Boot Key Exploration

2/18/2017

Boaters at the Faro Blanco marina, and even some who came from other spots in Marathon, joined together for a dinghy ride today. Their planned trip took them on Gulf waters to Vaca Cut, through the cut, and into the Atlantic for the ride back to Faro Blanco. They planned to incorporate lunch at Lazy Days South restaurant in their jaunt. Clark and I received invitations to join the fleet, but Clark had other plans for the day.

With a 10:00 departure time, the dinghies started to gather about 9:45.

Collecting dinghies for the outing

Mel and Ann Morning Star II waiting for others to join the crowd

Those in the ready hanging in the marina
until everyone is collected

Had Clark and I been left behind at the marina working on our boat all day, I would have been sorely disappointed not to go with the crowd. As we had planned, while the dinghy fleet left the marina, Clark and I prepped Sunset Delight for a day trip to check out the status of repairs performed to date.

As we exited the marina, Jeanne on Daybreak pulled out her camera to take pictures of our boat.

Sunset Delight leaving the marina for a day trip

Shortly after exiting the marina ourselves, we found the dinghy crowd rapidly moving on their way towards Vaca Cut.

Faro Blanco dinghy trip

For our first stop on our planned outing, we headed to a nearby fuel dock that caters to fishing boats. Fuel docks of this sort have good fuel turnover, meaning it is usually fresher than others, and normally have better rates. However, it would appear that getting a better fuel price means getting no-frill's service.

As we entered the narrow waterway housing the fuel dock, Clark and I both wondered how we would extract ourselves from the dock area after fueling. Would we be able to turn Sunset Delight around in the small space or have to back out? I had lines in hand as Clark pulled up to the fixed dock which, when we got there, was at my eye level. The poles were even higher. No cleats could be seen anywhere. Tying up would be a serious challenge.

Unfortunately, the lines on SD are fat, long, and heavy making them cumbersome to work with. As I struggled to figure out how I could  wrap a line around anything, a man walking back to his fishing boat felt pity on me and took a line. "Where d'ya want it?", he barked at me. "Over there", I replied thankful to have one line under control. After that he just walked away, got on his boat, and left. No further help was forthcoming from that department.

While he was tying our mid-ship line securely in place, I tried in vain to figure out how to get a stern line tied to the dock. Eventually I came up with something while Clark managed to get a bow line tied. No sooner did I sigh with relief that we had it secure than the fuel dock attendant told Clark we had to move the boat forward if we wanted fuel.

Of course, we got no assistance whatsoever from anyone. As I yelled to Clark, "I can't reach!" A man turned and looked at me, saw me struggling and frustrated, and just walked away. Where did these people come from? With lots of huffing and puffing and a boat hook, I got the lines off and we pulled up the few feet required to the fuel dock.  Surprisingly, the attendant did take one line from me. I gather that was because all he had to do was hold out his hand to collect it. He gave me no help with the stern or bow lines.

Clark pumped 75 gallons of diesel into the starboard side tank and then discovered that no matter what approach he took, the fuel hose was at least three feet too short to reach the port side tank. He decided that the only way to put fuel in the port side of the boat would be to rotate the boat, so we untied the lines and pulled away to go "spin" the boat. With very little room to spare fore and aft, Clark managed to rotate the boat. Now we had to tie up yet again! At least we were facing the right way to exit the inlet. Another 75 gallons in the port tank, and we were finally on our way.

Exerting so much effort on the boat in the heat and humidity left me a little light-headed. I poured myself a tall glass of water, dragged myself up to the upper helm, and sat and soaked up what little breeze I could find until my body temperature came back to more normal levels. A little heat stroke potential going on there perhaps.

Now, shortly after 11:00, we continued our day trip by heading for Boot Key which sits on the Atlantic side of Marathon. To get there we passed under the 7-mile bridge. The original bridge is no longer used and is in rather despicable condition with "Danger - stay away" signs posted every few feet. The other bridge is the only way to get to Key West.

Fishermen anchored between the two bridges

Looking back at the bridge pair from the Atlantic side

Another view of the 7-mile bridge from Atlantic Side

Our primary purpose for a day out on the boat was to check the boat repairs done thus far to verify fixed items worked as expected and gather data for items yet to repair. After fueling up, we took heat measurements on our Aquadrives at idle speed as requested by the manufacturer. We have an unexplained thumping noise on the port side at 700 RPM. We later took another reading after running at higher speeds. To Clark's untrained eye, the temperature readings both looked to be in a reasonable range.

Clark also examined the raw-water pump repair and noticed that it is still dropping black dust as it runs. I was mistaken a few days ago when I posted it was leaking and the leak repaired. It was, and is still, dropping black dust which means the rubber is getting hot and becoming degraded. This one requires yet more work.

With nothing to cross off our list yet, we decided the next step would be to check out the anchor windlass repair. Clark had installed the missing stripper and needed to test the dropping and retrieving of the anchor. We anchored at Boot Key outside of the controlled anchorage area with a number of sailboats.

Anchorage near Boot Key

Clark sent me up to the bow to take the safety off the anchor chain so it could be lowered. The anchor and chain went into the water with no problems, but when we got to the line portion, the windlass started misbehaving. We ended up taking the windlass apart.

Disassembled Windlass

Windlass base sans the winch part

 We had to get the manual to figure out how to put the windlass back together. Clark inserted the pieces as I followed along in the manual to be sure pieces were put back in the right order and the right way up.

Winch reassembled

We found one problem in that Clark had put the new stripper in upside down. He reversed that in the reassemble process.

Since it was now after noon, we decided to take a lunch break. After lunch, we pulled up the anchor and instead of binding, it flowed into the rope locker quite nicely. Unfortunately, when we retested the down anchor, we found that it still malfunctioned as before we took apart and rebuilt the winch. Getting an answer on why the line is causing the windlass to "act up" is now on Clark's to do list.

After raising the anchor, we decided to explore Boot Key. We knew some Looper folks we met back in 2015 were staying in the area, so we decided to be on the lookout for their boat.

Entrance to Boot Key 

Burdines Restaurant and Marina

Marathon Marina Moorings

Houses and docks along the waterway

Egret and Pelican occupying a dock

Sample Lagoon

Another Lagoon

We reached the end of the waterway and saw no signs of the boat we were searching for. Fortunately, the end of the waterway had a wide area where Clark could spin the boat around. With the extra length of Sunset Delight, it is non-trivial to pivot. I was very glad to see a wide spot to turn around. Knowing the boat we sought was somewhere in the area, we kept looking. Clark pointed to a boat with a dark full enclosure and said, "That's a likely candidate."

As we passed the boat, I read Horizon Chaser on the side and knew we had found the one we were looking for. We saw no signs of people, but Clark called their phone number, and Dan walked out on the bow of their boat to be able to see us while Clark talked to him on the phone.

We found Horizon Chaser!
They were hidden with no Looper flag showing and their
boat name only visible from the side, but we found them anyway!

Having accomplished our mission of finding Horizon Chaser, we headed back towards our marina. On the way in we had passed some pelicans enjoying a row boat, but the camera angle was not good. We captured them still enjoying the boat on our way out. I wonder if they fight over who gets the good seats in the boat and who gets to pole sit!

Pelicans in a boat guarded by Pelicans on poles!

We left Boot Key the  way we came and circled around to go back under the seven-mile bridge.

Between the old and new bridges again -
the fishermen must have all gone home!

Old bridge has a section missing - no cars allowed obviously -
where we pass through to go under the new bridge.

We arrived back at Faro Blanco just before 4:30. Folks must have seen us coming as we had two dock hands and several other boaters standing at our dock ready to grab lines and help us tie up. I heard someone say, "When does it go from being helpers to being an audience?" Truth be told, we appreciate all the help we can get.

Having had an exhausting day in the heat and sun, I just wanted to "veg out"; however, we had things to do to put the boat back in order from our day out. Around 5:30, however, I told Clark I was heading over to the lighthouse to see who was around for docktails. On the way there I saw Kenny and Jeanne from Daybreak who said they had been watching and saw no one over at the lighthouse.

I told them that I was going to docktails even if I had to sit alone. They said they would join me, so the three of us made up the docktails contingent for the evening until Clark came over to join us. He said to me, "You never came back, so I assumed you found docktails". We invited him to join us, and we all talked and enjoyed the cool breeze until the cannon fired signaling time for sunset.