Last sailing trip for a while....

I have been pretty slack at getting this post out but anyway here it is now:
We are planning the next crazy adventure which requires us to earn a bit of cash (not so easy when one is lounging around on the boat) so we decided to hang up our sails for a while, put the boat in storage, and get a real job.

We found a very reasonably priced storage facility in Goodland FL called Calusa Island Marina but first had to sail to Marathon to get a few things sorted out and then the 100 mile trip up to Goodland.

Our anchorage at Islamorada

The sail from Islamorada to Marathon was a short one, only about 6 hours of sailing but we went via Channel 5 and on the ocean side of the Keys with a stiff onshore breeze. It was choppy with a lot of reflected waves off the shore, the most uncomfortable sail we had yet. There was also a lot of boat traffic adding wake to the mix. We got quite wet and were really tired of being jerked around by the choppy seas by the time we reached Marathon.


Channel markers at Little Basin, Islamorada

Cormorants on an Intracoastal Waterway channel marker

Approaching Channel 5 bridge

Channel 5 Florida Keys FL

"Bobby The Viking", one of the colorful characters in Marathon FL

Having got our business out of the way we set off for Goodland. We decided to take 4 days to get there with stops at some of our favorite places and some we still wanted to see.


Leaving Marathon under a beautiful rainbow

Leaving the Keys behind, heading to Sandy Key

Sandy Key is always a great place to anchor with lots of birdlife and good protection from the prevailing wind so that was day one. The second day we had planned to sail to Whitewater Bay but decided to sail by as there was a thunderstorm approaching and also the following day's wind was forecast to be against us. We made Lostman's River by late afternoon and anchored in the bay at the mouth of the river. A great anchorage but a fairly big storm hit us just at sunset and lasted a couple of hours. Our anchor held ok but we still got a bit anxious after our previous experiences with these violent storms.


Storm approaching at Lostman's River

By morning we were surrounded by dense fog which made a surreal scene with the world around us just gone and the water dead calm. We motored away using the GPS and watched the world return as the fog burned off. An hour or so later the wind came up from the north east at around 15 kts and we were soon racing along close hauled. The short fetch from the shore kept the sea flat making a superb sailing day. It was so pleasant we decided to carry on all the way to Goodland.

Before hauling the boat out we needed to clean it out and sort out what would go with us and what would stay on the boat. Also the mast would have to come down and the sails needed to be washed to get rid of the salt before we packed them away. We found a nice little motel with a dock, The Pink House Motel, at Goodland where we could do all we needed to do. The motel is old and has a lot of mismatched cutlery, crockery, and furniture but very clean and the owner was real friendly and made us feel at home.

Moored at the Pink House Motel dock.

Drying the sails before packing them away.

After 2 days of vigorous cleaning, sorting, and packing we had the boat ready to be hauled out. With the mast tied to the deck we motored the mile or so over to the marina. The staff at Calusa Island Marina are great. It only took a few minutes to get the boat out and at no time did we feel anxious at all. They pressure washed the bottom and put her into covered storage. They are most professional and run a neat and tidy marina. So that is our boat's home for a while.

Our future sailing plans (probably towards the end of 2014) are to follow the Florida coast north and continue around to Texas and Mexico...........

   

Crossing an Ocean in a Seawind 24 - articles

After publishing my last post on crossing an ocean in a Seawind 24, I received a surprise email from the guy who sailed that Seawind 24 catamaran from San Francisco to the South Pacific. Mihaly Kun very kindly sent me a copy of all the articles. They were written by Mihaly and his wife Judy and are absolutely riveting. I have great respect for this little boat after the bit of sailing I have done but these guys have tested a Seawind 24 to new heights. Well done Mihaly and Judy and lets not forget young Jeremy and Joshua. Thank you for a great story! I had these articles linked online but they are no longer available so if you would like a copy please email me; eezikapeezi(at)Hotmail.com.

The story may leave you wondering what happened to Jeremy. Except for total loss of memory from before the accident he recovered completely and has done exceptionally well and is currently doing a PhD in math and computer science (his blog - http://jeremykun.com/). Joshua has also gone on to do great things; a documentary film maker  (http://www.oakhousefilms.com/).

Next: Hanging up our sails for a while..........

Crossing an Ocean in a Seawind 24

One day while I was sitting out on the deck of our boat enjoying the sunset, a guy in a dinghy came by and said that he crewed on a Seawind 24 from San Francisco to Tahiti. At first I didn't believe him because I have done lots of research on these boats and never heard of this adventure. But he was adamant and went on to say that the boat did great and handled the seas well. It took them 54 days to do the trip. Unfortunately he was in a bit of a hurry and I didn't get more info than that but he did shout back that Multihulls Magazine did a series of articles on the trip back in the nineties under the title "Adventures of a Seawind  24".

I contacted Multihulls and enquired about the story. Eric Erwin from Multihulls wrote back and confirmed the story and kindly offered to scan and send the articles to me as they were not available in digital format. I have not yet received the copies but he sent me some information and the dates when the articles were published. Some of the magazines are available on ebay if anyone is interested in buying these back issues. I will however edit and credit and share excerpts from the articles should I receive them from Multihulls.

Below are the magazine dates with some information:

 

MM May/June 1997 – 

Adventures of a Seawind 24

A family of four, makes their first transpacific crossing.

MM July/August 1997 –

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part II - Outfitting a Small Cat for a BIG Voyage

By Judy Jacobs and Mihaly Kun

Over the period of 2 1/2 months, Mihaly disassembled, waterproofed, and strengthened his small catamaran. The sails, electrical system, and electronics were all upgraded. He replaced the stove, trampoline, beds and engine, while adding a lot more other equipment. This outfitting process seemed next to impossible, Mihaly would soon find out.

 Mihály Kun is coping with lack of room on a 24-foot Seawind catamaran during his family’s circumnavigation. Unlike on luxury cruising catamarans, space is at a premium and the weight of items is critical.

MM Sept/Oct 1997 –

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part III – San Francisco to Tahiti... Crossing the Pacific

by Judy Jacobs and Mihály Kun

It’s not smooth sailing for Mihály and Roby as they journey from California’s Morro Bay, through the doldrums, and eventually arrive in Rangiroa.

MM Nov/Dec 1997 – 

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part IV

MM Jan/Feb 1998 –

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part V

by Mihály Kun

In part five, the saga of this intrepid sailor takes us from Samoa to Tokelau. Read about the tale of the Ghost Island, and the lure of the master fishermen.
Women on Atafu are busy dividing a shipment of chicken, while others play dominoes.
The only time this beach cat has actually been beached was on the island of Nukufetau, in the country of Tuvalu.

MM March/April 1998 – 

Adventures of a Seawind 24: Part VI – Atafu to Tarawa

by Judy Jacobs and Mihály Kun

The family’s long journey abroad comes to an abrupt end in Tarawa, when the youngest son, Jeremy, is run down by a distracted bus driver.

 

 

The Hurricane Plan

The 2013 hurricane season is already with us and although not many damaging hurricanes have crossed the Florida Keys it is really important to be prepared. We have poled local knowledge and formulated a plan for the boat and for us should one of these storms come our way.

We asked a guy who has been here at Islamorada for 15 years if he stays on his boat during a hurricane and he said he did it once and would never do it again. Others who have not yet experienced one said they would stay on board if they could get far enough into the mangroves. The official opinion here is "DO NOT STAY ON THE BOAT". We have decided that if it is a minor tropical storm we will tie up in a nearby channel and stay with the boat but for a strong tropical storm or hurricane we plan to tuck our little Seawind 24 up a narrow gap in the mangroves about a mile from our present anchorage and leave. We have spoken to a local resort and we can get a room there for cat 1 & 2 hurricanes. Larger storms require that everyone evacuate to the mainland anyway.

The plan is to remove all our valuables, including passports, cameras, computers, electronics, etc. and stow everything else inside. We can then tie up to the surrounding mangroves with all the rope we have and head for our room on land. If it is forecast to be a cat 3 or more we will also drop the mast and lash it to the deck. Hopefully the boat will still be there in one piece when we return.

As far as survival supplies is concerned we are just following the locally recommended list which is basically food and water for 3 days and various other equipment needed if the power and communications are out for an extended period. Being off the grid and independent already, life on the boat has, by its nature, prepared us for surviving without outside help for a while. I hope we do not have to test our preparedness but if we do I will post an update on how well it worked.

While on the subject of weather I thought I would just post a recent pic of a waterspout we saw from the boat.

   
Next: I met a guy who sailed a Seawind 24 from San Francisco to Tahiti........

Wind, Rain, and Sharks

Two weeks ago we stocked up again and set off to explore a few more of the islands in Florida Bay. The weather forecast was for high winds from the east so we chose to anchor off Crab Keys for a few days until the weather settled. Once we had anchored and relaxed for the day a rather ugly looking thunderstorm began brewing to the north and we decided to head back to a small enclosed bay a couple of miles to the south to get some protection as we have learned the hard way about the wild winds around these Florida Bay storms. In short we didn't make it.

The storm caught up with us about half a mile from our destination but at least we were still far enough from land that we could ride it out without a lee shore adding to it. I dropped the genoa as the wind hit and Sharon spun the boat neatly into the wind so we could drop the main. The main has a bolt rope and needs to be hauled down by hand. I screwed up a bit by letting go of the halyard (which still had a few coils in it) as I was pulling the main down. The wind took the halyard out almost horizontal and if I pulled the main all the way down I would not be able to reach the halyard so I used the extendable boat hook and hanging off the back managed to hook the rope as it flailed around and got things back under control. Then the blinding rain and lots of lightning came; one bolt struck near us and gave Sharon a little jolt through the tiller bar! It was soon over and we could go in and anchor for the night.

The next day we decided to find better shelter from the wind which was now forecast to be quite strong for several days. We entered Little Basin off Islamorada and found a disused mooring post in about 2' of water and tied up there. We love the shallow draft on our Seawind 24, nobody else can take their boats into such shallow water so we had a big piece of the basin to ourselves. We had 7 days of wind and heavy rain, very unusual for this area. Solar cooking was out of the question and our solar charging system also became pretty weak so it turned into a test; stuck inside a small boat, very limited computer/internet due to lack of power, limited lighting at night, and dampness creeping into everything. We survived! The sun was really welcome but only lasted a couple of days before tropical storm Andrea started pumping line after line of thunderstorms over the Keys. Three more days of being shut inside! Eventually the sun came out and no big weather was forecast for the next few days, YAY!


Our Seawind 24 in Little Basin off Islamorada

 Little Basin is quite nice, the water is really clear as it gets changed with clean seawater with each tide. There are a lot of small sharks all around the mangroves and a piece of bait dropped in the water soon gets several of them hanging around the boat. I had my camera in the water photographing these little guys when Sharon made an expletive comment! I looked around just in time to see a really big shark go cruising by and head off. It must have been a nurse shark due to its size but we don't really know.... it went by really quick. We've noticed baby black tip sharks, lemon sharks, and nurse sharks in the area. We have also seen a number of dolphins here, including a mother and baby.

Baby lemon shark in Little Basin off Islamorada FL

For more wildlife photos from the Everglades and Florida Keys, please visit my website: http://alanbosse.com/Photography.html

Next: More sailing in Florida Bay and our hurricane plan for the 2013 season.

What's That Sound?

For some weeks now we have been hearing a weird sound - something like an owl hoot but this "boop-boop" call stayed with us even at sea so it was no owl. Besides, there isn't an owl that makes this particular call in this area. It was quite loud at times and eventually we could hear a response call too. After much searching and listening we decided it was coming from the dagger board well and the response was from the other side well. I started searching the internet for marine organisms that made noises and eventually found a recording of the exact sound - it was a gulf toad fish. These fish find a cavity of sorts, (this time obviously our seawind 24's dagger board wells) and then call for a mate. The amazing thing about this though is that we sailed around 200 miles to many different anchorages, through some quite rough water, and the fish just stayed with us.

Everglades National Park - Take 2

A 10 kt easterly breeze made a leisurely 24 mile beam reach sail from Marathon, Florida to Sandy Key in Florida Bay. The Seawind 24, even loaded, makes 6 to 7 kts in 10 kts of wind - such a pleasure! We were on our way to Whitewater Bay and decided to do just short hops so we get to enjoy the beauty of Florida Bay. There are so many islands, each with its own bird and sea life. Sandy Key has large colonies of various birds and with our shallow draft we can get in fairly close. We anchored in less than 3' of water.

Our bed under the stars off Sandy Key

Day 2 was another 20 something mile day via Little Shark River to Oyster Bay in Whitewater Bay. The wind had increased a bit to 15 kts and was now more southerly. The Seawind is really happy on a broad reach and the water was soon hissing by with a nice wake trailing behind. Sail trim is really important on this boat; a small change can make a difference of a couple of knots.

We saw fewer dolphins this time but a lot more fish and many sea turtles. Before noon we were in the Little Shark River - still more turtles. The river is really beautiful - tall mangrove forests line the banks. The trees totally block the wind so we motored for another hour before reaching Oyster Bay and dropping anchor near the northern end of the bay. Oyster Bay is spectacular; completely enclosed by very tall and very green mangrove forest and dotted with many islands. The water is tea colored but quite clear. Soon after anchoring a pod of dolphins came over and had a good look at us. Maybe they don't see too many boats here; the place seemed deserted to us too. Late in the afternoon a couple of small fishing boats went by some distance away and then we were completely alone until about midday the next day when another fishing boat crossed the other side of the bay.

Oyster Bay

We had not realized that a nearby island was a roosting place for white ibises and in the late afternoon they stated returning in large flocks until thousands of them had settled in the trees. In the morning there was a mass exodus as they left for their feeding grounds. It was an amazing sight to see so many birds in the air at once.


Ibis departing for their feeding grounds

The nights here were just wonderful; we pitched our tent on the forward trampoline and enjoyed the sounds of owls hooting, and fish splashing. Later that night the mosquitoes found us. Lucky our tent has good screens because eventually there were so many it sounded like we were inside a bee hive. They all left before sunrise and we were free to come out and enjoy the dawn colors and the magnificent bird departure spectacle.

Our tent on the trampoline

The next day we explored Whitewater Bay, sailing the open areas and motoring through the passes.  Later that afternoon we positioned ourselves for a better view of the ibis return and departure that night and following morning. It was as expected, just awesome!
We had planned to stay a couple more days but the forecast was for a day of northerly breezes and then 5 days of strong southerlies. Not wanting to beat into 20+ kts and against the current we decided to run with the northerly. A smooth sail south to East Cape Canal for another quick photo session with the crocs. There were fewer crocodiles this time and they were really shy.

One of the East Cape Canal crocs

Some baby herons along East Cape Canal

We spent the night there and then sailed to Flamingo for showers and water before heading to Islamorada via several passes and islands for the annual Wharram Rendezvous.

We had read about the Wharram rendezvous and thought it might be interesting. It is good to see a design of boat that is built in so many different styles. There were only six boats at the rendezvous but they were all unique and really reflected the owners' characters.

This was the best looking one in my opinion

A local wharram

This one had a windvane self steering

 

Next: Sailing Southern Florida Bay and the Keys..........