The Gulf Sream

After giving a rather large amount of blood to the mosquitoes in the Everglades, we weighed anchor before sunrise and had a wonderful sail across the gulf to the Keys. There is one big obstacle to pass through before getting to Boot key harbor in Marathon and many little ones called crab pots. The big obstacle is a seven mile bridge with a small opening in the high rise section and the wind was blowing straight through it so sailing through was not an option. The "iron genny" (diesel engine) was deployed and all was good, for a few minutes anyway. The crab pots were thick and the sun angle on the choppy water made them very hard to see. The danger is if you hit one it will wrap around your prop and stop the iron genny and we had only a foot of water under the keel with reefs all around us, so what do master mariners like us do you ask? HIT A CRABPOT, Yep, that's what we do in a situation like this and it worked just as advertised. The iron genny did not shut off but slowed to a crawl. We were making headway but slowly. Our options were as follows: drop anchor and whimper for help, turn with the wind and run back across the gulf, abandon ship, or limp on through the bridge with very little power. We limped on! After we cleared the bridge we were able to furl out the head sail and whoosh we were off for a safe arrival in Boot Key Harbor. Sails are a good thing.



One of two dinghy docks in Boot Key



Boot Key harbor as viewed from the stearn!



Clearing the prop

The Gulf Stream is a river in the ocean that pulls warm water along the Keys and then turns north. It runs about four to five knots and can be one of the most dangerous bodies of water on the planet or like a lake depending on the wind. South wind= good! North wind= bad...more north wind= more bad. Here we sit in Boot Key harbor with "more bad" waiting for the good wind. So, the moral is: when playing a game of "Gulf" stack the odds in your favor!




No better way to enjoy the great weather than a little sewing!





Final product!