We have never done the ICW from the zero marker in Norfolk VA., to Key West and back. Somewhere, somehow along the way we typically jump out off shore and go past some of the worst spots. It's just the two of us and we tend to limit our outside run to about 30 hrs. That is usually more than enough to get past the rough spots.
Or conversely there are some areas of South Florida that are such a hassle because of the boat traffic and so so many bridges that require an opening to safely pass. On the ICW from Palm Beach and Lake Worth to Ft. Lauderdale there are 22 bridges, almost one every 2 miles. It takes forever to go the 40 or so miles. The boat traffic from the very small to the very large mega yacht crowd are all here. Throw in some wind and current and it is a fine brew indeed. From Ft. Lauderdale to Miami it is another 20 bridges that require opening, whew! In the past we have jumped outside and traveled inlet to inlet as the weather and circumstance allow. Said another way, we have never run this stretch inside before, ever, nope, nada.
Since we are leaving for home early, the weather is a bit unsettled with strong northerlies pushing against the gulf stream creating the most unpleasant set of circumstance. It seems like one ends and the next one begins. One key is to take a look at Lake Worth and its anchorages of boats waiting to cross to the Bahamas.
This is the early time for some to go to the Bahamas. As springtime settles the winds will die down and late April-June is a great time to be there. Actually it is the best time to be there.
The "early birds" are beginning to gather in Lake Worth for the crossing, frothy to be on their way. It is early so they often wait a few days, week or two and sometimes three for a weather window and then scoot across, feeling better once they are on the banks. Even then they cluster in strategic locations for the next jump. Looking at Lake Worth it was crowded with boats anchored in every nook and cranny. The offshore forecast had every one hunkered down inside. Here is a link for NOAA and the Ocean Prediction Center showing in high level detail the gulf stream forecast; http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/A_24hrwind_wave.gif We have WxWeather capability on board http://www.xmwxweather.com/marine/ and along with the local forecasting we get detailed weather view in real time. What is important here is the wind and wave along with the sea temp and buoy data, which helps outline the wall of the gulf stream and current conditions.
From the urban and congested south FL, it opens up a bit and the biggest concerns are various inlets and shoals along the way. There are notorious problem areas that have lots of comments from fellow boaters, to just plain skinny waters.
Our real concerns do not arise again until the very end of north FL and into GA. There are such big tides here that you need to be thoughtful about when you go and for how long. The low tides in some parts make our passage difficult.
It seems each region has it distinct flavor and characteristic. The Carolinas are fine in some places but have real problems in areas where there are many inlets and then large shallow bays.
A different trip than times past where we've hopped outside takes a bit of creative planning to make it all work while dodging between fronts, wind and rain.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Anchoring in Hawks Channel
We knew when we departed Key West our options were largely limited to anchoring out each night. If your desire is to marina hop, unless your speed is faster than ours, it is hard to find options that work with our draft and an easy days' range. There are some options but anchoring can be a lot of fun and is certainly more cost effective.
We were again traveling with Risky Business and had picked out an anchorage in New Found Harbor . We decided on this spot because of numerous recommendations by others. The weather was fine for the most part. We had been having a series of cold fronts coming through with high winds but on our day of departure it had settled down a bit; sloppy initially but calming down as the day wore on. Knowing the wind direction is always the first step in picking a good anchorage and settling to a good lee side that does not radically change on you in the middle of the night is important if you want a good night's sleep.
Our trip was only 45sm, not long or particularly challenging as we headed north into the wind. By early afternoon we had arrived and began the journey into the harbor, It took a bit longer than we expected because the depths were a bit thin and the course in was a bit of a trek, forming an inverted J. We averaged 7' of depth traveling in, so going slow as to not squat the stern was important. We settled behind the small island on the lee side in 6 ft and anchored in sand. If I were to do it again I would not go in as far and look to drop the hook a bit further north, where the flat side of the J forms.
The small island was well attended with numerous small runabouts that zoomed around making it a bit rough with wakes but settled down nicely at sundown. It was a tranquil and pretty setting. Clear water, a pretty blue green.
At anchor we keep track of our position using our PC based chart plotter, running MaxSea ,which has an anchor watch. We also have 2 Furuno Navnet units with chart plotters. The plotter draws a circumference around the center point of the anchor and will sound an alarm if we track out of it. Being as high tech, we set up a baby monitor at night so we can hear an alarm down below. We set the diameter of the anchor watch and will vary it depending on the conditions and the amount of chain we have out. As is our practice, we had 120' of chain out and snubbed the lines. What is interesting about the picture to the right is you can see clearly how we swung at anchor during the night. There is a tight little arc in red outlining our swing radius. We held very nicely and slept well.
Our next night's stop was on the eastern side of Rodriquez Key. We came in from the north and dropped anchor in 6-7 ft of water with a sandy bottom. It was a calm and quite peaceful night. You can see our swing is fairly small and a bit flat as opposed to the usual U shape. I included a screen capture of Active Captain.https://activecaptain.com/X.php We are big fans. This is an interactive web site with lots of good information including navigational aids to give warning for problem areas as well as anchorages. You can see a small green flag in the picture to the left, which if you click on it, will give you anchorage information for this location. In this case I brought up the comments page. This gives us real time, diverse opinions on an interactive site. They have recently added functionality to allow people to upload routes they have taken so you can see how someone navigated a tricky area. Pretty cool! Our chart plotter software MaxSea includes the Active Captain data embedded in the software, so no need for a separate data source or active Internet connection which is not possible for the most part when running. http://www.maxsea.fr/timezero/Products/MaxSeaTimeZero/Explorer/tabid/115/language/en-US/Default.aspx In the past I would look up sources while on the Internet and then print or transcribe the info onto a notebook that I kept separately, using it in planning and a reference while traveling. Now it is all integrated into one stand alone computer based software solution.
Our next and final stop while traveling Hawks Channel was through the Florida Pass and into Biscayne Bay. It was at this point in mid afternoon that we left Ricky Business. They stayed in Hawks Channel onto Miami. They were provisioning and planning a run to the Bahamas. We have enjoyed our time together for almost 1000sm or so. It is fun to "buddy boat" sharing the waterway with another as you either run off shore or on the inside. Alice and Barry are good and knowledgeable boaters and friends. We hope to boat with them again.
Our path had us on a route back home to Kilmarnock VA. We had important family matters to attend to; our daughter Katie is getting married in May and our youngest son Johnny is graduating from college two weeks later. The Bahamas will wait until the fall.
This was our second time in the Biscayne Bay area and we enjoyed it as much as the first time. It is a popular spot with about 6-8 boats of different types anchored in the same area.
The red line is our actual route in and the blue line is the route I made before coming in as a planning method. I always like to have these spots researched and a route into and out of beforehand.
In all of these spots the waters were a beautiful blue green color and crystal clear with the bottom clearly visible. If it had been warmer I would have been tempted to go for a swim!
The small island was well attended with numerous small runabouts that zoomed around making it a bit rough with wakes but settled down nicely at sundown. It was a tranquil and pretty setting. Clear water, a pretty blue green.
At anchor we keep track of our position using our PC based chart plotter, running MaxSea ,which has an anchor watch. We also have 2 Furuno Navnet units with chart plotters. The plotter draws a circumference around the center point of the anchor and will sound an alarm if we track out of it. Being as high tech, we set up a baby monitor at night so we can hear an alarm down below. We set the diameter of the anchor watch and will vary it depending on the conditions and the amount of chain we have out. As is our practice, we had 120' of chain out and snubbed the lines. What is interesting about the picture to the right is you can see clearly how we swung at anchor during the night. There is a tight little arc in red outlining our swing radius. We held very nicely and slept well.
Our next and final stop while traveling Hawks Channel was through the Florida Pass and into Biscayne Bay. It was at this point in mid afternoon that we left Ricky Business. They stayed in Hawks Channel onto Miami. They were provisioning and planning a run to the Bahamas. We have enjoyed our time together for almost 1000sm or so. It is fun to "buddy boat" sharing the waterway with another as you either run off shore or on the inside. Alice and Barry are good and knowledgeable boaters and friends. We hope to boat with them again.
Our path had us on a route back home to Kilmarnock VA. We had important family matters to attend to; our daughter Katie is getting married in May and our youngest son Johnny is graduating from college two weeks later. The Bahamas will wait until the fall.
This was our second time in the Biscayne Bay area and we enjoyed it as much as the first time. It is a popular spot with about 6-8 boats of different types anchored in the same area.
The red line is our actual route in and the blue line is the route I made before coming in as a planning method. I always like to have these spots researched and a route into and out of beforehand.
In all of these spots the waters were a beautiful blue green color and crystal clear with the bottom clearly visible. If it had been warmer I would have been tempted to go for a swim!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A bit of this and a bit of that, and a lession or two
A recent email with a fellow boater/friend reminded me of a few incidents while traveling north in March. The first occurred in that stretch of the ICW between Wrightsville Beach north to Morehead City.
We happened upon by chance, a group of 3 motors boats and a sail boat. We made the 4th. It is that stretch of the ICW where the bridges that require an opening are sooo very hard to time our arrival. It is not fun to have missed a bridge opening by 5 or 10 min and need to wait for 30-50min trying to hold steady in wind and current for the next opening.
A woman on the sail boat was yakking at the motor boats, while at a bridge, that they were a "deep draft vessel" and needed a lot more room in the channel. She was none too happy and was coming across as having been grievously wronged by the thoughtless motor boats. Not an uncommon occurrence in our experienced, rightly or wrongly. Some rag heads (sails) think so little of us stink pots (motors). Someone asked how deep was their draft and she replied huffily, 5 feet.
Jeannie and I looked at each other and chuckled because that is our draft. Though in truth we think it is more likely a bit more with fuel and stuff. Typically I treat sail boats "under power"(ie their engine is running) as if the are any another motor boat and operate under the same rules of the road as other motor boats. I am polite and slow down and coordinate an over taking from our speedy 8.5 kts to keep my wake from giving them an unpleasant bounce. As to draft, I look to take my fair share of the channel, not trying to be too piggish. But we are big and take some room to maneuver. The rule here is to be proactive and not surprise others with close quarter maneuverings.
The second occurrence, Jeannie and I have discussed a couple of times in order to think through what would we have done differently and how should it have played out. First off, this had no bad outcome only some pissed off boaters. We were traveling south with Risky Business, another OR 65, having met up with them in Jacksonville.That day was long, having run south from Vero Beach and entered Lake Worth headed to our nights' stay on the south end of the lake, in Palm Beach. Lots and lots of bridges and no wake zones. Risky Business was in the lead that day and we were following. We had to go through one last bridge to our marina, which was just on the other side of the bridge.
We arrived and waited for the timed opening and Risky Business proceeded through the opening with us following shortly behind. There were two smaller trawlers on the other side which I was vaguely aware of, but truthfully, more focused on following the other OR65 did not pay attention to them. A lady on a north bound trawler "erupted" on channel 16, righteously indignant that we did not standoff and give them the right of way because they were having difficulty holding with the incoming current. She was "yelling" that under the nav rules she had the right of way and we did a wrong by not allowing them through first. She went on for at least a minute or two. Quite the tirade.
I was embarrassed, to be frank. She was correct and we should have stood off and allowed them through first.
We discussed it later and I finally concluded that while she was ultimately right, she was wrong at the same time. When I am in that situation, I always hail the other boat to coordinate a passage. Coming on them as we did, we did not appreciate the current they were in and without them letting us know we could not divine the information.
From where we stood the current was not a problem and seemed like an ordinary set of circumstances. I was in a line of boats going south positioned as the second boat and frankly saw them off on the other side but nothing special about their positioning. But boy was she hot and was spewing forth for all to hear.
I guess the lesson here is you need to be proactive in all overtaking, crossings and bridges, with other boats where practical and coordinate the positioning. I try not to take the other boats actions for granted thinking they know the circumstances/conditions and the rules. But in this case I did not hail them. My mistake.
Interestingly, we came through that same area again when we were going north in March. It was near the area where they stage for the Palm Beach Boat Show. We came to the same bridge only this time, we were northbound and now we were the ones having trouble in the current holding our position. Turn about is fair play, the current was really ripping and now we were working to keep it aligned to the bridge in a narrow channel with the marina on our port side. There was not a lot of room for maneuvering. A large 70+ft MY in front of us decided to turn around and go to the end of the line of the south bound boats because of the problems he was having in the current near the bridge. On the other side of the bridge were about 8 boats coming south for the show, the largest at about 110'. Quite a sight. Only this time I called the boats on the other side and asked to have right of way at the opening due to the current and they were quite polite and in agreement. We went through with 2 other motors and the biggest problem was navigating this large gaggle of southbound boats in a narrow channel.
All in all a good lesson.
We happened upon by chance, a group of 3 motors boats and a sail boat. We made the 4th. It is that stretch of the ICW where the bridges that require an opening are sooo very hard to time our arrival. It is not fun to have missed a bridge opening by 5 or 10 min and need to wait for 30-50min trying to hold steady in wind and current for the next opening.
A woman on the sail boat was yakking at the motor boats, while at a bridge, that they were a "deep draft vessel" and needed a lot more room in the channel. She was none too happy and was coming across as having been grievously wronged by the thoughtless motor boats. Not an uncommon occurrence in our experienced, rightly or wrongly. Some rag heads (sails) think so little of us stink pots (motors). Someone asked how deep was their draft and she replied huffily, 5 feet.
Jeannie and I looked at each other and chuckled because that is our draft. Though in truth we think it is more likely a bit more with fuel and stuff. Typically I treat sail boats "under power"(ie their engine is running) as if the are any another motor boat and operate under the same rules of the road as other motor boats. I am polite and slow down and coordinate an over taking from our speedy 8.5 kts to keep my wake from giving them an unpleasant bounce. As to draft, I look to take my fair share of the channel, not trying to be too piggish. But we are big and take some room to maneuver. The rule here is to be proactive and not surprise others with close quarter maneuverings.
The second occurrence, Jeannie and I have discussed a couple of times in order to think through what would we have done differently and how should it have played out. First off, this had no bad outcome only some pissed off boaters. We were traveling south with Risky Business, another OR 65, having met up with them in Jacksonville.That day was long, having run south from Vero Beach and entered Lake Worth headed to our nights' stay on the south end of the lake, in Palm Beach. Lots and lots of bridges and no wake zones. Risky Business was in the lead that day and we were following. We had to go through one last bridge to our marina, which was just on the other side of the bridge.
We arrived and waited for the timed opening and Risky Business proceeded through the opening with us following shortly behind. There were two smaller trawlers on the other side which I was vaguely aware of, but truthfully, more focused on following the other OR65 did not pay attention to them. A lady on a north bound trawler "erupted" on channel 16, righteously indignant that we did not standoff and give them the right of way because they were having difficulty holding with the incoming current. She was "yelling" that under the nav rules she had the right of way and we did a wrong by not allowing them through first. She went on for at least a minute or two. Quite the tirade.
I was embarrassed, to be frank. She was correct and we should have stood off and allowed them through first.
We discussed it later and I finally concluded that while she was ultimately right, she was wrong at the same time. When I am in that situation, I always hail the other boat to coordinate a passage. Coming on them as we did, we did not appreciate the current they were in and without them letting us know we could not divine the information.
From where we stood the current was not a problem and seemed like an ordinary set of circumstances. I was in a line of boats going south positioned as the second boat and frankly saw them off on the other side but nothing special about their positioning. But boy was she hot and was spewing forth for all to hear.
I guess the lesson here is you need to be proactive in all overtaking, crossings and bridges, with other boats where practical and coordinate the positioning. I try not to take the other boats actions for granted thinking they know the circumstances/conditions and the rules. But in this case I did not hail them. My mistake.
Interestingly, we came through that same area again when we were going north in March. It was near the area where they stage for the Palm Beach Boat Show. We came to the same bridge only this time, we were northbound and now we were the ones having trouble in the current holding our position. Turn about is fair play, the current was really ripping and now we were working to keep it aligned to the bridge in a narrow channel with the marina on our port side. There was not a lot of room for maneuvering. A large 70+ft MY in front of us decided to turn around and go to the end of the line of the south bound boats because of the problems he was having in the current near the bridge. On the other side of the bridge were about 8 boats coming south for the show, the largest at about 110'. Quite a sight. Only this time I called the boats on the other side and asked to have right of way at the opening due to the current and they were quite polite and in agreement. We went through with 2 other motors and the biggest problem was navigating this large gaggle of southbound boats in a narrow channel.
All in all a good lesson.
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