The "Keys to Kids" and a "Ship in the Night"

Afton & Dylan flew into Key West early in January. The weather had us pinned down in Marathon so we took the bus fifty miles for $5 (that was for us both) to pick them up. Thier first day was nice, we went for a sail and they both swam and sunbathed. That evening the weather changed a bit. It began breaking records day after day and was just plain cold. I know 35 degrees is not that cold but when you are sitting on the water and surrounded by it, well it wears you down. Godspeed has no heater unless you are plugged into power (no way) so we made lots of cookies, baked bread, basically found any reason possible to use the oven which did a great job of warding off the cold. We made the best of it and played hearts, cribbage, watched movies, playoff games, and enjoyed other shore activities like walking in the freezing rain to keep spirits up. The last few days of their visit it started a slow warming trend and we set sail for Key West. The amount of dead fish due to the cold was astounding. We could fill the net in less than a minute while sailing along. Anyway we made Key West and their last couple of days turned out nice and we had a great time. We had to leave Godspeed at about 4:30 am to get them to the airport and it was something like this: Navy Seal team Bravo departs destroyer in 25 knots head wind with large seas in total darkness to make contact with dock 1 mile from departure point, no casualties reported but entire team wet, disoriented and wandering how they ended up at the destination and why. Anyway we said goodbyes and stayed there another day to eat conch fritters and watch the Minisoda Vikings beat the Dallas Cowgirls. The next morning we went to weigh anchor and I must say it weighed allot. I could only get about 20 feet of the 90 feet of chain we had out. Realizing we were snagged on something, we snugged up what chain we could get and maneuvered around attempting to break free. No dice! so we got a little more aggressive and realized whatever we had captured we were dragging about. That was good because it was no too heavy. We rigged some lines from the chain back to a big winch and cranked it up. It was down about 25 feet so it took a bit, Lorrie was on the bow waiting to see what it was. Suddenly, like a streak of lightening and only slightly louder, she headed to the Stearn "IT'S A BODY". Well it was a body of dead coral, about 300 to 400 lbs. just a wiggle of the chain and back to her watery grave she went. We were very glad to get that off because we did not want to leave our new anchor "Don" behind (a 45 lb Delta fastset named "Delta Don" I think he had a relative named "Delta Dawn"-she had her own song in the 70's) Then we set sail back to Marathon to capture Cody and Beth for round 2.
They flew into Miami and took the bus system all the way to Marathon for, you guessed it $5 (each). We hung out in Marathon for a few days waiting on weather and then we headed north. We stayed a night at Indian Key and the next day headed for Angelfish Cut. Great day, the wind was dead on the nose so we motored and "zinnnng" went the fishing reel. Spanish Mackerel, we filleted him and caught 2 more that day as well, that kept us eating well for a while. Then we crossed Biscayne Bay and enjoyed seeing Miami from the water. We anchored in South Beach and went provisioning (Mariner talk for groceries and such). The storm drainage system in South Beach is a Fantastic way to get around if you are equipped with a dinghy. We were able to drive the blond all over town without stoplights or traffic while cruising right beside both. Any stop in South Beach would not be complete without a visit to the home of Merrick Pratt. Seal Team Harris was able to penetrate the drainage system to within a few blocks of his home and he grilled the largest steaks this seal team has ever seen, made key lime pie, and sent us on our way with a packet of lures guaranteed to catch fish in the gulf steam and the Bahamas. Great evening Merrick!
We weighed anchor in the pre-dawn darkness and motored towards Government Cut With Cody and Beth on the bow as lookouts as we picked our way to the busy harbour in the dark. As the light came, we found ourselves in our "little ship that could" pretty much the only thing moving in this busy harbor. After steaming by all the giant cruise ships and shipy ships the harbor ended and we were taking some nice size swells with a powerful current on the bow. High Drama! 50 nautical miles off the bow lies Bimini and the Bahamas, 2500 feet below Godspeed lies the bottom, we passed the outer marker and up went the sails and we set our course 15 degrees south of Bimini to counteract the northern flow of the stream and we were off for the Bahamas.
The sea state was confused and we were on a close reach which made kind of an annoying ride. At 23nm we lost sight of the Miami skyline and the good ship pushed on. Ten more nm and "Land Ho!" we could see Bimini-YaHOO!
As we approached from sudden rise from the deep, we were all quite exited to see the water color change from a deep blue to a light blue and spirits were high. "Zinnnng" there goes that fishing reel again. Cody grabbed it as I watched in horror as the line stripped of like mad. With only a few yards of 50 pound test left I tightened the drag on the reel until it stopped striping line and Cody held on. We were moving way to fast to fight this fish so we furled the head sail and pointed her into the wind to slow down. We just drug the fish awhile and tired it out and took turns getting line on it when we could. It is not the size of the fish in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the fish! We dined on Amber jack that evening after a great little battle. Merrick's lure was the hero of the day!
Once Godspeeds hull was slipping through the crystal clear water of the banks, the sea state vastly improved and spirits were high and wind speeds were low. We changed out the head sail to our light wind Genoa and were moving along smartly again. sunset found us watching starfish slip by on the bottom 20 feet below us. After a group vote, we decided to keep on truckin'. Pat gets the first watch, then Cody and Beth.
The moon came up at about 9:00 which greatly improved visibility. There were other boats making the same trip and they began passing us up with their sails up and motor running as well. We were sailing not motoring and it was very cool seeing the other boats in the moonlight with only the sound of the hull slipping through the water and the wind in the sails, I felt like a pirate on a "raid for the booty".
About 1:00 am Cody scampered on deck and took over, Beth joined him and I went below to be awakened shortly before daylight as we approached the "Tongue of the Ocean". 55 nm across deep water lies Nassau. The sea state was not great and Godspeed was on a close haul again with 15+ degrees of heel. We had some squalls visit us so we got a bit of reefing practice in and finally sailed into Nassau with 1 reef in the main and the Genoa furled way in. We took a slip in Nassau that evening as the immigrations and customs officers visited and cleared us in. When we were done we removed the yellow Quarantine flag from the mast and replaced it with the Bahamas courtesy flag- we made it!
Cody and Beth arranged for flights back to the states and we took Godspeed to the other side of the island for a night to a beautiful little bay and anchored. The next morning Cody and Beth took the blond exploring. We saw them go to shore and beach the blonde, funny thing was later we saw blondie headed back to Godspeed on her own! After a nice swim Cody rescued the wayward little vessel, picked up his damsel in distress and made it back to the mother ship. The next day we said goodbyes. They were a great help and it was fun to have them along on this journey.
We supperbowled in Nassau and set sail the next day to the Exumas and that's another story!