Before I tell you that the Key Largo of the 1948 movie is nothing like the Key Largo of today, let me talk about the exciting trip we had from Marathon to Key Largo. We made a mistake in deciding to go, we made a mistake in deciding to go on the outside and we made a mistake in not fully preparing for the trip.
The weather forecast was unclear. NOA Weather said that we would face two foot seas initially, deteriorating to 2-4 feet later in the day. Although we considered staying at Marathon for another day, the forecast for later in the week was even worse. So we decided what the heck, we would go ahead and give it a try. If the seas were too bad, we could always turn around and return.
When we first got out the weather wasn’t too bad, but as we went on, things got worse. By mid-morning, we both estimated we were seeing 4-6 foot seas. After about 9:30 water was coming over the bow and spraying us in the flybridge (about 20 feet above the water). At that point we decided we would go down below and pilot the boat from the pilothouse. I should note that we never felt we were in any real danger, but the constant spray and the bouncing up and down made things uncomfortable to say the least. I tried to move further out into deeper water, thin king that the period of the waves might be a little longer or that the waves themselves might not be so steep – no luck. I even tried to move in closer to the shore, just in case the waves were less in shallower water – Nope. Eventually, I was able to kind of tack into the waves, taking them at an angle to the bow – and reduced their effect a little.
At about this point I realized that the weather forecast for the “inside” was for “choppy” waters. I also realized that I would have preferred facing some chop than these fairly serious waves. We had clearly made a mistake. We should have been willing to endure a little skinny water to get out of these serious seas.
You will recall that I said we never felt we were in danger. Well, that is almost true. About 10:30 AM or so, I noticed that our anchor was bouncing around a little and it looked like it might come loose. Now, if we had a windlass this wouldn’t have been an issue. But without a windlass, I had just tied the anchor to some of the structure on the deck and assumed that it would hold. One thing we did not need was for the anchor to come loose and grab hold of the bottom. We would not have been able to pull it up until the water calmed down. I really did not have a choice – I was going to have to go forward and lash it down. I went out the first time and tried to tie it with the material I had out there – really dumb. The next time I went out I went with strong rubber tie-downs that would hold it in place.
I turned the wheel over to Ann and moved out onto the foredeck holding onto the handrail as far as I could. When I got close to the anchor and had to let go of the rail, I dropped down to all fours – to get my center of gravity as low as possible – and grabbed hold of the windlass. At one point, I had lowered my center of gravity as low as possible, I was holding onto the windlass, and I was staring straight into water coming right at me. Yes, it was a bit scary. I will never do that again. Anyway, I managed to lash down the anchor and get back to the pilothouse.
Our three lessons from this trip: (1) If the weather looks too bad – don’t go. (2) If you are going to go, check the inside, you might end up with some “chop” rather than nasty seas. (3) Whenever you go, make sure you are fully prepare; in particular, make sure everything on the deck is tied down.
The day before we set off, we had called Key Largo to get a slip reservation. In our Cruising Guide, we noted there were several hotels with marinas – the Holiday Inn, the Marriot and the Marina del Mar. So, we called the Holiday Inn, got hold of Bill and he gave us the information we needed. It was a little expensive, so we called the Marriot. Ooops, we got Bill on the phone again. We must have dialed incorrectly, or Cruising Guide had the wrong number, so we tried the Marina del Mar; we got Bill again. It seems that all three hotels share one marina that has the same dock master, rules and rates! Needless to say, we chose one of those marinas for our stay.
Key Largo has a set of canals that intersect with the main canal at 90 degrees. These canals are pretty narrow – kind of like narrow streets with cars parked parallel along the sides. So, when a big boat like ours enters, you have to announce “Securite, securite, securite. This is the vessel Traveling Soul, a 52 foot powerboat approaching collision corner.” (Securite is a nautical, radio term that basically means, “Be Careful – I am going to tell you why.)” Yes, you heard it – collision corner. We were not involved in, nor did we see any collisions, but we were very careful nevertheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment