Conalls boat Key West

Greetings all.

I'm typing this note, early Thursday morning sitting on my aft deck at A&B Marina in Key West having coffee. A&B has proven to be a great harbor so I'd recommend it to anyone heading this way. The A&B staff is awesome, our dock neighborhood is super friendly, and the boats are spectacular.

Our kids have almost two weeks of spring break so this is the how and the why of us taking this ten day trip. Because my wife has to be back to work on Monday, and not wanting to risk a return delay due to weather, she drove here with her daughter and friend from our home in Cape Coral. I, on the other hand, made the trip with my 7 year old son, 12 year old step son, and my 17 year old step son along with his girlfriend.

Our float plan heading down to the Key's was leave Ft Myers Yacht Basin to anchor off Sanibel, then off shore to Panther Key in the 10,000 Island area, next to Little Shark River, then on to Key West via the northern channel.

Because we let the older kids each bring a friend the logistics of getting the friend on board had us leaving Ft Myers Yacht Basin sort of late Friday to anchor off Sanibel lighthouse. Because the rains have eased up, Florida has stopped releasing water from lake Okeechobee and the water here is no longer brown. Being somewhat protected, this is a nice spot to anchor with good holding. To dinghy to ashore and spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach was a good way to spend our first afternoon.

The next morning had us hoisting anchor at sun up heading to Panther Key. I've always used Danforth type anchors with great success. Recently I purchased a new, somewhat heavier Danforth online, and truth be told, wasn't too impressed with how it looked when it showed up. I rigged the anchor any way and relegated my 10 year old Danforth as a spare. When we pulled anchor on this morning, the new Danforth came up bent like a pretzel. We were set good and firm in a sand bottom, and the tide flipped us around once overnight, and other than being cheap junk, I saw no real reason for the failure. Once we were under way, I got a file from the tool box and ran it across various parts of the new anchor. The file test showed the metal to have the same hardness as imported re-bar. The same file test showed the old Danforth to have at least double the hardness as the new anchor.

I'm typing this using my phone, and the kids are bugging me to cruise them around the harbor in the dink so they can see some tarpon. I'll continue this boat on the move post a little later on. I'll get some pictures up once I get home and am able to shrink them.

Cheers

Conall

Sounds like a fun trip. What brand was the anchor?

Thanks for sharing, sounds like a nice family trip!

I've always enjoyed A&B. They have great T shirts. Have fun.

Danforth is stamped on the shank, but I'm suspecting the Ch-ineese company.

Conall

Nice trip, nice time to be there hanging out at A&B. Too bad about that cheesy Danforth, but it's best you figured out in a situation where it mattered less than it would have in an exposed, remote anchorage.

Danforth anchors are owned by Tie Down Engineering. They say they're made in the USA.

They make two versions. A Standard and a High Tensile. I wonder if your old anchor is a high tensile and the new one a standard?

You can tell by the shank. The high tensile is forged and has some shape to it. The shank on the standard is rough cut from plate steel.

The flukes on the high tensile have a T cross section and the standard has an L cross section.

Conall,

Very nice to hear from you! I have been wondering how things were going. Sure am glad to see you and the family are enjoying the boat.

Jealous as heck,

Jim

Your spot on hop car. The older anchor's shank has some shape, and the newer one looks to have a shank sheared from plate. I'll get some pictures up later on.

I'll call later on Jim.

Conall

Because my wife had to work, and could not be in Key West until Monday, our slow trip to the Keys had us headed as our next stop to Panther Key.

Panther Key is below Cape Ramano and in the 10,000 island area. We had about a 50 mile run in seas forecast 2' or less. The seas and wind forecast was pretty accurate and we good conditions with the waves and wind basically behind us. The Cape Ramano shoals extend pretty far in to the Gulf, and because I'd never been to this part of Florida, I charted a fairly wide transit around the shoals. There's a light marking the shoals, and we kept about a mile outside the light before we made our turn to Panther Key. Looking at the chart it seems reasonable that one could weave a course through the shoal water, but I didn't see the need to try to bump the bottom.

The charts to get into Panther key were accurate and we saw no less than 9' of water. We arrived early enough to dinghy to the beach and spent a few relaxing hours on the beach while the kids had a great time. The bugs were not bad, but I suspect they could be as summer gets stronger. This anchorage has a clear view to the west, and with high pressure over the area, the sunset was perfect. Panther Key is a great spot.

35 or so miles further down the coast is the Little Shark river which was our next stop. The sea forecast was again 2' or less, and started out that way. A few hours in to the trip, the wind quickly picked up and we had 3-4' on our starboard bow. My stepsons girlfriend was still a little ill from yesterdays miles, and with the added action, it was a no doubter as to how ill she was feeling. The wind stayed strong for the rest of the trip, and when we entered in to the Little Shark, we chose to go around the bend of the river to anchor out of the wind. There was enough swing room at this spot, but given the 3' tides on this river, we made sure we were centered up and had a good set on the anchor.

The Little Shark river area is about as wild and unspoiled area of Florida one could find. We took the dinghy out for a few hours of slow speed exploring, and saw loads of wild life in dolphins, manatee, sea turtles and various birds. When we got back to the boat, six other boats had found the anchorage in the bend and the scene was ideal. Sitting on the roof of the boat, the tide had flipped as the sun was finding the horizon, we were grilling our dinner and watching tarpon feeding on whatever the tide was sending towards the gulf. Watching the sun begin to hide below the horizon, I got bit by a bug... then another.... then about 200 others. Looking at the kids, they were all now swatting at bugs they couldn't see, while folding up the chairs. We were under a full assault and couldn't get inside fast enough. The grill food was still cooking, so I sprayed on bug repellent and headed back to the roof to finish the work. The bug spray seemed to help a bit, but not enough. All the windows are screened, but that only seemed to slow the no-seeums down just a bit as they were able to get through the screens.

Because I'm the builder of my boat, one of the items still on the "to do list" is installing the salon/wheel house air conditioner. The lower sleeping cabins are air conditioned, and that's where I headed once dinner was finished. The kids stayed up a while longer before going down below to go to bed. I didn't tell them to shut the windows before they retired, so when I woke up at 5:30 to do my pre flight before crossing to Key West, I was greeted by a few hundred thousand no seeums on the ceiling of the salon and wheelhouse. Shutting all the windows, I sprayed on bug reppelant, and got out the shop vac to start clearing the cabin of bugs. The shop vac worked pretty good, and after about ten minutes, life was OK. The only problem was it was a little warm inside, but I'll take that over the swarm. At 6:30 I woke my stepson to pull anchor while I watched from inside the wheel house as he got attacked by no-seeums. Once we cleared the last marker for the river on our course towards Key West, we opened the windows to let that cool morning air flood the boat and dispose of whats left of the no-seeums. Drinking my coffee while watching the sun rise over a dead flat Gulf of Mexico, I looked in my cup trying to decide if a few coffee grounds were floating in my brew or those were more no-seems. Deciding I didn't care what was floating in the cup, I downed it looking towards Key West.

Cheers

Conall

????

We did the exact same thing at Shark River last June. We were all outside relaxing watching the sunset and seriously got attacked. Good times!

Conall, I'm enjoying your trip. Please keep posting.

Conall,


I think I speak for everyone....where are the pics? Your killing us here.

By the way we have snow on the ground and a low of 9 last night. Funny we have to keep our windows close too.

Best Regards,

Jim

"Deciding I didn't care what was floating in the cup, I downed it looking towards Key West. "

Good man!

Rob

Conall, that's a very interesting well written log. Those kids will never forget that trip.

Thanks Moonstruck.

Conall

The Little Shark River to the northwest channel inlet of Key West is about 56 miles away with another 7 miles down the channel before one finds the Key West harbors. The forecast for the seas on this day was less than 2' with a 5 kt breeze.

After clearing the last marker for the Little Shark River, my stepson quickly ran down below to get back to bed, and with everyone else still sleeping, I got settled in for a nine or ten hour day. Getting a push from the tide, I kept the RPM's at 1500 and was making 7.5 kt. 7 knots seems to be my target speed these days, so anytime I'm over that at low RPM's, life is good. Without an auto pilot installed yet, I'm obviously hand steering, so I switched from the plotter screen to the radar screen and started playing the game of keeping the white boat line on top of the black course line. The two lines on the radar screen crossing over each other kind or remind me of that tool piano players use to keep the beat, so I that got me thinking about some music and more coffee. Our boat with it's large rudder, long deep keel, and heavy duty engine driven hydraulic steering, tracks as straight as string. With the seas as flat as they were on this day, I'm able to walk away from the helm for a few minutes at a time without the boat heading changing. The Portuguese bridge around the wheel house is about 42" tall so I feel safe stepping outside and enjoying the view while under way.

The seas today were less than 1', and for all practical purposes, the Gulf looked more like a lake. A few hours into my day, the water started changing color from the brownish green silt of the coastal water to a more clear, greenish blue of the gulf as the water finally began to get some depth. The crab pots were plentiful and kept kept me occupied trying to spot them with slight deviations of heading to stay clear. On a fairly regular basis, I'd spot Dolphins in the distance, and it never seemed to fail that these magnificent animals would head for the bow of our boat. When the dolphins showed up, I'd alert my six year old son, and his 12 year old brother so they could go the the bow and watch the dolphins hitch a ride on our bow wake. The bulwarks on the fore deck area of the boat are 36" tall, and I added a 1 1/2" handrail on top of the bulwark, so the fore deck of the boat feels very safe. The young boys spent most of the day between the fridge and the fore deck watching dolphins, a few sea turtles, and lots of bait being chased to the surface by a predator we could only guess of.

A long straight course line such as I was traveling on this particular day makes me think about that saying " a watch pot never boils". I'd be looking at the "distance to next" number, step away from the helm for a minute or so, then back to the helm to look at the "distance to next" number again, and think to myself, "it's not changed... life at seven knots". Every hour or so, I'd call my stepson to take the helm so I could poke my head into the engine room. The engine room door is a big heavy, dogged steel door with port light in it. I have a thermometer stuck to the glass on the inside of the port light so I can note the ER temperature. My engine room checks are: observe ER temperature, go in to the ER and sit on the house battery box and stare at the fuel lines and filters. Then move to rear of engine and lift the hinged sole panel above the drip less shaft seal and look for water, while putting my hand on the seal to feel for heat. Next I move around the engine, grab a flashlight off of the work bench and look at the injectors on top of the engine, the injection pump, and the bilge. The bilge never has water in it so I'm looking for water or oil. The ER is pretty room, and with handrails around the engine, and 5'4" of head room, it's pretty easy in and out, so the ER check takes less than 5 minutes. If the generator is running, I always take a quick look at that to make sure all is OK.

With our radar set for 36 miles, a couple hours after lunch, the black dot representing our next turn soon shows up on our radar screen. The distance to next starts getting down to numbers that the dingy can relate too, and we began to hear radio chatter from Key West. Making the turn down the north west channel, I call for my step son so he can start getting the dock lines and bumpers in place. By the time he gets the deck ready, and we discuss our strategery to get into A@B marina, were in view of Key West.

One would think life at 7 knots is slow, but things seem to happen quickly sometimes. Approaching Key West, I was thinking this is about the busiest place I've ever seen: Four or five para sail boats speeding around with sails in the air, armies of wet bikes racing every direction, sail boats coming and going, big sport fish boats coming down the channel doing 25 knots and throwing 4' rollers... you get the picture. We raised A@B on the VHF, got our slip assignment and location, idled into the harbor, almost crushed a para sail boat who snuck up behind us, backed into the slip, shut down the engine, hook up shore power, meet the dock hand, start to decompress.

It felt good to be in Key West, and while I like anchoring out, it was nice to be on a dock. My wife and two more girls were arriving by car soon, so we had a bit of work to get the boat "woman ready". I can for sure tell you I was pumped to be in Key West.

Cheers,

Conall

Greetings,
Mr. 63. Good stuff. Thanks. I can almost feel the sunshine.

"Living The Dream" Good for You!!!

Thanks for the pics they are a great inspiration.

Jim

Awesome reports they are much appreciated. In another 20 years maybe I will be doing this!

Conall,
I had to smile when you wrote that you backed into your slip. It sounds like you are having a great trip. You have built a very nice boat.
Cheers,
Henry

Hi Henry,

Do you remember the anchor conversation we were having while I was rigging my new anchor? There's a picture of the new anchor lashed to my aft deck in that last batch of pictures I posted. In defense of Danforth, I had purchased the non high tensile model.

Are you pointed North yet?

You're slip's still open.

Cheers,

Conall

Like most things in Key West, real estate is at a premium, and they like to put 3 lbs of stuff in 2 lbs buckets. The harbor where A@B is located is not much different, and while a great facility, the fairways are a bit tight. All the slips require you to be tied by the stern. Our beam is 15'4", and the width between our piers was 16'... kind of tight.

The other good thing about A@B is the size of the yachts tend to block some wind. Here's a picture of my 46'... the green boat with the mast and flag. My starboard neighbor was a 26' Contender. My port neighbor was 85', and his neighbor was 97'.

Cheers

Conall

Your boat looks better than those big plastic ones IMO.

Nice writeup. Looks like the boys had a good time. When I took my HS age boys to Key West they spent most of the time sleeping while underway.

We had five days booked at A@B Marina, and as soon as everyone was settled and the boat ready for harbor life, the older kids wasted no time getting up to Duval street to see what there is to see.

As I said before, Key West harbor is a great spot. The water is clear with much to see. Our neighbor had underwater lights on his boat which he had lit every night. Once the sun went down, our younger boys spent their free time on the swim platform or dock looking at fish. Schools of Tarpon, with some five and six feet long, live in the harbor and seem to be attracted to the lights. There's also a few Nurse Sharks that call the harbor home, and we would see them, along with the big tarpon, every night.

Because we only had five days, we split our time between the tourist type stuff on Duval street and a couple of days on the water doing some trips.

Watching the weather, we had two decent opportunity's for day trips so for one trip, we headed out to Sand Key reef where we grabbed a mooring ball and snorkeled all day. On that particular day, the winds and seas were almost non existent, and the visibility was about 30'. The snorkeling was what I'd call good for this part of Florida, and we saw quite a variety of different fish with a few larger Baracuda and some quite a few sea turtles. The reef is marked with buoys on the corners, and all the mooring balls are outside that charted perimeter. A stark reminder on how vigilant we need to be occurred when a charter sailboat decided the fastest way to the mooring balls was through the middle of the reef where everyone was snorkeling and scuba diving. Probably one of the most interesting parts of this snorkel trip was how fascinated the younger kids were to watch the scuba divers 20' below them.

Our other day trip was to Boca Grande Key which is due west between Marquesas Key and Key West. The winds were a little stronger that day and we had some seas on the beam, so the 12 mile ride to the Key was a little lively. Once out to the key, we anchored in the lee of the island, so the water was dead flat. When we first arrived, there were two other boats anchored. By the middle of the day, eight or ten other boats showed up and the place proved to be a popular spot. The water was as clear as anyone could ask for, with the natural beach sand clean and white. A mile north of the key lays an old navy boat in about 10' of water so I took four of the kids to the site and we snorkeled around the boat a few times. There were lots of Snapper, Sheep head, and Barracuda for everyone to see. The site is on the edge of a large flat and I was noticing a two guide boats with clients working the flat. On the few occasions I watched the guide boats, at least one client was hooked up with a fish. This area is all in a marine sanctuary area, and it really is beautiful with lots of wild life, great looking water, and families enjoying this part of the world. My wife and I both noticed how free the beach was of litter, so it's nice to see that people for the most part respecting these areas.

The rest of our time in Key West was spent wandering around town doing the tourist thing and some shopping. While my wife and the two girls focused on shopping, I entertained the younger boys with dinghy rides around the harbor and anchorages. In the harbor, towards the end of the day, the fishing charter boat mates cleaned the clients catch and tossed the scraps in the harbor where schools of large tarpon would be waiting for a meal.

The anchorage area around Key West is large and filled with quite a few boats. There seems to be a fair amount of live aboard mixed in with travelers from various areas from around the world. There also is a decent amount of what I'd call derelict boats that need to me made to go away.

As the week began to wind down, I started paying a little more attention to the buoy forecast for the passage back to Ft. Myers. I really never stopped looking at the forecasts, and three days before we were going to leave things were looking good at 2' or less with winds behind us. My neighbor was flying his captain down and planned on leaving for Naples the same day as us. He was liking the forecast too, and while three days is a pretty close window, as we all know, things can change quickly.

Cheers,

Conall

Great Fun!

Our time in Key West went by quickly and I soon found myself doing the math for the cruise home and looking at the buoy reports.

The route home was a course line from Key West to Marco Island. My preference would have been to go straight to Ft. Myers, but because of the number of crab pots, I didn't feel comfortable running at night. From Key West to Marco is about 90 miles, and Key West to Ft Myers is about 112 miles. I don't know if adding line cutters to my shaft would make running at night safer, but for right now I'm sticking to day time running.

The plan for getting home was to leave the harbor about 0630 Saturday morning, anchor at Marco Saturday night, then 45 miles to Ft. Myers Yacht basin on Sunday.

My wife, step daughter and step daughters friend would be leaving Saturday morning to drive back home, so that meant they had to be off the boat by 0600 Saturday so I could be pulling out when I wanted. I'm not going to say anymore than I'm sure all of you can appreciate getting three woman who love long showers on their way at this early hour on a Saturday. The same crew of 7 my year old, 12 year old, and 16 year old boy along with the 16 year old boy's girlfriend would be with me.

The weather forecast on Friday had changed a bit and the seas were forecast to be 2-3' on Saturday and 5-7' on Sunday. When I stepped on to the dock Saturday morning, I was greeted by the sound of wind singing through the halyards that surrounded us. Back in the wheel house looking at the anemometer I saw it was a steady 18 and there had been a 28 within the last hour. I guess the good news was the weather was basically going to be behind us coming out of the SW.

Things went surprisingly smooth that morning, and by 0630 we were idling out of the harbor heading home. Heading up the channel to the gulf, things were rolling around a bit as the seas were pretty lumpy. We'd pretty much stowed everything away the night before, with only cabinet drawers and doors to secure this morning. By sunrise, we'd cleared the last channel marker and made the turn to Marco Island.

Now clear of the channel and in the open gulf headed towards Marco, we started rolling as the short steep seas were behind us. My first and only thought was how long of a day this was going to be. The wind was blowing a solid 25, and the weather was for sure coming from behind. The good news was we were making over 7.5 and I was seeing numbers close to 9 as we were pushed by the sea.

A few hours in to the day, the wind seemed to die a bit, the seas got less fast and steep, and things started looking pretty good. The sea state went from a steep high paced mess to a big long roller that hit us about every six or eight seconds. The big swell would come from behind, lift the boat giving us a nice push, we'd wiggle/roll a bit, and be back on our way. The sky's were bright and sunny, the wind was blowing through the wheel house keeping the boat cool, and the motion was soon gotten use to. It turned out to be a good day.

Once we had Marco on the radar screen, the weather as forecast, started to begin it's turn more from the North. The closer we got to Marco, the larger the swell became and more on beam. Coming in to the well marked channel for Marco island things were breaking nicely on both sides of us as the sun was just starting below the horizon. Anchoring in the dark is one of my least favorite things to do, and while we had cut this passage a bit too close for my comfort, we did get the hook set before sundown in a good spot right across from Snook Inn restaurant. With the hook firmly set, we all cleaned things up a bit before we took the dinghy over to the Snook Inn for a excellent, well deserved meal.

Eating dinner that Saturday night, and looking at the weather for the 45 mile run from Marco to Ft. Myers, I looked as if things would be a bit rougher on Sunday. A small craft advisory had been issued with weather coming out of the North, 25-30 kt of wind and seas 5-7'. The small craft advisory would be lifted by noon the next day, so the whole day wouldn't be so bleak.

Sunday morning had the wind steady and strong at 30 on the anemometer as we pulled the anchor and headed back to the gulf. Making the last turn out of the river passing the now gone Coconut island, the swell hitting us was quickly getting larger and the breakers on both sides of us were substantially more powerful as we passed the last marker and made the turn to Ft. Myers.

Our heading was now almost due north, and pretty much as forecast the 5' seas were hitting us head on. Windshield wipers have now made the "to do list" as water was making it's way to the wheel house windows every so often. The boat has a hard chine on the bow, which helps push water away. The motion was not not violent or threatening, but it was lively. On a few occasions, we'd be heading down a large swell, and when we'd bottom out, the bulwark did it 's job and pushed the water away from the boat. I"m 100% confident that if there was no bulwark on our boat, we'd have buried the bow on a few occasions.

The little kids were having a blast with the action, and were describing to me how the front cabin port lights were under water. Thinking I should probably go check out what they're talking about, I had my stepson take the helm so I could do an ER check and look at the forward cabin port lights. The port lights are 3/4" tempered glass and are fixed. Just as the youngsters had described, those lights were going under water as we plowed our way up the coast. When I built the boat, I'd talked to the naval architect about how to size the port lights, and who's lights to use. He was totally opposed to opening lights in this area, and strongly suggested I build the lights myself out of 3/4" tempered glass and seal them tighter than a bulls ass using bolts and heavy gaskets. I'm glad I listened to him and finally realized what he was talking about when he used the terms "grief and problems" when describing loosing a port light while under way.

Three or four hours later as forecast, things quickly died down, we were able to open some windows, and Ft Myers Beach was on the plotter screen. The rest of the day was sunny and pleasant, and as we made the turn up the river, life got back to normal inside the boat. Outside the boat, we looked more like a snow globe as we had a heavy coating of salt on everything.

Backing into our slip, packing up belongings, and taking an hour to give a quick fresh water wash down of the exterior, our trip quickly came to a stop. Everyone pitches in, so the d-commissioning goes quickly. All things have to end somewhere, but the starkness of ending these trips always makes me appreciate what the trips are worth.

Cheers,

Conall

Thanks Jim

Greetings,
Mr. C. Excellent report! Thanks.

Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing!