Finally to Tavernier

The last time we were in Tavernier and Key Largo we did some shopping at a marine supply store that was going out of business...to see if we could find some deals. We did! BUT, the biggest deal of all was seeing a business card thumb tacked to a cork board that trumpeted "Drama Free Deliveries". Lara and I nearly knocked each other down trying to get that card off the board and into our pockets. After we returned to Albuquerque, we called the number on the card and met an incredible young man who is likely to remain a friend for a very long time. His name is Curt Johnson, who lives near the Channel Five bridge in the Keys, south of Tavernier, and whose principal business is rigging and tuning sailboats. He also delivers sailboats for their owners, including several trans-Atlantic deliveries, many throughout the Caribbean and up and down the east coast of the US. His main avocation seems to be racing all kinds of sailboats and he finished a 500 mile catamaran race up the east coast of Florida to South Carolina a week before we were to head to Florida again to try to get Eye Quit from Marco Island to Tavernier. Fortunately for us, he had some spare time and agreed to help us sail our tiny yacht on the final leg of her journey to her eventual home. Unfortunately, Bradley could not be with us on this leg of our journey. He had things to attend to in Terre Haute, IN and some needed car repairs were not going to get done in time for him to join us.

Lara asked me to tell her what I knew about Curt and I told her that all I knew was that he was incredibly thorough in questioning me about our boat, her condition, the safety and navigation equipment aboard and all manner of other things. He met us at the Miami airport at the Hertz counter on the afternoon of May 27, 2009 and we grabbed our rental car and headed for Marco Island. We drove through an incredible thunderstorm as we crossed Alligator Alley and that should have tipped us off to what we were to face on our short 120 mile journey to Tavernier. After arriving in Marco Island and chowing down on some incredible raw oysters at our favorite sports bar a couple of blocks from the Marina, we got down to business and Curt checked everything, including the oil and the sails. The repair folks at the Marco River Marina had done a terrific job repairing the forward end of the main boom and we hoisted the sails to check them out and then got them lashed down and ready for the next day's departure for the Keys. I think that Curt was a little concerned with the condition of some of the 32 year old equipment on the boat, but safety was his and our main concern.

The following morning we took care of last minute items on the boat, did some grocery shopping, turned in the rental car and readied the boat for departure. We had stashed a bottle of champagne aboard with which to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary the following day. Returning to the marina, we topped off fuel, including the extra five gallon container that Bradley had strongly urged us to buy on our last trip to Florida, and headed out of the channel under power into the Gulf at about 11:00AM under sunny, partly cloudy skies. As it turned out, the engine was not switched off till we arrived at the dock at Curt's house in Islamorada. Time was an issue for all of us and the wind was in our face for the entire journey. We motorsailed with the mainsail up and the engine chugging along, the Yanmar diesel burning about 3/4 of a gallon of fuel per hour. Near sundown Curt suggested that we pour the five gallon container into the boat's fuel tank and get ready for the night.

Curt was to be the first to get some sleep and he went down below and fell into a deep sleep, rocked by the boat's easy motion. We had Curt's GPS aboard and our small Garmin GPS as well, and they seemed to agree on nearly every detail, giving us much peace of mind. As we motored along, Lara and I watched the thunderstorms building to our southwest and heading in our direction. As the wind picked up, the seas did also and the boat started to pound, soaking us in the cockpit and a bit down below through a couple of poorly fitting opening side ports (another thing to repair/replace). The first few of the thunderstorms missed us astern, but we saw one that we were not likely to be able to avoid. Waiting as long as we could to wake Curt, we could finally wait no longer and summoned him on deck for help. We got things squared away and prepared for the night. Just before I went below to sleep, we decided to lower the mainsail, but TOO LATE. As the sail was coming down in the dark, Lara spotted a large rip straight across the sail, right at the reef points. I'm guessing that the mainsail was the sail that came with the boat when she was delivered in 1977. OLD! The wind had picked up significantly and as the storm swept over us the pounding into larger waves continued to soak those in the cockpit.

I laid down in the starboard bunk and held on until I finally got to sleep. Waking about 1:ooAM, we had finally turned the corner from a southeast heading to an easterly heading across Florida Bay. By now the wind and storms had subsided a lot and Lara headed down below to get some sleep. Curt and I kept close eyes on both GPS monitors to miss the many lighted and unlighted obstacles headed to Islamorada. The Bay is very shallow, and as our boat draws 4'2", we needed to be cautious about where we went. One of the things that gave great peace of mind to Lara and me was that Curt has been across this route many times. I would not have liked to do it alone the first time at night. As we motored across Florida Bay, we were headed for the Yacht Channel markers, which we passed just before the sky turned light in the east. Lara came into the cockpit as we motored toward the canal where Curt lives and we kissed a happy anniversary, happy not to have tried to drink the champagne during the night.

The cabin was a bit of a mess from the pounding and wet from the leaking side ports and Lara and I wondered if buying this boat was a good idea or not. We motored to the dock at Curt's house and grabbed a couple of hours sleep, grumbling about the wetness down below. Curt came out of the house to wake us up and invite us in for showers and some breakfast that his wife had graciously cooked up before she had to head to work. To show you how serious Curt and his wife are about their love of sailboats, their two year old daughter is named Sailor. Lara and I were incredibly grateful for their hospitality. They were so nice to us and we hope to see them again when we get to Tavernier on a more regular basis. We were still about 20 miles south of our destination of Tavernier and knew that we still had 3 or more hours of motoring up the ICW on the west side of the Keys before we were done. The weather looked none too good, but Curt and I checked as many weather forcasts as we could on the internet and the prognosis was for scattered thunderstorms for the next few days, so we decided to get going and get it over with. As it turned out, the sun came out and the remainder of the trip was graced with bright blue skies and light winds. The marina where we tried to take on fuel was out of diesel and Curt's wife saved the day by coming over in her car to drive us to a gas station where I could fill our five gallon container. Once we were out of Curt's canal and into the ICW, Lara steered the boat the rest of the way to Tavernier. That woman can DRIVE a boat!!! She is going to be an incredible sailor!

We motored into the Community Harbor in Tavernier about 3:00 that afternoon and Bradley greeted us from his boat, just off our port side. We anchored about 50 yards west of him and set our anchor on a long rode. Bradley rowed over in his boat with an extra anchor and we set that as well. Those long rodes were to cause us some anxious moments a couple of nights later, when the wind shifted to northerly, moving us into some serious shallows were we went aground. The harbor is pretty shallow as it is, but on the south side of the harbor, near the mangroves, gets even shallower and when we were out for dinner on Sunday night, the wind switched, driving us hard aground and leaving us to wonder if we were going to have to get towed out into deeper water. After worrying about it all night (the wind shifted back southerly by about 11pm) with our tail into the wind, we awoke at about 7am to find that the boat had found her way back into deeper water and Eye Quit was riding quietly at anchor facing that southerly breeze. As we were to find later in the day, the Community Harbor (home of the Mangrove Marina) has virtually no tide to speak of. The rise and fall of the water in the harbor is determined almost exclusively by the wind. The folks who have their boats at the docks at the marina are eternally grateful for that fact.

We said goodbye to Curt, but knew that we were going to see him the following day as he had a job demonstrating sailboats in the harbor for a dealer nearby. We did see him and he gave Lara a nearly one hour sailing lesson in a 14' Catalina and she came back ALL enthused about sailing. I was concerned that she was going to want to buy the boat. She really wants a sailing dinghy and my guess is that we'll get one sometime soon.

We spent part of Sunday at West Marine in Key Largo getting heavier anchors and contemplating where and how to anchor in that harbor. Our plan was to get them set on Monday, but the problems with the anchors and depth of the water at the south side of the harbor that night caused us to be very unsure of what we were going to do that day. The deadline for us was that our flight back to Albuquerque was at 8:00AM on Tuesday morning and things were in a rush all day Monday, with our plans changing as the clock wound down. The idea that hurricane season was upon us and the fact that we didn't know how soon we would return had us very concerned. To make a long story short, I talked to Todd at the Mangrove Marina office and arranged for us to have a slip at the dock for the hurricane season. Todd is a very helpful fellow (another of the nice people we have met at marinas on our journey) and we breathed a sigh of relief as we motored over to the dock and tied up. Bradley's help with that part of the operation was invaluable.

We broke out new dock lines and doubled all lines and spring lines and as the sun went down Lara stowed things down below for heavy weather and I worked on deck to reduce windage and make sure that nothing would thrash about in heavy winds. Having done what we could to prepare for hurricane season, we left only a couple of minor things to do. Steve, the fellow who was across the dock from us on his Morgan 41 had many helpful suggestions and we are grateful for his advice. I am either going to have to return to Tavernier for a couple of days to finish up the minor preparations or con Bradley into doing them for us. Hopefully, he isn't reading this yet. Bradley drove us to the Miami airport Tuesday morning and we returned to Albuquerque to take care of our clients and business. Needless to say, as I sit here at the computer, I am checking the National Hurricane Center and NOAA websites on a daily basis. The Community Harbor is a delightfully protected hurricane hole, but nothing is going to survive a direct hit.