Florida Keys, USA.....(7th January to 18th January 2016)

We left Marco, West Florida on the 7^th of January following a fishing boat out the entrance as the visibility was poor and it was just getting light. We needed to get 55nm to the next sheltered anchorage before dark.

There were lots of crab boats out checking their pots

We had to be watchful for buoyed pots but it soon cleared and we had a pleasant day motor sailing with lots of dolphin playing in the bow wave or at the stern.

Eric managed to pull in a spanish mackerel which we devoured for dinner that night. It is lovely to be able to catch fish again

As we approached Little Shark river we noticed a yacht at anchor well out to sea. The sails had been dropped but rather than being furled were dropped all over the deck as if a lone sailor had been exhausted from avoiding crab pots and given up. We noticed a forehead hatch open but on circling the boat and calling out nobody appeared

Just before entering Little shark river in the Everglades National Park we enjoyed a magnificent sunset

This was a pretty little anchorage but the mosquitoes were hungry!!

The next day the weather forecast was for very light variable winds but we got 20knot headwinds which made spotting the hundreds of crab/craw fish pot buoys difficult to see. Even standing on the bow we had difficulty as many of the buoys were badly maintained and bobbed just below the surface as they were weighted down with weed and barnacles and some were so close together it was difficult to navigate through them

We got 2 pots caught under the keel but with reversing we managed to free them

We listened to the conversation of fisherman on the radio and they said they had 600 pots out and that's only 1 crabber of dozens!!

As we rounded the bottom of the mainland and headed north up the Florida Keys we got shelter and were able to make some headway again.

We were headed for Tavernier Key where we have friends. The water is very shallow but with a draft of only 1.03m ( 4'3”) it was very comfortable for us. Some of the cuts through sandbars were very narrow but well marked

The cormorants were very happy to have these sticks to roost on

We motored through cowpen cut into the cowpen anchorage off Tavernier Key just on dark. ( Thus named after the manatee/dugong/seacow which in days gone by were herded there)

The next day being the 9^th of January we took the dinghy up one of the canals to where our friends Scott, Robyn and Ryan live.

We spent the next 6 days enjoying their wonderful company, sightseeing and running errands.

Scott runs a fishing charter business out of Islamorada key. Fishing for Tarpon and a variety of other local fish

A sightseeing trip into Key West and to watch a basketball match which Scott's son Ryan was competing in was most enjoyable

No name Key has the oldest Bar.... built in 1936. It has become a tradition over the years to sign a dollar note and staple it to the wall or ceiling. It is estimated that there are 70,000 of these.

A refuge has been developed on Big Pine and No name Key for Key deer which were on the brink of extinction but are now estimated to be more than 600

  

We enjoyed a picnic on the ocean side of Key West at Smathers Beach and we tried Stone crab claws for the first time which were delicious! Thanks to Robyn.

Other delights were Key lime pie and Cuban chicken, beans with rice and Cuban bread

Key West is a vibrant tourist spot with a colourful history. We drove through the notorious streets as Robyn and Scott pointed out things of interest. Ernest Hemingways home, the oldest house and the southernmost point where there was a long line of people waiting to have a photo taken to mention a few...

A stroll along the historic waterfront wet our appetite to see more when we sailed down.

The inter school basketball game was very enjoyable. The first USA game we'd seen along with a cheer leader squad. We had our eyes on number 12!

It was time to head south to Key West where we would checkout and sail to Cuba

With predicted winds of 25-33 knots and unexpected white squalls of 36-40knots it was surreal to be in 2m of water with waves occasionally crashing across the bow. We endured torrential downpours with thunder and lightening but were in no danger but nevertheless were pleased to reach shelter for the night 

............................................................................A white squall across the water

Friday the 16^th of January ….A beautiful early morning start took us under the 7 mile bridge. This is an incredible feat of engineering which is part of the overseas highway. The old Flagler railway bridge which is now derelict runs alongside

 

 

This blimp high in the sky has it's eye on the Florida straits as far as Cuba

 

Portuguese man of war were being carried on the currents with the aid of their air filled sails

We arrived in Key west in the late afternoon. It was very picturesque as there were a lot of yachts out match racing and a cruise ship in port. Man of War harbour which doesn't offer much shelter was full of boats .

We were keen to get anchored in behind Fleming Key in the Garrison Bight as a storm was predicted to come in overnight. As we were making our way there Eric noticed a familiar yacht and as we passed it we saw the name “Cats Paw 4” and arriving in their dinghy were Barry and Ann whom we last saw in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was such a wonderful surprise to seem them

We set both our anchors in series as we do when we know we are going to get some serious wind and were pleased we had as it reached a steady 30+knots in the early hours.

At 0400hrs we got up and turned the VHF radio on and listened to communications from boats anchored in the overcrowded popular anchorage off town which was exposed to wind and sea and tidal flow. We stayed on watch as a yacht next to us was dragging, another yacht appeared to have broken from it's mooring buoy and many boats were dragging and coming down on top of each other on the exposed side. Another was washed ashore onto the sandbank

Air Coastguard were communicating with a stricken yacht 35nm away in the Gulf of Mexico and they were eventually picked up by a rescue swimmer and airlifted aboard.

We had planned to see a bit more of Key West by bike but after having to stay aboard for 2 days with the storm and a narrow weather window to clear the USA and make the trip across the Florida straits to Cuba we were off like startled sea gulls!!

The Okeechobee waterway, Florida USA (1st January to 5th January 2016)

On New Year's Day we arrived at the St Lucie inlet in Stuart, Florida where the Okeechobee waterway begins.This goes from the East to west coast.

After two devastating hurricanes in 1927 and 1928, the Florida State Legislature created the "Okeechobee Flood Control District". The organization was authorized to cooperate with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in actions to prevent similar disasters. The Okeechobee Waterway is the result. Lake Okeechobee is enclosed by a 20-foot (6 m) high dike built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (which replaced an earlier 6-foot mud dike) and incorporated the construction of channels, gates and levees resulting in a man-made waterway stretching from Fort Myers on the west coast, across (or around) Lake Okeechobee, to Stuart on the east coast of Florida. The waterway runs through Lake Okeechobee and consists of the Caloosahatchee River to the west of the lake and the St. Lucie Canal east of the lake.
The Port Mayaca RR Lift Bridge at Mile 38 has a 49-foot vertical clearance when open, which is thus the limiting vertical clearance for the waterway. Additionally, droughts periodically lower the water level of the lake sufficiently enough to limit its navigability. The US Army Corps of Engineers provides a daily update of water levels for both the cross-lake channel as well as the rim channel.

We took 3 days to navigate the waterway going under 27 bridges, some of these being swing bridges and bascule opening bridges and 5 locks.

  Most of the bridges were 54-55' high

The lowest was 49' We measured from the waterline to the top of the mast and it was 47.5' which meant we had a couple of feet spare but Eric thought it would be best to remove our wind direction and speed sensor and tri navigation lights from the top of the mast

As he was removing them we passed under power lines. Even though they were 88' high it was a bit unnerving knowing there was all that voltage up there

49' Port Mayaca Railway bridge

 

It was good experience in the locks for our future transit of the Panama Canal. The locks ranged from only 1' to 12'

We were able to download an information guide off the internet for the bridges and locks and "active captain" which is a boaters interactive information site had good information for anchorages.
We tied up to these Dolphins just before the Port Mayaca lock

Public dock at La Belle

We walked to a small grocery store to get supplies and enjoyed watching this squirrel eating acorns

At the dock we watched these birds getting snails

An eagle landed on the spreaders on the mast

For most of the trip we traveled unplanned with another yacht. We never officially got to meet the 2 men aboard but waved to each other along the way. It appeared that they were new to having a sailboat and we chuckled at the mistakes they made remembering our own mistakes when we started.

We chose to sail across the lake then entered the waterway again at Clewiston. This took us through a shallow channel with water lilies lining it.

Clewiston has gates to protect the town in the event of a Hurricane.

Many of the trees had  Spanish moss hanging from them...Quite picturesque!

As we raced to get through this bascule bridge before nightfall we noticed this pretty lit up tree

There were great opportunities for photographs....We enjoyed watching birds and alligator. 

Once we got back into salt water the dolphin and manatee appeared again
 Most dolphin tend to play at the bow of our boat but these ones kept coming up beside us in the cockpit and we got wet several times when they blew from their blowholes

After passing Fort Myers we were on the western coast of Florida and we anchored for the night at Shell point next to a floating bar/ restaurant

On Tuesday the 5th of January we set off to sea. It was lovely to feel the movement of sailing again.
This part of the coast is quite shallow. It was  5-7 metres  deep , quite well off shore and there were a lot of crab pots we had to watch out for. The wind was 20-28 knots and predicted to get up to over 33 knots overnight so we decided to stop at Marco, 40nm down the coast and seek shelter.