s/v Lark: March 2015

Well we made it to the Keys, but just barely. We left No Name Harbor at the top of Key Biscayne very early in the morning with an amazing sunrise to see us off. The sea was a little more choppy then the previous two days, but still very beautiful. The water was starting to look much more clear too, which can be a little spooky. All of a sudden we can see the bottom and it doesn’t look all that far beneath the boat.

Lorelei trying to sooth Sweet Pea (she doesn't like the engine, or sailing, or waves)

Audrey was amusing herself by writing everyone's name in Viking.

Lorelei likes the 'museum book' best.

Unfortunately our engine was acting up even more than normal and we were attempting to solve the problem by changing filter after filter. In the beginning of the day a filter bought us a couple of hours before the vacuum gauge started creeping into the red. By 5p, Jacob was changing the fuel filter every 10 minutes trying to solve the problem. Then, our halyard at the top of our main sail snapped and the main sail came crashing down! Then the cabin started filling with black smoke. It was the trifecta.

We decided that our engine needed more help than we could give it at sea, so we anchored in Hawk Channel about a mile offshore and called TowBoat. Thankfully we were only about 4 miles east of Key Largo and they were happy to come help. We found a spot in Key Largo Harbor Marina which is also a full service boat yard, should we need it, and tied up. It was pretty nice to hook up to shore power again for a little air conditioning after a hot, stressful day! The funny thing is, that I didn’t miss the air conditioning at all when we were at anchor. I guess there is just more breeze.

a Key Largo canal

We are planning to stay a few days, maybe more and try to get some work done on our fuel filter, running rigging, and we are suspecting our air filter. This voyage is really breaking us in on the variety of things that can happen while cruising! Key Largo seems like it will be a really fun place to explore. There are tons of canals to explore with our dinghy, and a cool community pool with a pirate ship that the girls and I can’t wait to go check out.

No Name Harbor

Government Cut - No Name Harbor

With the exhausting antics of the night before we decided to make it an easy day. After froggering out the shipping channels, this time in daylight at least, we made it back to the open ocean for some beautiful sailing. The water was lovely, and the breeze was perfect!

We pulled into No Name Harbor, at the top of Biscayne Bay around 2p, but it was just a little busy, so deciding where to anchor was tricky for us. I think it will start to come more easily with practice, but deciding exactly how far to get away from people is sometimes a conundrum in a crowded anchorage. While we got settled we had some wonderful dolphins playing around us, and the harbor was very pretty! We took a short dinghy ride to the Cuban restaurant ashore and had sangria while we watched Lark in the anchorage. Poor Jacob and Sweet Pea had a little mishap getting from the dinghy up to the sea wall, and they both took a swim. After getting the dog back on land, Jacob had to go back in for his favorite hat (one we found at a little heli-lodge in British Columbia).

Lorelei really wanted us to eat this, but I think it was a little past its prime. Plus, I'm not even sure how to do that!

the walk to the beach

Then we all walked to the beach. It is supposedly one of the top 10 beaches in the US. It was pretty nice, but unfortunately there was a lot of trash. It was probably because we closed the place and it is spring break, but I feel like I have definitely seen better. The gorgeous lighthouse in the background was really cool though. The girls and I got a little lost on the way home and didn’t get back to the dinghy dock until well after dark. They were both asleep before I could even shut the door to their room!

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Lorelei could not resist touching this mermaid's butt

No Name Harbor at night

Little Boat in a Big Pond

Lake Worth - Government Cut

We had our first ocean passage and overall it went very well. We pulled out of Lake Worth inlet with no problems at all. It seemed so simple. The Fort Pierce Inlet must be especially tricky, because we have never gone out there without bucking around like crazy. It was smooth sailing, and we were on schedule to pull in to Port Everglades around 5p.

playing dress-up (Lorelei is using her powers on me)

checking out charts and looking for anchorages

our little visitor

We were looking for a place to anchor, and all we could find was a mooring ball at the city marina, so we called them up to see if we could have one. They said yes, and it came with a shower, but I couldn’t take the shower until tomorrow because they were closing at 4:30p. I was pretty bummed at the prospect of a shower being taken away, so when Jacob asked if I wanted to continue on because the sailing was so nice I was all for it! That was a mistake. Although we were on course to make it with 30 minutes of light left, we had to change two filters within a mile of Government Cut. That put us in after dark on our first ocean passage day ever.

Miami at night

Government Cut, a large inlet in Miami, has tons of shipping traffic, which is really scary in the dark. It is hard to describe just how scary the whole situation was. The ships going up and down the channel at night were huge (some in the cruise ship category)! We felt so little and out of place. The anchorage we were shooting for had a bridge before it that was mislabeled on our chart. We thought it was 65’ fixed, but turned out to be 35’ fixed (way too short for our mast). We didn't realize it was so short until we were almost going under, so we had to very quickly put on the brakes and turn around. We were tired and our nerves were frazzled so we decided to try tying to a fuel dock before the bridge and getting fuel there in the morning. As we attempted a tie up, there was a strong breeze into a cement pier which was not forgiving. We couldn’t get away from there fast enough. That left us with an anchorage on the other side of three shipping channels, so we had to play frogger with the giant boats. We finally ended up there at 1a, and it was lovely. We only slept about 4 hours, so we were both exhausted! Thankfully the girls slept through the whole mess!

Heading South - Day 2

Jensen Beach to West Palm Beach

We cruised down the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) today from Jensen Beach all the way to Palm Beach, about 45 miles. We only had to pull over once to change the oil filter, and after that the vacuum was showing nice readings. Hopefully that means all of the junk is officially filtered out…for now. Jupiter was a really pretty place to boat through, with lots of eagles, pretty vegetation and blue blue water.

Eagle Nest

We had to go through a TON of bridges. Some open when you ask them to, and others only do it on the half hour.

We arrived in Palm Beach at the Peanut Island anchorages about 4p, and we were all excited to go explore the island and maybe even swim at the beach a little. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. While we were looking for an anchorage we hit an uncharted sandbar. Normally we are only 5.5 feet, but I think with all of our extra provisions we must be riding low because at 6’2” we were totally stuck. We called TowBoatUS and they were there within 15 minutes and pulled us off, and even gave us some local tips about where the sands normally shift the highest.

We passed this strange anchorage where boats go to die.

Sweet Pea was feeling a little cuddly

After we settled in and had some dinner the girls and Jacob took Sweet Pea to play on Peanut Island. It was dark already, so they skipped the swim suits. We were feeling uncertain about the stability of our anchor so I stayed behind in case it dragged. It was nice to have the boat to myself and I even fit in a little yoga on deck.

We are looking forward to tomorrow. We may attempt a run on the outside. The weather looks like it should be mild, and this is supposed to be a decent inlet. Fingers crossed.

Are We Cruisers Yet?

We did it!

We left Harbortown today heading south. We had been working on getting out of town since the end of February, but it seems like there was always something standing in the way. First, our engine quit and we needed to sort out what was wrong with it, then we all had the stomach flu, and finally, our bilge pump was malfunctioning. Our stars aligned and we did leave the dock.

Last night we worked on storing our massive amount of provisions and finishing all of our todos until we literally could not stay awake, then woke up early for our pre-departure checklist. It seemed misty in the marina, but as we went out the channel we realized it was a pea soup fog. We could only see one marker in front of us and one behind. We have been regularly checking the fuel filter gauge since our engine quit a couple weeks back with clogged Racor and noticed that it was steadily climbing despite our two fuel polishing sessions, new filter and Jacob bleeding the entire thing. We pulled over and anchored and changed the fuel filter. It did look a bit dirty, but nothing too crazy, and unlike the last time we changed it, there were not any chunks settled in the fluid below it. We got underway but unfortunately the gauge continued to rise and rise until it was in the red. We pulled over in Jensen Beach and anchored again. This time, we took the dinghy off deck, went ashore and Lorelei and I took a taxi to the local West Marine for some 30 micron filters. The hope is that they will allow more fuel through and cause fewer vacuum problems.

We only made it 15 miles of the 200 today, but hopefully tomorrow will be more like a 50 mile day. Despite (or maybe because of) all of the snafus today, we are really feeling like cruisers tonight. We are anchored in a very pretty anchorage with a nice breeze blowing through while we have a glass of wine in the cockpit. Audrey was very excited that we were sleeping at anchor tonight for the first time, and today while she was working on a new blog post on the bow of the boat she said ‘this is a really great life for a 7 year old girl’.

Lark at anchor

Me and Lorelei in the taxi on the way to West Marine

3/18

So it turns out that the high pump outlet hose was not connected to the the hose that runs to the through-hull. The two are not the same size. Thus not only does the high pump not remove any water from the boat, half the water the low pump gets up to the through-hull runs right back down that disconnected hose which should be hooked up to the high pump and back into the bilge so the low pump has to get it back up to the through-hull all over again, where some portion of it runs back down the disconnected hose, etc., etc..

The high pump does get the bilge water circulating at an impressive rate

though, I will give it that.

I'm darn glad to know these things before the water around my ankles lets me know.