Key West Finale

Our trip has sadly come to an end, but not without a bit more excitement.  We did venture off for 1 day and 1 night to a small island outside of Key West.  This is the same location that we found “veal”.  It was comprised of calm waters behind a small island, a beautiful sandy beach and decent places to dive.  To get there we had to navigate through a mine field of lobster traps.  The boat isn’t as agile as one would imagine (I forgot to mention in Part 1 that we ran over a lobster pod, it got stuck on the prop, and Dan had to dive into the water in 3-4 ft seas to free the line from under the boat).  You can imagine how careful we proceeded after that encounter. 

We anchored and set off to the shore to sit in the very warm water.  The waters were beautiful and relatively clear with multiple shades of green/blue (with my polarized glasses).  Sydney was ecstatic, she finally got to run on the beach – she went crazy.  After a while, Dan, Russell, and myself went to look for our newly found friends.  Dan is GREAT at catching lobster.  He practically stands on his head to look in every crack or rock.  Russell was great too.  They made a good team.  I on the other hand, don’t quite have the “lobster skill set”.  I’m too concerned with balancing myself in the waters, keeping my eye on Dan’s location, and trying to stay calm.  With a little luck and not so smart lobsters, I did manage to catch a couple when they swam into the net for me.  We caught 20 all together.  Vicky (an excellent cook) grilled some up for appetizer, cooked some up for dinner (lobster Mac and cheese - WOW) and froze our larger friends.  Of course we kept the legal heads to make lobster stock. 

The sunset was outstanding.  The stars were glaring bright.  I was taken aback by the beauty…really.  Then came bed time and the thought that we were in our place by a mere anchor.  I think Dan was up at least 4 -5 times throughout the night and I was up twice.   We both barely slept.  Anchoring was a bit more stressful than originally thought especially with the boats swinging with the tides with the fear of the anchor slipping upon the changes.  4 or 5 other boats found refuge in the same location – so we were all swinging together. All went fine and everyone stayed in their place.  It just made for a less than good sleep.

The last 2 days kept in line with the rest, our water heater drains our water tanks and the generator was running super hot until Dan noticed the temperature this morning and cleaned the sea strainers.   Even with all of the issues, we don’t have any regrets.  We try to take the issues in stride and laugh (until we get the credit card bill next month).

Anyway, all is good.  We have arrived home safe and sound and had a great time with our South African neighbors and new boating friends.  I have been out lobstered (by the boys), out cooked (by Vicky), and out witted by the new boat and rough seas, but I am as happy as a clam.

I hope you enjoyed my 1^st boating adventure as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

Lori & I enjoying a beautiful sunset.

Our friends and neighbors Russell & Vicki

Posing with my trophy after the successful hunt.

Russell & Vicki's boat 'on the hook' in Boca Grande

Several boats seeked shelter for the night near us.
The boats were much closer than they appear!

Part Duex

The boating weather has been less than stellar.  Between the weather and finding a protected location to try to find these elusive (to us) lobsters has proven to be challenging.  We see all of these smaller boats coming in with LOADS of lobster and we are being confined by water depth, vulnerability in the windy/wavy ocean, and most importantly lack of local knowledge. 

Our boating troubles have continued - we lost our water pump, which thankfully Russell has had happen a couple of times and was able to fix after 4-5 hours of hard work after buying a new one at West Marine.  We hit the dock with the back of the boat when we were returning from getting fuel (495 gallons) and put a nice large hole in the fiberglass.  Yes, my fault for faulty instructions.  Russell says with a laugh, this happens to everyone for the 1st couple of trips.  I'm not quite sure.

During a couple of these "lobster quests" we took on some very tough seas.  We didn't realize that the weight of the dive equipment and the lack of weight from fuel and water was making the boat list to the starboard, which made for a couple of scary moments on the boat.  The downstairs was referred to as the war zone, as EVERYTHING both in and now out of the cabinets went flying.  We thankfully made some weight adjustments on the next trip which helped significantly.

Which all leads to yesterday, Dan and Russell (after the scary trip) plotted a trip to a random place to "try" to find lobster.  Got there successfully (safely) in 4-5 ft seas (these are huge) and found an extremely calm location to keep the boat.  We launched the dinghy and found a random 100 ft wreck to dive, just by chance.  As Dan and Russell were diving, I saw 2 dive boats pull up about 50 yards away.  The boys surfaced, grabbed the lobster gear, and FINALLY found the lobster.  They brought up 10 less than legal lobsters which we cooked up on the grill a couple hours later.  They were AWESOME.  I don't know if you have ever had $500 a piece baby lobster (fuel, boat repairs, lodging, etc), but they never tasted better.  We called them the veal of the ocean.  Dan apologized to each of them as he ripped their head off.  As you know, Dan is not the fish killer, but the investment of time and money made him a true hunter.

We are off today to take the boat to the same location again to stay a night or 2, as our planned trip to the Dry Tortugas for a couple of nights isn't going to happen because of the wind/ocean conditions.  Wish us mechanical and lobster luck.

Key West Bound!

All is going well.  We got down here in about 5 hours.  Russ/Vicky's boat cruises at a higher speed than ours so we went a little faster (less fuel efficient) than we wanted to, but were able to stay together on the way down.  It rained about 20% of the time, so we had to learn the "rain drill" and come downstairs to navigate the boat 2 different times.  Easier said than done. 

No major issues coming down - just a leak out of the heat exchanger that Dan fixed as we were going.  He would check the engine room every 1-1.5 hours, which make him very aware of what is happening down there.  This was a suggestion of a captain that Russ hired when he was learning.

We got 2 slips next to each other and have a beautiful view of the sunset in the evenings. 

Yesterday, we took 1 boat and went diving about 7 miles offshore.  The dive site had mooring balls, so we tied up to one.  Russell and Vicky showed us how to do it - very easy.

I went for 1-45 minute dive and Dan went for 2.  We launched the dinghy and the Russ/Vicky/kids went snorkeling.  The engines wouldn't start when we were ready to leave.  Dan brought an extra battery with us, because we knew our starting batteries were weak.  Dan and Russell had to exchange the battery out at the mooring ball.  It was pretty difficult - getting bounced around and trying to manipulate a 165 pound battery in the engine room, where you cannot stand up.  Anyway, we got back safe and sound - a little stressed - but had everything under control.

We are hoping to go lobster diving today, weather permitting. 

Having a good time so far.  Just drinking my coffee and clearing out my emails to start the day.  Almost, nothing better than that!!