Barefoot Departs - We are in Miami

November 11, 2014

Miami Skyline

We have started our winter cruise leaving Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton on Tuesday, November 4th, and are currently in Miami.

In previous years we have taken our time and gunk-holed down the west coast of Florida taking 3-4 weeks to reach Miami.  For several reasons this year we decided to do a quick run to Miami and reached there in a week.

The biggest reason for the different strategy was a desire to minimize the number of  crab/lobster pots that we would have to dodge.  All down the near-coastal waters, you find crab pots and they get more numerous the father south you go, reaching 'epic' proportions from Cape Sable to Marathon. These pots must be carefully avoided - wrapping a line around the prop or rudder is a serious problem.

So we decided to go down the coast farther offshore, basically taking a rhumb line from Tampa Bay to Key West until about latitude 25.5 and then cutting over to Marathon.  This kept us in 40+ feet water and trap-free for most of the trip.  We still had quite a few traps from the 30' depth contour in, so I don't know if the effort was a total success, but we clearly had fewer traps in total and many hours where we did not have to keep a vigilant eye for traps.

This route, however, was about 215 nautical miles long and we were underway for around 35 hours - our longest passage as a couple.

We started the passage on Wednesday morning from anchor at Emerson Point on the Manatee River with a 3 AM departure out of the river.  This section features some shallow water outside the channel that requires careful navigation in the dark; a near-full moon, however, made it easier than usual.

Sunrise off Sarasota

 The trip was pretty uneventful except for some stronger than forecast winds on Wednesday night with 3-4' seas on our port quarter, that gave us quite a bumpy ride for a while.

Sunsets at Sea never get old!

We arrived in Marathon at around 4 PM on Thursday where we anchored off the Boot Key channel. Staying two nights here let us catch up on sleep at bit, do one major maintenance item and get some fuel.

Within miles of Marathon we ended up picking up some grass in our cooling water thruhull (inlet) that needed to be cleared.  A large amount of the grass around this time of year has a 'straw' like consistency that tends to get stuck right where the water enters the boat.  There is a strainer (filter) further down the line that is supposed to filter out debris, but this grass never reaches it.  We were able to motor relatively slow and get to the anchorage with the blockage without over-heating.  Then on Friday I (Tom) donned my snorkel gear to clear the thruhull.  When the visibility is low and a current is running (conditions I often face when I do this) this can be a difficult task.  At slack tide and with decent visibility in the water, I cleared it on my first dive!

Saturday had us passage up the Hawk Channel to Rodriguez Key, where we anchored for three nights, waiting out some squally weather in the Miami area.  A notable event of this leg was the large number of pink/purple jellyfish that we saw. One dive-boat Captain called them 'Moon Jellies'. When we were at Cat Island last winter, we saw thousands of little tiny jellyfish (about 1/4-inch in diameter) that appeared to have hatched recently - maybe these guys came from there? :-)

Monday we continued up the Hawk Channel to Biscayne Bay and Coconut Grove where we picked up a mooring.

Key Biscayne Skyline

Cape Florida Lighthouse

'Stiltsville'

'Stiltsville'

Miami Skyline

About 320 miles in a week - much faster than our usual pace.  Joyce will be very quick to tell you that this is equivalent to 3,200 car miles.

We plan to spend a few weeks in Miami, and then look for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas.

Tom
Moored Coconut Grove, Miami, FL