Tuesday, March 31, 2009

March 30, 2009; Key Largo to Boca Chica, FL



We were delighted to have a milder wind from the North so we confirmed our plan to cruise the Atlantic today. On the way, we passed down Snake Creek by Plantation Key with its beautiful vacation homes on the inlets cut to create waterfront and under the bridge on the Overseas Highway at Windley Key. The route was the shortest way to the Hawk channel which runs outside along the keys.

Tom had found the longitude and latitude of the Dry Rock coral reef off the coast of Key Largo and that is our destination. We found the Dry Rock location with not a grain of land in sight; no dry rocks at all, just ocean. This is part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and it is a well marked with floating buoys and mooring balls. This is a popular shallow water snorkeling spot over a living reef. The nation’s first underwater park, the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park includes approximately 190 square miles of coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangrove swamps. We arrived at lunch time, and were the only boat there when we chose our mooring ball and got out our masks and snorkels. It is amazing to discover what is under the bright blue water’s surface. This is the only living coral reef in North American - we saw rigid Elkhorn Coral and gracefully swaying purple sea fans. The guide book says there are 55 kinds of coral and over 600 species of fish living here. We saw incredible fish from neon blue parrot fish, to vertical yellow and black striped Sergeant Majors, fish with bright blue heads and yellow tails that looked like dyed Easter eggs, large navy blue grouper shaped fish, brown and white file fish, a yellow fish with red fins, brown and white fat spotted fish, and silver fish with yellow tails. Some moved in schools, but most darted in and out of the coral chasing each other like a game of tag or dancing. I even saw what I thought was a long silver king mackerel lying still near the bottom. It took us a white to find it, but this was also the location of the 9 foot bronze statue of Christ with His arms raised in prayer which was placed on the reef in August, 1965. The statue which weighs 20,000 pounds is a match to the Christ of the Abyss statue off the coast of Italy. This is a place where scuba divers have come to have an underwater wedding – I guess it is as close to a church as they could find under the sea. (this picture was taken from the www.keyshistory.org/artchristofthedeep.html website).

We stayed there for a couple of hours including eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and were joined by six or seven other boats, including a snorkeling tour boat. When we left there, we had a couple of hour ride north along Key Largo to reach the Biscayne Channel marked by deserted stick houses which were once privately own but now taken over by the National Park Service as part of the Biscayne Bay National Park.


Here we found the beautiful little Boca Chica Key with its old coral stone light lighthouse, chapel and gently swaying palm trees. What a lovely place for us to dock for the night. It is really a small world – the two boats behind us were from Glendale, NC (in the mountains) and Topsail Beach, NC.

Monday, March 30, 2009

March 29, 2009: Marathon, Fl



We took the dinghy into the Marathon Municipal Marina this morning and Tom worked on disabling my rear brakes which allowed the bent wheel to rotate on the axle of my bike. Riding slowly with my bike so reengineered, we arrived at the bike shop just as it was opening at 10 AM. The manager agreed to work on my rim if we could leave it for a couple of hours. Tom had seen the Marathon United Methodist Church along the way, so we decided to walk back to it while they worked on my bike. On the way, we passed the Hidden Harbor Turtle Hospital which is a marine environmental non-profit organization that rescues sea turtles as an endangered species. They even had a turtle ambulance.


We got some good exercise on our mile walk back to join the islanders in worship. The service was very joyful, and blended contemporary and traditional service which began with a flute, piano duet of Amazing Grace – what a blessing. The music was provided by the Gospel Warriors, an awesome Christian music group including a professional flautist, electric guitar, piano, drums and steel drum pan. We sang lots of uplifting praise songs, but I was struck by one in particular named The Wonderful Cross. It had a modern chorus, but the verses were the lyrics form Isaac Watts 1707 hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Singing the familiar words in a different context deepened the meaning of the words for Easter “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all!” The pastor, Peggy Benson, gave a message on dying to self in our relationship with God taken from John 12: 20-23 in which she included her personal testimony. We appreciated her sharing her calling to become a pastor after she was in her 50’s and giving up her well paid job to move towards where God was calling; and how God had blessed her in it. The Old Rugged Cross was sung as a solo and the congregation sang The Lord’s Prayer as part of Holy Communion.


We met a couple from Hatteras, NC who sat on the pew in front of us, and they were nice enough to give us a ride back to the boat shop after the service.

The bike shop did a great job and truing my rim (they did not have a new one the right size), so I am mobile again. After a quick trip to Wendy’s for lunch and Winn Dixie for milk, we headed back to the boat to head towards Key Largo. This afternoon, traveling again north of the keys, we found the water surface a little calmer.

We followed the channel through the Florida Bay because it is full of sandbars – reminds me of Bogue Sound. At one point, the channel led with red and green markers through, Cowpens Cut, a grove of mangrove trees out in the wide expanse of water. It took us about 3 hours to reach Tavernia where we found a harbor enclosed on three sides. This should be a quiet place to spend the night.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

March 28, 2009: Marathon Key, Fl




There is a route to travel the 50 miles from Key West to Marathon without going out into the Atlantic. So this morning, we left the beautiful Key West bight and headed North to circle above the keys back to the Seven Mile bridge we had left several days before.



There was an amazing view of a group of wind surfers in the shallows off of Fleming Key. Several boats were anchored on a sandbar, and there were at least 5 wind kites in the air. It might have been a class, because there was one guy holding the kite while another got on the board. It looks like such a dangerous sport with the potential for the kite to lift you off the water at any time, especially in wind like we had today.



The ride this afternoon was through the Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge waterway skimming a couple of miles off the north coast of the Keys. The seas were 3 to 4 feet for a pretty choppy ride with lots of spray coming through the open front window. The 3 hour ride gave us a coat of salt all over everything but we enjoyed the beautiful turquoise water. We passed through the old railroad bridge a little before 2 pm, and entered the Boot Key harbor on Marathon Key.



The water was suddenly very calm where the channel was sheltered by the mangroves trees and we proceeded by the large lift bridge up to the Boot Key City Marina mooring field. There are 226 mooring balls, and we got one of the few available slipping in between two large sailboats. We took our dinghy to the city dock and Tom found a Baptist Church not too far away. Unfortunately, we had a mishap with my bike, and now my wheel is bent, so I will need a professional repair job (or new wheel) before I am riding again. We hope to sort some of that out tomorrow.



We had broiled grouper and cheese grits from our galley on the boat tonight and watched pink streaks fill the sky beyond the next row of sailboats.

Friday, March 27, 2009

March 26-27, 2009: Stranded in Key West



Docked at the same wharf as we are is the trawler, Frandy, that is from Morehead, NC. When we spoke to the captain, he said they are actually from Spooner's Creek, but come to Key West for the winter.

Today we intended to leave Key West headed East to Looe Key to snorkel on the coral beds there. However, after casting off, refueling for the trip and cruising to just out of the leeway of the island, we encountered major seas. There were crashing waves 6 – 10 feet and immediately, there was salty spray over the bridge as the boat pounded into the surf. Nope, not today. The winds were still at 20 – 30 knots, and now since they had shifted to the Southeast, they were coming across lots of miles of water. We decided it was not wise to leave today.


So we returned to the dock, and have now had two more days to explore Key West. We ate on the second story porch of Crabby Dicks last night and then took a long bike ride out to the north side of the island to see a movie. There was a wide paved bike path right on the edge of the water. It was a much better place to ride than the four lane road next to it.


Today we discovered Mallory Square and had dinner at the Hog’s Breath under a huge magnolia-like tree, listening to guitar music. The sign by the door asked us not to feed the chickens, but I never saw any. I had the wonderful calypso salad which turned out to have jalapeño peppers chopped finely in it – my mouth still burns. Mallory Square is a waterfront park where entertainers were juggling knives and fiery torches for crowds of tourists. It was obviously a popular spot with the crowd many people deep on the edge of the dock waiting for the sunset. There were a lot of sunset cruising as well with sailboat crews circling to watch as the sun dipped below the clouds on the horizon.

March 25, 2009: Key West



Today we headed out in the sunshine 4 blocks down Caroline Street to see the Key West Heritage Museum and the Robert Frost Cottage at 410 Caroline Street. This is a home built in the 1830s and was home to 7 generations of Porters.

The last to live in the house was Jessie Porter and it was still decorated with her family’s furniture and memoirs. The dining room chairs were from Italy and recovered from a wreck off the coast of Key West. Apparently, during the late 1800’s there was supplemental income in “wrecking” for fishermen; this meant to savage the contents of the many ships that wrecked on the shoals just off the coast. She also had a set of pewter given to her grandfather by the Dr Mudd who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln’s assassination. Dr. Mudd was imprisoned on Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas (30 miles west of Key West).

Jessie became friends with Robert Frost who spent his winters in her guest house in Key West from 1945 to 1960. His little place opened out onto a beautiful garden that included a huge Strangler Fig tree and was paved with bricks that came from Baltimore as ship ballast. Frost received the Pulizer Prize for a collection of his poems in 1931 and at the age of 87 spoke at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. The poem, The Gift Outright, he spoke from memory for that occasion had never been published but was written for Jessie and the handwritten copy is framed on her wall.

We also saw a similarly styled house on the same street with wide porches both upstairs and down and the historical marker about her grandfather Dr Joseph Porter who lived there. He was the first Medical Health officer for the state of Florida from 1889 – 1917.


We have found some really cool restaurants in Key West and ate at Pepe’s for lunch. This tiny restaurant was the oldest in the Keys and opened in 1909 so it was 100 years old. Our table was in the garden under beautiful blooming tree and the fresh fish sandwich with mango sauce was delicious.


We made a return trip to the pool this afternoon so that the swordfish would not be lonely.

For dinner we checked out Margarettaville, the restaurant that Jimmy Buffett owns. They said he had been in unannounced recently to give an impromptu concert, but we missed it.