Month Long Cruise PCB - Key West - 340

What great pictures so far! That one of the Flag is really nice with the sun behind it. I can never get over how clear the water looks too. So nice!:thumbsup:
 
You missed the naked ones?

Dinghy 9'6" Hard, inflatable bottom.

Today, we left Bahia Honda Key and headed West toward Key West. When we spotted the old light house to our South, we turned toward it and began to investigate. What we found was American Shoal, and the most beautiful snorkeling I've ever done in the US. A nurse shark large enough to get another boat's attention passed behind us as we swam along. The boater called out to me, and I turned to see it pass by - VERY big.

After a relaxing lunch, we headed into Saddlebunch Harbour for the evening and night. There are 6' tarpon rolling behind our boat. Check out the photos (none of Tarpon - they are too quick).

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I agree. Now I have to go out and buy a better camera! Thanks John!

Gary is right, the pictures are incredible, the water is crystal clear and you are on the adventure of a lifetime! I have to do my Monterey trip for sure now...
 
Thanks to everyone. The camera is a Cannon Elf SD-800 IS - a small, automatic camera.

The storms hit last night - hard! Thank goodness the first thing that happened was that a bolt of lightning hit nearby which sent me to the deck before my eyes opened. The winds began to blow. Since we are in a channel with tons of HUGE fish feeding and relatively poor vis, I didn't dive the anchor, so I couldn't trust it.

We have a Key just about 150' to our NE and the winds were such that the boat would have swung that direction, so I through out a stern anchor and tied it to a stern cleat just as the boat began to swing against the current. I barely got it secured when it set and began to hold fast.

The blow boat near us swung hard toward us, but didn't drag too much. It all passed quickly enough for me to get back to sleep before 2am. This morning, it's apparent that we never moved from that spot.
 
Great posts John, and an awesome adventure! If you were down here a little longer you could head over to Bimini on the Bahamas Boating Fling a few of us are going on the 24-27th... Haven't taken the boat down to the Keys yet, so thanks for the great photos and explanations...

Great camper canvas set up...and the speakers too!!

What's the average cruising speed and rpm's you've been doing when you are running outside? Looks like you're getting pretty good gas milage (if you can say that about a boat!).

Can't wait to see the next photos!!

Have a great day!
Barry
 
Agree with all the compliments - fantastic. What is the deal with that bridge? Does it close?
 
Hampton said:
Dinghy 9'6" Hard, inflatable bottom.
Click to expand...

Does this mean hard floor with an inflatable keel? Some dinghy's have the slat type folding board bottoms, or does it mean you have the fiberglass keeled bottom, with an inflatable floor.

I do not see any davits on you boat or mounts, or it being towed in any photos, so where is it stored while under way?

Typically with a hard fiberglass bottom the dinghy cannot be packed up into a bag,

Thanks
 
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barryg said:
Great posts John, and an awesome adventure! If you were down here a little longer you could head over to Bimini on the Bahamas Boating Fling a few of us are going on the 24-27th... Haven't taken the boat down to the Keys yet, so thanks for the great photos and explanations...

Great camper canvas set up...and the speakers too!!

What's the average cruising speed and rpm's you've been doing when you are running outside? Looks like you're getting pretty good gas milage (if you can say that about a boat!).

Can't wait to see the next photos!!

Have a great day!
Barry
Click to expand...

Barry,

The whole trip we have been running 3400 RPM heavy, 26 - 27 mph at 33 gph. Once lighter, we pull back to 3250 or so and slow to 25 - 26 mph. FF = about 31 gph. The FF's are from the gauges. Actual FF seems to be higher - Getting about .75 mpg.

The dinghy had been dis-assembled, and rolled up. On the way down, it sat in the port side Captain's chair with a towel over it - we call it my Mother-in-Law. "Hey, what's in the bag?" "That's my Mother-in-Law."

The dinghy is an Achillies LFI-96 (I'm pretty sure). It has 4 inflatable bladders. 2 sides, one keel, and one hard (9 psi +/-) inflatable floor. The floor has been under the aft berth.

Once we arrived in the keys, we took it out, blew it up, and put the motor on it. The motor had been under the cockpit table, wrapped in towels. For short trips, we put the bow of the dinghy on the SP and pull it. For long trips, we take the motor off, spin it around, and put the transom of the dinghy on the SP and tow it as if it wasn't there.
 
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Thanks for the info John...what kind of pump do you use to inflate the dinghy-especially the floor? I was going to roll mine up and do the same thing going to Bimini but the motor on the 12v pump I use isn't working right and the foot pump isn't strong enough for the floor bladder to get to 9psi..

When you say 33 and 31 gph is that total for both engines, or each engine?
 
I'm trying to upload videos from yesterday and today - If Verizon doens't bump me off, then Photobucket fails - argh.

Today, we trolled down the keys to the Oceanside Marina on Stock Island - Shelli caught one, small Barracuda. We added 60 gallons at $3.70 - same as the West Coast - Pleasantly surprised, but, tomorrow we'll be buying at Sigbee NAS on the North side for $3.16. From there, we back-tracked a couple of miles and now we are at the Boca Chica NAS Marina - Heaven! I've been here many, many times on military deployments. It's different on a boat.

We had not taken on fuel since Marco Island. So, we cruised 148 miles and slept on the hook two nights without getting gas. I added 5 gallons to the starboard side last evening to ensure the Mrs didn't wake up in a sweat last night. This is a simulated run to Dry Tortugas and back.

I'll have to see how much we take on tomorrow, take into account the 5 gallons added, and see how much margin of error we will have before considering our extra gas that we will carry.
 
barryg said:
Thanks for the info John...what kind of pump do you use to inflate the dinghy-especially the floor? I was going to roll mine up and do the same thing going to Bimini but the motor on the 12v pump I use isn't working right and the foot pump isn't strong enough for the floor bladder to get to 9psi..

When you say 33 and 31 gph is that total for both engines, or each engine?
Click to expand...

We've always just done the best we can with the foot pump - never had a problem. Pump it up in the am or pm - it'll be plenty tight mid day.

TOTAL! Jeesh! Usually reading about 16.5 gph per side early on, then 15.2 or so later on.
 
Thanks for the updates... When we went to Bimini last year I burned about 66 gal, 2 hours from Bimini back, around 60 miles. The year before the seas were around 4& 5 and confused and I burned about 110 going over. It's amazing what heavy seas and current will do to your fuel burn!! Going to Bimini from Fort Lauderdale you're fighting the current of the Gulfstream so that definitely plays into eating up more gas, and coming back is usually always with the current of the Gulfstream, so you do better that way, but going over that time we were up and down the waves constantly that it was like going 120 miles instead of 60.

Can't wait to see the photos and videos..
They just reopened Boca Chica lodge after the renovations and a fire right during it all.. Must be beautiful.

We are all traveling vicariously with you on the trip... Looking forward to the next chapter.
 
Carter - the first pic shows my camper struts.

The first pic also show how I affected the swing of my boat when I through out an extra (stern) anchor during a thunderstorm last night.
Ultra clear morning water (incoming tide). We saw TONS of corals on our dinghy ride, as many as 3 Tarpon at a time, and one Tarpon swam next to the dinghy in 3 feet of water!
Pretty morning sky
Oceanside Marina
My boat at Boca Chica Marina
The bar at Boca Chica Marina
The surroundings
After the Rain
If I could get the videos to work (THANKS, VERIZON : ( you would see and F-5 circling to land folllowed by a lightning strike right behind him.

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John & Shelli,

Wonderful trip and wonderful pictures. I know what you are feeling. We did our one-month trip shortly after retirement. There's a whole new world out there to discover.
 
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