Thanks for the Mammaries

“This must bring back a lot. Mama,” he says.  She looks out the window of the train.  Through the window:  her childhood trees:  poplars, cypresses, furled in upon themselves like rolled umbrellas.

     Bring back from where?  And to what?

     She’s always surprised at how free people feel to speak of memory.  They imagine it a liquid, mobile, a stream that flows in one direction only.  They speak of it as though they could return to something navigable, something they can enter any time at will.  No sense for them that the small, fragile boat in which they find themselves will fail to protect them. No possibility for them of the wrecked craft, the splinters and the skeleton hurled up.  Memory:  the cataract, the overwhelming flood.  And the freezing power of horror, of shock, when memory stops dead and nothing moves on the gray, windless plain, the place of stone, blind stone, and you inhabit it because you must, it is the only place,  you must choose it or death by drowning.

“THE REST OF LIFE”   Mary Gordon   1993

Bahama Banking

“Wouldst thou,” so the helmsman answered, “ /  Learn the secret of the sea?/  Only those who brave its dangers/  Comprehend its mystery.”        Longfellow

Things overheard in the Bahamas-

     You got to sweep in front of your own stoop, den all the worl’ be clean.

     All kinda flyin’ right.     Who da H E double hok.

     Spankadotious jeep.     All dem udder tings.     Spiralin’.

We had a wonderful time in the Northern Abacos/ Bahamas.  We crossed the Gulf Stream from West Palm Bch., FL to West End, Grand Bahama which is about 60 nautical miles.  We left in the dark, about 4 am and steered south of our waypoint at West End to counter the 2.5 knot average northerly current of the Stream which begins roughly 10 miles out from the East coast of FL.  It was a little rough in the beginning against the tide but we had a fairly good motorsail across.  Saw our first (of many) flying fish.  They can actually fly, sometimes as much as a hundred yards over the wave tops.  Very spankadotious.  Even got a few on deck.  We spent two nights at the resort marina at West End and then sailed NW across the little bahama bank (the overdraft charges are even worse than Providence Bank) in an average of 8 feet of water and anchored off the small deserted cay (key) Mangrove Cay.  We had buddy sailed with a Brit- Richard-(thanks for the lure, Richard, we caught a 30” mahi-mahi 4 miles out from Lake Worth- delish) and his partner- Mari, a Philipino,  from FL. But they decided that this open water/ deserted cay thing was not for them, and turned back.  Mari was very anxious about pirates, sharks, death, etc.  and we all know and sympathize that anxiety and fear are no fun at all.  In fact, after three weeks of being in the Bahamas, with some heavy winds (a whitish squall), shallow water, uncertain anchorages, culture shock, etc. etc. Jan and I became quite exhausted by the constant anxiety, and were totally ready to be teleported back home.  Nevertheless, the seafood, the snorkeling, the crystalline waters, the adventure, the sunsets, the fishing, the sights, the bird sightings, the beachcombing, and the beer ( You want “Sands” or “Kalik” not “Eclipse”) and the friendly, kind people, made it all worth while.  In spades.

Early one morning, anchored off Double-Breaster Cays,  while ensconced upon our electric porcelain throne, I hear Jan exclaim- “Oh no, Dave, our dinghy’s gone!” .  I’m thinking , Yeah, right, you can’t fool me- well, you can, but not this morning..  Sure enough, I poked my head up out of the hatch, “and there, much to my surprise”  was no dinghy.  After two frantic hours of searching up and down the shore and calling on the radio, we were just leaving when we got a reply on 16 that someone had found our dinghy, and would bring it out to us.  Soon, a one-armed man and his family, in an old, beat-up 17’ boat arrived with our dinghy in tow and really made our day.  They even taught us how to harvest the conch from a huge shell I had found.  We gave them $40 and Jan had some books and toys for the kids so we hope they were as happy as we were.  We had come back from an excursion to the beach the night before and I had clipped the davit line to a rope on the dinghy instead of the hoisting u-fitting , so with the bouncing during the night, a knot came loose and she was free .  The current swept it thru a small cut bordered with razor-sharp coral rock and into the inner bay.  We felt very fortunate, especially because of all the dire tales we heard out there.  Lost dinghys, dragging anchors, groundings, loss of generators, loss of engines, and even one night at the dock, an old man flatlined on a boat just down from us, so there were sirens and lights and a real brouhaha.  They resuscitated him and hauled him away to Freeport on a gurney.  A couple weeks later, when we returned to the same marina, the guy on the boat said the old guy was flying back out and was continuing their cruise.  Never say die. “They wanted me to go to rehab/ I said ah NO, No, NO.”   Others had the flu, sea sickness, and food poisoning.  “I can’t help it if I’m Lucky.”

     At Little Grand Cay, Jason took me out to the reef (on the Atlantic side, Bob could be on the boat in 20’ of water and throw a potato into 600’ depths, the bottom is so steep) and we caught about a dozen yellow tail in 2 hours.  Best fish I ever ate.  I had a nice yellowtail on when suddenly I felt a ginormous hit and a 3’ barracuda leapt 12’ into the sunlight flashing.  When I reeled in only the head of the yellow was on the hook.  Whoa, Nellie!  Spektakularishous!

Birds-     night heron,  various sand pipers, plover,  black-headed gull, green heron, boat-tailed grackle,  common gallinule, anhinga, a million egrets, pelicans, herons (great blue/Louisiana/great white, etc.) , terns, ducks,scoters, coots, osprey, bald eagles, and wonderfully the black-necked stilt and the swallowtailed kite.  A lot of these were on the Okeechobee waterway which technically makes the southern half of FL an island. 

Fauna-  Sea turtles, needle fish, rays, wahoo, alligators by the ton, dolphin (speckled), lots of cool unident. reef fish, jelly-fish, mahi-mahi,  conch, star fish, manatee, barracuda, sharks, lobster, etc…..and even a camel.

Our favorite marina is in Stuart, FL, where we stayed on a mooring ball for $15/nite and had new showers, restrooms, lounge w/ big/screen, groceries, bicycles, groceries, laundry, all nearby and best of all visited with our buddies Doug and Maxine Snyder who had a condo just up the road.  In Stuart check out a new bistro-  Be Merry.

New music-  Adele     Old Music-  Lil Ed and the Imperials at Jensen Beach.

Headin’ back to Punta Gorda and then to S. Carolina and then Mich. by June w/ the van.

 People of the World, Relax!                                                                                                                                              Hi Ho

ACROSS THE PENINSULA

(In the style of Penny Vincenzi et al)

Hello Dahlings,  

     It’s been such an unconscionably long time since we last corresponded, I realize, but we haven’t disappeared into the Mystic as yet.   We’ve just been having such a marvelously glorious time that we have started to become complacent.  I seem to recall vaguely that we left ourselves in the simply diverting environs of old Key West.  Heading west from there,  we stopped at the perfectly enchanting deserted islet of  Boca Grande and thence to the Dry Tortugas- quite possibly the southernmost point of the good old USA.  If you ever have the chance, definitely make your way out there.  The old, massive fort is absolutely mind-boggling (boggle, boggle) especially if you’ve ever carried hod or laid a brick.  Intertwining arches and spiral staircases insist that you drop your trowel in hopeless wonderment.  How did they DO that?  14 million bricks.  The clear aqua marine waters exude a timeless peace and gave us a view of two 300 pound jewfish under our keel (they set off our depth alarm)! 

Our gracious host, Ruth Decker

A clean boat is a happy boat

Whuh is that thing?

     We thence embarked on a nocturnal crossing in the beastly black of night to Fort Myers, fortuitously met up with Jim ( thanks for the EPIRB, bro- it could be a lifesaver) and Jan and cohorts for a pleasant day sail, and made our way back to Punta Gorda for a month’s sabbatical ashore.  We left the west coast of Fla. and crossed the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart on the Atlantic coast in a week.  Saw many birds, the most exquisite of which, the swallow-tailed kite.  And also, many gators and a few manatee.  Mistily still mornings and oddly significant sunsets.

    

We moored at the new Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart for $15 /nite, wherein the showers, lounge, and amenities are extraordinarily lavish, and had a perfectly splendid time with Doug and Maxine who serendipitously have a gorgeous condo ½ hour north on Hutchinson Isl. We are now tied up in Riviera Beach provisioning, laundering, and awaiting the most propitious moment to venture out into the Gulf Stream for our first crossing in the beastly Atlantic to West End on the island of Grand Bahama.  We’ll let you know how life is in Paradise, he said superciliously. 

                                                                                                           All our love,  JK and David.

CAYO HUESO BLOWDOWN

BEAR-  Put this to music-  Who knows?

When we pulled into Key West Bight

Don’t ya know we were feeling alright

‘Though we smelled like the man on the rag tag bike,

We put on our shoes and took a slow hike.

Saw the woman who went crazy on Caroline Street.

The old bakery with Cubano and fresh peach Danish treats.

Frangipani blossoms and Madagascar palms

Beggar on the corner hustling for alms.

We tied up our boat and took down our bikes

We tried,  but we couldn’t see all the sights.

Had to dodge around all the free fighting--cocks

And count all the schooners at the deep water docks.

Appledore, Western Union, and America 2

Our ketch ain’t a schooner but she’ll just have to do.

A bearded man standing in Hemingway’s bar

Busy rolling up all those loose-leaf cigars.

I almost bought a cherry-- flavor stogie,

But I knew I’d end up feeling just  like Bogie.

So instead, I slapped that wig hat on my head

Drank another Heiny--wished my own locks were dread.

Mike McCloud sang about Chevy on the Levity

Doesn’t Don know anything about song writing brevity?

We were hunkered down in Key West Town, the wind was a-blowin the salt air around,

30 knots of cold Northwind , thought we’d be eating a tamarind.

In the mooring field off of Sigsbee Park,

The howl in the rigging got worse in the dark.

We considered dingying back into town

But, on the way back out, kinda thought we might drown.

So we missed the masked ball and the Schooner Wharf bar

But Dave felt like a “salt” and Jan felt like a “tar”.

Supper last night was fish patties in sauce

Jan in the galley is really the boss

We’re surrounded by ketches and cutters and cats

Derelicts, gold-platers, sheer lines, and flats.

We pity the fools on the NW side,

In a low pressure front that ain’t nowhere to hide

Boats from Kemah,Texas, New Gate, and Wisconsin,

Some dinks have an Evinrude and some have a Johnson.

Boats in tatters and cormorant shit

Good thing we have binos, because here we sit.

Port holes, biminis, stem profiles, and flags

Self-tending  stays’ls,  and gennys in bags.

What’s better?  The windmills, or the passive solar panels,

With this wind-chill factor , We’re glad to have flannels.

Manana , Dry Tortugas, if the wind will subside

Then direct to Fort Meyers is a day-night-day ride. 

 

Peace, out.

Dave and Jan

Aboard S/V Visitor,  Key West

Skinny Waters- Phat Weather

Blog Shark River

We finally pulled up anchor in Punta Gorda and left the temptations of Ruth Decker’s eclairs, banana cream pie, meat loaf and other assorted goodies.   We weighed the anchor and noticed it too had gained a few pounds over the holidays. 

Made our way south and stayed on a mooring ball at Fort Meyers Beach.  There’s a  new paradigm throughout  Florida.  Instead of boaters anchoring wherever there may be a spot, Florida is trying out a system of mooring fields in harbors.  We were pleasantly surprised at our first mooring ball experience.  For a nominal fee ($13.00 a day), we were provided a dingy dock, showers, pump-out, fresh water, and laundry room. 

From the busyness of the beach we sailed south for the ten thousand islands with a quick over-niter at Marco Island.

 The trade winds have been out of the East almost every day and it is great to be actually sailing again. I am sure we must look smart with our main sail, jib, and jenny out.  We also had our drifter flying with its University of Florida (go gators) colors too. 

  Thanks to Lee, Marlene and Nels  Sonderfan’s friend,  for guiding us into Rabbit Key Pass.  What a trip worming our way through the mangroves and watching the GPS reading less than five feet.  We had such a great anchorage though,  that we stayed an extra day to view the magnificent stars, visit with locals, and do some site seeing in Everglade City.  The Sonderfans cooked us crab cakes and trout, served fresh veggies from the area and insisted we drink their Yuengling, yum.  Our tour of the Rod and Gun Club, an ancient, semi-famous watering hole and inn in Everglades city, was awesome and seeing where Mr. Watson died was cool, too. 

Shark River is where we are now.  It is the buggiest,  most beautiful spot you can imagine.  We got trapped in paradise because after two days here, we ran out of beer and ice and were anxious to leave but, the weather had other plans for us.  Beers or no beers, when the weather lady says: “Winds gusting to 30 MPH today with small craft warnings”, I guess we can enjoy one more day in paradise. 

Lee, Marlene, Nels

 Old painting at Rod and Gun Club

 Little Shark River

I'm just waitin' on you.

That was the First Mate writing-  this is Cap'n Davey.  We had a rousing sail south from Shark River to Vaca Key (Marathon) , a course of about 50 mi. over the shallows (8') of Florida Bay.  Marathon Harbor, which has over 200 mooring balls and various marinas was full up with a waiting list so we found a nice anchorage off the north side of the key.  Only down side is that it's open to the north.  Fortunately, the predom. winds are ESE.  People are very friendly, and we have easy access to shopping etc.  Spent Sun. eve watching Eli beat up on pretty boy Tommy at the Hurricane Bar and grill.  Cool.  Have had a few rain showers to wash the salt off the boat.  We are both healthy and happy and wish the same for all y'all.  Jan and Dave