We left Key Largo headed for Marathon Florida which is on Vaca Key about a 30 mile jaunt. Our original plans were to go to Marathon for provisions etc.., spend the night and head down to Key West where we intended to see the sights and relax for a couple of days. Unfortunately these plans changed because of a hurricane brewing near Cuba.
Paloma was a tropical storm that briefly became a hurricane and then regressed into a tropical storm after crossing Cuba on it’s way north east. It was supposed to miss Key West by over a hundred miles and it did but there was a chance of it veering north and hitting the keys in a few days so we decided to cross over to the Gulf Coast at Marathon and run north as fast as we could like scared, or as I like to say cautious little children.
We stayed at a funky little marina in Marathon, we couldn’t get into the city mooring area because of the overhead power lines. As it was, the marina worked out well. They had showers, a small store, fuel, a restaurant and a bar; we utilized all of them.
We only set foot on 2 of the many Keys but there was a consistent theme on these two, laid back. There was kind of a hippy, Bohemian culture that ran from the old to the young. Dreadlocks and beards were common on both men and women, more so the beards on men but still….
The boat next to us was being painted by some old grey haired bearded guy who was more than happy to give us advice on products and techniques for applying non-skid to our decks. He told us where to get the glass beads used in pavement striping saying we should use it instead of silica sand because it sparkled when the paint wore off whereas silica sand made the deck look dirty. He also said the glass beads were much cheaper than any typical marine store non-skid additives.
For those of you that don’t know what non-skid is, it is a form of texture used on a boat deck where you would typically walk. This is not so important when you’re sitting at a dock but as soon as the deck gets wet and you are healing (tipping) any smooth surface becomes like ice.
That afternoon we took the dinghy up to West Marine (kind of an Ace Hardware for boaters and priced accordingly) to pick up some pieces and parts and line we needed. On the way we realized that we were almost out of gas for the Johnson so we went as slow as possible to conserve. When we got back to the boat we had the gas tank tilted so the fuel pickup was at the very bottom and we had about a tablespoon of gas left.
Later I took a cab to Lowe’s to get some hardware, paint stuff and a 2nd huge pipe wrench to use to tighten the stuffing box. Some of you might ask why I would need a pipe wrench for the stuffing box and most of you will ask, “What is a stuffing box?”. A stuffing box is fitting where the propeller shaft exit’s the boat that keeps water from coming into the boat. It consists of a threaded flange with a cup shaped nut that has a hole in it to let the shaft go thru and a lock nut that tightens against the cup shaped shaft to keep it from spinning loose. There is some waxed thread that goes around the shaft and is compressed onto the threaded flange by the cup shaped nut that when tightened properly acts as a seal to prevent the water from rushing in. Ideally it should leak approximately 3 drops of water per minute (or 180 drops per hour) thru the shaft to keep this waxed rope lubricated enough so that it does not overheat while motoring.
Our stuffing box was never going to overheat, we were leaking at about 3 gallons per hour and the sound of dripping which was clearly audible while lying in bed combined with the bilge pump turning on repeatedly was getting on our nerves.
With 2 big pipe wrenches John and I struggled to get the wrenches on the two 3” nuts thru the 8” wide opening which was ½ under our dresser and rotate them opposite directions to break the lock nut free. 20 minutes later we quit. We had done nothing but bang our knuckles while contorting around each other looking like we were playing twister and the lock nut wouldn’t budge. We were pushing so hard that the flange was flexing in the hull and were genuinely concerned that we might break it resulting in a trip to the boat yard to have the boat pulled out so we could pull the prop shaft and replace the flange.
This wouldn’t be all bad though, the replacement stuffing box would have a new lock nut.
We ate dinner at the restaurant, had a couple of beers listening to the live music and relaxed.
The next morning we got up, showered, filled up our diesel tanks and filled the gas tank for the outboard.
With this done we shoved off and headed out of the harbor towards the bridge that runs the length of the Keys to Key West. We had to go under the bridge and then straight north about 40 miles. The bridge was reported to have a clearance of 65 feet while our mast is 64 feet tall. Add antennas and wind instruments to the top of the mast and we should be at about 66 feet from the water.
To get some additional clearance we tied a loop on the end of the boom that John stood on and swung the boom straight out, Julie stood on the side of the boat holding the shrouds and leaning out to tip the boat as much as we could. We motored under the bridge as slowly as possible and cleared it by a foot or so.
65 foot tall bridge
What are you laughing at???
The wind was directly on our nose and sailing was not an option. The engine was stuttering again.
After a worrisome day of motoring, we motored into Ponce de Leone Bay dodging shallows with the Garmin chart plotter and sonar (depth sounder/fish finder). Approaching land we’re peering forward to see where we were (anyone notice that I used were, where and we’re properly in the same sentence???) going to penetrate the dark mass of mangroves and underbrush to find the channel that was shown at 8’ depth.
While still out in the Gulf we followed the Garmin/Game Boy thru a series of channels that reminded me of the paper mazes you find on the back of Denny’s placemats that kids try to conquer while their parents try to have a civil discussion, and it never failed us. It showed .2 feet ( ~ 3 inches ) below the keel so I decided to check the depth with a stainless steel rod that we had. And figured that the water was about 9 feet deep. The keel is 7 feet deep and the depth sounder is supposed to be calibrated to show 0 feet when the water is 8 feet deep or 1 foot below the keel, fortunately there is 1 foot error on the safe side.
Ponce de Leone Bay is located in the Everglades National Park which based on memory starts near Miami and covers a half a billion square miles of Florida extending to the west 2 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. inland
We chased dozens and dozens of white Egrets and a handful of Herons down the channel as we motored. We have seen these species before and they never run before, apparently these birds don’t often see people or boats.
After some investigation we decided to anchor off to the side of the main channel where 5 rivers joined in to flow to and from the sea. The charts showed 6-7 feet depth but we we’re sitting in 9 foot plus water with our big anchor and it’s recently added 3/8” chain holding us in place.
John and I dropped the dinghy off the davits and got Ziggy loaded up for his landfall that he so looks forward to after each of these trips. We looked around the mangroves for a suitable place to pull ashore and saw a small area that was not completely overgrown with the knee like roots of the mangrove trees.
Pulling ashore we realized the bank was a soft clay with crawfish holes every 8 inches. Ziggy jumped ashore and tried to walk into the “woods” which had a floor of broken branches and roots about 1 foot above the ground with weeds and other small plants and shoots everywhere. Ziggy had a very hard time walking around but finally found a place where he was stable enough to do his thing.
By the time this was all done we were being swarmed by no-see-ums which are tiny flying mites found near beaches and marshes throughout the south. These little creatures are almost invisible but bite like they have piranha teeth. We sped back to the boat and got below as soon as possible.
A little later the wind picked up and scared some of them away but it was still tough to stay outside for more than a few minutes to see the sunset and take some pictures.
Being in the middle of a National Park was a bit odd as we had no cell service or internet on any of our wireless cards but we still had XM which was part of our Garmin plotter weather service.
We snacked on smoked gouda, apple slices and crackers and later had some awesome homemade chili for dinner. We sat around talking, played cards with real cards instead of with a computer. I played a game of solitaire and wondered if I was violating some copyright law that Microsoft had. Good night don‘t let the bed bugs bite :) .
Birds in the Mangroves Ponce de Leon Bay
Sunset in the mangrove swamp Everglades National Forest
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