April 2020

In which we spend 4 weeks at anchor at Key West, waiting for developments on Covid 19, then start moving north again.

We arrived in Key West in the small hours of the first of April and, after a much-needed sleep, moved round to Garrison bight at first light.  As Elsie described, we picked up a mooring and completed check-in procedures, thus relieving any anxiety that we would not be permitted to stay.  On our way back from check-in, we flagged down a local who advised that there might be an unofficial place where we could land the dinghy to get provisions. Satisfied that we could at least survive, we spent the remainder of the day tidying up from the passage and catching up with the outside world.

 The following morning, I made a series of phone calls to try to clarify what shore access was permitted.  The city marina confirmed that, as we were not resident, we couldn’t use any of their facilities, including the mooring buoy that we were currently tied to; This was not their decision, but that of the authorities, though they were unsure of which ones.  I tried the coastguard, not them.  The Fish and Wildlife commission (which had issued orders about social distancing on small craft), not them.  The city council, not them, but the county. I was given a number to call, which turned out to be a snitch line for local tax-payers. Unable to talk to anyone in authority, I emailed the county head of emergency response, who appeared to have issued the ruling.  No reply was ever received.  Eventually, another marina agreed that I could use their dinghy dock and, leaving photo ID, could have an hour to shop.  Since they were several miles from the supermarkets, this would need taxis, but Ubers were operating.  Dinghy in, call taxi, 10 minutes; taxi ride, 10 minutes; shop, 15 minutes; call taxi, 10 minutes; ride, 10 minutes; back with 5 minutes to spare.  Can I fill my water cans? Yes.  So we now had access to food and water and were sheltered from all but the worst weather.  We just had to find a better parking solution.  There were a couple of yachts anchored outside the mooring field in a big open area, so we let go the buoy, found a nice big space and dropped the anchor.  During the afternoon, we were passed by boats belonging to the Coastguard, police and Wildlife commission, not of which even slowed down, so we seemed to have passed the last test.

Key West anchorage

Like many millions of people round the world, we now had to get used to a much slower pace of life than even we were used to.  Not being permitted to exercise ashore, I took to early morning calisthenics, something I hadn’t practiced for over 45 years.  It had to be early as by 8 AM it was too hot for anything energetic.  We forced ourselves into a routine of study periods etc. but, like all those other millions, we discovered that merely having unlimited time didn’t mean that we actually got round to writing that book or learning advanced mathematics.  I did clean Ruby’s bottom and topsides and freed a couple of seized locker catches; Elsie repaired a cushion or two and cleaned the cabin deckhead but too much time was spent on social media and reading about the news from around the world.

Passing bar.  They didn't stop to offer us a drink.

After a few days, it was time for another shop, so we headed to where the local had indicated.  The chart showed a large bank, drying at low water, so we rigged seat and oars in the dinghy, in case it was too shallow to motor.  It transpired that there was sufficient water to get in and, underneath a bridge, a 4 m metre wide beach where we could land and walk to the supermarket.  Only when we got to the top of the bank did we see the sign warning of crocodiles.  We never saw any of those, but there were some large lizards and, strangely, cockerels.  All our basic needs were now met so the routine continued:  water, every 2 days: shopping, once a week; laundry, once (self-isolating in sub-tropical temperatures, you don’t get through many sets of clothes); propane refill, once.  The hot water calorifier, which had been functioning well a couple of weeks earlier, now ceased to work, and many hours were spent flushing this through with various chemicals, unfortunately without success.  There is a blockage, requiring about 30 PSI to overcome. We can manage without for the time being so we will hope that it clears itself as it has once before.  While working on this, the seal on the raw water engine pump failed so another shore trip was required to exchange this, and its spare.

Don't hang about on this beach

While not in any hurry to go further north, we kept an eye on the weather.  After a couple of weeks, we saw a potential window coming up, to take us up to Lake Worth, near Palm Beach, Florida; pause, then further to Beaufort, North Carolina.  We prepared for this then, with about 12 hours to departure, the weather for the second leg started deteriorating and, as we didn’t want to get stuck in Lake Worth, we stayed put.  Of course, soon after our departure slot had passed, the weather improved again, but we had missed it.  Ten days later another slot, though not quite as good, appeared and, as we were now getting near to our original schedule, we took it.

On the afternoon of the 29^th, we motored back round Flemming Key (home of U.S. special forces) to take fuel and water, then anchored, waiting for the optimum departure time, 21:00  The theory was that we would head south from the fairway for an hour, to get into the fringes of the Gulf Stream; the wind would veer sufficiently for us to tack and then it would be a downstream ride all the way.  As so often, the weather didn’t read the script: the wind did veer just sufficiently to force us to tack but then hesitated for 6 hours so that it was not until the small hours that we got the full benefit of the current and 08:00 before we could ease the sheets and relax.  The stream makes a right angle turn and it wasn’t long before we were broad reaching making 8 -9 knots over the ground with 10 knots of relative wind.  It would have been nice if the wind were to back but it was forecast to veer, so we were expecting to have to goose-wing for a few hours before broad reaching on the other tack.  Instead it died.  At the same time, we were getting severe weather warnings from the other side of Florida.  We checked and re-checked the forecast and confirmed that our, Eastern, side should be clear but Elsie spotted a dark line on the horizon and, even though we were only getting 5 knots and the radar was showing no rain, we put in 2 reefs.  As we finished, the wind veered through 120 degrees and increased to 25 knots.  For the next several hours we had NW F6, instead of the forecast SW F3.  With wind against current, this made things uncomfortable, to say the least.  Eventually, it did back to west and decreased to F4, so we had a few hours of more comfort.  By 02:00, it had veered and increased again so it was back to crashing into the waves, only almost compensated for by the 11 – 12 knot progress.  When I rose for my watch at 05:00 on the 1^st May, we were just coming level with Lake Worth, though we were 16 miles offshore, so tacked round and had an easy reach in.  We reached the fairway buoy at 08:00 and by 9 were at anchor in this very affluent widening of the I.C.W.  We tidied up and settled to wait for the next window to continue north.