2020: Life at Faro Blanco

 20 December 2020

No boat travel.

Yesterday, I was on a day-long mission to clean the inside of the boat from bow to stern. It seemed the perfect day for such a project given that the northerly winds pushed the boat so far from the dock that I did not feel comfortable trying to get off. Twice I looked at the boat position and twice I backed off. I sent the garbage off with Clark!

I checked the weather including wind speed and direction and decided that today would be perfect for a bike ride to the 7-mile bridge to see if access was open to "Fred the Tree". The walkway over the bridge has been closed to public access since Hurricane Irma wrecked havoc on the Keys. I hoped that this season it would be open. Since I am friends with "Fred the Tree" on Facebook, I thought it would be fun to go visit him. 

With an air temperature of 75, I wanted to get out for my bike ride as early as possible. I did not want to be biking (for fun) under a hot Florida sun. I told Clark my destination. He showed no interest. I begged and then threatened him but could not get him to budge from his email. Disgusted, I left on my own.

I set out at 10:15 and enjoyed a lovely, quick ride to the park. As I neared the park, I expected to pass a spot, as I did last year, where I would choke and gag on the stench of rotting sea grass. Amazingly, I passed that spot without a whiff of odor. What happened?!

By 10:30 I was already at the park. As I neared the bridge, I saw the "Park Closed" sign. Dang! I really hoped to be able to explore further. I stopped at the barricade and took a couple of pictures.

Dang! Park still gated off!

Ramp down to park

View of sailboats anchored on the Gulf side of the island

Flowers growing in park

Picnic area in park

Given it had only taken me 15 minutes to get to the park and since I could not go on the bridge to visit "Fred the Tree" as planned, I decided to bike down into the park just for a bit more exercise and to look around.

 

I found a lone sea gull in the park

Only view of the 7-mile bridge I was getting today!

Critter in the dried grass

Ran up on the steps when I poked at him

Fishing Chart
"If You Don't Know, Let It Go!"

One guy had biked to the park and sat reading something on his phone, and two others were fishing. Otherwise, I had the park to myself. Since I did not feel like hanging around, I headed back towards the boat.

Pathway back to the boat

At 10:45 I found myself back at the Faro Blanco Resort. That meant that my trip back was faster than my trip out to the bridge since I stopped several times to take pictures. Deciding I was not yet ready to put my bike away, I decided to bike around the marina for a bit more exercise.

Pigeons have taken over!

Faro Blanco Lighthouse

"Sunset Delight"

Eventually, and all too quickly, I ran out of places to bike to without heading east on Route 1 and dealing with a busier area. When I got back to the boat, I banged on the side of "Sunset Delight" to get Clark to help me lift my bike back on board the boat. Afterwards, I took some more pictures of the marina, this time, while standing on our boat.

View of Lighthouse from our boat

3 Poles - each with a pelican on top

One Pelican that preferred a neighboring boat's railing to a pole
(spreading his wings for balance)

View of pool from our boat

Normally, we do not get great views of the marina from our boat because we usually have a large-boat neighbor blocking our view. Today they took their boat out for a small voyage, and I got to see what they normally get to look at. 

Upon returning to the boat, I found that Clark had moved from email to furniture repair. One of the plastic feet on our footstool broke and left a nail exposed that was scratching our wood floors. When I cleaned the boat yesterday, I left the footstool upside down on the chair as a giant reminder to Clark to fix the foot.

Last night, Clark used epoxy to glue the foot back together where the plastic had broken. Today he reattached the foot to the stool. 

Broken foot fixed and reattached. Time to
put the stool back on the floor!

After that he moved outside to work on exterior boat repair. He found a few places (some surprises) that needed to have some fiberglass work done. He prepped, e.g. sanded, the surfaces to make them ready for re-glassing.

This is new.
We can't normally reach the anchor pulpit from the dock.

Aw! This is our normal means of access to the pulpit!

I called Clark in for lunch. He planned to do the fiberglass patching after he ate. Just after 1:00, he went out to recommence work, said he felt "drips", checked the weather report, and decided to wait until later in the afternoon to start the patching. 

We watched the sky after those "few drips" and it only got darker and more threatening as time went on. Instead of clearing as predicted by "Weather Bug", the rain only got worse, and eventually we had a downpour. No fiberglass work today! As I watched the rain coming down, I could only congratulate myself on biking early in the day when the sun was out. If I had waited until later, it probably would not have happened.

Since I was up-to-date on cleaning, I decided to pull out my art supplies. Two girls that are on a boat in the marina came by yesterday and asked me to have a painting session with them like I did last year. One requested that we paint a beach scene with palm trees, shells, and a sunset. The other asked that we paint a dolphin. In preparation for that session, if I can figure out a Covid-safe way to do it, I drew up some pictures based on their requests. 

Colored Pencils out; Pictures on Tablet

Sketch of Seashells and Starfish on a Beach

Twice, while I was having fun with art, Clark came by to request my help with his inside-the-boat project - the one he started once he got rained out from the fiberglass work. I grumbled about having to stop what I was doing for him when he refused to stop what he was doing earlier to join me. Oh well!

His inside project felt all too familiar since he had taken out the starboard-side water pump for the engine to check to see if the nut was properly torqued. He needed me to operate the torque wrench like last time on the port engine repair. Once reinstalled, he needed me to turnover the engine to see if he got waterflow through the pump. 

First, he had me just turnover the engine without starting it. I did that a couple of times, but he saw no waterflow. Finally, he said I should start it. No sooner did it start than he started yelling stop, stop. Water was gushing out and overflowing the pathetically small bucket he had put in place to catch it.

My job done, I went back to my art. As I sat at the salon table drawing, I saw something I would never have seen if the boat was docked stern in - a huge rainbow. It looked like it came out of a sailboat on the opposite side of the marina and continued across the sky for a full half-circle.

I did not see a sunset tonight, but the setting sun did give me a nice silhouette picture of palm trees. 

This slip is normally full of boat, and
we don't get such clear views of the marina.

2020: Arrive Faro Blanco Marathon FL

 16 December 2020

Depart: Pumpkin Key Anchorage 9:20

Arrive: Faro Blanco Marina, Marathon, FL 5:40

Distance: 62 nm

Conditions: Sunny, Light Breeze, 70s

Although we scheduled to arrive at Faro Blanco on the 20th, Clark called the dockmaster and got the go ahead to come in early. Given that, we decided to go straight through from Biscayne Bay to Marathon. With opposing currents, shallow depths in places, and crab pots randomly popping up like mine fields,  it was a slow-going, tedious voyage. 

After the numerous, tall buildings in Miami, traveling through mangroves seemed like we had been transported to another land far far away. 

Mangroves! 

Passing through Tavernier, I noticed 3 large birds flying overhead. I did some research to confirm my sighting. They were Frigate Birds. 

Frigate Bird 
(picture taken from allaboutbirds.org)

Sailboats anchored to the mangroves

For mile after mile, the chart showed us somewhere in Key Largo. Just how long is this place anyway!? 

"Gas Station / Convenience Store"

Key Largo "Anchorage Resort" 

Last year when we passed here, the docks were full of boats.

Anchorage Resorts 11/2019

Neither one of us remember the sunken sailboats near the Anchorage Resort being there last year, and I see no pictures in last year's blog.

Nice, 2-masted S/V sunk

Gilbert's Resort across from Anchorage Resort
also looked deserted

Picture taken 11/2019
Note the huge difference in the number of tables

After the resorts, it was back to mangroves once more. The passages can get pretty tight sometimes. 

2 Jet Skis and a Paddleboard -
opposing traffic in mangrove

They appeared to have been waiting for us to pass so they could spread out. 

Clark noticed a boat sunken by the mangroves. Sadly, in Florida, sunken boats is an all too familiar sight. We had a debate as we passed by this one as to its size. Clark guessed it to be somewhere around 40' in length. That seemed an over estimate in my opinion.

Yet another sunken boat in Florida

I felt like a little kid, "Are we there yet?" Unfortunately, I could look at the chart and figure out we still had miles to go. I wondered if we would have any daylight left to dock. Clark pointed out that since we traveled west, the sun would go down later than on the east coast. We finally arrived at the marina just after 5:30. 

Coming into Faro Blanco at sunset

This is our 6th winter spent at Faro Blanco. For the first time, Clark recommended that we dock bow in as opposed to stern in. With the boat reversed, we get a view of the water instead of the parking lot. We get a cooler cockpit without the sun baking us if we choose to sit out. More importantly, we get privacy being far away from anyone walking by on the dock by the boat. 

Having never docked this way here before, it took an hour playing with the lines and the positioning of the boat to get docked. With the boat situated this way, we cannot use our doors located at the stern to get on the boat because the finger piers are not long enough to allow that. Since the docks at Faro Blanco are fixed docks, the distance from the bow to the dock goes up and down with the tide. 

When I woke early this morning, I could not get back to sleep as I thought about docking bow in at the marina. Would it work? How would I get off the boat at high tide? I remembered we could use the dock steps given to us by our friends Cathy and Franklin. I hoped that would be sufficient. 

As it turned out, the dock step is necessary. I am not sure it will be sufficient at high tide. Time will tell. 

17 December 2020

No travel.

Having been aboard for several days, Clark and I both had lists of things to address - packages to collect from the office, tokens to buy for the laundry, several loads of laundry to be done, garbage to be removed, parts to be ordered for the wonky refrigerator, and more. 

Since we came in after closing hour last night, Clark headed to the lighthouse first thing to look for packages. He came back staggering under a tower of packages. Debbie was actually on her way over to our boat with the bundle, so Clark took the stack from her and brought them back to the boat. He said he worried about climbing onto the boat without one or some falling off and into the water. 

Before settling down to go through the packages, I sent him back to the lighthouse to purchase tokens so I could get started on laundry. As soon as we had them in hand, I had him help me carry my loads up to the laundry room. While I got the laundry going, he opened packages. 

We had two packages from "Computer Gear" that we did not recognize. We opened the first and it was a black t-shirt with the description of an "Engineer" on the front. Well, that seemed like a likely gift for Clark but who sent it? The package had no gift card or receipt, so it was a puzzle. 

Then we opened the second package from "Computer Gear". Since this item of clothing was pink, we assumed it was for me. However, when I looked at it more closely, I found it was a 2-piece baby outfit for a newborn. Last time I checked 3 to 6 mos clothes did not fit me. 

So, who sent these gifts to us? Clark said I should call Amazon and find out. I tried but failed. All the woman I talked to could tell me was that they had not been ordered by me (duh!) and I would not be charged. I asked is she could check Clark's account and she said that Clark would have to call himself.

Clark called Amazon and got a different customer service rep. This one could tell who had sent the t-shirt to Clark from the tracking number provided. At this point it became a guessing game. The agent would not tell Clark who sent it. If he got the name right, the man would confirm the sender's identity. 

Clark started guessing the last names of all of our relatives but came up batting zero. With a hint of a first name, "Jeff", Clark was still stumped. I offered up the suggestion that it might be someone we knew from Faro Blanco. Under pressure, Clark could not recall Jeff's last name. He checked his contacts, and Voila, he gave the right answer. We now knew who had sent the t-shirt to Clark, but the pink baby outfit, however, remained a mystery. 

We had one hint on the address label that did not become apparent until after we knew the Jeff that had sent the package. It turned out that the address had Clark's name but Jeff's slip number from last season. Interestingly, the pink baby outfit had the same slightly incorrect address, so it would appear to have been sent by the same person.

However, via texting Jeff, we found out that Jeff had sent the t-shirt but did not send the baby outfit to us or anyone else. So, who was it meant for? Why did it have Clark's name and the same slightly incorrect Faro Blanco address? I guess we will never know. Now, if I only knew someone expecting a baby girl, I would be all set with a gift!

This morning as I did laundry and we worked on the package puzzle, I suffered under the heat and humidity. By the time I finished the laundry, I was beet red in the face and dripping wet from perspiration. Mid-afternoon, a cold front came through, and the temperature dropped significantly. We went from hot in shorts to chilly without a jacket. Where earlier I was wishing for air conditioning to be turned on, now we went through the boat closing windows.

Throughout the day, the area surrounding our boat was visited by a variety of birds. One could say that Faro Blanco has "gone to the birds". 

I am guessing this is a "Green Heron"

Pelican

Sea Gull

Unfortunately, some pigeons live under the docks near our boat. When I went to take the laundry up, three of them were strutting along our finger pier. I jumped to make as loud a noise as possible to scare them off. 

Besides a bunch of familiar birds, Clark spotted the barracuda that likes to hang out in our corner of the marina.

Barracuda at Faro Blanco

As I wrapped up yesterday's blog submission, Clark came by and invited me to go for a walk around the marina with him. Exercise was just what I needed, so we grabbed our jackets and went for a stroll. We checked out the boats on the east side of the marina and then headed over to the west side. As we did so, we passed by the folks by Ann and Mel's boat sharing docktails. We stopped and said hello.

When we docked last night, Mel helped us with our lines and filled us in on who was here and who has left. Several folks that were here last season sold their boats (or are trying to sell their boat) and are gone or will be when their boat is sold. A couple of years ago we had 5 or 6 Jim's with their boats here. Clark joked that all the Jim's are gone and most are now boatless.

After chatting for a while, we continued on our way to check out the big boats on the west side. One of the boats, "Fins", was decorated for Christmas.

Smack!
Looks like Santa got in the way of "Fins"!

Further along the dock we came to a boat named "Bravo Zulu". The owner heard us mention his boat's name and came out to tell us that the name is temporary because he (Jeff) just bought the boat from someone that used to be Navy. After Jeff told us his boat names all have to do with Pink Floyd, Clark and he went into a long discussion on guitars and music. The conversation later evolved into other topics. An hour later I finally dragged Clark away, so I could get back to the boat and make dinner. 

Clark was disappointed to learn that the owner of "Bravo Zulu" would be leaving at 6:30 the next morning. Otherwise, I am sure they would have gotten together with their guitars for a jam session. They took our boat card and promised that they would look us up if they come up the coast this summer. 

18 December 2020

No boat travel.

Our settling in chores continue. As I knock something off my list, something jumps on. My goal for today was food shopping. Given we woke to a temperature of 60 that felt like 58, I suggested that we wait until the afternoon to ride our bikes to the grocery store. I found a few miscellaneous tasks to occupy my morning. 

Clark finished the last of his applesauce cake last night, so I decided to bake him another. I used my small electric countertop oven for the cake, and that led me to a second, unplanned project. I pulled out my fabric scraps and made a cover for the oven while I waited for the cake to cook.

After lunch, we got our exercise by biking to Publix that Google says is 2.2 miles away. Before we could leave, however, we had to figure out a way to get off the boat. With a strong wind from the northeast, the boat was too far from the dock for even Clark to get off! I saw him struggling to move the boat closer to the dock and came out to help. I failed to budge the first line he pointed to, so he suggested I try the bowline. 

Pulling hard on that one, I moved the boat enough that Clark could secure it close enough for me to get onto terra firma! Once we got ourselves, bikes, and backpacks off the boat, we were ready to go. On the way to Publix we swung by the Municipal Marina to dispose of 2 gallons of oil from our oil change in St. Augustine. Clark had the oil in his backpack. Heavy!!!

When we made our way back to the boat, we both had full backpacks with additional bags attached to our bikes. If I had bought one more item, I do not know where I would have stashed it. We were loaded. Fortunately, that easterly wind blew us back to the marina, and we got back in practically record time. 

At 5:15 I thought about going to docktails. I looked at the getting-off-the-boat situation and decided against going anywhere. Besides the boat still being blown away from the dock, the tide had come up and the distance to the dock had grown to an uncomfortable level. I settled down to work on blog instead.

Tomorrow's exciting agenda includes running the vacuum and dusting inside the boat. While I do that, Clark will probably clean the outside hull to clean away all the salt from our travels. 

2020: Lake Worth to Pumpkin Key FL

14 December 2020

Depart: Lake Worth Anchorage 9:35

Arrive: Pompeno Beach Private Dock 3:00

Distance: 31 nm

Conditions: Sunny, mostly clear skies, 70's

So that Clark, up at the bow, can have one hand to show me where the anchor line sits while he uses the anchor washdown wand with the other, he came up with new one-handed signals to communicate with me at the helm. As he illustrated the hand positions, I ended up laughing as he looked like he was all wrapped up in himself. Previously, he gave me directions that -indicated how to move the throttles to position the boat as needed to raise the anchor. 

With the new directions, his signals directed me as to where the line sat requiring me to translate that into the appropriate throttle movement - a complete change. I did fine except when he pointed straight out to port. It took me a moment to remember that meant port in reverse and starboard forward. He was pleased with the results of our interaction, so I guess we will be using these new signals from now on.

Lake Worth Anchorage near Palm Beach, FL

Being near Palm Beach, we passed a marina with a number of mega yachts.  As we motored by the mega yacht "Aquarius", I looked up some information on its size and points of interest. The vessel is 302 feet long and 44 feet wide with a 13 foot draft. The tender is almost the size of our previous boat being 34 feet long. The tender has a garage on board Aquarius. Besides the usual features of a yacht, this one has an elevator, a helicopter pad, and a beauty salon. 

To work on the radar tower on Aquarius, scaffolding had been built and two men were busy as we passed.

M/V "Aquarius"

We also saw a vessel named "Quantum of Solace" which measured 240 feet long by 44 feet wide with a draft of 13 feet. If interested, this one is for sale at a mere $58 million. 

M/V "Quantum of Solace"
Valued at $58,000,000

No name visible on this mega yacht
British ensign visible on stern

Marina of Mega Yachts with
tenders lined up on the dock

We had two choices from this anchorage for today's travel -- ICW or Atlantic Ocean. Clark still felt unsure about the port engine and thus decided to take the ICW. As a result, today became "Bridge Day" today! We had numerous bridges to deal with today. Some were tall enough for us to pass, some we managed to squeeze under, one just happened to open when we got there, and a couple we had to call for an opening because they were too low for any but the puniest boat to pass under. 

As we approached the Southern Boulevard Bridge, we had a hard time deciphering what we were looking at. Whatever it was, the chart showed a 14-foot clearance and we need around 22+. We would have to wait. The bridge opens at quarter to and quarter after the hour. We arrived at 10:18, so we floated around for 25 minutes waiting for the bridge to open. 

The bridge turned out to be a lift bridge with a bridge-under-construction next to it - thus the confusion. 

Bridge going up

Bridge fully raised with
Piece of new bridge sticking out

At the Ocean Avenue Bridge, we saw we had a 21.5' vertical clearance, and that is just a tad less than we need to clear. We needed to lower the mast to get under. I went back to get in position to help Clark with the mast and found the line for the pulley to be tied up in a knotted mess. I struggled to untangle the line as the bridge got closer and closer. Altough I struggled with the line, Clark had already put the boat on auto pilot and started lowering the mast. 

All too quickly, the knotted mess of line disappeared out of reach and out of sight over the edge of the hardtop on the boat where it jammed preventing the mast from coming down to rest in its normal spot. Clark said, "That's good enough!" and we ran back to steer the boat through the bridge. Thank goodness we only needed the mast part way down to clear the bridge! (No picture of this bridge as our hands were rather full at the time.)

Boynton Beach Tower

Besides dealing with bridge after bridge after bridge, we dealt with "Idle Speed No Wake" for a large part of the trip. It was so bad that we got excited when we saw "Slow Speed Minimum Wake"!

Yet another "Idle Speed No Wake" sign

Yet another bridge!

Low bridge, can't squeeze under that!

Kayaks waiting for us to clear so they can go through bridge

View passing through bridge - Closeup of bridge gears

Since we traveled slowly, we did get to enjoy some Christmas decorations along the way!

Reindeer 

Santa!

All out for Christmas

including a Gingerbread House

Mid-afternoon we arrived at our friend's home and tied up at his private dock for the night. As per usual with Steve, we sat on his patio and talked and talked and talked. When dinner time arrived, Steve suggested pizza, and we enthusiastically agreed. He ordered a Cheeseburger Pizza from Papa Johns. None of us had eaten that before so it was a new experience for us all. Fortunately, everyone seemed to enjoy it! Finally, around 9:00 pm, we decided that we should say goodnight / see you in the morning!

Clark announced that with the completion of today's trip on the inside to the Hillsboro Inlet, we have now officially traveled the entire length of the Atlantic ICW. Given we frequently travel on the ocean, that one leg on the inside was the last bit required to complete the picture. 

15 December 2020

Depart: Pompeno Beach Private Dock 9:20

Arrive: Pumpkin Key Anchorage near Biscayne Bay 4:55

Distance: 61.5 nm

Conditions: Sunny, Calm Seas

When we dressed this morning, Clark and I both donned shorts for the first time in weeks. It has been way too cold even in Florida. I had gotten so used to wearing jeans that it felt weird to have my legs uncovered!

Before departing this morning, Steve invited Clark to his garage to see his inventory of Yanmar parts and decide if he wished to purchase any of them. Clark walked away with a box full. Now we just need to figure out where to store them on the boat!

Having seen enough bridges and slow-speed zones yesterday to last us a good long while, Clark decided to take the ocean route to Miami. The Hillsboro Inlet bridge opens every 15 minutes, so we did not have long to wait to get underway.

Hillsboro Inlet Bridge

Sign says: "Hazardous Inlet - Local Knowledge Required"

Looking up at open bridge

Looking back as we continue on to the ocean

Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse

Clark sure knows how to pick good days on the ocean. The water was unbelievably calm as we exited the inlet and continued to be calm throughout the voyage.

Red/White Inlet Marker - nary a ripple!

View of coast near Fort Lauderdale - no waves!

As we had smooth sailing on the ocean, we could hear chatter on the VHF radio. Bridges listen on channel 9 in Florida, and we still had that channel in our scan of stations. As we listened, a boater came on to call a bridge and requested a "courtesy" opening. He said that he was in the lead and had three boats traveling together. The third, a catamaran, had lost one engine. 

Sea Tow of course was listening as well and jumped in to offer assistance. He got squashed real fast. "We don't need Sea Tow; we need bridge assistance!" 

The spokesman begged the bridge tender to hold an opening as the catamaran fought the current. The bridge would normally open in about 2 minutes. The fleet of three could not get there in that amount of time and would need to float around for half an hour or more waiting for the next opening. Ultimately, the bridge tender agreed to delay opening for 2 minutes to give them more time to get there and then held it for them. 

A few short minutes later, I heard the lead boat, S/V Gypsy Wind, call the next bridge with the same "song and dance". At that point, Clark decided to remove Channel 9 from our scan list, and thankfully we heard no more.

After that, we enjoyed a leisurely and peaceful cruise on the ocean until the port side engine alarm started blaring. Since that is the engine that we just worked on, we were both concerned. Clark hit the "clear" button a bit too quickly and lost the information on the reason for the alarm. Fortunately, or not (for my poor ears), the alarm was still sounding on the display unit below. I ran down and saw that the alarm was a routine maintenance alarm. Once he knew what it was, he could easily reset the maintenance clock. "Well", Clark said, "for once the maintenance alarm is in sync with maintenance since we just changed the oil and filters!" 

The port engine is not the only piece of equipment on the boat that has been troublesome. The refrigerator has been acting up. When we had cold temperatures, the fridge did not complain. Today, with warmer temps, it decided to generate a burning smell. We noticed it before on hot days. Now it was back again. 

When Clark investigated the burning smell, he found it coming from under the fridge. A fan that is supposed to cool the motor had stopped spinning. He took a flashlight to see and a metal tape measure to reach under the fridge and  so poked at the fan to see if he could get the blades to spin. He did get them going! He left that fan spinning and added an exhaust fan to help cool things down. He added "buy new fridge parts" to his "to do" list for arrival at Faro Blanco.

As we approached Miami, I wondered if any of the cruise ships we saw in May would still be around. I figured with a busy hurricane season that most, if not all, would have been moved somewhere safe. We did manage to see one owned by a French company anchored offshore.

Cruise Ship Company MSC

Cruise Ship "Meraviglia" 
1037' long, 171' wide, 28' draft

Miami

More Miami

After exiting the ocean and while traveling through Miami waters, we saw ...

Tall building with a "spaceship" on top
(Naturally, to Clark, it looked like a giant stereo speaker.)

Side view of "spaceship" building

Pink and blue skyrise

"Eagle" Ferry

"Heron" Ferry

Work boat

Huge Fenders and Lots of Containers 
waiting for container ships to come

Port of Miami 
Container ship loading docks

Compared to some other times through here, we had minimal boat traffic. Very quickly we were on to Biscayne Bay where we spotted some folks having a fun time.

Parasailing with Miami in background

Having traveled 30 nm and reached Miami, we were only halfway through today's voyage. We still had another 30 nm to go. We did some calculations and wondered if we would arrive at our destination of choice before or after the sun went down. We finally got there just before 5:00. Clark grabbed the camera at sunset for the obligatory sunset picture.

Sunset at Pumpkin Key anchorage