A Dash to Key West

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December 29-31, 2023: I enter Miles Mode to get to Key West by New Year’s Eve.

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When you last heard from me, I was whining about a rough day on the water and rejoicing in the sunset that rewarded me for putting up with it. I got under way again the next day.

You see, I had to be in Key West by Sunday, December 31. I had a reservation at the Galleon Marina that was costing a small fortune. Jason was flying to Key West to rejoin me for New Years Even and a cruise back up the Keys to Miami. (And maybe beyond?) I’d wasted enough time around Christmas and now I had to cover miles.

I should mention here that Miles Mode is my least favorite cruising mode. It means spending a lot of time traveling, usually at higher speeds, and missing possibly interesting stops along the way. It also means traveling day after day without much time for rest, reflection, and writing. But sometimes it just has to be done and this was one of those times.

The trip to Fat Deer Key

My tough travel day was Thursday. Friday turned out to be a nice day. At least it started that way.

I headed out of the anchorage, wound my way through another mangrove-lined channel, crossed Buttonwood Sound, went through another cut, and headed down Florida Bay right on the border of Everglades National Park. The biggest challenge was the crab traps (as usual), but I had gotten very good at spotting and avoiding them. I passed the anchorage I should have spent the previous night at and kept going. The water was remarkably smooth and, other than a bunch of sport fishing boats, I was the only boat on the water. I set the engine RPM for 3000 and got about 14 knots most of the way. Still, those fishing boats passed me, sometimes very close, and it became a bit of a challenge to steer into the wake so it wouldn’t rock the boat so violently.

Meanwhile, there wasn’t much in the way of scenery. On my port side was the open expanse of Florida Bay, with occasional small islands marking the horizon. On the other side was the long stretch of Middle Keys with bridges connecting them. I wasn’t close enough to see details. The route I was on kept me going from one marked channel through banks or islands after another. Cruising closer to shore would have made it a real chore to dodge both shallow water and crab traps, so I stayed on recommended lines. Even then, the water depth was seldom more than 15 feet.

A look to starboard was mostly open water with the occasional island out in Everglades National Park.

As the sky clouded over with light gray clouds and the water changed color to match, it got nearly impossible to see where the sky ended and the water began in certain directions up ahead of me. These are super dangerous conditions for pilots who rely on the ability to see the horizon for straight and level flight. I found it disorienting, even in a boat.

At Fat Deer Key

It was early afternoon when I got to my intended anchorage at Fat Deer Key. I pulled in as close to shore as I could, well within dinghy range to the public boat ramp where I planned to take my pups, and dropped the anchor in 5 feet of water. I let out about 30 feet of chain. The anchor held.

The spot was relatively calm and sheltered from the north wind. I launched the dinghy, took my pups to shore at a restaurant near the boat ramp (because the boat ramp was very busy). After letting them do their business, I went back to the dinghy.

In the 15 minutes I’d been on shore, the weather had changed. The wind had shifted around from the northwest and my sheltered anchorage wasn’t sheltered anymore. We drove back in the dinghy on plane to prevent most of the chop from soaking me. When I got back to Do It Now, the anchor alarm was blaring. It was deja vu all over again.

I checked the alarm map, satisfied myself that we weren’t dragging too quickly, and got the dingy stowed. The boat was tossing around and I realized that I had to move to an anchorage that was protected from the northwest, not the southeast. (This, by the way, is the problem with picking anchorages before you know what the weather might be, especially down in the Keys where there’s so little protection.) So I started the engine, pulled up the anchor — which was totally encased in mud and shells and weeds — and headed back out, continuing southwest.

A Safe Harbor

Long story short, in researching possible anchorages and marinas, I discovered that Safe Harbor Marathon had pretty cheap fuel — $4.08 per gallon including tax — so I stopped in to fuel up. I then thought about going out to the anchorage just outside Boot Key Harbor and imagined the bumpy night. I was tired of being stressed at anchor. Hadn’t all of my money-saving nights at anchor been so I could splurge on a marina when I wanted to? I called the office at Safe Harbor and booked a slip.

Here’s my Nebo log for December 29, 2023. Download a PDF log file with more info. Track Do It Now on Nebo.

I had a nice but disappointing overnight stay. Nice because I met other Loopers in a Ranger Tug — hello, David and Nancy in Hygge! — and had dinner at 7 Mile Grill, which was pretty good. Disappointing because both of the marina’s washers were busy when I wanted to do a load of laundry and the water in their shower never really got hot. It irks me to spend a lot of money on a marina that doesn’t have good amenities. At least the fuel was cheap.

Tammy and the Rock Dock

The next day, I was headed out to the home of a friend (Tammy) of a friend (Holly). Holly had hooked us up, knowing Tammy had a dock in her back yard. It was a free place to stay where I wouldn’t have to worry about dragging anchors or wind. And I’d get to meet a fellow beekeeper who seemed very interested in meeting me. Tammy’s place was on Little Torch Key (near Big Pine Key) and that put me within a half day’s cruise of Key West.

So I made the relatively short cruise to her place late in the morning, now on the ocean side of the Keys. It was an easy enough cruise. The weather was good and the wind had finally calmed down. The sun came and went but was mostly out making Hawk Channel water that pretty blue green color you usually see in the Caribbean. There were patches of weeds floating on the surface — I’d already cleaned some of them out of my water strainer — and they were impossible to avoid. There were also crab traps (of course) and I dodged them while roughly following one of the Bob423 tracks I’d loaded into my chartplotter.

It’s a pretty good thing that I drove from inside because when I arrived, I saw that Tammy didn’t actually have a dock anymore. (To be fair, I think she told me that but I didn’t understand just how bad the no dock situation was.) Instead, she had the rough stone wall that her dock had been attached to. That was on the end of a long, very narrow channel. I figure it was about 50 feet wide. I got abeam her “dock”, got the boat to a stop, and made a 180° turn with the bow and stern thrusters. (Quite an achievement given my boat is 32 feet LOA.) Then I used the thrusters to push me in sideways. I was just a few feet away when I realized just how rough the rock wall was and had the presence of mind to drop a fender. That wall would have torn up my boat if I’d hit it. I got the boat close enough to step off and then tied the boat to some palm trees growing in her yard. I spent the next 20 minutes arranging fenders so my boat wouldn’t get scratched up.

Here’s Do It Now, precariously tied up alongside Tammy’s rock dock. I used five of my eight fenders to protect the boat. Because there was very little tide, current, or wake, the boat was safe for my whole stay.

Here’s my Nebo log for December 30, 2023. Download a PDF log file with more info. Track Do It Now on Nebo.

I spent some time with Tammy and her husband. Then I cleaned the boat so it would look more presentable for Jason’s arrival. I had the usual amount of clutter around and I needed to put stuff away. I also needed to literally clean some of the dustier surfaces. If I’d gotten a little more ambitious, I would have oiled some of the teak, but I ran out of steam. Instead, I took my pups for a long walk through Tammy’s neighborhood, almost all the way to US 1. We passed lots of neighbors and a handful of houses for sale and got a first look at a surveillance balloon tethered over Cudjoe Key to the west. Back at the boat, I fed the girls and admired the way the neighbor’s palm trees reflected in the calm canal water at sunset.

I took Tammy out for dinner. We went to a local place called No Name Pub. It was one of those places where customers write something on $1 bills and staple them to the walls and ceilings. I’ve been to a bunch of places like that, but I suspect this one had more money on the wall than any of the others. It was crowded so we sat at the bar. We both ordered one of the 6-inch pizzas and my Meathead was good. Pan style, which I really like. On the way back, we saw a boat light parade and a drone light show. Her downstairs tenants had inflated their Santa and snowman and were playing Christmas music. (Yes, this was December 30.) Fortunately, it wasn’t loud. I slept well and I don’t think the boat moved 2 inches in the perfectly calm channel.

On to Key West

I slept remarkably well; the boat didn’t move more than a few inches the whole time I was there. It was dark and quiet. I had breakfast, fed my pubs, and took them for another long walk. Then I went to say goodbye to Tammy and thank her for her hospitality. She told me she was planning to get the dock fixed and I was welcome to come back any time and stay as long as I liked.

I started up the engine, warmed it up, and untied the lines. It was low tide and I only had a few feet of water under my keel. Beyond that, what? Probably the same nasty rock I was docked against. I used the thrusters to push me sideways into the channel and eased forward at idle speed, carefully threading my way back out of Tammy’s neighborhood. Once I was clear of the shallow water, I set a Go To point on my autopilot and went to stow all my lines and fenders, letting the boat creep forward in the main channel.

A short while later, I was back out in Hawk Channel with the RPMs back up to 3000 in aqua blue water under a sunny sky. My pups and I were set up on the command bridge to fully enjoy it. The whole time I drove, I took pictures and texted with Jason and other friends.

And dodged crab traps. There are always crab traps.