Setting the spacing of the cars and preparing the two beams that the keels will sit on	The cars are ready to hold Tropic Daze	The cars are lowered down the tracks by a large gas powered windlass.
With the top of cars four and a half foot under water, Tropic Daze is positioned on the cars.	Tropic Daze is moving up the RR	Almost out
Tropic Daze is out	On the hard with stands for stability. Note the green slime on the bow	Initial inspection. We found that under the bottom paint, the jelcoat was still shinny, it had never been sanded to give the bottom paint paint a bite.
Sue inspects the bottom after it was power washed.	Note the areas of missing bottom paint due to poor initial preparation.	After sandblasting, three coats of bottom paint, and new stripe paint; she lools great
New bottom paint from the stearn. Note the paint on the prop, more on this later.	Taking advantage of access under the bridge deck, Sue cleans the stainless.	Cleaning the hatches. Yes, Sue does windows.

We finally got off the marine railroad on Pine Island after two weeks out of the water. From Pine Island, we sailed south to an anchorage in Factory Bay and Marco Island.  We caught these sunset photos while anchored in Factory Bay.  The next morning, at the crack of dawn, we motored out of Factory Bay and down the Marco River, then set sails for Marathon.

Is it time for ‘Plan B’?

After a long day of sailing, we made it to the anchorage off of Boot Key, next to Marathon in the Florida Keys.  The weather in the Keys is great and the water is warm and clear.  As usual with boats, we found a few things that need attention and we are working them off.  The plan was to finish preparing and provision the boat while monitoring the weather for favorable conditions in which to cross to the Bahamans.  As mentioned before, we are behind our planned schedule by a few weeks due to delays getting into the boatyard, the bottom painting, rudder bearings, etc.; but we still felt we still had time for a quick trip to the Bahamas if a weather window opened soon.

Now that we are in Marathon, in addition to boat chores and preparation, we are biking and kayaking all over and around the island, enjoying the abundant seafood, and just enjoying the kick back island lifestyle.

On the trip down across Florida Bay we picked up something on our port prop.  We first heard a ticking or slapping sound for about ten minutes, then a loud screeching rumble.  We put the port engine in neutral and the sound stopped.  Had what ever fouled the prop, come off?  We put it back in forward and it was quiet, but as we advanced the throttle, the engine couldn’t get up to normal cruise RPM.  Something appeared to be wrapped around the prop.  The winds were blowing 20 to 25 knots, so it was not a good time to stop and dive under the boat to check things out.  We continued in to our anchorage off Boot Key, near Marathon.  The next morning, I dove under the boat and found the prop was clear and turned freely.  Whatever was on the prop apparently came free during the forward and reverse actions while anchoring.  Just to check that everything was ok, after the engines warmed up, we put both engines in forward and full throttle, known as Wide Open Throttle (WOT).  Ideally, the engines should reach their governed RPM which is approximately 3600 RPM, but we knew from previous WOT tests that our props had too much pitch and caused the engine to work too hard and neither engine could achieve 3600RPM.  The props and engines hadn’t been too far off the 3600, so we planed to have their pitch fine tuned sometime in the future.

During this WOT test we didn’t even come close the desired 3600 RPM.  We had noticed on the trip down that our engines did not seem to be performing as well as they had, and this test confirmed that.  At the boatyard, they had put bottom paint on the propellers, could that be it, or were our engines losing power?  Now was the time to find out, not half way across the Gulf Stream or in the Exumas.  Once in Boot Key Harbor, we contacted a diesel mechanic and after a few sea trials, he felt the engines were fine and that it was our propellers.  To make a long story short, we needed to have our primary props cleaned and re-pitched or find a clean set of properly pitched props to test the engines with.  Our low drag props are very unusual and the local prop shop could not re-pitch our primary props. Exactly when the engines and propellers would be ready for us to move on was still unknown, but making it to the Bahamas looked unachievable.  Plan B was to drop the Bahamas (for the second year) and hang out in the Keys.  We would refine the plan as soon as we know when the boat will be ready.  With no props on the boat, our plan was to just hang out and enjoy Marathon.

Friday, May 27^th, after installing one of our spare props and another similar prop we took her out for another sea trial.  The engines performed great, 3600RPM on both engines.  The temporary prop matched the engine perfectly.  Everything just fell into place.  The diesel mechanic pronounced our engines fit and ready.

We huddled, looked at the weather forecasts, the list of needed provisions, and the remaining ‘To Do’ list; and decided that we could still make it to the Bahamas if the weather held.

Saturday the 28^th, we scrambled to get everything ready for a Sunday morning departure.  We planed to sail to Key Largo on Sunday and anchor over night.  Monday, if the weather held, at 4:00am we would sail out over the reef and into the Gulf Stream for another adventure.

Plan B is in effect.

Our last email posed the question “Is it time for ‘Plan B’?”, and the answer was no, we still had a shot at ‘Plan A’, the Bahamas.  Sunday we sailed up to Key Largo and anchored, ready to depart for the Bahamas the next morning.  During our normal ‘After Shutdown’ engine checks (oil, water, belts, etc.), we found a fresh pool of oil under the seawater pump that cools the port engine.  After 5000 hours of operation, an oil seal had begun to leak.  Would it hold for three weeks in the Bahamas, or would it fail completely and leave us without the port engine, this is the engine that among other things, runs our refrigerator/freezer?  We couldn’t take the chance, so we returned to Marathon on Monday.

Now this may sound like a bummer, but remember the saying, “Every cloud….”.  It turns out that what started out looking like a great weather window, went downhill in a hurry.  The forecasts were way off and an unusual cycle of weather descended on this part of the world.

Now we are trapped in Marathon (literally).  Trapped, as in the Boot Key Bridge opened to let us into Boot Key Harbor, and then a big resistor failed and it hasn’t for days.  We and every other boat over 26’ tall can’t go in or out through Boot key Channel.  Shallow draft vessels can get in and out through Sisters Creek, but due to our two 4.5 foot keels about 16 feet apart, we felt that we couldn’t risk going aground and blocking the only channel.  I can’t think of many places that we would rather be trapped than here in Marathon.  Oh please don’t throw me into that briar patch!

After three days of hard work on the port engine, we had replaced the $5 seal in the seawater pump and the boat was ready for ‘Plan B’, exploring the Keys.  Three days for a $5 seal, you might ask.  Actually I had replaced the same seal on the starboard engine the year before and it took about an hour.  The port engine has a compressor and mount for the refrigerator/freezer.  The mount blocked access to the seawater pump.  The compressor mount and the engine mount used the same bolts.  With engine mount bolts that I could barely touch, getting everything off took half a day.  The pump was repaired and reinstalled in an hour.  Getting the engine mount and compressor mount aligned, bolts started and not cross threaded, and putting everything back together took two and a half days. 

We have some other boat projects that we want to tackle, so we may use Marathon as a base of operations and go out to explore for a couple of days, then return to Marathon to work on our projects.  Our cruise may not match our original plan, but it is a great vacation either way.

As to the weather, an unending stream of rain and thunderstorms has been moving from Cuba to the Keys, the Florida mainland, and the Bahamas.  Some areas received 10” of rain in 60 hours.  We were hit once or twice a day.  We hunker down and read during the storms, but there is plenty of time between storms to bike, explore, and enjoy the area and other cruisers and sailors.   Storm #5, 6,7…….

Just after midnight Friday night 60+ knots of wind blasted through Boot Key Harbor, accompanied by lightening, horizontal rain and a water spout.  .  Storm #? Lost count.  Our dock lines, rated at over 13,000 pounds each, stretched under the pressure as the boat was pushed backwards by the force of the wind and rain.  Three boats were struck by lightening in the harbor, one boat was reportedly blown on its side by a water spout and pushed into other boats, numerous boats drug their anchors, and a few boats broke free.  Our folding bikes were blown off the dock and into the harbor.  The impact or the water turned on the light on my bike, so with a long boat hook we were able to retrieve it.  We guessed where Sue’s bike should be, and after a few minutes of fishing, we came up with it also.  It was far better to be caught in the harbor by a storm like that, than out in some secluded anchorage, by yourself, in the middle of the night.

It is Sunday, the weather has cleared and as soon as the bridge is fixed, we will go cruise the Keys.  One cruiser, trapped by the bridge, needed to leave the harbor and return home for medical reasons.  Sue and I joined eight other cruisers and with the guidance of the Harbor Master, we hand cranked the Boot Key bridge up and allowed boats to leave the harbor.  It took a number of two person teams, switching off every few minutes, about an hour to raise the bridge.  We ate lunch, provided by the city, then started the process of lowering the bridge.  Because the bridge is counter balanced, it is just as hard to crank it down as it was to crank it up.  Another new experience.

We enjoyed our time in Marathon and explored the local area with other cruiser friends.  We had planned to do more exploring and anchoring out in the Keys, but continuing threatening weather kept us in Marathon till late June when we moved down the Keys to Key West in preparation for the family visits.  We meet son Bob III and his wife Gina, who came down from Texas for a few days in the Keys.  Our last guests in Key West, daughter Lisa and friend Lesley flew back to Texas today, 5 July.  The weather cooperated for the visits and after the 4^th of July we prepared for our departure and return to Texas. 

Our plans were to spend a day of final preparations, getting the boat ready for the three week trek back to Texas.  First, would be a series of day sails up the west coast of Florida, then, due to the distance, an over night sail from Clearwater to Panama City in the Florida Panhandle.  Tropic Daze, with her 65’ mast, can’t fit under the fixed bridges in the Florida Panhandle, so we have to sail off shore.  At the mouth of Pensacola Bay we planned to enter the Intracoastal Waterway and follow it through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to Texas.  That was the plan.  Then came the weather reports.

A little background on how we developed our plans and timeline.  We base much of our timeline on the Atlantic and Caribbean Pilot Charts, which contain a wealth of information on wind, weather, and temperature on a month by month basis.  According to the Pilot Charts 150 year history, there had never been a major storm in the Gulf of Mexico before August.  We planned to have the boat secure in a Texas marina and be safe at home by the first of August.  The best laid plans……

You can run, but you can’t hide.  Storm #?

It is a history making year for early Tropical Storms.  Now Dennis is the menace.  Tropical storm Dennis is projected to become a hurricane by the 7^th of July.  The chance of a major hurricane this early in the season is almost zero.  Major or minor, who knows, but here comes Dennis.  We have a one day window to run north to Marco Island, our first stop on the return trip, but if we run we could run right into Dennis’s path if it hooks to the right in the Gulf of Mexico, as projections show it could.  In running north, we would give up a fairly secure floating dock in Key West for the unknown.  What protection might we find up the west coast of Florida?  We don’t want to get caught on the boat, at anchor in some remote bay in a hurricane, no matter what category of storm it turns out to be.  We have evaluated all of the options that we can think of and our decision is to wait it out and/or ride it out in Key West.

If it comes close to the Keys, we won’t ride it out on the boat, but even coming within a few hundred miles, it will give us a ton of rain and bad weather.  Hopefully there will be a lull behind the storm and we can start moving up Florida’s west coast, then across the northern Gulf coast and back to Texas.  Our estimate is twenty days, with a few lay days built in to wait for weather, resupply, and/or recuperate after extended offshore sailing. 

The decisions are in our hands, but the driving forces are in the hands of Mother Nature. 

A study of the weather showed that a tropical depression had formed in the southern Atlantic on the 4^th of July.  It became a tropical storm on the 5^th of July and was headed for the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.  Even though it was four days out, at 7 to 8 knots, we could not outrun it.  Besides, where would we go and where would it go?  During a similar situation in 2004, a number of sailors fled Key West and ran up the west coast of Florida to get out of the way of an approaching hurricane.   The hurricane followed them up the coast and with few safe harbors, they were trapped.  Not able to outrun it and with no safer place to go, so we elected to ride this one out in Key West. 

As news of the storm spread the exodus began.  Fast boats that had home marinas and docks up the coast made a hasty retreat.  Most of the slower boats made their preparations to ride out the storm.  Most of Key West’s marinas that can handle sailboats are located in Key West Bight, which is Key West’s original harbor on the northwest corner of town.  Outside of the protected harbor is a large concentration of anchored sailboats in a couple of anchorages.  Just west of Key West, across the channel, is Christmas Tree Island, which is surrounded on three sides with anchored boats.  North of Key West, in the lee of Fleming Key, is another large concentration of anchored boats.  Many of these boats belong to live-aboards who work in Key West and commute to and from their boats daily.  Some of the live-aboards found slips in one of the marinas and moved their boats.

We started preparing the boat for the storm.  We took down the bimini top, wrapped and tied the sails, and removed everything that wasn’t bolted down.  We placed every fender that we owned between the boat and the dock, and used all our dock lines to tie her to the dock.

With the exodus of boats, Galleon Marina looked almost deserted.  Everyone monitored the weather reports and news.  A mandatory evacuation was ordered, but by then there were no open flights, no rental cars, or no more buses.  The resort hotel at Galleon was empty and closed.  There was a shelter in one of the municipal buildings in Key West, but no pets were allowed.  We discussed our plans and options with other trapped sailors.

Dennis became a category 5 hurricane before it hit Cuba on the 8^th.  The forecast track showed a direct hit on Key West.  Too late to change plans now.  It crossed Cuba and lingered around Havana.  This lingering caused it to drift a little further west before it headed for the Keys.  About 3 pm on the 8^th, we left the boat and took refuge under a large second story porch, in front of a small deli restaurant on the ground floor.  As we left the boat the winds were already building into the 30s.  Our refuge was about 20 yards from the water in Key West Bight, Key West’s original harbor.  We were only about a hundred yards from our boat but she was on the other side of a restaurant and out of our sight. 

As night fell, the wind and rain increased and continued to build all night.  The eye passed to our west at about 3 in the morning, near the Dry Tortugas, which are the last keys in the chain.  We stayed huddled back in the corner trying to keep out of the wind and blowing rain.  At times we took refuge in a laundry room but it had an openly ventilated rear wall, so the wind blew through.

At about 4am the wind was howling and the rain was flying, all of a sudden a loud noise shook everyone and almost drowning out the wind noise.  It sounded like a heavy object with steel wheels was being rolled across the 2x6s on the upper porch.  Was a roof tearing loose?  What was it?  We couldn’t see anything through the pitch black rain.  The unidentified noise continued throughout the morning, but was identified at first light as coming from two boats whose roller furled sails had unfurled (unrolled) in the storm and were beating them selves to shreds.  The owners of the two boats were away and the boats had not been prepared for the storm.  The storms constant shaking of the rolled sail caused the furler line to fray and break, allowing the sail to unroll and flog in the rigging.  On Tropic Daze we had triple secured the roller furled sail and had double wrapped the main sail.

Shredded sails were one thing, but as the rain dissipated and visibility improved, we could get our first view of the anchorage on the east side of Christmas Tree Island.  The shore was littered with sail and power boats, on their sides and up side down.  Some had been driven all the way up on the shore and others were sunk in the shallows.  We counted 30 boats that had drug their anchors or broken their anchor lines and now lay on the shore in various states of destruction.  These boats were all on the east side of Christmas Tree Island and the wind was strongest from the east, driving them on the island.  What about the boats anchored north of Christmas Tree Island and in the lee of Fleming Key, how had they faired?

A day later we learned that approximately 45 boats were missing from the anchorage, in addition to the 30 boats that had blown up on Christmas Tree island.  The Keys are noted for poor holding in most anchorages.  Some equate it to a couple feet of soupy mud and sand over a coral bottom.  Even the best anchoring systems find these conditions challenging, and most of the live aboards anchored off on Key West survive on a shoestring, can’t afford quality anchors and rhode.  Much later we learned that at least one of the boats went down with its owner on board, he didn’t survive.  It may never be known how many boats took sailors with them.

After the storm on the 9^th of July, we needed to let the seas calm down for a couple days before we could head north, so the 11^th looked like our departure date.  Then came the news, tropical storm Emily was developing in the Atlantic and early predictions were that it would become a hurricane and head our way.  Exactly where was it going to go and how long would it take?  

Plan C takes shape

We figured that with another approaching storm, making it back to Texas was no longer an option, so now what?  We scrambled to form a plan, run or stay?  If we ran, where to?  At 23’ wide, Tropic Daze is too wide to fit in most marina slips, so finding her a new home isn’t easy.  Sue worked the telephone calling marina after marina looking for a new home.  She finally found a big slip in Twin Dolphins Marina, in Bradenton Florida, just off Tampa Bay.  If we made a quick run, we could make it to Tampa Bay before Emily’s arrival. 

We departed Key West Bight at first light the next morning.  As we sailed up Key West’s northwest channel, we saw boats scattered across the reefs and shallows lying in various states of destruction.  The trip north to the Factory Bay anchorage in Marco Island was a smooth run until we entered the Marco river.  It started to pour.  The rain was horizontal and the visibility was poor, but we worked our way into the anchorage and got settled for the night. 

The next morning we departed again at first light, this time for the Pelican Bay anchorage.  We made good time and decided to stretch the trip further north to Venice.  As we approached Venice, the late afternoon thunderstorms were waiting for us again.  We made it in to the Crow’s Nest Marina with only a little rain.

The next morning we made the run up the coast, entered Tampa Bay, then the Manatee River and Twin Dolphins Marina.  We put Tropic Daze in her new slip and prepared her for a long hurricane season, and after a few days we rented a van and drove back to Texas.  Below are pictures of Tropic Daze prepared for the rest of hurricane season and four pictures that I took of Twin Dolphins Marina take from the top of Tropic Daze's 65' mast.

Another adventure, that we won’t soon forget, comes to an end. 

Till next year, fair winds and following seas.

Sue and Bob Mimlitch

S/V Tropic Daze

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