Suzanne Havens

Leaving Cumberland Island in South Georgia, we traveled up the ICW, came out the inlet between Jekyll and St. Simon’s Islands and cruised along the Georgia coast all the way to Beaufort, South Carolina where we headed in and wound our way along the ICW avoiding the shoals to an anchorage in the South Edisto River.

On the 23rd we motored 35 miles in the ICW following bouys, the electronic and paper charts, consulting waterway guides and following ranges again to avoid the deceptive shallows and arrived in Charleston at 1400 hours (2 PM). We fueled up at the MEGA dock and got assigned a slip. The walk to the showers and laundry seemed like a mile away in the Charleston afternoon heat.

On the 24th we did a gallery crawl along Broad Street and walked South of Broad into the neighborhoods. We paused for lunch at Blossom, a terrific restaurant as it turned out. Randy had a duck confit grinder (imagine a BLT on toasted french bread stuffed with shredded duck confit) with rosemary french fries ($9). It was superb. Suzanne had grilled tuna in a port wine reduction accompanied by coconut flavored sticky rice and seasonal veggies ($13). It was perhaps even better. After lunch we did some more gallery hopping where we met some very interesting artist/owners, including Victoria Platt Ellis who does some very imaginative abstract work using collage, oils, and stories as inspiration. She focuses on shapes and color making her work boldly captivating.

By 3:00 it was time to get back to the marina and get cleaned up for dinner. This was Suzanne’s birthday dinner and for it we went to FIG. This is an award winning restaurant on Meeting Street and it was worth every penny, and trust me there were lots of pennies spent. Suzanne started with a terrine of coddled egg and cream with stone crab and morel mushrooms, while Randy had the Wagyu beef tartare with walnuts, parsley and asiago cheese. The main courses were pan seared grouper for Suzanne and pork confit, with creamed potatoes, roasted onion and beets for Randy. Notice a theme here? It was divine, as was the sorghum cake with ice cream we shared for dessert.

Today we are provisioning the boat. A courtesy van heads out at 11:00 am for Harris Teeter and West Marine. Tonight we are headed over to Jeff and Margie Graham’s boat berthed two docks away for drinks, then out to dinner with them at La Fourchette, a French bistro recommended to us by one of the gallery owners we met yesterday. Margie is the daughter by a previous marriage of Randy’s brother-in-law Don. I suppose that would make her our step niece. She and Jeff are headed north on their sailboat to spend the summer on the Chesapeake after having spent last winter in the Keys.

Well, the grocery van leaves in 45 minutes, so we had better start getting ready. More later.

From Hobes Sound between Jupiter Island and Loblolly, we headed north to Fort Pierce.  We topped up the fuel, checked the weather forecast one more time, and headed out on the ocean.  This leg lasted 51 hours, with 45 hours on the ocean.  Have you heard the phrase, “Never curse a west wind.” ?  Well this time it brought a entire convention of love bugs to us.  They landed with glee.  Hoards of them.  Finally we headed off coarse into the wind to blow them off.  That helped.  Randy sprayed the remainder with Raid.  And then we brushed piles of them overboard.

We also were treated by sightings of dolphins, rays, and sea turtles.  We have also spotted many jellyfish, which discourages swimming and falling overboard.

Unexpected visits of love bugs, baby flies, horse flies, wasps and other unidentified insects drive us crazy.  Unexpected visits of small birds enchant us.  A small, yellow-green bird landed on the wheel while I was steering and trying to dismiss the love bugs.  The little one tried to keep a grip on the spokes of the wheel even as I turned it.  He hopped to a railing behind the cockpit table and acted as if he were hiding.  After resting for about 10 minutes, he flew away.  The next day a small brown bird visited.  He flitted about as if he were looking for a place to build a house and settle down.  I finally had to urge him out of the cabin.

We reached Key Biscayne Monday evening.  Melissa Richter Bartolini, my former colleague at Fitzgerald & Co., now lives in Miami with her husband Alex.  They showed us the condo they recently bought with beautiful views of Biscayne Bay.  They are completely remodeling it to make it their own style.  We went to dinner at an outdoor Cuban restaurant at No Name Harbor where our boat was anchored.  We shared delicious snapper and grilled shrimp with flan and key lime pie.  Melissa and Alex are very happy living and working in Miami.  Alex is in banking and we found out that his boss is Craig Farnsworth, a former colleague of Randy’s while they were in New York.  Melissa is still in brand planning and she was in a very big new business pitch, so we’re glad the pitch is over so they could spend the evening with us.  The client still hasn’t made a decision, but it looks very promising.

Smoke from the Big Cypress wildfire crossed the state and brought smoke to the Keys.  The left-hand picture was taken at Key Biscayne near Miami while the one on the right was taken today north of Ft. Lauderdale.  We first noticed the haze and smoky smell while we were at anchor in Key Largo and it wasn’t until we got to Ft. Lauderdale yesterday that it cleared up, with the help of a brisk NE breeze.  Today we on our way to West Palm Beach, a run of about 40 miles from Ft. Lauderdale.  We left our anchorage at 7:00 am and expect to reach the Lake Worth Inlet at Palm Beach by 3:00 pm in order to be able to enter the inlet at slack water (high tide).  The wind is blowing from the southeast giving us a following sea and allowing us to have both the main sail and the jib out.  Because we are catching the edge of the northerly Gulf Stream current we are making good time, averaging nearly 7.0 knots.  Our normal speed with no current would be more like 5.7 – 6.0 knots.

When we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday, the first thing we did was to take on fuel and water at Bahia Mar Marina.  Then we eased our way up a nearby channel to Lake Sylvia where we anchored .  Lake Sylvia is really a salt water basin surrounded by Ft. Lauderdale beach and Hwy A1A to the east  and south and by a series of man made islands and canals to the west and north.  The islands all have big houses on them and are connected by little fixed bridges.  There is however one canal that is unobstructed and this is the one we followed into the basin.  There are some shallow spots that have to be avoided on the way in, but we had read the cruising guides and had stayed here before so we knew the procedure.   One anchored we enjoyed quiet, peaceful surroundings interrupted only by some dogs barking once in a while and by voices from other anchored boats.

We had what turned out to be a great dinner of pasta mixed with sauted ham, red onion, garlic, green pepper, pine nuts and basil with olive oil.  Accompanied of course by a nice merlot.  We were going to grill chicken, but alas it had gone bad.  Not surprising since we had bought it back on April 30.  Today we conducted a burial at sea for the spoiled chicken.

The weather continues to be beautiful, but that may change by this weekend.  We will be at Loblolly Yacht Club visiting friends on Thursday and Friday, so maybe we can sit it out if things turn ugly.  We are in no particular hurry.

Well, today is Thursday. It is a little past 1:00 pm and we are still at the marina in Key West. More about why this is in a later post. After the fridge was repaired on Tuesday we hit the pool here at Conch Harbor Marina. Very nice. then it was back aboard Gryphon for some boat drinks and on to dinner at Dante’s. Wednesday morning we woke up and had no water pressure. The fresh water pump had failed. We discovered the problem a little after 9:00 am and by 11:45 am it was fixed. it involved walking three blocks to West Marine to buy a new pump and calling an electrician who came right over to install it.

In the afternoon, we set out to do the Duval Crawl. We hit a lot of art galleries and wandered over to Blue Heaven for lunch among the palm trees, oleander bushes, and of course the chickens and the cats. Blue Heaven is probably the most famous restaurant in Key West. Jimmy Buffett used to hang out there and even penned a song about it. We had been there years ago and were glad to see that it is still thriving. In fact, the Travel Channel was filming an episode of “Man Versus Food” while we ate. And, there was even a musical celebrity of sorts present – Vanilla Ice. Remember him? Ice, Ice, baby.

After all that excitement, we just had to get back to the pool to cool off. Then more boat drinks. Then dinner at Turtle Kraals (don’t ask, I don’t know what a kraal is). We got to talking with our waitress, Jolea from Texas, and she said she was about to qualify for her 100 ton Master Coast Guard license. She has worked as first mate on a number of schooners, including the replica of the Amistad. She said she might be in Maine this summer working on the Appledore. Perhaps our paths will cross again. That’s the way it is with sailors.

Tuesday, May 3: After a very rough 30 hour passage from Punta Gorda, we arrived at the anchorage in Key West at 7:40 pm Sunday night, twenty minutes before sunset. That was cutting it a little close. Normally the voyage would take 28 hours, but strong headwinds and seas slowed us down. When we set out on Saturday afternoon the winds were ENE at around 15 knots. Roughly 8 hours into the voyage, after passing through a thunder shower, the wind clocked around to the southeast and built to 20-25 knots, with gusts to 28 knots. Seas built to 4-6 feet. These are the conditions we had to live with all night and most of the next day. (Remind me to call the weatherman at NOAA.) But, all good and not so good things come to an end, and though it turned out to be a bit of a struggle, we made it safely to our destination. We spent two nights at anchor, resting up for the most part, and just this morning we moved in to a marina where we plan to stay until Thursday. By then the winds are forecast to die down to a more reasonable 10-15 knots out of the east.

Most everything on the boat has worked properly save for one important item – the fridge. Every time we switched it on it would run for a few minutes and then the breaker would cut off. First thing Monday morning we called the Sea Frost factory and talked to a technician. Cleve diagnosed the problem as a faulty clutch coil in the compressor and arranged to have a new part overnighted to us at Conch Harbor Marina. We notified the marina to expect the package today and made arrangements to get a slip. Meanwhile, we used the internet to locate a mechanic here in Key West who was familiar with Sea Frost refrigeration systems to do the installation. Dwight is working on that as I write this blog. So, as you can see, with the help of the internet, cell phones, Visa, and some very responsive people, things are coming together. Fortunately, we had enough ice in the fridge to keep the food reasonably cool during all this. Later this afternoon we plan to hit the pool here at the marina and then head out to get some dinner along the waterfront. Tomorrow will be a day of “doing Key West.” Then it will be time to head on up the Keys to Miami.

Lest anyone thing that sailing on a small boat is all hard work and trouble, last night at anchor we grilled grouper fillets on the BBQ grill and accompanied them with a nice salad, some warm rosemary/peppercorn bread and a bottle of chardonnay. As we ate we watched the sunset in absolutely the best place in the world to enjoy it. What could be better?

Key West Sunset