Country". Of course we did not have a USA cell phone that worked so after much deliberation and calls on VHF we went ashore and called the authorities and were told to make our own way to the local airport to visit Customs - so much for tight security. Dick and Moira on Equinox and Don were royally received, lots of welcomes and friendly smiles - that all changed when it came to my turn. I received the normal rude cursory attitude – and was told that I had been thoroughly investigated – when I inquired why, I was told very rudely that “what can someone like you expect”. My friends were horrified – I think they thought my earlier stories about customs and border patrol were slightly exaggerated, they apologized and felt embarrassed that their country is so unwelcoming. My only crime is that I am married to a man who holds a Green card and try to spend as much time with him as the USA customs will allow. As we were departing the office the official lent over the counter and waving and pointing his finger at me he declared in a very loud voice " make sure you are gone before and not on the date your visa expires” - wow how to feel welcome, makes we want to stick my fingers up at him, tell him a few truths about his country and leave – I could feel Don giving me telepathic warnings to shut up !!!
We had a look around Key West - a beautiful town but a bit overwhelming being back in noisy bustling “civilization”. Our goal was to move up to the Chesapeake in Virginia quickly as Don was hoping there would be some work in Alaska for him and we would be out of the hurricane belt for the season.
Equinox left a day ahead of us – we waited until the waves died down after the bad weather – each captain has his own way of “reading” the weather and conditions. The depth along the channel after leaving the mooring field is very shallow so we were very careful to stay exactly on our incoming path – our motor began missing then began to die – we coaxed her off to the side of the channel and dropped the anchor – Don check everything he could think of (we are still having problems with contaminated fuel) and the motor purred away happily when started – that was until we pulled the anchor and got back into the busy channel then she died altogether. Sails went up quickly and we sailed until we reached another spot with a depth that we could navigate and dropped the anchor again -this one was amongst other anchored boats and the small fishing boat next to us became very nervous and yelled at us that we were too close – of course once we had let out 150ft of chain we were well away from him but he kept a close lookout at us. We tried to tell him we had no choice that we were without a motor but he wouldn't answer his vhf radio (Don doubts such a broken down “tub” such as his boat would have a radio).
Don eventually found the problem – the fuel lift pump has a tiny filter the size of a sewing thimble that was clogged with our normal gluggy fuel contamination stuff. We did have a spare pump but when we went to instal it we found it was a newer model and required flexible hoses not the fixed hoses we had. Fortunately for us the old pump was not sealed as the newer version is so Don pulled it apart, cleaned it and the motor has been chugging away noisily ever since. I often ponder why the engine had to stop in a very busy very shallow and narrow channel – why not when still on the mooring ball or at sea. I do not have a great faith in our motor now and become very nervous each time we navigate into channels and towns and back out to sea – in many cases the entrance channels are very long (over an hour) and rough and if the motor died we would end up on rocks within a minute or so.
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a waterway that consists of natural lakes and rivers and man-made canals built by the US Army Corp of Engineers. The purpose is to offer a safe internal passage way from Georgia to Florida. Don had been looking forward to traveling through part of the waterway – although the waterway is dredged to a guaranteed 9ft it shallows very quickly at the sides and some areas are just too shallow for us. We have also read documentation that states due to decreased funds the waterway is not inspected as to depth and debris as often as required. We were at the limit for our depth at 7ft and our height – the fixed bridges are at a height of 65ft or greater – there are a few that are lower which would mean going out to sea and coming back into the waterway after the lower bridge. In preparation for our trip Don remeasured our mast and found it to be 67ft – he hadn't included the VHF antenna in the original estimate so that cut out a lot of the waterway for us. The waterway has marinas dotted along at towns – the marinas are extremely expensive – for us $100 plus per night to tie up to a cleat plus $10 to connect to electricity then it is charged per usage. There are very few anchorages along the waterway that are suitable for our depth. All this considered we went outside and have mainly sailed for 24-36hrs then pulled into the waterway in a remote spot, anchored and slept. I really don't like doing overnighters (or longer for that matter) and feel that we deserve “treats” to help us stay awake for unreasonable hours in length. I have found a seasickness pill that works most times so now can eat at will while sailing – yea !!! We have had so many treats and of course eat because we are bored as well - we are starting to look like tweedle dee and tweedle dum.
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