Barry and Emily's Key Largo Sailing Adventure
2006
November 28 - Arrival at Key Lime Sailing Club
It was a busy drive down to
Key Largo with plenty of traffic on I-95 and the Florida Turnpike, but
every time we stopped, the temperature was warmer than the time before,
so we weren't complaining. Key Largo was busy when we arrived,
and we had to really watch carefully to find the hidden right-turn
entrance to the Key Lime Sailing Club (KLSC). After turning down
the narrow, sandy drive, and arriving at the gate, we looked in vain
for the buzzer that we were supposed to press, but there simply wasn't
one. We waited a few minutes wondering what we should do, when
finally Patria, a very nice woman who works here, came out of a house
nearby apologizing and greeting us. She showed us our
cottage, the Manatee, which was decorated in a tropical "Key West
style", plenty large, comfortable, and clean, but simple rather
than luxurious. We brought in all our luggage and started getting
settled.
After we unpacked a bit, we
headed down to the docks and started checking out the sailboats.
Before too long, we met David, who maintains the boats and
other watersports equipment, and chatted with him for quite awhile
before heading out to dinner. Before we left the beach, he used a
machete to chop the top off a fresh coconut from a palm on the property
and gave it to us to drink the delicious milk -- just like on Survivor!
We had an unsettling
experience when leaving to go out to dinner. We hadn't noticed
when we pulled in as we were so busy looking for the entrance, but the
four-lane road had divided a bit north of our turn, and by the time we
reached the KLSC, the north- and south-bound lanes were quite far apart
with trees and buildings in the median, completely obscuring the view
of the other lanes. When we exited the KLSC and approached the
road (US1) in the dark to go out to dinner, I was driving and didn't
realize both lanes were south-bound only, as there were no "One Way"
signs at the exit of the KLSC, nor were there any cars going by on the
road that I could see to clue me in -- it was just dark. So, I
turned left -- right into the left lane of a one-way road! We
drove a bit down the road before realizing something was amiss, when
Barry suddenly yelled at me that there was someone in "our" lane coming
right towards me and that I had to get over immediately, which I did,
and then onto the grass. At this point, I still thought that the other
guy was in the wrong and had been passing in my lane. But almost
immediately after exiting onto the grass, we both saw the "Wrong Way"
sign. I was still trying to understand what had happened and
where the north-bound lanes even were! I was probably tired from
two days on the road, but had not had a drop to drink, I promise!
It was just so unusual as you nearly always can see the other lanes on
a divided highway. We finally realized that the north- and
southbound lanes had split widely just beyond where I was at that
moment and that we should have turned right out of the KLSC and cut through a parking lot to get to the north-bound lanes.
Arghhh! And to make matters even worse, as I pulled around on the
grass to ready myself to turn back out onto the south-bound lanes in
the right direction, a police officer pulled up beside us on the grass,
rolled down his window, and said "Just what do you think you're
doing?!" We explained to him that we were from North Carolina,
just got here, and were confused about the road, and that we were
trying to get turned around. Barry got out and talked to him for
a minute, but he was nice enough not to cite us or even write up a
warning. I guess we looked like such clean-cut tourists, he cut
us a break. Thank goodness! I was sure he was going to have
me do a sobriety test, but he didn't even ask if we'd been
drinking. Finally, he let us go, and we were able to get turned
around, turn left into a nearby business parking lot, and make our way
through to the northbound lanes we had wanted to begin with, and
successfully navigated our way to The Fish House, where we had a
delicious dinner of fresh fish, cole slaw, and black beans and
rice.
After dinner we went to
Publix for a few groceries for our time here, then made our way back to
the KLSC. When turning in, we looked for signs warning of the
one-way road ("One Way" or "Right Turn Only"), but there were none,
though it was clearly marked at other interchanges. There were
also no street lights nearby, so Barry said that he was quite sure he
would have made the same mistake I did if he'd been driving. We
were very lucky to get off without having a wreck or even receiving a
citation. I had a hard time falling to sleep after that much
unwanted excitement, but was very thankful that it ended safely and
didn't ruin our vacation.
Today we sailed for 6 hours
including rigging and docking the Catalina 22, Slider. Our longest sail
ever! Winds were pretty high today; 15-20 knots for most of the
afternoon, so after starting with the jib and realizing that I had
rigged it incorrectly on one side so that we couldn't use it on the
port side of the boat, we ended up taking it down since the wind was a
little much for us. We hadn't sailed in a year (last time was at
the Bitter End Yacht Club, BVI, this time last year), so it was time to
remember our basic sailing skills and not try to test our limits.
Once we were sailing with only the mainsail, we went slower and thus
were in control and had a blast performing numerous tacks to return to
the dock. A distance that took us maybe 30-45 minutes to do on a
straight downwind path took us hours to tack back, but that was okay;
we had fun and both got to take turns at the helm. Barry had
added new marine charting software to his GPS before this trip, and it
was interesting and helpful to see our progression and the water depth
during our sail.
Docking was a bit tricky as
we had to motor in and turn around to back into the slip, which we'd
never done, but managed it with a little help from Patria, who ran out
to the dock when she saw us attempting our approach. Here I am on Slider, back safely at the dock.
After we
cleaned up a bit, Patria gave us a tour of the other cottages she was
cleaning, since the other guests checked out today. She also
recommended a Cuban restaurant within easy walking distance, Su Casa,
so we took her up on it and had a wonderful meal. Only one local
was there besides us, which was a shame, since the food (and homemade
Sangria!) was amazing, and the prices very reasonable. We had
black beans and plaintains to accompany roasted pork (Barry) and Flank
Steak (Emily), and we split a coconut caramel flan for dessert, which
Patria said we had to try. It was wonderful, and we rolled out of
the restaurant completely stuffed.
Yes, sleeveless in nearly December....ahhhhhh!
November 30 - Another Great Sail
We had another good sail
today in fairly similar conditions to the day before.
Before sailing we watched a Great White Heron (resident of
extreme south Florida only; white birds similar to this seen elsewhere
are typically Egrets) on the dock retrieve a small fish that David, who
was fishing, threw him. Another bird for our life lists!
It was
actually a bit windier and choppier today once we got out a ways, so
again we decided not to use the jib. Winds are supposed to get
lighter in coming days, so we hope to so soon practice our jib trimming
skills. We have had a lot of practice rigging it up, only to put
it away! With slightly higher winds than yesterday, our GPS told
us that we did a slightly longer distance today in an hour less time
than we did yesterday. We are both gaining confidence and having
so much fun, despite being showered upon briefly today (gave us our one
and only chance to wear the jackets we took with us every day in our
boat bag!)
Barry did a great job bringing Slider into dock today, backing into the slip
under motor power, with no assistance from anyone on the dock.
The only problem we had today was getting her turned into the wind for
long enough to bring the mainsail up. She wanted to keep blowing
away from the wind; I guess because there was quite a bit of
breeze.
After our sail, we decided to
take out a paddle boat. That was fun and good exercise too.
We paddled (pedaled) for quite a ways relatively close to shore to look at the
other cottages and resorts, and finally at the big boats docked at the
Upper Keys Sailing Club. We saw one boat there from Oriental, NC; one of our favorite places!
After our paddleboat ride and cleaning up, we
relaxed with a drink at the dock before heading out to the grocery
store for a few more supplies, and then a wonderful dinner al fresco at
Sundowner's By The Bay. I'd read good reviews of this restaurant
so wanted to make sure to try it. How amazing to sit outdoors and
eat dinner in shorts and short sleeves while so much of the country is
shivering in snowstorms! Barry had an onion-encrusted mahi and
mixed steamed vegetables, and I had an Asian sesame-encrusted seared
tuna on baby greens salad. Delicious! We were too full to
indulge in dessert tonight.
December 1 - Longest sail ever!
Today was another wonderful
day in paradise with a high in the low 80s and a mix of sun and
clouds. The wind finally died down a bit, so we were able to use
the jib for the first time and go faster even in the lighter wind than
we'd gone on previous days. The jib ended up being hard to manage
as it was very large and kept catching on the shrouds when we performed
maneuvers, and it took a fair amount of strength to trim even with a
winch, so Barry ended up handling it for most of the day, while I
served as helmsman, a position I've really learned to like on this
trip. We went farther out than the two previous sails, actually
getting out of Buttonwood Sound into the Florida Bay, where we set our
sights on circling a small uninhabited key, Porjoe, and with a few
tacks, were able to do it, while avoiding too-shallow water in the
area. We also practiced jibing (always a challenge) on the way
there. We got out so far that it was a long trip back with many
tacks, and we also tried heaving to for the first time, very
successfully, I might add! We went twice as far as the previous
day's sail -- 30 miles in just over 6 hours of sailing.
(Yesterday we'd gone ~15 miles in 4 hours!)
On the way back we
got to see a Hobie cat regatta. The many different colored Hobie
sails were beautiful against the blue skies, so we took a few photos
and concentrated on staying out of their way!
After our sail, we met two
other couples (both from Canada) who had checked in today; we had had
the entire Key Lime Sailing Club to ourselves the two previous nights
as folks who were here when we arrived had checked out. Everyone
was nice, and we were able to provide restaurant recommendations and
directions to the grocery store since we are now Key Largo "experts"
(ha!) And speaking of restaurants, we had a wonderful dinner
tonight at the Crack'd Conch, a Key's style restaurant (i.e., VERY
casual) I had read about online prior to our trip. Rachel Ray had
gone there on her $40 a day show and had a delicious lunch, so I
figured if it was good enough for Rachel, it was good enough for
us. And wonderfully good it was! We were incredibly hungry
after our long sail with only snacks for lunch, so we ordered a large
assortment of absolutely delicious homestyle food, and ate way too
much. We started with homemade coleslaw and honey biscuits that came
with our meals, and Barry had a cup of conch chowder. Our side of
curried bananas came out next, and they were simply scrumptious;
buttery and sweet with brown sugar and cinnamon. We ate half of
the huge plate and brought the rest home for breakfast tomorrow.
Our entrees were blackened grouper (Barry), and combo seafood platter
(grilled fish and shrimp, cracked conch, and conch fritters) for
me. Delicious! I had to bring home about half for lunch
tomorrow. We also brought home one piece of key lime pie for
tomorrow, as we were way too full to touch dessert tonight but wanted
to try the pie. We may have to do a little dieting when we get home!
A nicely lit catamaran at anchor in the holiday spirit
December 2 - A busy Saturday's sail
Today was a special day for
me because for the first time in quite awhile, I got to sleep in until
7:45! With Pepper waking us up earlier and earlier lately,
sleeping that late has become a thing of the past, so it felt
good. Barry, who normally sleeps until 7:30 or 8 at home while I
get up with Pepper, was up much earlier today and crept out of the
cottage without waking me up, for an early-morning paddle in one of the
kayaks here on the glassy water. He ran into David at the dock
and reminded him about our broken forestay, which was promptly attended
to. After breakfast, we finally got going on our sail at around
9:15.
We could definitely tell the
weekend had arrived today with the increase of boats in Buttonwood
Sound. The morning wasn't too busy, but the afternoon included
another Hobie cat regatta, several large catboats from the Upper Keys
Sailing Club, numerous powerboats and loud, obnoxious jet-skis.
We still managed to have a great sail. We started out by heading
southwest down the Inter-Coastal Waterway channel into the next bay
south, where there were many fancy condo buildings and not too many
boats. However, we strayed a bit too close to mangroves, we ran
aground in grass and muck. Fortunately, the Catalina we are
sailing has a retractable keel, which proved invaluable in the shallow
water. The deepest water we've encountered in Buttonwood Sound is
7', so retractable keels are very handy! We were able to retract
the keel, pull the rudder up slightly, and motor out of danger.
Barry always keeps a level head in situations that might make me panic,
so he is a wonderful asset on any boat! After that "excitement",
we headed back in the channel to the slightly deeper waters of
Buttonwood Sound and proceeded to circle Porjoe Key again in the
opposite direction from yesterday.
On our way back to the dock,
the boat traffic resulted in a much longer approach than normal.
We had to do a couple of quick maneuvers to stay out of the way of the
regatta, and had to watch the catboats closely to make sure we would
have no close encounters. We used the right-of-way rules learned
in Basic Keelboat class, and all went well. We were finally able to approach the
dock and finished our sail with about 24 miles total in 5 hours of
sailing.
While we were having a drink
on the dock and awaiting the sunset, we had one of the highlights of
our vacation. I saw a pair of nostrils surface right at the
waters by the dock and realized that unless a hippo was swimming around
down there, it was a manatee! We jumped up to look and could see
its large body underwater. I quickly snapped a photo, showing the
shadowy body swimming away, but it didn't stick around for long,
unfortunately. All our new Canadian friends ran over to see it,
but most were a bit too late. You'll have to look closely
at this photo, but you should be able to make out its slightly
lighter-colored body underwater.
We watched the sunset (the only
decent one we've had so far) and chatted with one of them, who lives in
Halifax, Nova Scotia (north of Maine) and has a 30' sailboat. He
told us about the long winters and foggy conditions there for
sailing. Their sailing season is very short as the fog is not
gone for long enough in a given day for much of a sail until mid
July. It's hard to imagine living in such an inhospitable place
if sailing is one's passion.
We had a very good dinner at
Ballyhoo's, which Patria recommended. Our table was outside under
a mellalucca tree, where we both ate Jamaican jerk-spiced mahi-mahi,
steamed veggies, and salad. I brought home enough for lunch
tomorrow, since the servings were huge. That seems to be a theme
around here!
December 3 - Barry's 53rd birthday!
After breakfast, we started
another beautiful day with a sail on Slider, of course. We had
decided to take a shorter sail today to have more time to kayak and
relax later, since today was our last day (sniff). Today the boat
traffic was not nearly as bad as Saturday, and we had a great time
sailing in Buttonwood Bay yet again. We had another brief
grounding in a shallow, sandy area near Porloe Key at low tide, but
were able to motor out of it again. We saw the dorsal fin of
either a shark or a dolphin in that area. We got an opportunity
to practice our man overboard drill when we saw a grouping of
half-deflated baloons floating way out in the bay. It took a
couple of approaches, but finally Barry was able to grab them with our
boat hook, giving him a fitting birthday souvenir, and possibly saving
a fish from trying to eat them. On the way back as we were motoring to
the dock, we saw a dolphin right off our bow, swimming next to the
boat. Very cool!
After lunch in the cottage,
we changed into swimsuits and took a couple of the kayaks out on the
water. It is actually a lot warmer than I thought it would be,
since we got rather wet while paddling these sit-on-top models.
While paddling, we took the opportunity to take a few shots of the KLSC from the water side.
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Key Lime Sailing Club, from the water |
After our paddle, Barry tested out his survival skills by chopping the
coconut David gave us on our first night here open with a machete, and
we cut out the meat for a snack, and to save for the road. Really
delicious!
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We talked some more to our newfound Canadian friends,
and spent some time just sitting on the dock and relaxing. We saw
several more dolphins swimming not too far out in the bay.
We had another delicious
dinner at Su Casa, the Cuban place in walking distance, and were their
only customers, which was too bad (Patria says they are very busy on weekend nights). We had delicious roast pork,
black beans, plantains, and homemade sangria again, and split another yummy
coconut flan for dessert. Barry enjoyed his birthday dinner and
said today was a wonderful way to spend a birthday.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and after dinner
and a little more time sitting on the dock, soaking in the beauty of
the peaceful anchorage (and the beautiful almost-full moon), we came back to the cottage and started packing
for the first leg of our trip home tomorrow. Sigh.... It is going
to be a rude awakening to go back to cold weather, holidays around the
corner (so much to do!), work, and all the chores of home, but we
surely have had an amazing time here, and I am so glad we came.
We feel like real sailors now!
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Yes, I have a tan now, but no burn, thanks to 30-45 SPF sunscreen!
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December 4/5 - Trip home
It was difficult to tear
ourselves away from the KLSC on Monday morning. We took our time
packing up the car, and then headed down to the dock for a last look
around. It was 77 degrees and sunny, perfect weather once again,
though the winds had shifted to the north, signaling the impending
arrival of the cold front that had brought snow and ice to the
midwest. It was going to be very mild in the Keys, only forecast
to bring the highs down to the 70s the following day, and lows to
60s. We said our goodbyes to Paul, the property manager, who gave
us each a KLSC 2007 datebook, and to Patria, who presented us with KLSC
ballcaps and snapped our photo for their scrapbook. We took her a
couple of Painkillers (tropical mixed drinks with rum) in a leftover
water jug, along with the recipe,
since she liked the taste we'd given her a few nights ago so
much. We also chatted with our newfound Canadian friends for a
few minutes before hitting the road. Patria had suggested we take
a slightly different route departing Key Largo, up Card Sound Road and
over the Card Sound Bridge, rather than taking US 1 all the way north,
so we gave it a try, and it was indeed more scenic and had less traffic
than the alternative.
We stopped for a lunch of
peanut butter crackers, carrots, and coconut at a rest area on the way
north in Florida and were accosted by aggressive squirrels. We'd
never encountered aggressively begging squirrels except in the Grand
Canyon, but these had obviously been fed before and had lost all fear
of humans. Several of them kept approaching us, and they proved
very difficult to scare off! Having to constantly watch our backs
spoiled our peaceful picnic, so we quickly finished our food and got
back on the road.
We arrived at the Holiday Inn
Express in Kingsland, Georgia, around 5 pm. We had stayed at this
same hotel on the way down and had gotten delicious takeout pizza from
an Italian place a short walk away, Angelo's, which we ate in our room,
so we did the same this time. Before dinner, we walked over to
the Winn-Dixie for some water and apples for the next day,
necessitating a run across four lanes of traffic, adding a little more
exhilaration to our day.
We arrived home at 4 pm on
Tuesday to much colder weather than we'd experienced in quite some
time. It was in the 40s when we got home, and tonight is forecast
to be in the mid 20s. Quite a shock to the system!
Everything was fine here at home except that squirrels had dug in my
plant pots on the front exterior staircase to bury nuts, apparently
(they'd left acorn shells as evidence of their crime!), so I had sweep
and return soil to the pots where they'd removed it from the roots of
my pansies and small roses. They'd also eaten all the pansy
flowers, the rascals. We pick Pepper up at the kennel tomorrow,
as they are closed on Tuesdays.
Final thoughts from Barry....
This birthday trip ranks right up there with the two trips to the BVI. Although the location was not quite as exotic, and the accommodations didn't compare to those we had in the BVI, the weather and the amount of fun we had (which counts the most) equaled what we had on our BVI trips. Two things were better than the trips to the BVI in my opinion: One was that it was much cheaper and didn't require flying to get here; two, once we were checked out on our sailboat on the first day, it was ours the remainder of the stay, and no daily checkout was required. None of the other watersports equipment required any checkout of any kind. This was much nicer that what we had to go through in the BVI with the daily checkout of any equipment, and never knowing if it would be available when we wanted it.
The staff at KLSC were the friendliest I have ever experienced. I would characterize them as "Keys' Characters" - unique individuals who seem to epitomize the Keys' way of life. They made us feel welcome from the get-go, and were a valuable source of information on the Key Largo area. Patria's dining recommendations were right on, and as a result, our dinners out were awesome - every one of them.
Although our "cottage" was not exactly what I had envisioned (it was actually part of a duplex, and the other half wasn't even part of the KLSC), and it was further from the water than they had told me (about 85 YARDS instead of 50 FEET), it was clean, comfortable, quiet, which is what counts the most. It definitely had the funky Keys' style to it. I was aware of the lack of locks on the doors before arriving, so that didn't bother me. We just locked our valuables in our car whenever we were away from the cottage. All the other cottages were also nice, and closer to the water, so we would probably book one of those on a return
visit, although I would be just as happy returning to the "Manatee".
Highlights of the trip:
- Sailing every day - We gained valuable sailing experience on the trip, dealing with a different boat, and sailing in the very shallow waters of Florida Bay. The deepest waters we encountered were only 7 feet deep, and our boat had a draft of 3'6". Most of the time we were in waters in the 4-6 foot range. We ran aground twice, but fortunately the Catalina 22 had a retractable keel, so we were never stuck for long. Emily's sailing skills and confidence really took a great leap on the trip. She used to fear any heeling of the boat, but by the 3rd day, she had us heeled over to the max on numerous occasions, with a big smile on her face! We had to deal with several problems during our time on the waters, and handled them well. We also got plenty of docking experience, of which we had very little up until then. On a side note, the new GPS marine chart software I purchased right before this trip worked great, and provided excellent navigation information while on the water. Although the KLSC gave us charts, they did say on them "Not for navigational purposes", so we trusted the GPS for all our major navigational decisions.
- The weather - with highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 70s, and steady breezes, it was a perfect week of weather. I was so glad I decided to find a warmer location than the Great Smoky Mountains for my birthday trip.
- The dinners - we had awesome dinners while there. The fresh fish was prepared in various ways at each of the restaurants we went to, so it was a no-brainer to get the catch of the day most nights.
- The wildlife - seeing the manatee and dolphins, along with numerous birds up close were thrills for us.
I would recommend the KLSC for anyone who loves to sail, doesn't mind sailing older boats, wants to experience real Keys atmosphere, and doesn't require upscale accommodations.
