Don’t you hate when your alarm goes off five minutes before you have to get up? Ugh, 5:55 came early this morning. But we wanted to get off the dock by 6:30, so you do what you have to do.
We slipped the lines at 6:45 and quietly motored out of the marina, into the channel, and out through Port Everglades. But not before we had to put on the brakes to let a huge container ship come in. I guess they have right of way. Commercial vessel, less maneuverability and all that stuff.
We hoisted the main in six foot seas, only to have our main halyard completely twist and jam at the top of the mast. Ugh, again. We thought we’d just lower it and motor the whole way, but it was jammed and wouldn’t come down. Seriously?
After 45 minutes of climbing the mast stairs and jiggling lines, we were able to pull it down and ended up having an uneventful 10-hour motor/sail to Rodriguez Key just off of Key Largo. And I stand my ground that a lot of fishing boat captains are real pieces of work. I get it, their boats are bigger and faster, and they feel the need to show every other boater in their vicinity just how much money they have to blow on diesel fuel. But they also have greater maneuverability, so THEY should get out of MY way. They either don’t know that or they don’t care. De Ja Vu – I think I already said that in a previous post. Well, now you know I mean it.
We dropped our new Rocna 73lb anchor just outside of Rodriguez Key at 4:00 and spent the rest of the daylight washing the salt off the boat (thanks to our new deck was system), and straightening out the main sail. We managed to untwist the majority of the line, clear the jam and clean the track. Now the main comes down nicely. Well, at least it did in the anchorage. Tomorrow will be the true test. Stay tuned. For now, I have a ribeye and a giant Rice Krispy to eat.
February 2020