Returning north March 31-April 1, 2021

 Wednesday, March 31, 2021. Day 115.

We had planned an offshore passage to save a couple of days. Due to the endless number of bridges on the ICW in the Miami area, the inside trip can take forever! Last night the weather forecast was good, so I put on my patch and we secured the dinghy, the paddle boards, and everything else on the boat. We got up early in the morning; I took a pill, and put on the wrist bands, and, at 7:27am, we ventured out into the ocean. Unfortunately it was not to be. Although the weather report had said the winds would cooperate and the ocean would be doable for me, it was not the case.

The chop was heavy. Magic Moments was pounding on the swells, water was spraying on the windows, the glass bottles and dishes were clanging. We knew that we would have to be very careful opening all the cabinets after this to avoid breakage.

It was too rough; it was not fun. We turned into Miami and entered the north channel, surrendering to the reality that we would not be going offshore.

It was beautiful in the channel, and my stomach was calming down; I removed the wristbands. When we were 85% through the channel, a Miami Dade police motor vessel with blue flashing lights approached us and via radio said the channel was closed and forced us to turn around and go out and re-enter the south channel. The officer said the channel is closed when there are two cruise ships in the channel. Please note that the channel is huge, the two cruise ships were docked, no one was moving, there was no signage or other indication of any restriction and we were essentially through the channel!

 This was extremely annoying because we had to turn around and go out the whole way, and reenter in the south channel; we lost a couple of hours and it threw off our timing for the bridges (and there are LOTS of bridges).

Traveling near so many bridges so close together, causes the radio traffic to get crazy. The radio sounds like a cacophony of messages: announcements from the coast guard, boaters, and marinas, requests for openings, responses by the tenders; it is endless, loud and also unclear sometimes who is addressing whom.

After passing 16 bridges that required openings, and a few we could motor under, we anchored in Boca Lake (approximately 4:15pm). It was tight and very crowded, with a big sandbar (obviously a rather shallow area). 

 We anchored one hour before low tide, with only 3.1 feet under the keel, and a nearby neighbor trawler who complained that we were too close. I thought he had a point. Captain Roland felt that we were safe. Roland is attentive, careful and knowledgeable, and, in this case, he was correct. At 5:40pm, after watching, observing and calculating, tide, wind, and current, Captain Roland confirmed that he was satisfied with the anchorage.

As I’m sure I mentioned previously, one of the fun things to do while cruising the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW), especially in this area, is observing the homes from mega mansions to old style Florida; some classic with round columns, some with square columns, tiles, arches, modern, mediterranean, and eclectic.

In addition to enjoying the view and the landscape and the passing homes, checking boat names is also a kick. Two favorite boat names of today: “Drifting Coconuts“ and “Yachta Yachta”.

Another note of the day: at 8:am we passed our 1900 mile mark on our adventure, and, more importantly, neither of us have thrown the other overboard, nor jumped ship!

Thursday, April 1, 2021. Day 116. April Fools’ Day.

I am not sleeping through the night; awakening from time to time; not sleeping well does not make me happy!

We left early, and went under the first bridge of the day, at approximately 7:20am, and then the Spanish River Bridge a little before 8am. Minutes later, with a phone call alert, we passed Ann and Richie on their balcony in Highland Beach. It was great to see them (seriously social distanced...with binoculars!), and to wave and talk on the phone; Richie took a great video of Magic Moments as we cruise by and also some stills (one of which was with me on the bow in full Devigi.....the only way to cruise no matter the weather!). Very cool!

At the 15th Ave. Bridge in Boynton Beach we had to wait way too long. The bridge tender (I grade her very low on my list of bridge tenders), opened at an odd time and thereby messed up our ability to get through the bridge that was a mile away for its regular schedule, so we lost another 30 minutes.

We were trying to make the next bridge in spite of the hold up on the 15th Ave. Bridge by my least favorite bridge tender, and, as we were cruising at a rapid speed for us, Enosis, the sailboat behind us (way too far behind us), radioed the bridge tender for the Ocean Avenue Bridge and asked that he hold the bridge for him when he opened for Magic Moments. The result was that the bridge tender didn’t open for us at the normal opening time, he waited for Enosis to arrive 20 minutes later, and, then made us wait until the next scheduled opening. We lost another 40 minutes. Circling around, wasting time and fuel and increasing the risk of collisions; not my happy place. Enosis called us on the radio later and apologized for his request to the bridge tender recognizing that he held us all up unnecessarily. Kind and generous Captain Roland blamed the bridge tender, forgiving Enosis.

I steered on and off passing the beautiful homes. The passage was lovely, we had sun, a gentle breeze, and gorgeous homes to see as we steered from the flybridge.

At Boynton Inlet, the current was rough and the whirlpools resulting from the ocean intersecting with the ICW, made steering tough so the captain took over. When we went under the Lantana Bridge on the 10:30am opening, the bridge tender radioed to Captain Roland that he was cruising too fast through the bridge. Our cruising speed is really slow, and that was a surprise.

Several bridges later we approached 707 Bridge which opens on request. The tender opened the bridge only partway, just enough for us to get under, but shorter than full opening. This was amazingly unusual. Every tender tells every captain, to not enter the wooden fenders until the bridge is fully open, and this one only opened part way. The reason: there was a lot of heavy road traffic, Magic Moments is not that tall (25 feet), so we could get by with a partial opening and the time to hold up the traffic (reduced time to open and close) was minimized. We were quite surprised and wondered if that was verboten in the bridge tender manual.

Most of our travel was from the flybridge until the early afternoon when the wind picked up dramatically and suddenly, at 3:40pm, the rain started.

At approximately 5pm, we anchored; it took a second try to get the anchor to grip (not all bottoms are created equal). 20 bridges (15 on request), the timing and the stress, today was a long one. We plan to stay two nights at Peck Lake; we need some R and R!

Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink March 23-24, 2021

 Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Day 107.

So, after our absolutely wonderful paddle board ride, when we returned to the boat, and heard the water pump running, and realized that our hot water heater was leaking all of the fresh water, and there was no turn off valve, our only choice was to turn off the fresh water on the boat.

This was not a happy day. Here we were in the Upper Keys, no marina and no water. This was a major problem; this was serious; and this was not fun!

Captain Roland went to work immediately: calling, texting, and emailing, to find a replacement water heater, identical to our current, 14 year old unit to enhance the chances that the install would be relatively simple and would work on Magic Moments, and a repair person to install it, all near Aventura, where we hoped the marina where we had reservations would allow the repair, and let us arrive a few days early. This was a major undertaking and a logistical nightmare.

After many calls and emails, he located the unit we needed, not too far from Fort Lauderdale, a repair person, not too far from Fort Lauderdale, and confirmed that the marina in Aventura (not too far from Fort Lauderdale), would allow the work and allow us to arrive Wednesday. It was a minor miracle that he got all of this together in a couple of hours and got everybody to agree to a Thursday install. Of course this was going to be extraordinarily costly but at that point Time was of the Essence and reliability, and skill were the key points. Not the time to shop for a bargain, and.....not DIY.

Fortunately, I had to leave the entire mess in Roland's hands (he really works better alone in a situation like this), and normally, I have a few thoughts and opinions, but we lucked out; I had my own crisis starting a 3pm. I had an enormously stressful and time sensitive issue to handle involving one of my angel funds. Because I was busy with those issues, I had no time nor bandwidth to “contribute” to the water heater situation solution, and Captain Roland was free to make his miracle work.

OK; we had the miracle, we had a plan, so now we had to execute. We turned on the freshwater pump for short periods of time to fill up a bucket for washing some dishes, and for collecting some drinking water, and some water for us to wash (no showers), and to flush the head. The bilge pump took care of the water leaking out of the heating tank as we filled the containers.

We went to bed early, trying not to stress.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Day 108.

We were up at 6:30am, with the sun. Neither of us slept well; I was up from 1am to 2am or longer and tossed and turned and stressed about the water and no water. We brought up the dinghy (only the fourth or fifth time and we were actually getting better). We tried not to use too many dishes or utensils. It was a beautiful day and we pulled up the anchor and started for Aventura. It was a sunny, calm, beautiful day (perfect for the beach- too bad, we were on a mission). The views approaching Miami, the city and “the Beach”, as the natives say, were very cool.

 I love, love, love, Miami Beach architecture and the views were fabulous. At 11:05am, we arrived at the Venetian Causeway Bridge which opens on the half hour so we had to idle for 25 minutes; ugh!

Hopefully, at five knots, we would make all the bridges without waiting. We snacked on kind bars to avoid dishes and utensils, and we drank water, sparingly.

The next couple of bridges went well and we were making good time. The West 79th St., Bridge tender, held the Bridge open for two extra minutes so that we could get by. We were very grateful.

As we approach the Broad Causeway Bridge, connecting Miami to Bay Harbor Islands, it was old home week for me. I had lived there as as snowbird for eight years and it was great to see the island and the building from the bay. I got a real kick out of going by. I called Allen, who has lived in the building for decades, and he came out on his balcony and waved as we passed. I hadn’t seen him for many years and he said that this is the first time he knew anybody going by on a boat. It was a kick for him too.

We passed Haulover Cut, and the Haulover sandbar, where dozens of boats were anchored on the sandbar and families were playing in the water. I had lived there for 8 years and never saw or knew about this area. It was astounding to see folks spending the day in waist high water as if it were a beach.

As we passed Sunny Isles and approached Aventura, we went down a narrow canal into Lake Maule, where we idled to set up the docking lines, and the fenders, vertical on the port, and horizontal on starboard. It was a narrow entry to a narrow slip, and Captain Roland was attempting his first stern in docking. He wanted to make it as easy as possible for the repair people to be able to get the water heater aboard, and felt that the stern at the dock was mandatory.

It was not an easy docking; it took him three tries (this is not really unusual), to line up the boat for his first stern docking.

My job was to watch the sides and make sure that he was coming in straight and guide him if he needed to go more to port or more to starboard. Unfortunately, I was so distracted by the port and starboard issue, that I failed to pay as much attention to the swim platform which is a foot or so longer than our stern and 3 feet below the rail, and not easily visible when on the deck. As a result we had a bit more forceful “contact”, shall we say, with the pilings, than we should have had. I don’t think it did permanent damage but it did make us look like we didn’t know what we were doing, and will require repair. Fortunately for the Captain, the dockhands were there and saw that it was I who didn’t know what she was doing, and that it wasn’t the Captain's fault. The dockhand also pushed the boat away as much as possible to soften the “contact” and thereby, to minimize the damage.

We got into the slip, notwithstanding, although tying up was a little bit of a challenge. One of the dockhands (masked), with permission, boarded the boat and went to the bow and helped the Captain tie the lines to the pilings. Again, this was our first (and maybe our last), stern in docking, and I think, considering the circumstances, Captain Roland did a fabulous job.

In the slip we connected to the marina's water. Captain Roland was able to wash off the boat, and I collected the laundry to go to the boaters' lounge where I was told there was a beautiful, free laundromat, and a wonderful bathroom and shower. After 36 hours sans water, I was delighted to hear and hoped it was true.

They were right, instead of doing 4-6 loads of laundry, I did only two or three; the machines were huge. There was one minor problem: the washers and dryers were stacked and the dryer was so high that, not only could I not reach the buttons, I could not even see them! Fortunately, there were several young crew members in the boaters' lounge and one of them gave me a hand.

I had a lovely shower and washed my hair, and was really pleased that this problem occurred over two weeks after our second vaccine, so that using the boaters' lounge (even masked), did not feel like a major risk.

After my shower, I went for a walk and checked out the restaurant near our slip, and made a reservation for the first available time for an outside table, on the terrace at the Island Grille. We had a great dinner and even had leftovers to take back to the boat.

It was a great evening. We were safe, we had the boaters' lounge, water, washers and dryers, a shower, and a bathroom. The only disappointment to the evening was the email from the repair people that they would not be there on Thursday (tomorrow), but they would come on Friday. Captain Roland was not happy with this. He was concerned that they might cancel again; however, he had a back up plan, already.

Finally, The Keys. March 14-15, 2021

 Sunday March 14, 2021 Day 98.

The offshore passage began peacefully. We entered the ocean at 9pm. It was dark, there was no moonlight, the moon was just a sliver, but lights from the shore (just 3 miles away) were visible.

Roland was on watch until 1:30am. I was on watch from 1:30am to 4:30am. I had to awaken Captain Roland at approximately 3:30am, to change the route, as there was a freighter anchored a little too close to our planned route. Traveling off shore at night is done on auto pilot, and the Captain had to adjust the route to avoid coming too close to the anchored freighter, which was about an hour away. Captain Roland adjusted the auto pilot and went back to sleep. I went back to my watch and my audio book.

I passed the time on watch at night by listening to audio books (as suggested by my sailor sister, Gail), scanning the dark, checking the instruments, and pondering lots of random thoughts.

At 4:30am, I awaken the Captain for his two hour shift. I slept till 6:30am, and then was on watch for an hour while the captain slept.

Dawn over the ocean was stunning: the sun was gleaming through the clouds when I got up at 8:30am. We were seven minutes from entering Miami Harbor. Quite a sight: Dodge Island, with huge cargo ships and huge boat fenders. Everything was immense and I felt like a Lilliputian.

 The water was clear blue, the clouds, fluffy white, the sun, gleaming, and the skyline of Miami with its high-rise buildings, many colorful, was fascinating.

As we passed under the William M. Powell Bridge, we were officially entering the Keys. Yay! Finally! As we cruised south, we watched a Coast Guard training exercise on a small boat and a hovering helicopter, practicing lifting people for rescue. Suddenly, our radio crackled with a stern warning to stay further away from the training boat; the Coast Guard needed more space, which of course, we immediately gave them.

We anchored for a couple of hours to rest and to have something to eat. And then, at 12:30pm, we left for a 2 1/2 hour cruise to Elliot Key, where we arrived at 3pm. I steered most of the way from the flybridge. (open cockpit at the top of the boat). It was beautiful and sunny and comfortable. 

 The aqua colored water was stunning, and the views of Miami, Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, and Homestead were astounding. We had a lovely celebratory dinner in honor of our successful overnight ocean passage.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Day 100. (One Hundred!).

The wind picked up dramatically in the morning when we awakened and we were rocking and rolling all over the place. We were so happy that we had seized on the small weather window for the ocean passage, as this wind would have made it impossible for me.

Unfortunately, the heavy wind meant that there would be no dinghy and no SUP (yet again!). Hopefully, when we got further south to Key Largo, our anchorage would be more sheltered and we would be able to lower the dinghy that is stored at the top of the boat, and would be able to use the paddle boards. Also, in Key Largo, we were hoping to meet up with Brian, Dina's friend, who had left from Delaware on the ICW, in October, on the sailboat that he had been working on for two years.

Magic Moments was covered with salt from the ocean passage and because we were at anchor, it was impossible for us to wash it off. We needed to save our freshwater for drinking, food preparation, showers and washing dishes, until we secured a slip at a marina and had access to additional fresh water. So far, we had not been successful at finding any available slips in the Keys, nor in Miami. Luckily, it rained that night and a lot of the salt was washed off.

Our anchorage at Elliot Key protected us pretty much from the serious wind, but it was not looking like there would be calm days ahead. At 11:50am, we left the Elliott Key anchorage, cruising towards Key Largo hoping that due to the smaller fetch, things would not be so rocky. We did try steering from the flybridge but after a while it got way too windy.

There were some very narrow channel areas on this passage and although the visual was water everywhere, the charts made it clear that there was only a very narrow channel in which we could motor. It was weird to keep the boat in a narrow path when all we could see was water, and if we strayed from the channel, we risked running aground. At about 3:15pm, we reached Key Largo and looked for a good place to anchor, one with a sandy bottom, and close to shore for greater protection from the wind.

As we entered the area to anchor, we saw Brian's and Elizabeth's sailboat, “Grateful,” but the dinghy was gone so we knew that they were ashore. We texted them to let them know we had arrived and we could arrange a rendezvous. It felt amazing that we were able to connect.

Our anchorage was beautiful and we had ended up right in front of the Marriott Resort where, a number of years ago, with my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, we were scuba certified. We had taken weeks of classes in a YMCA in Montgomery County but declined the dive part of the test in November in a quarry. 

Instead, we all flew to Miami and drove to Key Largo for the test during my granddaughter's winter school break. It took no convincing at all for me to support that alternative. We stayed at the Marriott Resort for almost a week; it was great. Now facing the Resort from Magic Moments, it felt like old home week!

We sincerely hoped that the wind dies down so that tomorrow we could lower the dinghy, visit Brian and Elizabeth, and go ashore......and, maybe even use the paddle boards!