January 2021
No boat travel.
I found some sunset pictures hidden away on Clark's cellphone that he has taken since the beginning of the year.
 |
| Sunset New Year's Day 2021 |
 |
| Sunset on 1/3/2021 at Faro Blanco |
 |
| Sunset on 1/6/2021 at Faro Blanco |
7 January 2021
No boat travel.
We had a southeast wind today for a change. The sea grass that had accumulated around the docks started to drift back where it came from. I decided to give it a helping hand and ended up with a blister on my thumb from using a boat hook to push the sea grass back out to sea. Seeing a grass-free slip for even a short while made the effort worthwhile.
 |
| Sea grass moving on out |
10 January 2021
No boat travel.
After the 7th, the wind shifted around to once again come in from the north or northeast and with it came the sea grass. This time with a vengeance!
Needing some exercise, I went for a walk around the marina. Clark stayed back to do some compounding / waxing on the boat.
 |
| Clark polishing the boat |
In all the time I have been here, (this is our sixth season), I have never seen the marina so thick with sea grass!
When the sea grass comes in, sometimes some sea life comes with it!
 |
| Portuguese Man o War |
As I walked around the marina, this is what I saw!
 |
| View from the SE corner of the marina |
 |
| Looking at the boats surrounded by sea grass |
 |
| View of Florida Bay |
 |
| View from the NE corner of marina |
 |
| This is the slip that held "Hour Plan" last year. |
When it was Clark's turn to take pictures, he decided to focus on the beautiful sunset instead of the nasty sea grass.
 |
| Sunset at Faro Blanco on 1/10/2021 |
Zooming in, he even captured one with a pelican flying by ...
 |
| Sunset at Faro Blanco on 1/10/2021 |
11 January 2021
Depart: Faro Blanco Marina 2:40
Arrive: Newfound Harbor Anchorage 5:30
Distance: 23.5 nm
Conditions: slight SE wind, 70s, overcast skies
Once a week we take the boat out for a maintenance run to knock off the weeds and animals that have attached themselves to the hull and exercise the engines. Looking at the favorable weather conditions, we could not decide what we wanted to do. We dilly-dallied around until mid-afternoon when we started untying our lines. Before we pulled away from the dock, Clark added water to our almost-empty water tanks to bring them up to the 1/2 full mark. That should be sufficient should we decide to stay out overnight or longer.
Clark considered just taking the boat for the maintenance run of about one hour, going for a short one-night stay at a nearby anchorage, or going for a multi-night outing and heading off towards Key West and possibly beyond. When he told our boat neighbors, Bill and Sandy, he was considering going to the Dry Tortugas, Sandy laughed because she thought he was joking. When they realized he was serious, we got a lecture from Bill as Sandy ran for her iPad to check out conditions for such a voyage.
As Sandy shared her info with Clark, I got a scary lecture from Bill on the hazards of traveling to the Gulf at this time of year. He talked of waves so large that the boat would survive but people aboard (i.e. us) would be dead should such bad conditions suddenly appear. Basically, the picture he painted for a trip to the Dry Tortugas was grim to say the least.
Before we left, we did get a confirmation from Bill that we could make it to Newfound Harbor to anchor before nightfall. We decided to take it one-step at a time and headed there as our first stop. As we pulled out of the slip, a pelican came to roost on the post by our slip. Being very brave, he stood his ground even as I walked right up next to him and waved my arms. They are too used to being fed by the fishermen here to scare off.
 |
| Ev explaining to the pelican that it should find somewhere else to perch |
We traveled west until we got to Moser Channel and then went under the 7-mile bridge and out into the Atlantic Ocean. I drove through the bridge as Clark snapped some pics.
Because of the directions of the wind and current, our stabilizers did not completely stop us from being tossed about. However, we observed only a slight chop to the water, so it was not an issue. What quickly became a pain in the bottom was the abundance of fish traps. Clark thought that perhaps if we headed further out into the ocean, we would see less traps. This, sadly, did not appear to be the case. We ended up traveling west about 1.5 miles from shore, watching for, and maneuvering around traps for the entire trip.
On the ocean, we saw nothing but water, traps, and sky for the duration of the ride. With heavy cloud cover, we hardly even saw the sun. On occasion, however, it tried to break through.
 |
| Ray of sun peeking through the heavy cloud cover |
Although it felt like we were hardly moving, we did manage to travel at about 8.5 knots for our time on the ocean. Eventually, as planned, we arrived at the entrance to Newfound Harbor.
 |
| Entrance to Newfound Harbor |
 |
 |
| Clark's sunset picture |
 |
| Ev's sunset picture taken a short while later |
We simply kicked back and relaxed watching a movie on television and finally called it a night around midnight.
12 January 2021
Depart: Newfound Harbor Anchorage 12:00
Arrive: Faro Blanco Marina 3:15
Distance: 22 nm
Conditions: Breezy, 70s, Overcast skies
Amazingly, we both slept until 10:30 this morning. We had no marina noises, or any other noises for that matter, to disturb us, so we were not woken up any earlier. By the time we finished breakfast, it was almost time for lunch. Even so, Clark thought it a good idea to eat before leaving the anchorage, so I made him lunch.
"So," I said, "where are we going today?" With that, he pulled out his iPad to check on the weather. Although the weather looked good for the earlier part of the day, he saw a front that would come through later that he did not care for. We both agreed that returning to Faro Blanco, instead of venturing on towards Key West, might be the better plan for today.
Around noon, we departed the anchorage to make our way back to the marina. Having no success with going further offshore on our way to the harbor to avoid traps, Clark decided we should try closer to land for the trip back. We still found traps - perhaps not as many. As we neared Moser Channel, we saw a boat moving from trap-to-trap emptying any contents and dumping the trap back in the water.
The practiced moves of the men hauling in the traps was fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed my camera to try to capture their activities, I was too late and we had passed them. Their actions appeared almost automated. As they pulled a trap in, they brought it onto a hinged metal plate that lifted the trap to a horizontal position. Once they emptied the trap, they dropped the metal platform and the trap disappeared back into the water. It took only seconds to complete the work and move on to the next trap.
 |
| Men working on trap boat |
Shortly after we passed the trap-collecting boat, we arrived at the 7-Mile bridge.
When we pulled into the marina, we noticed that our neighbors, Sandy and Bill, were gone. Instead of being greeted by them, we were greeted by a slip full of sea grass. Sigh!
We miss being there with everyone but not the sea grass. Yuck!
ReplyDelete