February, 2023 - ernie's website and blog

Key Largo – Fort Lauderdale 10feb2023

Day 5 of my Keys adventure was a long day on Friday. What started out as a leisurely sail from Key Largo to Key Biscayne ended up as a race to get home. I was planning to spend the night at Key Biscayne and then have an easy downhill half day run to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. Halfway to Key Biscayne, a possibility of a gig on Saturday morning and money compelled me to make for home. This would involve sailing solo at night, something I wouldn’t do anywhere else but a Miami to Fort Lauderdale run at this point. I am new at sailing. I have made this run lots of times in power boats both day and night and a few times sailing in the daytime. So the decision was made to head for home. When in the ocean I like to let folks know of my progress for safety. Updates on the hour typically via text.

Sending updates to my guardian angels, wife April and brother Dave, I made my way from the relative safety of Biscayne Bay through Stiltsville to the Atlantic. With the sun setting over Miami in the ocean, the wind was wonky, nearly directly behind me so it was slow going (it’s difficult to sail directly with the wind), about 3 knots. It was already about 6pm and Fort Lauderdale isn’t that far – 20 something miles plus making my way home to the dock at 3 knots would have put me in my slip about 3am with a possible 10am charter. I don’t like to run the engine if I don’t have to but I did motor-sail and make about 5-6 knots and made it to Port Everglades about 10:30pm. Part of my progression can be seen in a series of screenshots at Google Photos. I spent the night anchored in Fort Lauderdale a mile from my slip and tied up Saturday about 9am.

BTW the charter never did happen! LOL oh well getting homesick I wanted to get home anyway.

Moon-rise over Birch State Park — Final night in Fort Lauderdale – anchored near Birch State Park

Islamorada to Key Largo 9feb2023

Day 4 of my Florida Keys sailing trip was at TRIP. Time to head home – the wind forecast was east to southeast. Hoping for an early switch to SE wind, I left the Scouts Sea Base and went through Channel 5, between Lower Matacumbe and Long Keys. The bridge is 65′ high, easy access to the Atlantic Ocean and Hawk Channel which is somewhat protected. It’s inside the Florida Reef and the reef breaks up the ocean swells. It was calm at first, because it’s shallow but farther out from land it gets choppy. No big deal – kinda. The wind was 15+ from the east and guess what direction was needed… yup, east. 15+ on the nose is tough going, the sails are useless at that point. My little inboard diesel is 14 horsepower pushing a 6 ton boat, it was working hard to make 3 knots. With no wind and waves, the engine can push the boat at hull speed, about 6 knots but not headed into the wind and waves. Boo Hoo

The wind was to clock around to the southeast, but that didn’t happen yet. And as one follows Hawk Channel, it curves around and eventually turns north. With that in mind, I slogged on. After over an hour in the slop, I gave up and turned around headed back to Channel 5 and the comfort of Florida Bay. Going with the wind and chop, it took me about 20 minutes to cover the same ground into the chop in well over an hour! Florida Bay is on the lee side of the keys so it was a lot less choppy. The engine didn’t have to work as hard, and the sails helped as I zig-zagged through the bay and channels.

I did take some videos as well as pix, they can be seen at Google Photos

Key Largo to Islamorada 8feb2023

As I wandered about the keys the weather was sooo nice, and I had nothing on my calendar so it was off to Islamorada Wednesday. I was running low on food, and I hadn’t had a shower since I left Fort Lauderdale on Monday, adding sunscreen day after day. It was nice that the gang at Boy Scout Sea Base found a slip for me to stay for the night. I was able to stock up a bit and ahhhh – a hot shower, and in the morning hot coffee and stuff.

Sea Base Dock – sailboats are for scouting adventures.

By the way, the pix above are links to the original images at Google Photos, which have comments for each picture.

Key Biscayne to Key Largo 7feb2023

On Tuesday morning I pulled anchor and left Key Biscayne and sailed south in Biscayne Bay, passing a few keys: Soldier, Boca Chita, Elliot, Adams, and others. The bay is shallow in spots, so it’s important to navigate through the channels at Featherbed Bank, etc. Leaving lower Biscayne Bay, next is Card Sound and then Little Card Sound. A few “sounds” later, I dropped anchor at Blackwater Sound on the backside of Key Largo near Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill Restaurant where I was able to have dinner and enjoy the sunset over the water.

Anchoring was interesting, it was windy and there is a small layer of mud on top of hard bottom. Using my anchor alarm app I found that I was dragging anchor. Up came the anchor and off to a more protected cove. With 2 anchors out, I set my Anchor Watch Pro / Alarm app and crossed my fingers. The anchors held while I used the dinghy to motor over to the restaurant – I couldn’t see the boat while having dinner as night fell. It was a leap of faith… I dreaded heading back to the cove to find the boat had dragged anchor in the dark. Thankfully the boat was still there!

Ft Lauderdale-Key Biscayne Sail 6feb2023

One recent Monday, the weather report was perfect for a sail south for a few days (northerlies) then predicted a wind switch to southerlies later in the week. So, off I went in the sailboat leaving Fort Lauderdale and heading south in the Atlantic bound for Key Biscayne, near Miami. I anchored for the night near Nixon’s Florida White House