Key West Gardens

As part of the Outer Reef Rendezvous, we had a wonderful opportunity to see a part of Key West that we had not seen before. Explore some of the nooks and crannies off the beaten path and off of the tourist area of Duval Street.

This was and the ones that follow were from Ernest Hemingway's house and the beautiful gardens. 

For years a big industry was shipwrecks and salvage until more modern navigational aids were put in place. This influenced the architectural features of the homes for that period and here is a great example of hand carved ships wheels at the top of the trim of the second floor.

We want to give a special thanks to the Outer Reef Staff:  Jeff, Colleen, Walt, Dave, Danny and Katie for their hard work in making this such a fun event. Also a special thanks to Nancy back in the Ft Lauderdale office for her kindness and help.

Hawks Channel & The Fla Keys

We have been to Key West before by car. The farthest south we have gone by boat was Marathon last year where we turned N/NE and went to the Florida Everglades and worked our way up the west coast of Fla. So this was a new experience.

We departed Ft Lauderdale and traveled south via the ICW, it was way too rough on the outside for a comfortable passage. Winds were out of the N/NE 15-20 kts and building, this close to the gulf stream winds in opposition to the 2-3kts gulf current can give big steep waves close in.
The inside run is certainly stimulating with much to see and lot's of activity. Tedious because of so many "go slow" manatee zones and  bridges. You can count on it taking twice as long as it should. We had a worry at the intersection of the ICW and Haulovers inlet. A notoriously skinny spot, which we were relieved to find had just been dredged. The last time we went through this area there was a TowBoat US and Seatow on site knowing that inevitable groundings would occur. For some a bad day for others a rather good living. We crossed without incident but held to the greens which had a tad more water and a softer sandy bottom. The reds have rocks near them and the winds were blowing such that you were being pushed towards the reds & out of the channel and we needed to compensate.

Our plans were to anchor all the way to KW, with the first anchorage in Key Biscayne.  
This was also the first anchor attempt with the new Rocna 55. Our initial and every attempt since has been met with fast setting and great holding. Our last anchor, a CQR would take  20-30ft and sometimes up to 60 feet to set properly depending on the bottom type. While the Rochna would almost set where it first lands. Quite an improvement.

We did not have really strong winds, rather an average in the mid teens most nights. Retrieving the anchor was straight forward but it did bring up a bit of the bottom with it, which was strangely reassuring to me to see how well it had set, buried might be more apt. On our first retrieval we found an old phone handset in the muck with a cord & plug, including a sea slug. Quite a trophy. The waters were clear and beautiful and we cooked dinner on the grill, enjoying the tranquility of the setting.

We were traveling south with our friends Barry and Alice aboard Risky Business (pictured to the left) in Hawks Channel. A channel off the east side of the Keys in the ocean but protected by a line of coral reefs further east. Typically it will be a smoother ride than outside the reef. Our original plan had been to stop in three anchorages along the way but looking at the weather forecast a cold front with high winds was due to move through the area one day ahead of our planned arrival date. So we decided to pick up the pace and get into port a day sooner. On the second night we chose a spot to anchor just south of Channel Five Bridge that was exposed to the south but afforded some protection from winds to the N/NE. It was a bit rolly but other wise a comfortable night after a longer day than expected. Our good anchor did a great job again of a quick set and held us well. Winds were not bad, but some were gusty. Looking at the anchor watch and swing radius the next morning we were in a nice and tight arc.

When we anchor at night we set an anchor watch. Which is a common feature of  chart plotters, we have 3 separate for redundancy. We mark our location and draw a radius around the boat. If we were to slip anchor and drag outside of that radius an alarm will sound to alert us. Been there and done that in high winds & it is not fun. We set up a baby monitor in the pilot house and the other in our stateroom to be certain we would hear it. The display also shows, as a track, how the boat moves while at anchor making it easy to see how the boat moves as it is pushed by winds or tides. We ended up with a nice tight arc. Both reassuring and helps make a quick assessment of how we are doing. And of course we always set our snubber lines to take the stress of the anchor windless and it is much quieter. This is an interesting picture in that it shows the snubbers taking the strain and the slack chain going aft to the bow pulpit. Also it shows how well the anchor is set because as the wind blew, the chain came out of the water during a gust as the boat pulled against the set anchor. In this picture we were in 8' of water and had about 110' of chain out.

Tech comment;

Some confuse scope as meaning chain from bow pulpit to sea bottom, that would mean in 8' of water would be 56 ft of chain/line which would be incorrect for a 7:1 scope.

Scope= L/D+d  


L= length of rode from anchor ring attached to the anchor to the bow pulpit,
d= from the water line to the bow pulpit 
D= water line to the bottom

For example in the case of 10 ft depth and 110 ft of chain is deployed, assuming the bow pulpit on Seabright is 10 ft above the water line:

110/10+10 = 5.5 scope

Minimum scope on an all chain rode is 4:1 solving backwards that would be a total of 60 ft of chain. For a 7:1 would be 140 ft

The holding power of an anchor is highest when the force on the anchor shaft is horizontal and weakest when it is vertical. Chain gives more pull down on the anchor shaft, keeping it horizontal than rope and is therefore preferred.

Min anchor rode is 4:1 for all chain rode and 10:1 all rope, combo is 7:1.
Chain however adds nothing to the shock absorbing capabilities like rope and once stretched taut and it can be broken, a very good reason for snubbers or additional anchor in a really bad storm.

It is fuel polishing time; tech talk (not a pretty subject)

While we have been enjoying the warmer weather in the SE, we are currently in Key West, our diesel fuel has been hard at work creating sludge and what is called asphaltenes,  http://fuelschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Asphaltene.

Fuel as a biologic substance is affected by many factors including temperature, moisture and contaminates. Aside from routine maintenance, most engine problems can be traced back to fuel management. Particularly problematic after sitting for prolonged periods and then going out in seas that agitate the fuel.
 This causes all of the gunk that has been formed and is sitting on the bottom of the
fuel tanks to become suspended in the fuel which is then picked up by the engine and run through the filters. The filters, made by Racor do a very good job of filtering and separating out the water, but you can overwhelm them with dirty fuel and water.

The potential is for  clogged filters which shut the engines down and or smaller particles accumulating on the injectors which over time cause performance deterioration as well general fouling of the injectors. Additionally, water accumulates, often the result of condensation from temp changes or it was present in the fuel when it was sold.

The longer you sit the greater the risk, conversely the more you run the boat and "turn over" the fuel the less the problem.The other risk is getting dirty fuel from either bad storage tanks on shore or where the fuel has sat too long before being sold. We try to find places that have high turnover of fuel and the facility is visually, at least in good shape. When traveling in more remote places, that option is not always available however. Fuel sold outside the US is sometimes more suspect also. Whenever we take on new fuel it is a good idea to run it through the polishing system.

To help manage this problem last year we installed a "fuel polishing" system made by ESI
http://www.fuelmanagement.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=125

Our ESI fuel polishing system is mounted on the forward bulk head of the port side of the engine room. We can polish (filter) about 180-200 g/hr. We can filter the fuel to 2 microns.

We have the capacity for 2000 gal and currently have on board about 1500g. The pump creates enough force to agitate and stir up the gunk that can then be picked up by the filters. My practice has been to filter 150% of the fuel.
The reason is the fuel pick up tubes draw from the bottom of the fuel tanks returning the filtered fuel to the top. To ensure we have a filtered all of the fuel I like to do more than is needed. We will in essence filter 2250 g. of fuel in tie next few days.

A slightly different view showing the fuel manifold system below the ESI polishing. These are the valves that control which of the three SS fuel tanks fuel is being drawn and returned to, as well as which of the two engines and 2 generators are supplied fuel.

Aft facing port engine and generator ( in white sound shield). You can also see the Max Q water maker which is modular and part is on the bulkhead part on a table behind the exhaust elbow and part not seen. This makes for easy installation and service when needed. We can make (desalinate) 1200 gal of water a day.

Seabright has a great stand up lazarette, you can see the Trace inverter as well as a battery charger and the house battery bank. We have 8 255amp hr batteries for a bit over 1020 amp hours that can power a series of appliances and electronics when we are running or at anchor. We use our generators to charge the battery bank after use.
I will try and address each system in future notes and cover with greater detail.

Snubbers

Since my last note on our new Rocna anchor we have anchored out several nights. Having discussed snubbers, I thought it might make sense to add a few pictures of what they look like and how I deploy them. In this picture you can see two lines coming from the boat and attaching to the chain. The stress of the anchor and chain are transferred to the line and boat. A little harder to see but the chain on the roller is slack.

the snubber attaches to the chain with the use of a chain grabber, which slides onto the chain links. The lines are attached to the line via a thimble and shackle. Hard to see but the shackles are secured and wired so they will not loosen. The chain after the snubber attachment is quite slack!
We had great luck anchoring out with the new anchor. It sets really really fast and buries into the bottom. If there is a downside it would be that it comes up with a lots of sand or what ever the bottom type is. In a way I find that comforting.

The waters here are a brilliant blue green.