Leaving Key West

We are underway eastbound in the Hawk Channel, our first real movement since my last post here five weeks ago. Key West is receding behind us and we have our sights set on the back side of Marathon for tonight. Seas are more than we'd like, but we are on a schedule, and they are forecast to get better throughout the day.

Dorsey snapped this photo of me backing in from her marina. It's deceiving; the blue-hulled boat to our starboard is actually two slips over; our actual neighbor is just visible behind our mast. There was just one fender-width between us and the boat to our port, but I'm not back that far yet. Dockhands are waiting to take our stern lines. Photo: Dorsey Beard

We arrived to Key West on the morning of February 4th, expecting to spend a night in the anchorage before our reservation started on the 5th. But a forecast for very high winds all day on the 5th had me calling the marina to see if they could take us a day early, so we could be tied up before the winds hit. Normally we do not like to be docking on the same day we complete an overnight passage.

The hokey arrangement to run the dishwasher while the hot water was disconnected.

We got lucky; the marina was able to take us, and they even gave us the better monthly rate for the early night. We dropped a day hook in the lee of Tank Island, AKA Sunset Key to wait for the slip to be available and to get in a nap after the overnight. In the afternoon we weighed anchor and proceeded to the fuel dock to offload the scooters, as we had arranged on the phone when we booked.

The tempering valve inlet screens were pretty clogged. Hot water flow is better now.

The marina manager met us at the dock, evidently very nervous about the process. He insisted on taking the tag lines himself as I lowered each scooter from the deck, an odd choice since we do it all the time and he's never done it. We held our breath when he decided to spin each scooter around before it landed, a maneuver much more likely to make it hit the boat. We got them landed without incident and left them on the fuel dock while we pulled around to our slip.

This is a new one on me. There is also a sign forbidding electric vehicles from parking in the garage; they must be in the outdoor lot. Galleon Resort.

Coming in with lighter winds was definitely the right choice. I was able to easily glide back between the yachts on either side of us, and then we spent a good five minutes or more with me still at the controls while Louise got two sets of lines on each of the two pilings off our foredeck. It's a fiddly tie-up and, of course, your lines end up on top of the ones from the boats to either side. After we were secured (map) the dockhands did crowd control on the boardwalk while I got the scooters off the dock and into the parking lot.

Our choice to come in a day early and avoid the wind was validated when this Benneteau ended up pinned against the pulpit of a boat down the dock from us. It went right through the very expensive glass side of the Benneteau's salon, and it took two towboats to get him off and over to his slip at The Galleon without further damage.

The new water heater arrived the next day, and just in the nick of time. Nevertheless we got the code for the marina showers and laundry, just in case. And thus it was that we were all settled in to the most expensive marina in Key West for a full month. The place does not even have a pool, but it was what we could get on short notice. We also heard every single note of the live music from Schooner Wharf across the basin, which fortunately stopped each night at 11pm.

"Well, there's your problem." One very obvious leak, and a couple of smaller pinholes as well.

Our good friends Dorsey and Bruce aboard Esmeralde were already in town when we arrived, staying across from us at The Galleon, and our other good friends Erin and Chris aboard Barefeet arrived on the 17th to the city marina around the corner. So we had a rather full social calendar to occupy us for our entire visit. It was great to get to spend so much time with all of them.

American Cruise Lines has started bringing their pocket cruise ships to Key West. They look like Dinky Toys next to the big girls.

As always, projects of various kinds took up quite a bit of time as well. The largest of these was also the first and the most urgent, which was to get the old leaking water heater out and the new one in its place. While I had it out I was able to clean out a lot of calcium deposits from the tempering valve, which has improved our hot water flow. Of course I again had to touch up the paint on the mounting tray between getting the old one out and the new one in. I had it all working, at least on the electric element, by the end of the second day, in enough time for the water to be hot for showers that evening.

The bottom of the new water heater, as received. I sent this photo to Amazon.

The water heater had arrived quite seriously banged up, and I had to spend a full hour with a mallet, a pry bar, wood blocks, and Vise-Grips bending the four mounting feet back into a usable condition. There was no way I was going to send it back and wait another full week for a replacement. I complained to Amazon, hoping for maybe a hundred bucks or so credit for my time and effort, but instead they just refunded me the entire $600 price.

An hour or so of careful bending and hammering and it's "good enough" to bolt down. I used the flat jaws of this portable vise to straighten and bend the mounting ears.

Having a "free" water heater made it much less fraught when I cut a 2½" hole into the outer case to install the temperature sensor for our new monitoring system, and also when I drilled four screws into the case to mount the new expansion tank for the next phase of the project. After getting the new unit working, I took some time to tear down the old one to see what the leak looked like, and also to cut into it to see just how high the heat exchanger loop extends into the tank.

I had to cut this large hole to fit the Ruuvi wireless temperature sensor. The string is in case it starts to slide off the top of the tank. Against the tank, inside the insulation, gives us a better reading than anywhere on the outside.

Replacing the water heater obviated the immediate need for this next project, but I had already bought the parts, and it would make life easier in the long run. I installed a flat-plate heat exchanger between the engine and the water heater, so that the engine loop no longer runs higher than the engine expansion tank. A small electric pump and a separate expansion tank complete the now separate loop to bring that heat to the water heater. Now any leaks in the water heater loop will not affect the engine, and the water heater will not lose prime, a problem we previously dealt with at every coolant change.

New flat plate heat exchanger. Quarter for scale.

Shown here with pipe couplers and hose adapters fitted.

The first set of couplers from Amazon had straight threads (really) and had to go back.

I had been noodling on how to insulate the heat exchanger, but it came packed in this foam with the holes already cut. I just put it back in the foam after I installed the connectors.

The whole project, and including reconnecting the dishwasher to its normal plumbing after I had to bypass it while the hot water was off, ate up a couple weeks of our stay. Other projects over the month included replacing the drive belt on the washing machine, remediating rust and touching up paint on the aft deck and the swim step (including using some local beach sand as non-skid, since I had no Grip-Tex), replacing the roller weights and drive belt on my scooter, adding a seat belt for my scooter mascot, repairing the sewing machine, replacing Louise's swiveling tray table, modifying an LED bulb to fit a map light at the helm, and moving our communicators from our old scooter helmets to a pair of new ones we bought while here. I also made up a pair of floodlights with magnetic bases to put up on the bow for seeing the pot floats at night. And just to watch the Superbowl (for the ads, of course) I ended up having to do surgery on the TV remote.

I thoroughly washed and dried some sand from Simonton Beach and sprinkled it in my repair with a sifter.

My mascot, Bruce Lee, finally astride our steed after sitting forlornly for a year awaiting installation of footmen loops for his seatbelt.

Old roller weights with obvious "flat spots." Bruce, who used to own a Vespa dealership, knew this would be the problem right away when I told him my clutch was "grabbing."

Strolling the dock at the A&B marina daily and looking at all the aft decks inspired Louise to order materials for a new system to partly screen our own aft deck to make it more usable on sunny days. Thus a new project was born, and she spent hours sewing Textilene fabric into the proper shapes and edging it with a bead that fits into a track. For my part I had to cut the track and modify it to fit the existing bolt holes for the overhead panels so we would not have to drill new holes. We ended up with five separate tracks and three different covers that move among them. It looks and works great and we're glad we got to see this same system installed on several nearby boats.

A test section of track showing how my step drill bit made the screw pockets.

Finished result with existing screw fitted. There is just enough plastic left to get a grip.

The end result. They make a lot of shade. It was very windy when I snapped this, and they are bowed inwards.

I had just enough time before we left to tackle one more big project, which was to recommission the watermaker This has been shut down completely since it failed completely shortly after our last trip to the Bahamas, where it struggled right to the end. I had purchased a new membrane and end cap for it, and I really needed to get those installed and the system running before we arrive in Fort Lauderdale, where the dealer is located that can help me if there are any issues.

The male fitting on this expansion tank also had straight threads. I cut it off and tapped ⅜ female threads for a proper fitting. I had to order the tap.

Expansion tank in the finished system; I had to make do with the weird mounting holes and use an angle bracket to take the weight. Tiny centrifugal pump at lower left circulates the coolant for this side of the system. Hole for the temp sensor now has a plastic cover on it.

I spent two days getting the system flushed out, the new membrane in place and flushed, and all the inevitable little leaks resolved. It appears I have two bad pressure sensors, which will have to be replaced in Fort Lauderdale, but once those were bypassed it ran fine and made the rated amount of water for an hour. I'm hoping to have the dealer come aboard and just give it a once-over while we are in town.

The one and only Kermit, outside Kermit's Key Lime Pies. He sold the business years ago, but apparently the new owners pay him to don his chef's uniform and hawk pies outside the shop. Yes, his name really is Kermit. We saw him several times on this visit.

We have now spent enough time in Key West over the years that we no longer feel the need to be tourists here. There are no attractions we have not seen, and the tourist are mostly a source of amusement now. So the scooters got used mostly for errands, including multiple runs to Home Depot and Publix. I did circumnavigate the island a couple of times just to see if anything was different; it seems you can no longer drive right past the Southernmost Point monument and now pass a block away. We also Ubered out to Stock Island one afternoon with Bruce and Dorsey to eat at long-time favorite Roostica.

Vector nestled in at A&B Marina, as seen from The Galleon.

I walked 2-3 miles most days, making a sort of star pattern from the marinas. I mostly stayed off Duval, which is too crowded to walk at a healthy pace. Occasionally I would meet up with Dorsey and Bruce while they were walking their adorable Scotties, Ollie and Maisie. The dogs know where every dog treat in town is located, and have also convinced a number of restaurateurs to give them bacon when they arrive.

How it looks from the dock. We have a couple of fenders to keep the swim step from hitting the dock, and we board by stepping across. I used a ratchet strap to hold the doormat down. This shows you how close we really are to the neighbors.

On the dining front, either just the two of us or with friends, we hit all the usual joints and some new ones, including Amigos, Bruschetta Francesca, The Celtic Conch, Onlywood (two locations), Alonzo's, La Trattoria (Old Towne), Cuban Coffee Queen, Island Dogs, First Flight, The Boathouse, Miso Happy, Pepe's, A&B Lobster House, Half Shell Raw Bar, Brady's, Conch Republic Seafood Company, Fogarty's, Waterfront Brewery, Southernmost Pint, Roostica, Old Towne Tavern, Mangia Mangia, Eaton Street Seafood, Pirates Cove, Fisherman's Cafe, Lolita's, and Harpoon Harry's.

With Erin and Chris at Mangia Mangia. You still have to show up early and wait in line before they even open to get a table.

We were disappointed by Bruschetta Francesca, which used to be a go-to for us. they have raised their prices and the quality has dropped. La Trattoria is a better choice. Conch Republic did not please either of us. We walked out of Two Friends Patio altogether after they ignored us for ten minutes after seating us. Fisherman's Cafe used to have a good breakfast sandwich but now they are off the list. And we were amused to find that we were at A&B exactly 20 years to the day after our previous visit there, when we were here in the bus. It's still good and still expensive, and this time we enjoyed it in the company of friends.

Cheers, from the Southernmost Pint. We gave them another try after panning them when they opened. They now have more beers that I like (I even went back and got a growler) and the finger foods were fine.

We had cocktails at Tattoos & Scars, and I joined Chris one morning for a donut over at Glazed Donuts. We dined aboard Barefeet on homemade pizza and also a nice pork loin, and we had homemade coconut cream pie aboard Esmeralde (with an extra slice to go). We joined Erin and Chris for decadent desserts at Better Than Sex, which was not, really, but the menu and wait staff are full of innuendo. We ate abaord a couple of times, including one evening where we fixed brisket hot dogs gifted us by Bruce and Dorsey. Overall we ate and drank more than we should have.

Brisket hot dogs, courtesy of Bruce and Dorsey. They were delicious.

One afternoon we attended a cocktail hour meet-up of the denizens of the Trawler Life Facebook group, and we enjoyed meeting too many people to list (or remember, honestly; I wish I had taken notes). I also met fellow captain John Easley in person for the first time walking the docks at A&B; he was running one of the large yachts sharing our dock.

Louise ordered this Athletic NA beer, one of her favs, at First Flight, and they served it by cutting the lid off the can.

Early on I spent a bunch of time making phone calls to book some yard work in Fort Lauderdale on the 20th-23rd of this month, and also a haulout for an insurance survey on the 13th based on the surveyor's availability (giving us a week in between for other things). That seemed like a good buffer from the end of our marina reservation on the 5th, but as that date grew closer, the weather out here in the Hawk Channel became uncooperative.

I had to borrow Bruce's ½" electric impact wrench to get the variator off my scooter, so I would not have to cart my whole air compressor to the parking lot. Right afterward I ordered this ½" impact that runs on the same batteries we already use.

Lake Okeechobee is now too shallow for us to go up the west side and around, even though we were willing to do the extra miles. That left us no choice but to wait in Key West, watch the weather, and cross our fingers. A&B Marina could extend us to the 8th, but they wanted the day rate rather than what we had paid for the month. So on the 5th we dropped lines and moved over to the municipal Key West Bight Marina (map), which could also fit us until the 8th. This marina has finger piers so we did not have to pull around to the fuel dock again to load the scooters. That also made docking in the 20+ knots of crosswind less nerve-wracking.

Fishing vessel Miss Key West was festively lit while she was in port.

It was beginning to look like we would have to wave off our haulout on the 13th altogether, with only a marginal window on the 12th and nothing before it, but today's forecast improved to marginally acceptable at the last minute. So yesterday we loaded the scooters, dropped lines, and moved out to Man Of War Harbor, where we dropped the hook in the anchorage (map). We tendered back ashore for one final dinner with Dorsey and Bruce, tying up to Esmeralde's swim step. We swung by Barefeet on our way home for a final goodbye with Erin and Chris.

Erin caught us loading the scooters. Photo: Erin Miller

I was very happy to see our new solar producing between 1,000 and 1,100 watts (out of a rated 1,180) once we moved to the anchorage, and with the batteries already full, the solar ran our air conditioning all afternoon. And today's passage is our first test of the new heat exchanger system, which also seems to be working fine.

And Dorsey caught us slipping out of the Bight headed for the anchorage. Photo: Dorsey Beard

It's too lumpy out here to anchor on the ocean side tonight, and tomorrow is not a good day for the Hawk Channel. So we will proceed to the bay side by way of the Seven Mile Bridge this afternoon and anchor off the back side of Marathon, and tomorrow we will see just how far we can get up the back side, unless the forecast for Hawk improves. I think Channel 5 is a sure bet, and we might make it to Indian Key Channel. Then it is again a matter of waiting for good conditions in the Hawk Channel to make the final leg to Miami.

Dorsey catches all my Securité calls on the radio and snapped this photo as we were leaving this morning. Photo: Dorsey Beard

Update: We are anchored in a new spot for us, just north of the west end of Knight Key in Marathon (map). I had to stop typing when we came under the bridge and headed off into new, and shallow, territory. Based on the depths we are seeing I think it unlikely we will be able to continue on the back side and will most likely have to backtrack to the bridge whenever we get another window for Hawk Channel.