Wait, what?

Wait, what?

Apparently Erica is more of a color commentator, so I'll give the play by play.  After leaving Key Largo, we sailed south to Islamorada.  As we were coming in, we noticed that the water was a really unusual color- one we hadn't really seen before.  You can see it in this picture, the greyish-blue water closest to the boat:

The shallows

As you might have already figured out, the water looks like that because there is sand near the surface, which is to say that it was really shallow, and we started bumping along the bottom.  What made it especially frustrating is that we were right in the middle of the channel (where it is supposed to be at least 6 feet deep), and outside the channel you could actually see the sand above the water, so there was no dodging the shoal that way.  We just slowed down and bumped along, aimed for the slightly darker patches, and eventually made it in.

After a pleasant night and morning walking around Islamorada, we looked at the chart and realized that we are more than a thousand miles from Maryland, and we should probably start heading for home.  So we turned around and started cruising back towards Miami.  We had to stop for a while because a storm was moving through:

Storm's a'comin

And a'goin

When we arrived at our anchorage for the night in Buttonwood Sound, as I opened up the engine to shut it down for the night, the alternator fell out (no big deal).  At some point the tensioner bracket, which holds the top of the alternator in place, had sheared and left the alternator flapping in the breeze.  As far as engine problems go, this was not so bad because it was a structural part so it seemed like it would be easy to replace.  We jury-rigged it with some pieces of metal and duct tape, and managed to motor back to Key Largo, where there is easy shore access and some stores nearby.  Calling West Marine and other marine stores proved to be useless, because their only approach is to find out what kind of engine you have and order the manufacturer's part.  Problem is, our engine is a brand that is made in Denmark, and this part most likely wasn't original to begin with, so paying $80 for a part that won't arrive for a week and probably won't fit didn't seem to be worth it.  Instead, we walked a long 2 1/2 miles down to the auto parts store, where they were helpful over the phone and told us that they had a universal marine alternator bracket.  It turned out to be tantalizingly close- the right size, but a mirror image of what we needed.  That's when the helpful redneck behind the counter pulled out a car alternator bracket that looked just like what we had, except too long and chrome plated.  He told us that since his boss was gone he could use the drill press, so we could put new mounting holes in it as long as we bought a new drill bit.  We hoofed it back to the boat to measure the length exactly, then back again to the store the next morning.  We got to go in the back of the store, much to the concern of all the other employees, and we got our new bracket made up.  Back to the boat one more time, and it fit pretty well.  At some point we should replace it with a proper marine part, but this one only cost about $20, and it will certainly last for a good long while.  You can see it here; it's the one that is shiny and holding up the spinning alternator: 

That's a Vetus

Back in business, we kept pressing North.  Just before we left Key Largo, we got a visit from Don and Mango, who lived on the neighboring boat.  Don apparently has a tie-dye business (if that's a real thing?) because he gave us tie-dye t-shirts with his business card tucked inside.  Mango is a parrot, who climbed onboard our boat and started biting everything he saw.  It was a pretty weird time, but a nice gesture.  And we will definitely be wearing our sweet t-shirts, once we wash them to be sure they aren't laced with LSD.


We sailed from Key Largo back to Elliot Key, which was beautiful and slightly crowded.  We had one funny experience on the way- it was very calm in the morning, but the wind picked up in the afternoon so we put up the sails.  When we shut down the motor, it kept vibrating, as though it was still on.  I had heard of a "runaway engine", where enough oil leaks that even when you turn it off the engine keeps running on the leaked oil, so I was worried that maybe it was that.  But, it wasn't actually turning over, it was just vibrating.  Then, I realized what it was and confirmed it by looking under the cockpit.  It was the propeller spinning because we were sailing so fast (fast enough, anyway).  It turns out that you may or may not want to let the prop spin that way while sailing, but at least there isn't anything wrong with the engine.  And our boat sails pretty fast.  We were cruising at around 5 knots, and it felt smooth and easy.  Yesterday we broke out the genoa, so next time we get a good breeze we will really see how she does. 

The sunset in Elliot Key looked like this:

Oh yeah

Then on Sunday, we sailed into Hell.  We were coming up to Key Biscayne, just south of Miami, and we had not properly considered that it was the weekend.  There were so many boats and giant wakes that eventually we just had to stop and anchor, because even motoring through the traffic was unbearable.  We were just north of the gigantic floating boat party, which kept going until about 9:55 at night, when the police boat showed up and made the last few stragglers leave.  After that, things were peaceful and nice.  And despite the party, the sunset looked like this:

Not the same night

Today we motored (mostly) up through Miami.  Here's a drawbridge:

Going up

There is a lot of this between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and apparently even more as you keep going north in Florida.  The trick is that all the bridges have restricted opening schedules, so they only open on the hour and half hour, or on the quarter hours.  Somehow we are always out of phase with the bridges (specifically, because we don't go very fast), so we have to wait.  On the plus side, as Erica already noted, the drawbridge tenders call you "Captain" on the radio, which is pretty sweet. 

Yo no soy marinero

We made it today to an anchorage by Florida International University, where we had to do a complicated routine to get ashore.  There are restrictions on where you can land the dinghy, so I dinghied Erica in, went back to the boat, and swam in.  The people sitting on the beach looked pretty suspicious when I came lurching out of the water, so we hightailed it away as fast as possible.  Now we are back at Scott and Jenette's for one last night of feasting and showers before we start in earnest on the long trek north. 

Wait, what?