Keys cruising

This is a place to document your trips with your boat. Tell us about your journeys. Share your experiences. Post your pictures.
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Russ
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Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:01 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Bozeman, Montana "Luna Azul" 2008 M 70hp Suzi

Re: Keys cruising

Post by Russ »

Great photos Ix.

The dog looks happy to be on "land" :)

I've never technically ran aground with my Mac. I had the dagger catch a cable tied to the dock and stop me quick. Beached. But never run aground.

This is a stupid question but doesn't the prop sit lower than the hull, therefore wouldn't the prop ground first?

Some of the dangers you describe (coral heads, pilings) seem to be dangerous to a propeller.
--Russ
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Ixneigh
Admiral
Posts: 2225
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:00 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Key largo Florida

Re: Keys cruising

Post by Ixneigh »

Russ wrote: Fri May 27, 2022 6:38 pm Great photos Ix.

The dog looks happy to be on "land" :)

I've never technically ran aground with my Mac. I had the dagger catch a cable tied to the dock and stop me quick. Beached. But never run aground.

This is a stupid question but doesn't the prop sit lower than the hull, therefore wouldn't the prop ground first?

Some of the dangers you describe (coral heads, pilings) seem to be dangerous to a propeller.
Oh. Well this happened to be on the sand “humps” that appear in these channels between flats sometimes. Ran her right on one of those with a thump. Then I got stuck on the actual sand flat too. I do keep the engine trimmed up when I’m doing these things. I can tell you that trying to inch the boat over sand by turning the motor side to side doesnt work as well as one might think. What did work was putting the sail up and applying horsepower. Normally I’d just wait on the tide but I was sort of curious if I could do it. For future reference. Re coral danger. in this area one needs to know about the grassy, sandy, muddy, hard pan, ledge, and coral bottoms. The sea life growing on each tells you a lot. Sea grass is pretty obvious. Any hard bottom is at least 6 inches of mud under it and possibly a lot more. I’ve buried that giant anchor I use in muddy grass. In certain areas like tidal runs, the grass can grow on hard sand. You can walk on this unlike muddy grass. Grassy sand is short grass. Grassy mud is longer grass.
Mud, and what I call hard pan bottom look similar. Especially if the light is difficult. I’ve notice that nothing grows on mud, and a variety of stuff like the hard pan. Sponges of any type including the small black ones, the vase shapes ones and tyre shaped ones, all indicate a hard pan bottom. It’s smooth with maybe an inch of sand on it. The tire and vase sponges never dry out, unlike grass which may bare briefly at low water. The sponges can’t be seen from a ways off. So, brown is a color to slow down for. Could be mud, could be hard.
What I call “ledge” is the rocky non-coral, reef structure that extends off some of these little keys, on the gulf side of them. It’s chunky and rough. It can be slabs, plates, or jagged edges. This usually has reddish and green stuff growing on it, various algae and sea grass in sandy pockets. All this stuff can be exposed at low water. I’m terrified of it. It’s usually in places with a lot of current and deep water right near by.
Sea fans are a good indicator of coral bottom, at deeper soundings. Usually six of more feet. They don’t like to dry out. Shallow coral, like coral heads, have a pretty distinct yellow color. I’ve only seen a few this area, near Sawyer Key. It’s more of an ocean side thing. I was actually very surprised to see them and noted it could be hit with a Mac at extreme low tide.
Lastly, sand is pretty obvious. Perceived depth is by the color of blue over it. The morning I ran aground, the sun was low and ahead. I could see the sand up there and it looked like it had three feet of water over it. After I got off of it and looked again with the light to my back, it was white. I never would have gone for it.

Ix
"Shoal Idea"
2011 M, white
Etec 60
South Fl.
OverEasy
Admiral
Posts: 2012
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:16 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: NH & SC

Re: Keys cruising

Post by OverEasy »

Thanks for the great lessons on shallow water sailing!
The west side of Florida looks so inviting fro the shore but it is a different sort of challenge and skill set once in the water!
We can understand why so many of the Great Loopers choose to sail across the open Gulf instead of hugging the coast.
The ease of transit can be appreciated but the coastal scenery you experience on your travels must be beautiful!

Thank you for sharing your experiences!
We look forward to your next posting!

Best Regards
Over Easy 😎😎🐩🐈
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Ixneigh
Admiral
Posts: 2225
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:00 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Key largo Florida

Re: Keys cruising

Post by Ixneigh »

So I’ve been in islamorada the last few days right there by the Lorelei restaurant. This is a fun stop. I recommended it to anyone. Mostly because pretty much anything you need is within a few blocks of the place people tie their dingies up. And lots of things yiu don’t need, also, like art, clothing, sandals etc. I bought a gallon of XD 100 which seems hard to locate, from Caribe Boats. I’d used the last of mine on this trip. Also filled up 2 six Gallon tanks with the available non ethanol gas. Bought a small piece of fuel line so I could relocate my fuel shut off valve to a better location.
I park my boat when I’m here, quite close to the dinghy dock in a shallow area between two busy channels. It was never a problem before, but this time I got yelled at by a man with a boat on a dock behind me, who thought I might drag that huge anchor through the admittedly horrible holding ground and hit his vessel. I moved rather than argue with him, but returned the next day since I was too lazy to row the dogs ashore from where I was. The holding ground throughout this area is muddy grass. It’s challenging at times. Things like the Bruce, rocna, spade and other concave “scoop” anchors can fail suddenly in a blow by dislodging with a chunk of mud and grass on the “scoop” and they won’t reset. A danforth, the real ones, or a delta, are better. The Luke anchor I have just disappears in it pretty much. It excels in that bottom. And rocks. And mud. And sand. And coral. It’s awkward to handle and is not self launching. All the boats you see there, 90% are used as houseboats and are on moorings of various types. The anchorage can get very rough in strong westerlies. I take the boat elsewhere during those, since I try to avoid drama when I can. There’s no place to get water except at the fuel dock at .10 a gallon. There is, however a dumpster at the dinghy landing to dispose of trash. Coming into the harbor a few days earlier I experienced a sharp squall and had an empty gas tank so I couldn’t employ my preferred squall abatement system. So that was kind of exciting. The dogs were NOT AMUSED as we spent 15 minutes going sideways quickly and heeling past 40 of angle.
Today I was underway in very light airs under power, for my return to Key Largo, in Tarpon Basin. I was able to sail for about an hour, and played around with sail draft to try to keep speed above three knots.

Ix
"Shoal Idea"
2011 M, white
Etec 60
South Fl.
User avatar
Russ
Admiral
Posts: 7543
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:01 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Bozeman, Montana "Luna Azul" 2008 M 70hp Suzi

Re: Keys cruising

Post by Russ »

Love living vicariously through your posts.

Wave to us from their webcam
https://www.loreleicabanabar.com/webcam/
--Russ
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Ixneigh
Admiral
Posts: 2225
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:00 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Key largo Florida

Re: Keys cruising

Post by Ixneigh »

I’ve been anchored in tarpon basin in key largo for a few weeks while I was too busy to move the boat further. It’s hotter than hades back there. The waters like soup, the bugs are bad, but it is close to stores and things. The place is still a good stop, but less good since they closed the docks. People are still using the area, and there are still places to tie up a dinghy. You can also use the docks after hours. My cabin temps here were 90-100 degrees, with fans going and 60% humidity. That’s close to the limit of human tolerance. The last few years have been the hottest ever. I will no longer cruise during the summers. Hard on me, hard on my dogs, not worth it.
I left tarpon basin for the key largo ocean side with relief, if nothing else then for cleaner water elsewhere. I chose the angelfish creek Route instead of snake creek, mostly so I could stop and clean the bottom at Cross key in Barnes sound. It’s sandy, one of the few places locally with any sand, and popular with dog owners. I don’t like sailing with anything at all on the bottom, and I was looking forward to getting in clean water as well. I arrived after an uneventful motor through jewfish creek. No one else was there, and I parked in thigh deep water on clean white sand. After letting the dogs explore a bit, and noting all the caserina pines falling in due to rising sea level, I got to work scrubbing the bottom of light to moderate crud and a few barnacles. This is that epoxy/powdered copper concoction I applied about four years ago. It works so-so but doesn’t rub off at all. I’m not as spry at this task as I once was, because flipping upside down and then back, as one does while scrubbing, makes me have nausea and vertigo now. So, I take my time work slowly and take more breaks. The water was lovely though. I inspected the stub keel and found no evidence of damage from my little encounter with the sand bar at Marvin Key. Everything else looked good. After I dried off and had lunch, I decided not to stay over night there, mostly out of extreme paranoia of getting caught on those particular flats in a sudden squall. The water shoals up quickly on the sand bar and theoretically the boat could pound the bottom, if you didn’t drag anchor first. I sailed northeast under the main, at three knots, as I’ve done most of my trip. Under card sound bridge without using the motor, and at dusk, past Pumpkin Cay, just off the ritzy ocean reef club resort. I anchored not far from the west entrance of Angelfish creek. I didn’t drop the dagger board once, despite occasional short courses close hauled. In smooth waters, the boats pointing now works out quite conveniently to be: the stub keel doubles the weather ability of the boat with just the skegs and no board, and the board down doubles the weather ability of just the stub keel and skegs. (By gpscharting)
The next morning was clear and hot.I hanked on the working jib for use in Hawk Channel. I got underway somewhat early in a fair breeze. Motorsailed through the creek, then turned Parallel to shore, gliding past the other side of the ocean reef club. Still not much fishing traffic about yet from the resort. In a few miles I found the energy to pull up the jib which, once trimmed, livened up the boats motion, producing a few crashes and clunks from below, from things not prepared for this unusual heeling. We were now doing four knots or better, and the beam reach didn’t require the board which of course on the ocean side now, would be seaweed collector anyway. The rudders were bad enough. After a half hour I came across some Haitian boats, beached in the shallows. I’d seen them in the news some weeks back. Haitian migrants within miles of millionaires club house or some BS. I was tempted to look at them, but one was a large power boat type vessel and the other looked pretty beat up though the binoculars. A few more miles down the pike was a little Cuban boat (I can tell by the difference in hull styles) and then a completely intact Haitian sloop with the jib still set and drawing. I couldn’t pass that up. I mean, come one. So I came in to within a hundred yards, put the anchor over, let down the sails and dinghied over to the wreck with the dogs. Very interesting detour. I’d never been on a hatian boat before. She was pretty big, fifty ft long by probably fourteen, wood, with massive rough timbers and planking, painted blue and red. Stepping onto this craft was like stepping back 200 years. The inside, covered by a large square cabin with very clever sliding windows, was filled with water, trash, clothing and life cushions. She was outfitted with benches but nothing else. Aside from a few broken odds and ends, she appeared to be in pretty good shape, for having come from Haiti with God knows how many people on board. I took some pictures:

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and then got my own little ship back underway. Had a nice ride to rodreguiz Key, where I declined to park on the windward flats because there were too many boats there, so I chose the western end. It’s still hot, but less so by a few degrees, than the bayside was. The next few days I’ll derig the boat and trailer her. I don’t plan to launch again until next year.

Ix
"Shoal Idea"
2011 M, white
Etec 60
South Fl.
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Russ
Admiral
Posts: 7543
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:01 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Bozeman, Montana "Luna Azul" 2008 M 70hp Suzi

Re: Keys cruising

Post by Russ »

Thanks for the report. I Google Earthed your journey.

I can feel the Florida Heat from your descriptions. :(
--Russ
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