 |
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
 |
||
|
This log runs through March 6, 2003 January 3, 2003 preparing to head further south While using the short wave radio, we have an potentially damaging RF radiation interference problem with our inverter/charger. Anyone want to offer advice about shielding and feed wire/backstay and other electronics proximity problems? We can't use the SSB for anything but very short voice, and not at all for e-mail, until this situation is resolved. It's always something, eh? January 5, 2003 at anchor in Key Biscayne Bay January 7, 2003 at Key Largo CLICK HERE for enlargeable photos of Pioneer. Okay, for all of you who won't stop asking, here is the formula for converting between dates on the Islamic and Gregorian calendars: multiply 970,224 by the Islamic year, divide by 6 decimal places, and add 621.5774. The figure to the left of the decimal point is the year AD, and the decimal fraction multiplied by 365 is the day of the year. This will be accurate within one day and we hope it finally resolves your dilemma. January 9, 2003 near Grassy Key, 100 miles SSW of Miami We've had several days of great sailing, shutting down the engine and letting the wind slice our 27,000 pound sailing home south into ever-warmer weather and turquoise water, as dolphins play in our bow wave. Yesterday we saw a huge turtle swimming its way toward shore. January 10, 2003 at anchor in Marathon, Florida We've sailed into Boot Key, two thirds of the way to Key West from Miami. Here, people build beautiful houses on islands, while sailors drop anchor in the most protected harbor in the Keys. Sunrise over the anchorage reinforces our decision to take up this lifestyle. January 12, 2003 at anchor in Boot Key Harbor, the Florida Keys Conveniently, it is possible to appeal such problems to a higher power aboard a floating church. On Church Boats such as this one, some of the prayers are undoubtedly for boat repairs. We have been reflecting on the past year. We spent nearly five months at Deaton Yacht Service in Oriental, NC and were extremely impressed by the quality of the new engine installation. Mechanically, it was masterful. However, our reaction to almost every other aspect of our experience there -- especially to what we regard as our victimization by a a great many of their management policies and practices -- ranges from frustration to deep offense. We hope that you potential customers will continue to contact us for details. January 16, 2003 at Boot Key Harbor "Varieties of bathtub water controls abound. The old fashioned ones with a "hot" knob on one side and a "cold" knob on the other are delightfully straightforward but now rare. "Engineers vie with one another to create ever more variations on the theme of "one knob controls all":push-and-pull, turn-and-tweak, lift-and-lean. The arrows, lines, and letters on the knobs are more artistic than helpful. One stands naked before a mystery, anxious as to whether one will be burned or frozen by the first blast. "A great variety of equipment in this country works automatically or by remote control: garage doors, car doors, store doors, TV's, VCR's. Even postage stamps are self-adhering. In airports, taps and things that flush work automatically: They gush forth at more-or-less appropriate times. The timing can startle, amuse, or madden. "Garages are so full of old furniture, power tools, mowers, trimmers, and recreational equipment that there is no room for a car. "Shampoos and conditioners contain such ingredients as vitamins, egg, and papaya. These are items we used to EAT in Thailand. Cats in the USA are large. So are the people." Now back to present day: We plan on leaving Boot Key in the Keys when weather allows travel -- hopefully beyond Key West to the Dry Tortugas. CLICK HERE for enlargeable photos of Florida. January 20, 2003 in the Keys January 23, 2002 at Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas Island Yesterday was filled with demanding and rewarding experiences, as faced by typical cruisers. Beginning at anchor at Boca Chica Key near Key West, Florida, here is a review: 0315 We arose and prepared for departure from the quiet, pitch black anchorage 0345 The engine started, we weighted anchor and with Becky on the fore deck with a spotlight watching for unlit boats and markers, we followed our chart plotter track through the narrow channel and to open water 0430 Motoring across a glassy sea, we watched the lights of Key West disappear. We put up the sails, eager for more wind 0620 We were motor-sailing WSW as first light illuminated our wake 0713 Right on schedule, the sun rose astern 0800 Three miles to starboard the low Marquesas Keys could just be seen. But amazingly, we could see the tall buildings of to port, south. They were totally clear in our 15-power image-stabilized binoculars. 0915 Dolphins feeding nearby spotted us and zoomed up to our bow to play in our pressure wave. They seemed to love playing with Pioneer and they swam with us for miles. 1215 Land Ho: Our first glimpse of Garden Key, just a speck of land in the Dry Tortugas. Hope we like it here, as there are are no services of any kind 1300 The 19th century fort occupying most of the island comes a bit more clearly into view 1345 While we circumnavigated the island to anchor on the south side, we had a great view of the fort which once served as a prison -- the most famous prisoner being the doctor who tended John Wilkes Booth after he shot President Lincoln in 1865 1530 The two large high-speed tourist boats from Key West departed, followed by two float planes, leaving us the anchorage to share with just a few other boats 1600 After dropping the 60 LB CQR anchor and 100 feet of chain, Becky gave some of our stored clothes a good airing above deck and we had a glass a wine while thinking about repairing the dinghy. Some creature's claw has penetrated two of the five air chambers. 1810 Happy Hour commenced and we joined Sooty Terns in the celebration of a beautiful sunset. A Park Service ranger dropped by to give us information about the fort and to point out the 350 pound grouper lounging just under our boat in the clear water. It turned out to be a Jew Fish lobbying for a handout. The winds and skies this day were perfect and the seas uncharacteristically calm. We averaged 6.7 kts for the trip, which ended in our finding a tiny speck of land in the warm ocean. January 25, 2003 In the early afternoon, at high tide, a fishing boat gingerly approached the stranded sailboat, grabbed their anchor rode (line) and, after some dramatic maneuvering, pulled them free. Three lucky and grateful sailors on the sloop Good News arrived back at the anchorage where they very, very carefully re-anchored. We don't know what the fishing boat Sea Bitch was paid for towing them out, but it probably wasn't enough.
We heard today on the short wave radio that at the height of the storm, the seas in the Gulf Stream were as high as 28 feet. January 26, 2003 Game Day: Super Bowl Sunday Speaking of game day: Our ongoing Scrabble tournament (interrupted only while the boat was pitching so violently that the letters kept flying off the board) now stands at a tie. Hopefully we can avoid Sudden Death Overtime. Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and although we're football fans, we've grown accustomed in recent years to being in remote overseas places during the big game. In the Dry Tortugas, we listened to the Buccaneers' victory on our short wave, on Armed Forces Radio. We are sorry to miss the excellent Super Bowl commercials, but during the commercial breaks we came up to speed with the interests of our American armed forces. January 27, 2003 in the Dry Tortugas, 575 miles SE of New Orleans The Dry Tortugas are beautiful little islands. With Pioneer safely at anchor nearby, we landed at tiny Garden Key (only 21 acres) in our dinghy, Scout. For most of the day, we're almost the only people here. In the daytime we know where to park the dinghy, and tourists who arrive via float plane from Key West know where to park their plane, because of this sign. Photo: dinghy/airplane. Still others arrive on a space-age super fast boat that looks like a cracker box on ice skates. Fort Jefferson is a National Monument that occupies the entire island. It's an historic and beautiful place, with a moat and cannons and a 16 acre inner courtyard. January 28, 2003 preparing to depart the Dry (meaning water, not booze) Tortugas February 1, 2003 back from the Dry Tortugas The traditional toughness of the passage may be a reason we often had the beautiful anchorage in front of Fort Jefferson in the Tortugas all to ourselves. There is a lot of salt to wash off the boat, and all the water to do that must be lugged in cans via dinghy. We have received e-mails from Becky's friend Denise in northern Montana. She reports temperatures in her area a low as -40F. Wow! That reminded us of Don's parents' home in Montana. We'll never again complain about low temps of 60 degrees (100 degrees warmer!) here at Marathon. February 5, 2003 in Boot Key Harbor with great weather February 8, 2002 in Boot Key Becky has also been working on the purchase of a Winslow Life raft. Very expensive, but good offshore insurance. February 9, 2002 in Boot Key, Marathon, Florida After that come bigger adventures. One working plan is to return to Key West and continue past the western tip of Cuba, stopping in the Cayman Islands enroute to the San Blas Island of Panama. An alternative plan would be to head east from the Chesapeake in November, and then turn south to the eastern Caribbean, continuing to Panama from there. We would remain south of the hurricane belt through the summer of 2004 before heading up to Mexico and back to Florida in spring 2005. After that, maybe we'll head back to Portugal. February 15, 2003 in Boot Harbor, Marathon, FL The Winslow Life Raft Company gave us a nice discount on a four-person offshore life raft -- and best of all, didn't charge us for vacuum packing it to our precise size specifications. The result is an astonishingly tiny package that fits our boat perfectly and is light enough that Becky can handle it easily. If we ever need it, a single pull on its cord will have it in the water, fully inflated, in six seconds. Winslow makes highly rated life rafts and we are pleased to have one aboard Pioneer. Those of you asking what we do with our time while at anchor are obviously not sailboat owners. Dirt dwellers have a hard time believing how long it takes to do routine chores on a sailboat -- or how much servicing and upkeep is necessary in a salt air environment. Wind, sun and salt are murder on dodgers (windshields) and biminis (cockpit awnings). We have commissioned a canvas worker named Garth to replace Pioneer's dodger and bimini, and to craft complete cockpit enclosures in both clear plastic and screen. Someone asked how we take showers on the boat (probably hoping that we do!). The answer is simple and functional (thanks to Becky....a guy would never dream this up). Comprised of bungee cords and shower curtains, a temporary, outside shower arises daily at the back of our boat. We have hot and cold water faucets in the cockpit, so we shower right under the blue sky. For some reason, local dinghy traffic seems to increase during shower time. We haven't showered in our bathroom for months, and will only resume that activity when the weather turns cold, like down into the 50's or 60's. The other day we went to Key West. Just after sunset the beautiful schooner America passed by creating a great photo opp. Too bad visitors to Key West are treated rudely in general, despite the money they spend. We think Key West is overrated. It's a cultural void apparently trying, and failing, to be another New Orleans. The visitors' center is closed. The city issues $25 overtime parking tickets until MIDNIGHT. Many merchants seem pained to deal with visitors -- an attitude also exhibited in Marathon. There are sailing destinations with warm, gracious, and generous locals who are pleased to see visitors. We look forward to escaping Marathon and finding them. March 1, 2003 in the Florida Keys March 6, 2003.....leaving Boot Key, and the USA We'll continue to augment this site while in the Bahamas. The Gulf Stream should be flat in the morning. Bahamas, here we come! PREVIOUS LOG or |
||
s
We discovered that cheap beer is good for more than drinking! Two six packs traded to some Tortugas fishermen yielded some huge fish. Today we're hoping to trade for shrimp.
