Everyone seems to have an opinion about the southernmost point of the continental U.S.  From “absolute paradise” to “too strange for words”, Key West engenders strong feelings and reactions in all who visit the little tropical island only 90 miles from Cuba. What do we think after spending a month right downtown in the center of the historic seaport??  It is certainly a place like no other!  Downtown struck Susan as more touristy, crowded and noisy than she expected with Duval Street being New Orleans’ Bourbon Street adorned with palm trees and flip flops. Carolyn, on the other hand, enjoyed the hustle, bustle and extreme variety in everything (boats, dress, language, music, food and drink options, etc.). We agree that the less touristy/commercial and more residential areas of Key West are absolutely charming with their narrow streets and brightly colored, small, open-air businesses and quaint cottages… the ubiquitous motor scooters and free ranging chickens also very much in evidence, not so much!

Sojourner's Key West crew

For the first couple weeks, we were on our own to explore Key West  by car and by dinghy. Then, on New Year’s Day, “Waltons” at Key West began when son Doug, his wife Sarah and grandsons Isaac (9) and Owen (4) joined us. While the parents luxuriated in the quiet of a small, quintessential Key West inn, Sojourner was treated to a week with two energetic additional crew.  Each morning the new “swabbies” were awakened by the nearby Coast Guard station’s rather loud and slightly off key rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” and the bull elephant-sounding horn blast as the Yankee Freedom II ferry announced its daily departure for the Dry Tortugas. A surprisingly fierce wind (25+ knots) rocked the boat unmercifully during the kids’ second night aboard, and we grandmas briefly contemplated moving our young crew ashore. The next morning Owen inquired:  “Who won?? The boat or the storm?”  The many fish cavorting constantly around the boat fascinated the boys, and spotting the resident 4 ft. tarpon snuggling up to Sojourner sparked an unsuccessful effort to feed the local wildlife from the bow. Doug, Sarah and Isaac braved the unusually chilly water for a snorkeling trip while Owen accompanied us to the Butterfly Conservatory. Then, as the family departed for cold and snowy Chicago, our friend Maurie from Syracuse arrived. Maurie’s visit had an unexpected conclusion when a rare, seemingly wind-free weather window encouraged us to leave Key West several days early, and this courageous non-boater joined us for  the two-day cruise back to Key Largo (more on that adventure later!).

We had great fun with many Key West tourist “must do/see” activities:  sunning and people-watching on the beach; partying on Duval Street New Year’s Eve; cruising on a two-masted schooner; visiting various museums, famous people’s homes, the “southernmost point,” the Botanical Gardens (with its unusual collection of Cuban “Chugs”, the boats used by Cubans to flee their homeland), and a wonderfully decorated art deco movie theater with a life-size statue of Marilyn Monroe out front (a fitting place to see the movie “My Week with Marilyn” which we did with Maurie); as well as enjoying many (many) sunsets at Mallory Square. We also saw a great live, locally cast musical (“Forbidden Broadway”) and peeked into several private Key West residences during a two-evening, fund-raising home tour conducted by the local historic home restoration group. Good restaurants line both the historic seaport and Duval Street, and we tried as many of them as we could! We also ventured deep into the residential district for delightful and delicious experiences at a variety small and less touristy establishments. All-in-all, we enjoyed Key West, all the sights, the spirit, the ambiance … and tremendous seafood, delicious Cuban coffee, and panini and pastry to die for as well!

I want a roof like that!

BIGHT (bite) n. A body of water almost completely surrounded by land [according to a B-S Dictionary paraphrase]

As one might imagine, the Florida Keys chain has several “bights”. Our marina shares the biggest one on Key West with the historic seaport and several other marinas as well as the docks for various cruise ship lines and snorkeling, diving and fishing fleets. Not surprisingly, it is called “Key West Bight.” Not too far away is Garrison Bight, a smaller, but also rather interesting body of water: it is the “harbor” for Key West’s world famous charter fishing fleet, a couple small marinas and the Key West Yacht Club as well as the home for a uniquely Key West form of residence.

Traveling by car, the Key West and Garrison Bights are mere blocks from one another. But traveling by dinghy, Garrison Bight and its houseboat community are at least a 45-minute cruise from Sojourner, depending on wind and current, of course. We made the trip between the two bights via the Fleming Key cut which took us through a couple rather open bodies of water and two large mooring fields. We had great fun almost running aground in suddenly less than a foot of water while at least 200 yards away from shore in any direction!! We now have a strong, experiential understanding of the old sailor’s warning: “If the water looks brown, go around or run aground”! At the last second, Carolyn managed to steer us out of harm’s way, and we had a delightful self tour of the houseboat community adjacent to US highway 1 in the newer, more commercial section of Key West.

Here’s a slideshow of some of our favorite houseboats in the Garrison Bight community-  favorites for looking at anyway-  We prefer Sojourner as a residence!!

Click to view slideshow.

Pre wash

Bet you never did your laundry in this type of establishment.  The front is a Cuban restaurant, and the back is an open-air laundromat.  We sat in wicker chairs watching the world go by, eating an incredibly delicious pork panini, reading the NY Times, and shooing away the chickens as the washing machines did their job.

Panini

Really, there were chickens and roosters wandering about, too!  So, we now know the TRUE answer to that old canard, why did the chicken cross the street?  To do her laundry, of course.  Next week we plan to try the Margaret Truman Launderette!

Poultry...

Real chickens!!!!

Quintessential South Beach

We remained in Key Largo only about 24 hours after our initial arrival before engaging a one-way rental car  to Orlando so we could retrieve our own that had been waiting patiently since a couple of days before our departure from St. Augustine.  Having a vehicle makes cruising so much easier: no worries about provisioning, expanded opportunities to sightsee beyond the distance limits of the dinghy, and the means to take side trips along the way.

We did the last almost immediately as our good friends Shirley and Wayne invited us to “stop by” South Beach on our way back to Key Largo in the car.  They were there for a book fair and had the use of their daughter’s time share apartment, right on Ocean Boulevard!!  We accepted without hesitation as South Beach is one of those intriguing places we would not likely venture into on our own!  And what a fun time it was!!

The ocean from Ocean Blvd.

After some delay due to missed turns in the crowded, narrow streets at the beach, we arrived just in time for  wine,  cheese, gentle conversation and arial sightseeing on the rooftop deck (hot tub included) of the condo.  Thus fortified, our South Beach adventure began in earnest when the four of us ventured out just as the sun was setting.  Everything we’ve ever heard about South Beach presented itself  as Wayne and Shirley guided us down Ocean Blvd. and  around to the various famous, infamous, and reputedly “hot spots” of the neighborhood.  All kinds of people in all kinds of outfits, doing all kinds of things, in all kind of languages!!  Our guides had taken an Art Deco street tour the day before, and we reaped the benefits of everything they had learned!  In addition to all the “see and be seen” wildness that is South Beach, the area is also a virtual treasure trove of Art Deco architecture,  neon and vintage cars-  everywhere one looked!  It was fantastic!!

By necessity, the visit came to an end the next morning and we headed back to the calm of Key Largo, but we took with us fun memories of our South Beach adventure and many pictures as well.  We hope you enjoy them too!

Moonset at Stuart

What a joyous occasion to re-board Sojourner and head out on new adventures!!  It had been longer than we had planned, and the excitement  –and, quite candidly, the trepidation–   were all the greater for that reality!  Beginning in familiar territory, we decided to start the journey southward slowly and easily:  limit ourselves to short days on the water and revisit known marinas, at least until our sea legs returned.  Wel-l-l… that plan lasted less than a day, and the reality of the first day became the pattern for the entire trip to the Keys.

From St. Augustine, we made good time and arrived very early afternoon at our targeted destination, Palm Coast, of “40 Days and 40 Nights” fame (see blog entry 5/2009).  Though the day was gorgeous with its warm sun, white fluffy clouds, and calm waters, the weather forecasts suggested changes on the way, so we altered the plan first day out: let’s travel the entire day and stay at a new marina!!  Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach was a delightful new stop, but after some consideration, we left the next day thinking we’d rather be down for a couple of days at New Smyrna Beach, one of our favorites, if the weather forecasts came true-  And they did!!

Winds from the north, often very strong, dominate the winter weather pattern in Florida, and as far as the winds are concerned, winter arrived our second day out.  That change ensured we would travel slowly.  After two days down in New Smyrna, we rode 15-20 mph winds to Cocoa Village, Sojourner’s 2009-10 winter  home, and stayed there two days.  From there, we traveled first  to Vero Beach and then on to Stuart for short visit with Cousin Evie before blowing into North Palm Beach and another two-day wind break. Wind gusts at 13 mph made departing Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart somewhat dicey, but the steady 21 mph winds made docking at Old Port Cove in NPB simply terrifying, and we were glad to sit for a while!

Water color transformation @ Ft. Pierce

Three glorious cruising days took us to Delray Beach and Ft. Lauderdale before traversing the Port of the Everglades, passing by the Port of Miami, and cruising right through the heart of Miami to Coconut Grove where we again spent a couple of days waiting out the wind.

South Florida living spaces

 This trip through both familiar territory and new places offered a Florida version of all the different cruising we have done.  The first few days carried us on essentially brown, mostly wide (if narrowly channeled) Intercoastal waters through primarily natural landscapes punctuated only periodically with significant evidence of human activity.  At Ft. Pierce just north of Stuart, a transformation occurred, and we knew we had entered the Florida of winter fantasies!  The water color changed dramatically, the waterway began to narrow, and the undisturbed landscapes became a rare exception to the increasingly dense conglomeration of  human construction.   Heading into the Ft. Lauderdale -Miami corridor, we traveled some 56 miles under an unending series of “slow speed; no wake” restrictions because of “congestion in the area” and “manatee zones”!!  Much of our cruise through the famed south Florida cities of Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Boyton Beach and Miami itself was like driving slowly through neighborhoods on a city street!  A multitude of bridges cross the waterway to connect those neighborhoods, and our decision to take this first cruise “slow and easy” helped us accept the inevitable delays as even the “short” Sojourner often had to wait for a scheduled opening.  We’re not certain we would be so copacetic if we had to make the trip multiple times, but this time, we thoroughly enjoyed the slow pace and the time to truly take in all the sights that it provided!

Sojourner's friends

Stilt house in Biscayne Bay

The last leg of the journey would take us from Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove across Biscayne Bay, through Stilt House City to Hawk Channel and a day’s run in the Atlantic Ocean to Key Largo so we paid particular attention to both the wind and wave heights!  The last day was well worth waiting for and one of our best cruising days ever!! The water was an indescribably beautiful blue-green in color, the swells were less than a foot and the wind, nothing but a gentle breeze. Bottle-nosed porpoises played with Sojourner and we had a grand time!

And now we are in Key Largo!  Sojourner’s berth is on coconut palm-lined Port Largo Canal, and she shares the narrow waterway with several other cruising vessels, a half dozen dive and snorkeling boats, AND the illustrious, if somewhat dilapidated, African Queen of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall fame.  We were joined by our training captains/now friends Capts. Patti and Carol from St. Petersburg for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we were all treated to the visit of a very special guest on Turkey Day!

Sojourner basking under coconut palms in Key Largo

    

Another resident of the Port Largo Canal

A special Turkey Day visitor

We took many pictures during the southern half of this cruise, several of which may be viewed in the St. Augustine to the Keys Flickr set, including video of the porpoises!!

Sojourner celebrates the season!

We started our southward meanderings from Camachee Island in St. Augustine, FL with our ultimate destination for the season being the Keys!!  We’ve reservations for a month on Key Largo, and then we’ll move on to Key West where we’ll be at the downtown city marina right in  the middle of historic seaport!  ”Wintering in the Keys” has been a longtime fantasy , and it looks as if it might just get realized this year!!

Sunrise @ Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor

For now, we are simply enjoying being back on Sojourner, cruising down the Atlantic Inter-coastal Waterway.  We are certainly rusty after so many months on land, but Sojourner is doing just fine and seems quite tolerant of our occasional forgetfulnesses, missteps and miscalculations.  We’ll keep you posted!

Sunset on the Camachee Island marsh

We hope this finds you and yours well and enjoying the very best of this most special season!  As suggested above, ours includes snow this year as we returned to Lexington Kentucky just before Thanksgiving to begin the adventure of re-establishing a land base.  Sojourner didn’t make the trip… she’s  in St. Augustine, preparing to resume our trip southward early in the new year.

We wish you a very Merry Holiday and exciting adventures in 2011!!

Erie Canal Storm Debris

We left central NY the day after Labor Day, and the title of this posting aptly summarizes our southward journey thus far!  We have experienced just about every kind of weather one might imagine, and unfortunately, much of it has been of the “not fun” but incredibly impressive, challenging and memory-making variety… Threatening skies and gusty winds combined with extremely high water levels to create turbulence all along the Erie Canal and made the 20+ locks a real challenge.  We stopped at Ilion and Amsterdam, our “regular” haunts along the canal, and then decided to complete the locking experience before stopping at the end of the third day.  Of course the Tug Roundup at the Waterford Free Docks where we would have stopped encouraged us to continue on that last day as well!!-  Locking through the final lock, the only one in NY operated by the Army Corps of Engineers, brought us to Troy, a place we had not visited before, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!  The city’s large and sturdy floating docks line the Hudson River right downtown so while we had no access to typical marina facilities (bathrooms, showers and the like), we were but a short walk from several intriguing restaurants and other downtown amenities.  We finally chose Jose Malone’s for dinner, yes, a combination of Mexican and Irish cooking.  Susan had Mexican and Carolyn tried Irish, and both were really very good!  At Troy, we shared dock space with Marine 1, the brand new fire boat built in Kingston, ONT for the Jacksonville FL Fire Department, but more on that later! 

Huson River Rainbow

From Troy, we headed to Catskill and a rendezvous with friends Susan and Slade of Sojourner NY.  Unfortunately, Susan was quite sick; so Slade treated us to a provisioning trip to the grocery store and we continued down river.  After an overnight stay in Haverstraw and an incredibly beautiful rainstorm and rainbow on the Hudson, we arrived in NYC.  We picked a different marina, searching in vain for a docking safe from the rocking and rolling of the big city river traffic but still with stunning views of that stunning skyline.  This time we stayed at Lincoln Harbor, right next to the water ferry station, not a good idea!  The rocking and rolling finally subsided around 11 pm, but it began to rev up again around 6 am.  We spent a delightful half day as “Power Tourists” in NYC, travelling by every form of transportation (water ferry, bus, cab, subway and walking) as we visited the new Hayden Planetarium and the Empire State Building.  At the former we saw an incredible show:  Journey to the Stars about the creation and life cycle of stars, including the earth’s sun.  At the latter, we paid a fortune to travel all the way up to the 102^nd observation deck, originally built as a waiting room for dirigible passengers who never came! 

Sojourner's View of NYC

Fearing we could not out of the marina once the turbulence of the daily river traffic resumed in earnest, we left NYC at sunrise and had a beautiful, though surprisingly traffic-filled trip through the harbor, under the Verrazano Bridge, and into the Atlantic.  Our first thought was for a short day by stopping at Atlantic Highlands near Sandy Hook, NJ, but we arrived before 8 am…  After some hesitation, we decided we just couldn’t waste a beautiful travel day on the Atlantic and headed on to Manasquan, one of our least favorite stops.  We arrived at the Manasquan inlet around noon but by then, we were becoming increasingly concerned about the 2-3 day weather forecasts…  So, from a very short day, we changed our plans and ended up with a very long one, travelling all the way from NYC to Atlantic City, NJ, about 12 hours, much of the time at speeds well in excess of 8 knots.  And we are very glad we did!  We had good weather all the way, tho’ the ocean got increasingly choppy the last couple hours, and we were exhausted by the time we pulled into Trump Marina.  We knew we would so much rather be there for an extended down time than anywhere else on the Jersey coast!  It is both the safest and most entertaining place to be, but we had no clue how long we would end up being there.  We stayed 8 days, our longest “weather down” ever!!  It was very weird:  the sun shone every day, the temperatures were moderate, and even the wind wasn’t too bad.  And yet, this was a weather-mandated stop.  About the 4th morning, NOAA posted 3 weather warnings for the Jersey portion of the Atlantic seaboard:  high winds (gusting to 25 knots);  high surf (waves in excess of 10 ft. and ocean swells from 10-12 ft.); and high fire danger along the coast because of low humidity.  The last wasn’t of much concern for us, but the first two kept us tied securely to the floating docks of Trump Marina!  Where was all this weather coming from??  Hurricane IGOR!!  VERY fortunate for us, he did not come within 300-400 miles of shore.  Nonetheless, his presence was certainly felt!!  Trump Marina actually cancelled its annual Offshore Power Boat races because of high seas and extreme water turbulence.  Finally, IGOR’S remnants departed, and we had a seemingly safe weather window for the run to Cape May, our last day on the Atlantic.  Unfortunately, a conflict between wind and current made for a very rocky ride, and Susan spent most of the day glued to the fly bridge floor!! 

Igor Beats the House

Heavy fog delayed our departure from Cape May the next morning and being prudent mariners, we waited until there were no reports of visibility problems anywhere near where we would be travelling.  Carolyn had looked up the Cape May NJ – Lewes DE ferry schedule so even with the fog delay we did not encounter any arriving or departing big boats as we entered Delaware Bay.  The weather prediction included a south wind in our favor and the current was running north; we anticipated a beautiful, if rapid, run up Delaware Bay and an early landing, hopefully in Delaware City, a stop we had missed on our 3 previous visits to the area.  Wel-l-l… this is where the wonderful and weird weather began to take on wicked proportions.  About an hour into the bay, the sun faded and within minutes we were completely encased by a virtually impenetrable fog bank.  We turned on the radar and the automatic fog horn (a 5 second blast every 2 minutes), and for almost 2 hours we slowly “felt” our way, not able to see 100 ft. beyond the boat’s railing.  At one point, we watched a little “spot” on our radar come closer and closer, only to have a small fishing boat with about 5 guys aboard pop out of the fog some 50 feet off our bow.  Our plotted course kept us well out of the main shipping channel, but that provided little comfort when we heard the low and intimidating growl of a very close, very large fog horn-  we could only assume it belonged to a very large vessel because we never saw a thing, but we did experience a rather large wake as the reverberations of the fog horn moved further and further away.  Because of the slow, fog impeded travel, we missed the tide window to go into Delaware City, and the day ended at Summit North marina in Bear, DE, again, not a favorite stopping place.  But it was certainly a welcome one on this day!  The strange weather there had fostered an infestation of stink bugs and before leaving the next morning, we had to spend a couple of hours ridding the fly bridge of literally thousands of the pesky and smelly insects!! 

Pink in the Morning Warning at Sassafras

New acquaintances at Trump had encouraged us to take a trip up the Sassafras River, off the west side of the upper Chesapeake and so after leaving the C&D Canal, that’s just what we did!  We had a beautiful day for cruising; the trip the river was delightful, and by early afternoon we were settled into the Sassafras Harbor Marina in Georgetown, MD, ready to enjoy a delicious dinner of Maryland crab!  Instead of staying a second day, we decided to cross the Chesapeake over to Baltimore.  We had never been there and Carol, one of training captains, was just finishing up Trawler Fest.  What a great decision!  The Baltimore Inner Harbor is really quite wonderful and we had a terrific time!!  From more scrumptious Maryland crab at the harbor and indescribably delicious pastry (including take home cannoli kits) in Little Italy to a Science Center IMAX show about the Hubble, we enjoyed Capt. Carol’s company and had a splendid time!! 

Storms Threaten Baltimore

From Baltimore, we headed south thinking we would make a short day by stopping in Annapolis.  Yet again, the weather predictions worsened as the day progressed so as we approached Annapolis we decided to go on to one of our favorite places, Spring Cove Marina at Solomons, MD on the Patuxent River.  If we were to be stopped for weather, the sheltered harbor, great facilities, close-by restaurants and nearby grocery store all made Spring Cove a good place to be.  The weather deteriorated rapidly, and we travelled in moderate to heavy rain the last hour or so.  At the end of that day we did our very first docking in pouring rain and from the lower helm (!!) before we settled in to wait out what turned out to be  Tropical Storm Nicole and the really wicked weather created when she met another low pressure zone moving in from the west.  Solomons experienced gale force winds and record rainfall;  flooding developed all along the Chesapeake; and still the storm raged!  The water level kept rising, through both high and low tide, as the south wind blew water up the river.  By the second evening, it appeared the docks might flood so we tied Sojourner in a virtual spider web of lines, unplugged her electric and headed for higher ground.  We spent the night at a nearby motel.  We checked on her at 7 and 10 pm and then at 6 the next morning… She rode out the storm in much better shape than we did!!  The next day, the rains diminished but the winds increased;  Marina staff decided to move us to a more protected slip.  Susan wasn’t keen about the prospect of moving in the weather but the transfer occurred without incident and the new spot was really a much better one in which to weather the remainder of  the storm. 

View from our Deltaville Safe Haven

That brings us to Deltaville, VA where we are waiting out yet another incredible storm!!  We arrived mid afternoon two days ago after a delightful day of cruising on the Chesapeake!!  It was sunny, warm and the water was quite well-behaved.  Dozier’s Regatta Point is a neat little marina tucked off a channel on the south side of the mouth of the Rappahannock River, and we slid easily into one of the wide floating dock slips very near the office and facilities.  It is a great overnight stop before our last day of the Chesapeake.  As night fell, however, the weather worsened and we rocked and rolled all night.  It was clear first thing the next morning we would not be moving on to Norfolk…  It is now Monday and we HOPE we’ll be able to leave by Wednesday or Thursday!!  About 10 am Sunday morning the marina manager came by and offered to move us into a more protected slip… in one of the covered sheds at a very different angle to the channel, the river and the wind.  We jumped at the chance and the rain began in earnest just as we were making the move.  The winds are at gale force for much of the time with gusts even higher and the rain comes down in buckets!!  The channel off the river has white caps; the river has white caps and “overhead” (6-8 ft.) waves are predicted for the Bay itself!  Two sailboats arrived shortly after we did and both had plans to leave the next morning; only one did, and we wonder how they fared in this storm…-  We and the other remaining sailboat have now joined two trawlers who have been here for almost a week already!  Interestingly, the remaining sailboat docked next to us at Cape May and one of the trawlers was at Oriental NC earlier this year when we were there with friend Tanya waiting for that illusive weather window needed to cruise to the Outer Banks-  One of the many really interesting aspects of this grand adventure is the meeting, re-meeting and often re-re-meeting of folks and boats in many different places!  The other trawler is owned by a couple who have been cruising full-time for 10 years and they’ve owned their boat for 21 years.  They bought it new and had it shipped from the west coast through the Panama Canal to the east coast when they retired and moved into full-time cruising!  We are all headed south and our paths are likely to cross several more times before we each reach our own destination… 

Perhaps one of the most fundamental realizations we have gained on this journey is the power, in all meanings of that word, of the weather.  We have experienced indescribably intense wind and rain; we’ve witnessed the damage both can do.  At a minimum, we have waited… and waited…  for weather “windows” through to travel, e.g., “40 days and 40 nights” at Palm Coast,  the 2-3 days at each stop along the Atlantic seaboard last year, and all the stops thus far this year.   For those of us accustomed to living on land in well-constructed permanent shelters and traveling in vehicles on roads that don’t move with the wind or become choppy in the rain, weather can be an inconvenience, but under normal circumstances, it doesn’t preclude completion of daily routines or fulfillment of future plans.  On the water, however, weather is the absolute force.  It influences every element of the living environment and it can, and often does, cause complete changes  in a day’s (or week’s ) planned activities.  Neither of us believes we will ever be so cavalier about weather again.  Some day we will certainly appreciate not having to “tie down” our living space and secure everything inside it whenever bad weather comes.  For now, we remain profoundly impressed by the power and majesty of weather.

more NY and NJ pix         more MD and VA pix