Finally, The Keys. March 17-23, 2021

 Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Day 101

Elizabeth and Brian dinghied over to Magic Moments for a masked, socially distanced, opened doors, visit and tour of the boat. It was great fun to connect in person after texting since the Fall. Roland and Brian discussed all kinds of things about boating in general, and about Grateful, Magic Moments, and Roland's sailboat, Kodacrome. Elizabeth and I just enjoyed the social contact. Hopefully there will be less wind tomorrow and we will be able to lower our dinghy and visit Grateful.

Although it was a beautiful, sunny day, the winds were 10-16 knots, and we were still learning how to lower the dinghy. The water was cool and the winds a bit much, so no swimming, no dinghy rides, no paddle boarding, and no snorkeling. I took the opportunity to handle a lot of my paperwork and obligations that were piling up.

Thursday, March 18, 2021. Day 102.

The wind was a lot less when we got up that morning ( Yay!), so we lowered the dinghy (double Yay!). It took us only 10 to 15 minutes (we were getting better - triple Yay!). It was only the fourth time and Magnolia had told us that it would take about 10 times to get to be an expert. We arranged a noon visit with Brian and Elizabeth on, and took our dinghy over to Grateful for a quick tour to see all the work that Brian had done for the past two years to get Grateful ready for this adventure. Grateful was really beautiful; he had done an amazing job!

We then dinghied to the Marriott Resort on Key Largo. I had asked permission to use their dinghy dock to see the Resort and have lunch. Brian followed us into the dock (it was a little tricky). We asked Brian to wait until we were half way there before he started over as our electric motor was so unbelievably slow (next to our dinghy, Brian's looked like a jet ski!). 

 We had a great celebratory lunch at Guss's Grille in honor of our two week weeks past our second vaccine (hopefully pretty safe now), and in celebration of Brian‘s birthday in a couple of days. We ate and we drank and even had leftovers to take home. It was a wonderful lunch and celebration.

After lunch we went for a walk on Key Largo hoping to visit the park but it was a little too far and a little too hot. Elisabeth and Brian stopped at the health food store for a cold drink and to relax and we went to West Marine to pick up a few things that we needed (on a boat you always need something). On our dinghy ride back to the boat, we stopped by Bluejay from Annapolis Maryland, a sailboat anchored nearby. He had an electric motor and we had hoped he had some words of wisdom as we were still struggling with our electric motor. He was in a hurry to leave; we wished him calm waters and good winds.

Friday, March 19, 2021. Day 103.

After a vigorous morning workout on the back deck and navy shower, at 1:30pm, we left the anchorage in front of the Marriott Key Largo, wishing Brian and Elizabeth good luck. A front was coming through and Captain Roland wanted to move to the north west corner of Blackwater Sound, approximately 3 miles away, which had a new view and better protection from the changing wind direction. In addition, there were no jet skiers zipping all over the place creating wakes and rocking the boat. Bonus: it was quiet, too.

It was it was still too windy for the paddle boards, so we went for a brief dinghy ride. As we approached the mangroves, four or more dolphins began to follow us in the dinghy; they love to play. We were so close to them in the water; very cool! The dinghy was holding air; Roland's valve replacement and repair around the valve was successful. The electric engine is small, light and quiet, and no gas is required, just plug in the battery to charge it. But, the range is limited and the speed, extremely slow. We hope to use the electric engine the rest of this year but may consider a gas engine for the Bahamas, next winter.

Saturday, March 20, 2021. First day of Spring. Day 104.

Last night was windy, about 20 knots, and the boat was rocking and rolling at anchor. We decided to move to Thursday Cove, which was east of last night's anchorage. We were still unable to find a slip in a marina in any of the upper Keys. We did find one that would work for Brian, (Grateful is narrower than Magic Moments), which he arranged for a couple of days.

Really windy (again), so no paddle boarding (again). We went for a brief dinghy ride. Although we were skirting the mangroves, we didn’t see a lot of birds nor fish. The ride suddenly turned out to be way BRIEFER than we had intended. There was a problem with the motor. Really??!! It suddenly slowed down to a half knot. It was touch and go as to whether we would make it back to the boat, and rowing is not our forte! Frustration with this finicky motor was getting out of hand!

We had been “on the hook” for 8 days, and with the dinghy motor not working, we had a problem; we needed a marina. We were really frustrated with the motor. We had invested too much time and money for it not to be working. I left a detailed message on the phone for the electric motor repair shop (they are closed on the weekends), and then and we went about the job of finding a replacement motor. The wind was unceasing and was clocking around in different directions. Almost every day we moved to a different anchorage to maximize the protection from the wind. We had hoped to find a beach so we could clean the dinghy and a place protected from the wind so we could use the paddle boards. It was not happening. The Keys were not doing anything for us!

After many calls and emails, we got a few days in a marina in Aventura (north of Miami Beach), in the next week, and ordered a gas motor from West Marine in Aventura. We were so done with fighting with the electric motor.

We moved to an anchorage in Little Card Sound.

Sunday, March 21, 2021. Day 105 to Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Day 107.

We again moved our anchorage; this time to Arsenicker Keys. The derivation of the name was quite interesting. It came from the Bahamian nickname for the great blue heron “marsh sneaker”. Finally, we had an opportunity to use the paddle boards and we paddled around Arsenicker Keys. It was great fun, very peaceful, the water was clear; the views terrific. Finally! It was a beautiful paddle and both our boards worked out very well. We enjoyed the quiet the peace and the beauty.

At 1:17pm, we anchored after returning to a previous anchorage. We turned off the motor and heard the water pump going, Captain Roland checked everything and the results were not good. Apparently our hot water heater was leaking, and, there was no shut off valve. Talk about not good!

We had no choice but to shut off the freshwater pump. Now we had no water to drink, no water to wash the dishes nor to shower, and no water to prepare food. And here we were in the Keys with no marina slip available. Our visit to the Keys did not turn out to be the joy we had anticipated. And we had one really serious problem!