White Out

The skies are charcoal grey, it's a dreary down town day...  Heading for Hawks channel and off to the keys!

It's a dreary downtown day...I mean look it's Biscayne light!

Facing the facts that the weather was all rain today we headed out anyway with hopes to make it to Rodriguez Key.  All went well on another dreary day. 

The next morning when I awoke it was dead calm with no wind and being low on fuel I went back to bead and waited until the next awakening.  Being another 10 hours from marathon we decided to go and get some fuel from the nearby gas station (5 blocks and 2 containers).   Once we made it back to the dinghy we decided to have lunch at the Mandalay.  If you are in Rock Harbor it is the yellow canopy.  Burgers are only $7.95 compared to the $18.00 in the Exumas.  The fries are way better and they actually have Hienz mustard, a requirement for a great burger. 

Once back to the boat we headed out toward Hawk Chanel.  Just as we were about to round the last pylon of Rodriguez Key and head west we heard the Advisory on ch 16.  But it was so broken up that we couldn't get the whole message,  We tried Wx but they kept on going on and on about storms in southern Florida.  We needed the Hawk Channel alert we just heard 20% of.  Finally we got the whole report and "Full About 180".  We barely made it back to the anchorage before the drops were falling.  Having carried 10 gallons for 5 blocks and then rowing against the wind to the boat I was feeling a little sticky.  I took a moment to lather up and use the rain as a shower.  LOL  It wasn't long until we were hit with a "white out".  Rain on bare skin kind of stings at 50 knots!  The Fisher King just kept laughing at me for even trying to rinse off.  Things just didn't feel right and as the rail was almost in the water.  We should be staying bow too with the anchor set.  We must be dragging.  I had the Fisher King check the anchor alarm (it was off to save power) it was easy to watch us drag slowly across the anchorage.  Our visual reference was no longer any good as the island was out of vision, the marker to Pennekamp was out of vision and the sailboat next to us was dragging also.  We needed to re-hook so I went up front and took the easy way out.  We had the secondary anchor stowed in case we had to anchor quickly while the dinghy was on the bow.  I just slipped it over and held on to the rode until it hooked up.  It was already cleated off at the right distance and when it became tight we stayed hooked through out the blow.  Being so wet I ended up staying in the cockpit the whole time watching just in case we dragged once again.  Once the blast was over we checked things out and gave the Okay sign to the neighboring boat.  We did notice the 60 footer had serious issues during the blow and ended up riding it out by motor as they could not get hooked up anywhere.  They settled in way out from their original spot and spent the night.

Last time s/v Gemini Dreams had 50 knots in the Keys I was on the dock and she rode them out all alone!

The next morning the wind was dead on the nose and we gave up at Tavenier Key and waited for the next morning.  

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