Apparently it's been about six months since we last updated. So There's a lot to tell. We have scrapped the old website at paulandpiper.zoomshare.com because everyone had problems veiwing it. It is however still posted if you want to read about St. Augustine and working on the boat. Hopefully this blogger will be better. I broke the screen on the old laptop, so that put a damper on Key West photos and website updates. But we are back with a new laptop and awesome underwater photos of the reefs on the Atlantic side of Bimini.
Remember, you can click on any picture to enlarge it for viewing.
We left St. Augustine on about Jan. 7th. After two days we made it to Daytona where we visited with Todd, Kim and little Maria. We met them in Palatka while painting the boat. They were very hospitable; cooking us dinner, fixing the zipper on our dodger, showing us around Daytona..... The morning we were leaving Todd brought Maria out for her very first boat ride and it began to drizzle and the poor little thing was all wet and crying when they reached the boat. She was smiling by the time they left and we don't think she'll be permanently scarred by the ordeal.
Next stop was New Smyrna Beach which we loved. On the waterway is a park where lots of people were fishing. Those were about the only people we saw in their quaint little downtown. But "beachside", across the bridge, is another downtown on the beach with nice boutiques, ice cream parlors, hotdog stands, kids hanging out and other signs of life. The man at the marina was extremely friendly. He let us tie up the dinghy for free and even gave us the code to the bathrooms and laundry.
There's a Walmart about two miles inland and we were on our way there one night to buy new lights for the dinghy when Piper's bike broke in half on her. Someone had told us that that can happen but we didn't really take them seriously. It's a folding bike and it broke at the hinge. A Dahon Boardwalk. It cut her ankle but fortunately we were across the street from a Walgreens so she limped over there and bought some antiseptic and band-aids. Next door was a Denny's so we stopped in there to treat ourselves to some greasy food before the long ride back with one bike strapped to the rack of the other. Piper tried e-mailing Dahon, but they didn't respond. We tried to fix it but, without a metal shop, it just wasn't happening. We eventually left it next to a bike rack at the dinghy dock here in Key West. Maybe someone with better facilities can fix it but we need the space on the boat. Piper's been Rollerblading instead and that's been working out so far.
Titusville was the next stop. It was brief. Piper didn't even get off the boat. I went to shore that night to try out the skatepark next to the marina. It was pretty cool. I was the only one there. The next morning around 5:00am a Nor'easter blew in with a sudden whoosh that woke us instantly. By 10:00 were we anxious to move on despite the weather so we hauled anchor and contiued south.
Next stop, Palm Bay, where we bought the boat and a break from traveling. We docked Delphine a her old dock, said hi to Bill and Kitty and jumped into our friend Kelly's car to head back to St. Augustine for her birthday party. She had parked the 4Runner at her house so we rode around and tied up loose ends while she worked the next day, then helped her get ready for the party. Piper made a huge pot of Thai curry that was a hit.
Piper's parents, Betty and David, came down to visit and met up with us in St. Augustine because there were some restaurants there we thought they should try. Unfortunately, everything is closed there on Sundays. We stayed in a hotel and tried again on Mon.
Then we drove back to Palm Bay to show them our boat for the first time. During the day we walked around Vero Beach and Melbourne. Betty then drove the 4Runner back to NC for us and cought a flight back a few days later. Meanwhile, David sailed with us for a couple days to Ft. Pierce where we had left the van before giving up the 4Runner. The leg from Ft. Pierce to Jupiter we sailed on our own while David went to pick up Betty.
Before leaving Ft. Pierce we ran into Bryce who had been sailing down with Caleb. We had heard from Shawn, who was on Caleb's boat, that Bryce had had engine trouble and after half a day of Caleb towing Bryce, Caleb cut him loose because he was trying to steer while being towed and pulling Caleb out of the channel. They were drunk. I'm sure it was a ridiculous scene. So Bryce eventually called Sea Tow to get to the next town and, when the winds were right, made his way south 'til we saw him in Ft. Pierce. We were motorsailing on the Intracoastal and he was going on the outside because the Intracoastal is difficult without an engine and depthsounder. We thought we would see him again on the way but we didn't and were wondering what happened to him the whole way down.
Coming into Jupiter the water became the shade of tidy bowl toilet water and very clear. It looked dyed. We decided to refuel and get some local knowledge about Jupiter Inlet and why the water was so aqua-colored there. They said the Gulfstream is really close there and we shouldn't have a problem going out Jupiter Inlet with a four foot draft. We decided to try an outside trip from one inlet to the next the next day.
At the fuel dock they also told us of an anchorage that wasn't in our waterway guides. On our way to the anchorage we saw three manatees swimming right next to the boat and then this guy on a sportfisherman pulls his boat into our path and asks if we want some dolphin fish. the ziplock full of fish fell in the water on the first attempt but, after some fumbling for it, we managed to catch 2 lbs of super fresh fish.
Betty and Da met up with us again that night and the next day Betty accompanied us on the outside trip to Lake Worth. The seas were about 4 ft and from the north just like the wind which was about 10-15 knots. Betty was a little nervous, this being our first trip of the sort, but we explained to her we had sailed on the outside before, just not inlet to inlet. Still, she stayed in the cabin most the trip and ended up getting seasick. We had some fresh ginger that we gave her and she started feeling better but the puking probably helped too.
Lake Worth is a class A inlet, meaning its can handle big ships. As we were approaching a large freighter appeared on the horizon and we were still approaching the inlet when it passed in front of us into the inlet. As we turned into the channel another was coming and, although it looked far away, we were still nervous now that we knew how fast they are. It was right behind us by the time we were in the inlet and turning south down the waterway. We missed a marker and nearly ran aground but backtracked and got back in the channel just in time.
A couple hours and several drawbridges later, we were meeting David at a restaurant next to an anchorage recommended in the guides. We made it just in time for the early-bird special. The restaurant had a cool, tropical look but the food wasn't the greatest.
The next morning Betty and David felt they should be heading back to NC. Piper gave Betty a haircut in a very windswept park but it turned out great. Then we bid them farewell and continued on our way.
The day was overcast and drizzly. The hightlight was when we were waiting for a bridge to open that happened to have a convenience store next to it. Piper convinced me to hop in the dinghy and go on a milk run. Of course I had to pick up some doughnuts and frappachino while I was there.
We made it to Boca Raton that night. We were hoping to meet up with Chelsea's husband's sister, Mandy, while we were there but she was busy. We still managed to find the coffee shop and shopping area she had taken us to on a previous visit and spent the next day hanging around in Boca Raton.
After that was Ft. Lauderdale where we hoped to meet up with Andy and Nena who we met through David Jenner. Andy was out of town for the weekend that we passed through but we planned to meet up once we reached Miami.
In Miami we knew we wanted to anchor outside Dinner Key Marina and Monty Trainer's marina, where Piper's family stayed on their boat while in Miami. It's in the heart of Coconut Grove and the dinghy dock is free but there's no showers or laundry. We anchored and dug in our anchors, as usual, but didn't give much thought to the 20 knot NE winds blowing as we were going to bed.
At midnight, we were almost asleep when, WHAM!!, were were hit. I ran out on deck naked thinking the mast had fallen. Piper was dressed already in case such an event happened. When we got on deck we saw a 40 ft sailboat had just smacked our bow, broadside. The woman on board was already on deck. I tried to hold them off of us while Piper went to get some bumpers. The woman said her husband would be right out, he was getting dressed! When he came out he seemed a little stunned. Piper told them again to get their engine started because soon they would be passed us and drifting out into Biscayne Bay. We then realized they would be dragging their anchors over our anchor lines so Piper started our engine too. I pulled on the one we were hanging on and saw their anchor rise up with our line then fall off and keep going. Next they cought our other anchor and pulled it up before getting it untangled from theirs. Then they motored off to another area of the anchorage, shouting back that they would come back in the morning.
We felt vulnerable with only one set anchor so I prepared to take our third out in the dinghy. The thought of our outboard quitting on me during this ordeal scared me so I brought along our handheld VHF radio and tuned the one mounted on the boat to the same channel. Piper insisted I put on my life jacket as well. Once that task was accomplished, we were still all revved up from the excitement and didn't really sleep well the rest of the night. We also realized that our mounted radio wasn't working and that would have to be taken care of before continuing on. It's the one with the antenna up the mast so it broadcasts much farther, what you'd need in an emergency at sea.
The next morning I went to find the boat that hit us and talked with them awhile. I told them their little metal vents on the side of thier boat had taken two small gouges about 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep in our fiberglass near the toerail. Nothing serious but it would need to be repaired to keep water from getting in the fiberglass. The man said he wanted to come see the damage for himself so we didn't discuss it any further at that point. Although, she did say she saw that they were dragging and went down below to get dressed (rather that warn us or start their engine). They were probably in their late thirties, from NC (he was originally from Austria) and seemed nice. Their boat was a new 40 footer worth about 250,000. They said their plans were to cruise through the Bahamas, Barbados, and the Virgin Islands and then head across the Atlantic to the Azores, then the Mediterranean and maybe by then the money will be running low. They were probably in their late thirties.
The next day they came by to see the damage and we told them we felt $200 would be a fair amount to pay us for the time and materials it would take to repair it. If we were the type of people who would turn this sort of work over to a boat yard and go through their insurance company it would cost at least $500, probably twice that, so it's really more than fair. they said they would discuss it with their insurance company and get back to us.
The next day we stopped by their boat and he suggested we use a product that he found, through his "research", would be a really fast durable fix. With his product, a "putty" it should only take an hour and he'd pay us $60 for that hour of work. We said we'd try it and, if it only took an hour, we'd accept that $60.
The next day was the most beautiful day we had seen in a long time. They were renting a car and touring around Miami. I was working on the boat. I sanded the area and opened their can of "putty." Well, it turned out to be paint. A two-part gelcoat paint, but still, just paint. So Piper and I went to shore and walked to West Marine, an hour altogether. We were probably their at least a half an hour. We bought the $30 fiberglass repair kit. Back at the boat I mixed up the epoxy and filler and applied it to the gouges. For about an hour I had to monitor it and make sure it didn't all run down the side of the boat. That's about 3 hours right there and I still had not sanded and painted it. So let's say it takes 4 hours altogether. That comes to slightly over $40 an hour in labor. The going rate in Miami boat yards is $70/hr according to our friend Andrew who works in a boat yard down there, and this is not what we should have been doing on that beautiful day anyway. So, like I said, we were offering them a deal, but we knew they were not going to be forthcoming with the money so we rehearsed all day what we were going to say to them the next morning.
When we approached their boat the next morning Rienhardt came out first. We asked them how their excursion had been then explained to them how it had gone the day before and we still wanted $200 compensation for them ramming us in the middle of the night and damaging our boat. He says " Well, I don't have it." and chuckles. We clarify that we don't expect him to have it on him but he could go get it. The excuses got more and more absurd from there. "You shouldn't have anchored there. If you had not been there, we would not have hit you." "These repairs would not cost so much in South America." "How could a repair on that little boat cost so much? I could buy that whole boat for $10,000." "In NC I had our bottom painted for $30/hr." Of course these arguments were not difficult to rebut. Then she comes out and starts to explain why she doesn't think that kind of work is worth $30/hr but ends up telling us they made $120/hour in "quality assurance." The argument got pretty loud and all the neighbors were listening in. I mentioned bringing Marine Patrol into this and he says, "Go ahead. I will lie." I offered to pay them $60 and a can of paint to hit their boat a couple times with a hammer. They didn't bite. They were actually very stubborn so Piper says, "Let's go. We just want you to know you're screwing us over," and we left. On shore we decided to just let it go. As we were passing back by the marina, we heard, "Paul, Piper." We turned around and there they were, walking towards us. She had obviously been crying. They said they'd decided to give us the $200 because they didn't want people to thinking they were screwing them over. Piper asked what made them change their minds, had they talked to someone, finally. No, no they just didn't want us thinking so negatively about them.
When they came out later to give us the money Rienhardt says, "I hope we don't bump into you again."
We finally continued south the next day with a new VHF radio. Nor'easters blew about every other day on our way down and we could not sleep well those nights. We took the inside route most of the way down the Keys. The last three or four days of sailing were on the outside and pretty uneventful. Saw dolphins and sea turtles.
In Marathon we got fuel at Pancho's Fuel Dock where the guys are really friendly and you can get two bushels (laundry baskets) of ice free with a fill-up. We could only fit one in our ice box. It rained heavily while we were there.
After Marathon we stopped in Bahia Honda. It was a beautiful little harbor between Highway 1 and the old abandoned railroad bridge. There's a campground there with nice showers.
Piper flew to NC for Chelsea's baby shower a couple days after we arrived in Key West. She flew out on my birthday. That night I experienced some of the strongest wind since that day in St. Augustine. We were having gale force gusts, around 34 knots, and the mooring field has no protection from the NE. Also the dinghy ride to shore was about a mile and once on shore we were at the wrong end of town. It was pretty depressing. We kept saying it would be so easy to come home and watch TV in a house with a nice cozy fire. We were actually discussing whether or not we had had enough.
When Piper got back we decided to move to the anchorage near Christmas tree island because we'd be next to two other boats from St. Augustine. We'd all look out for each other and make friends with the other boaters as soon as possible.
We'd been warned by the guy in Marathon not to anchor near Christmas Tree Island beacause "thieves live on the island." However, life turned a complete 180 degrees for us. We loved being over there with our people.
Christmas Tree Island is what the locals call it.
The Official name is Wisteria after a wreck on the western shore that happened many years ago before the island was built by the army. You can see the wreck in this picture. The Wisteria ship's crew was infected with TB. The Islanders of Key West did not permit the crew to come ashore and eventually showed up at the wreck and shot all the passengers to prevent infection. There are actually two small spoil islands off the western shore of Key West which were built by the army during World War II when they dug out the harbor for big ships and submarines. The southern Island was called Tank Island because they kept tanks there. The nothern island is Christmas Tree. Eventually Tank Island was sold to the city by the army and developed into a disgusting private community called Sunset Island. Originally, the sunset was veiwed on the western shore of Key West, now it is blocked by this island for the summer months. Christmas Tree has remained undeveloped. Hippies, boaters and hurricane refugees have camped on this island ever since it was created. About fifteen years ago, 300 people were living here. Many vendors at Mallory Dock told me they lived there when they first moved to Key West.
Once we reanchored at the southern side of Christmas Tree, I went ashore to explore. There were many campsites. The one on the north end had a 50 gallon drum grill, cabinets stuffed with food and a countertop, a small stage, a fire pit in the center with nice log benches encircling it,a cute porch swing, plants had been planted for atmosphere, a tarp covered the entire site, and a few tents were nestled in the surrounding foliage. It was great. There were campsites all over the island. One had a million empty cans of busch beer in a large pile. There was boat debris all over the shores of the island. Fiberglass, toilets, batteries, line , rigging, masts, booms, etc. were everywhere left over from hurricanes. The shores were rocky pebbles and coral clusters, no sand anywhere. There were a few floating docks washed up on the beach as well as abandoned kayaks and dingies tied to trees as if if one day years later the owners might return. As I was just about to return to Delphine, I spotted a huge four foot iguana only a few feet away from me.
It blew 15-20 knots for three weeks straight and that got really annoying but at least we can handle it without a problem now. We just have to wear our "foulies" when the wind is blowing perpendicular to our route to shore.
I noticed the pier manager at Mallory Dock where he sells, wearing a Shikori Hills Festival shirt one day. I mentioned I'm from Chapel Hill and it turned out Andy is from Chatham county. He was staying on a trimaran owned by a guy, Robin, also from Chatham County. Andy found a storage space near the docks to keep my display in for $50/month. Before that we were hauling it to shore everyday and back out at night. An extra 2hrs of work. On especially windy nights Jim, Our first Key West friend, would let us keep it in his van.
Now we're hanging out with Grainne (pronounced Granya) a lot. She's Irish and has been living in Boston and NYC for the past eight years working as a bartender. She just moved to Key West a couple weeks ago and had a lot of money stolen from her by her traveling companion who she met in Miami and then had most of her clothes stolen as she napped on the beach one day. She was looking into getting an efficiency when she met our friend from St. Augustine, Caleb. He talked her into buying Jim's powerboat for $1000 and living on that. She didn't even know what a cockpit was, much less how to row so we've been giving her a lot of rides but she's also found some landlubbers to stay with sometimes.
Grianne is very outgoing and within a week had introduced us to everyone in our anchorage. We started going to bonfire parties on Christmas Tree Island. Toko, a rastafarian from Greneda, and his wife Diana, from CA, brought steel drums, bongos, guitars and ukeleles. Other people brought their harmonicas, drums and guitars as well. If there wasn't a instrument left we would use cans, sticks, bottles, boat whistles and horns. Toko and Diana know the most songs because he's a professional musician, playing steel drums at a local restuarant several times a week. Their three older children were often there or nearby at thier campsite with other boater kids. The camp was called Boat Kid Camp. The baby usually slept through the whole party. If he was awake it was impossible to tell because he never cried. The parties usually wound down around three or four.
Inhibitions were set aside. I brought my guitar and worked up the courage to play a few of my own songs and the one Decemberists song I know. Piper sang along with me (her first time singing in public). They do this at least every Saturday. For us, those parties epitimized everything we had hoped the boating lifestyle could be. Toko was an inspiration to all the musicians. This was not like a hippy drum circle that you might imagine. Most songs were reggae because of Toko, but all kinds of songs were played. Originals were mostly encouraged. Although most often covers were played. The sources varied, ranging from Nirvana and Sublime to Harry Belafonte and Jack Johnson. Many times someone would just make up words on the spot. Once Toko made up a song about buying the island if he had the money. The island was recently sold to the developers who own Sunset Key. Once they work out the zoning with the city of Key West, the island will become a gated community and the anchorage will be pushed further towards the Gulf. Saddest of all, the boaters will lose the heart of their community.
Our friends Lauren and Carly were the first to invite us to these parties. They told us about a tree house they had begun on Christmas Tree and asked if we would help work on it. After several failed attempts to meet up with them we decided to find the site ourselves one day. We thought we had when we came across some logs tied up in some trees. We set about building a ladder to where we thought the platform should go. It turned out to be the wrong site but we had worked so hard on our ladder that we continued on at the new site. This picture is after the first day.
We spent two more days making it taller and wider but never got to the building of the platform. Hopefully someone will finish it without us or it will still be there when we get back.
It was finally time to leave Key West and head for Miami to pick up Piper's brother, Tioga to cross to the Bahamas. Our friends threw us one last bonfire party and I gave them the rest of my art to fight over. I only had a few pieces left because a store owner from Delray Beach came by on my last night at Mallory and bought all my inventory. I made more money in Key West than anywhere I had ever been and my art went all over the world.
A rooster joins us for the $2 breakfast buffet.
My awesome 2-piece bike.
