Tuesday tell-tales are going to be super fast and a little scatterbrained because a.) it’s after hours at the wifi room so I’m stuck sitting outside and b.) i have no battery left on my computer and can’t plug in because the room is closed. :(( Oopsie!
So, right now ^^this^^ is life. And we LOVE it!
Don’t get me wrong…we have definitely experienced our fair share of ups AND downs. Hello, missing dinghy anyone? 😉
But for the most part the “highs” far outweigh the low’s and we are certainly loving life. Oliver included (we have a fun little “oliver update” in the works).
As expected, normal, routine, everyday tasks take significantly more time to accomplish than one might think. We have been getting up at 9am every morning (I can almost hear the sounds of disgust coming from our “working” blog readers who are waking up significantly earlier than us, lol! If it makes you feel any better, we used to get up by 6am M-F).
But it’s 9am for us here in Boot Key Harbor because we certainly wouldn’t want to miss out on the daily Cruisers’ Net (channel 68 on the VHF) for those of you who know what I’m talking about. For those of you who don’t, every morning the folks here in the harbor put on a morning “talk/news show” for lack of a better description. They give tons of updates on things happening in the area, the weather, events, etc. etc. and then open up the channel for buy/sell/giveaway, requests for help, trivia, etc. We, of course, listen to the net each morning, which takes about 30 to 45 minutes, and have taken advantage of the vast audience of experienced sailors by putting out our own requests for help.
After “Cruisers Net” first thing in the morning, we take the Oliver to shore to go potty, throw out our trash, maybe hit the wifi room or take showers, and by the time we return to the boat it’s about 11 or 12. If we have to walk to West Marine or somewhere else, it could be even later. In other words, what used to take a whole 15 minutes now takes an hour or two. Pretty crazy, huh?!
We feel super duper slow in every single mundane task we accomplish.
But luckily yesterday, we got our crab pot issues pretty much sorted out. Yay!!! And and we will be installing our new wind vane thing-a-ma-jig tomorrow. So we should be just about ready to go for a Friday/Saturday crossing to Bimini. Fingers crossed.
We are hoping to leave with about 15 other boats here in Boot Key Harbor and head to Rodriguez Key on Friday and cross from there. We will still need to provision the boat a little more before we head out since we haven’t hit a grocery store or market since we left Naples. That’ll probably take an entire day at our slow speed of getting things done, lol.
Yikes, my battery is at 5% and dying fast, so time to wrap this up and go pour myself a sundowner…ya know, for awesome sunsets like these…
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Other, Sailing BlogTags: Bahamas, Boat Dog, Boat Dog Young Couple, Caribbean, Cruising, LahoWind, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Tuesday Tell-Tales, Young Couple
Video time! …My favorite! Even though we’re total amateurs when it comes to video-ing and producing this kind of stuff, I still totally love it. And especially love having the ability to “re-watch” our home movies over and over again.
This weekend, I finally got around to downloading all the GoPro footage we shot on our sail down from Naples to Marathon. After downloading and viewing over 80 short clips, I put together this fun little three and half minute video of our first “real” sail (which technically ended up as a motor-sail).
Minus the infamous crab pot issue (and the total lack of wind,) we really had such a great trip! It was a gorgeous two days and quite the relaxing motor sail all the way down to the Florida Keys, with our good friend Chris along for the trip!
Right now, we’re still hanging tight in Boot Key Harbor, here in Marathon, while we (hopefully) wrap up any necessary fixes for the crab potting hitting situation. It’s been hell to try and diagnose “exactly” what is wrong with our engine/transmission/prop/etc, but hope to have it figured out AND fixed in the next few days. Meanwhile, we’ve been loving life and adapting to living aboard. We’ve met SO many awesome people here in Boot Key Harbor…Jim & Bonnie from s/v Dana, Eric (E.B.) from Shorebird 2 of Stonington, Wendy and Mike from s/v Ohana, Tammy and Bruce from s/v Dos Libras, Rocco & Gator (the dog) from s/v Giddy Up, Sue & Larry from s/v Serengeti, and Frank & Karen from s/v Wanderlust. We’re pretty darn happy we didn’t rush it over to the Bahamas.
Hope you enjoy our first official LAHOWIND “cruising” video!
xo.
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Bahamas, Boat Dog, boot key harbor, Caribbean, Cruising, Florida Keys, LahoWind, marathon, Photos, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Video, Young Couple
One week down. Hopefully, many more to go!
It’s been an interesting week to say the least…lots of ups and downs…but I’m happy to report that we survived our first week as cruisers, and already have lots of fun stories (hitting a crab pot and then losing our dinghy) to tell for the rest of our lives.
We’ve really just been adjusting to our newfound “life aboard” for the past few days (Oliver included), while meeting lots of new friendly faces and trying to square away some final details/projects on the boat so we can make the crossing to the bahamas in the next week or so.
…Highlights of our week included multiple manatee sightings, pods of dolphin frolicking around the boat almost every day, the Keys Fisheries Market for their lobster mac-n-cheese, Dockside Cafe for drinks and live music, and authentic cuban food at a small cafe close to the marina.
Here’s a quick iPhone photo recap of our first week here in Marathon. (Unfortunately, I didn’t bust out the big camera since our sail down, but now that we’ve kind of got a flow/schedule down, I’m definitely ready to break it out.)
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Bahamas, boot key harbor, Caribbean, Cruising, LahoWind, marathon, Sailing Blog, Young Couple
First a crab pot. Now the dinghy.
Lost!!!
As in, “hey, let’s take the dog to shore….Ummmmm, Jereme WHERE THE “F” IS THE DINGHY?!?!
Pretty stellar record thus far, wouldn’t you agree? 😉
>>Only iPhone-tography for this post…I wasn’t really running to grab the big camera after realizing that our dinghy was no longer tied to the back of the boat like we left it a few hours ago…if you know what I mean? 😉
The good news is…we were lucky enough to recover the dinghy (full deets below). In the meantime, we’re still working on the necessary fixes for the crab pot situation. It’s looking like we might get a short haul (out) to check the running gear (prop, prop shaft, cutlass bearing, & rudder).
So, we’ve been using the dinghy davit lines to secure the dinghy behind the boat while still in the water (during the day).
But yesterday, it was starting to get pretty rough with high winds so we switched the dinghy being hooked up to the davits and instead cleated the painter line to the boat so the dinghy wouldn’t constantly bang against the boat.
Turns out, we didn’t check the pre existing knot attaching the painter line TO the dinghy, and it somehow came loose. :((((
The painter was still cleated on the boat while the dinghy & engine were long gone! The weird thing is we’ve been relying on that knot and have used that painter line to launch and stow the dinghy from the foredeck using winches — and it always held.
So what the heck do you do when you realize that your car has basically gone missing?
You freak out. Duh.
Oh wait, that’s just what I do. …a few tears were definitely involved. Lol.
No really, first things first, we called the marina to see if anyone had found/saved/returned it. (If you’re familiar with Boot Key Harbor, then you know that’s definitely a possibility — especially since our mooring isn’t too far from the end of the harbor and luckily the direction the wind was blowing).
The marina informed us that they had heard a report of a rouge dinghy and someone was possibly towing it in. Phew!!! That’s at least semi positive news.
We waited as patiently as possible while the marina staff went and checked for our dinghy at the dinghy docks. The whole time, I’m just thinking about how much our cruising budget is being blown from all these crazy issues. And now we might have to buy a new dinghy and engine? Not cool.
The marina finally called us back to say our dinghy WASN’T there! :(((
Oh no! Back to the drawing board. What now?
Jereme hopped on channel 68 on the VHF radio and was about to ask everyone in range if they had seen a loose dinghy. But just as we tuned in, there was someone talking about “our” missing dinghy!!!
Someone really had it!
Jer immediately chimed in that it was ours and the kind folks that saved it were nice enough to tow it back to our boat (they were only a few balls down from us). Phew!!!!!!!
Needless to say, we have retied that one knot and are being “extra” careful tying her up.
After telling our story to several other cruisers…many have said they’ve lost theirs before too. It happens. And if everything went smoothly, then we wouldn’t have any fun stories to share. Very true! …I’m sure we will always remember this day.
^^s/v LAHO moored in Boot Key Harbor.^^
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
On day 2 we caught a fish.
One single mackerel. Not to be confused with multiple fish. 😉
We also caught a crab pot. With our boat.
:((((((((((
Yup, those darn land mines got us. And, I was the lucky one behind the wheel when it happened.
And the dreaded crab-pot-hitting experience was not such a fun one seeing as it got tangled around our prop, but somehow managed to cut itself off. Jereme had to jump in the water in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico to inspect our propellor and make sure we didn’t have any of the plastic crab pot rope left on the prop. Thank goodness it was such a calm day and we didn’t have to worry about him jumping overboard to check. At first glance, nothing was stuck on the prop, so we went ahead and restarted the engine. It started okay, but didn’t really move the boat much at low RPM’s. However, once we got it up to cruising speed, we were moving just fine. We are also still able to shift gears, but it’s not exactly how it used to be so we are hoping it’s not a transmission issue. At the end of the day, we were definitely left with something not totally right with either the prop shaft or transmission or cutlass bearing, perhaps.
We’re not exactly sure just yet, but are using our time in Marathon to get to the bottom of it. And thus far, we’ve gotten advice from others…diver recommendations, etc. for the problem.
Back to the rest of Day 2 which was more of the same… motorsailing due to the total lack of wind all together and one crazy calm day on the water. I have never in my life seen the Gulf so calm. Eery calm. It does however make for some gorgeous photos and a very easy, relaxed motorsail.
^^this is seriously all you saw when you looked out at the horizon. pretty awesome.^^ ^^just loving life.^^
On our second day, Jereme managed to catch one lone mackerel during the sail. We filleted the fish, and saved him in the fridge with hopes of catching a few more and cooking them up later.
^^filleting time!^^
The three of us were too tired to worry about cooking dinner, so we ended up at Castaway’s on Saturday night instead.
Once you get close to the Florida Keys, it’s amazing how the water changes and becomes clear (and shallow) enough to see to the bottom. With it being SUCH a calm day, we were able to see lots of big sea turtles, and few nurse sharks, and tons of fish swimming by the boat.
By 2:30 or 3PM, we were crossing under the seven mile bridge almost to Boot Key Harbor in Marathon.
^^just passed under the 7-mile bridge.^^ ^^we think he’s pretty darn cute!^^ ^^”before” the incident.^^
Earlier in the day, we had decided to try and pick up a mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor City Marina if any where available, so we hailed them on the VHF after we made it past the old (removed) Boot Key Harbor bridge. We easily made our way to D-8 in the mooring field and checked in at the marina office. The nightly rate here is $22, and the weekly rate is $110 so we opted to go with the week upfront since a cold front is headed this way with northerly winds thereafter, plus not to mention, we still need to figure out our crab-pot-hitting issue.
Since arriving on Saturday, we’ve been settling in quite nicely. We may have enjoyed a few too many margs on the boat on Saturday night. 😉
^^woo hoo! we made it safely!^^ ^^sunset over boot key harbor.^^ Our buddy Chris unfortunately had to leave us on Sunday morning to head home, and Jereme and I spent the day catching up on some much-needed sleep. We got up the energy to hit the shower facilities on Sunday afternoon and then dinghied over to Dockside Tropical Cafe for drinks with more cruising friends…s/v Blue Highway and s/v Serengeti (sp?). …On Day 1, we attempted to sail down with s/v Blue Highway, but our weak VHF radio prohibited us from staying in contact with them and they smoked us anyway on the sail down. 😉 We were happy to meet back up with them at Boot Key Harbor.
I can definitely see how everyone can get used to this awesome cruising life! We had a few beers at Dockside, but decided to save a few bucks and dinghied back to the boat for some homemade chicken tacos.
Right now, we’ve got a short to-do list to tackle while we’re here in Marathon and will start looking at weather in the next day or two in order to make the crossing over to Bimini.
We’re taking our time and not rushing this experience at all. 🙂
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Dog, Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing LoveTags: Bahamas, boot key harbor, Caribbean, crab pots, Cruising, LahoWind, maiden voyage, marathon, Sailboat, Sailing Blog
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Its 5:52am as I drink my coffee and get ready for another “adventure filled” day at the office. Sorry you’re missing it. Hahaha!