Foreword: Ghost Rider became our very
own containment vessel for the few days it took us to cruise back to Fort
Myers, staying offshore and stopping only at a couple of anchorages along the
way. There are worse ways to practice
social distancing, and not many safer. We
would like to salute the front line medical workers and first responders who
continue to put themselves in harm’s way. To once again quote Mr. Churchill:
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Of course he also reportedly said something
like “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have
exhausted all other possibilities.” That
one is looking dubious.
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| First Leg: Palm Beach to Rodriguez Key (Near Key Largo) |
With Yacht Tech mostly shut down we had
definitely reached a point of diminishing returns on the east coast of Florida,
so on Tuesday, 14-April we departed
Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens and pointed Ghost Rider south. Joe and
Carole (from N40 Barefoot Girl)
helped us with dock lines, which was much appreciated as our assigned boat slip
wasn’t an easy one for Chelle to dismount and remount the boat, especially with
a very stiff breeze from the southeast pushing us off the tall fixed dock. Our planned itinerary included an overnight
run south to the Rodriguez Key anchorage near Key Largo, then a shorter day
trip to the Marathon anchorage, and finally another overnighter from there to
home port in Fort Myers. The planning
logic was simple: there weren’t any marinas taking transients, so anchorages
were our only option; and we wanted to get past the mainland and down to the
Keys quickly enough to avoid a worsening weather forecast for areas north of
there.
We departed just after 1500….timed such
that we would reach our first anchorage shortly after sunrise the next
day. It was mostly sunny, humid and hot
with the temp hovering at 90F, but the stiff breeze coming off the slightly
cooler waters helped keep it comfortable on the fly bridge. By the time we reached Lake Worth winds were
at a steady 20 knots but we had timed the two ICW bridge openings perfectly and
made good time. And somewhat
surprisingly, when we punched through the inlet and into open ocean, the ride
wasn’t too bad – two to three foot square waves with plenty of wind chop on
top, but Ghost Rider seemed quite
happy to be moving again. However that
hefty wind (with higher gusts) regularly kicked salt spray clear over the fly
bridge and up to the satellite antenna dome.
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| Pilot House View at Dusk Near the East Florida Shoreline |
We had planned our initial legs down
towards Miami to be about three miles offshore, the thought being we would
avoid most of the near-shore fishing grounds, along with the busy inlets and
anchorage areas at Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Unfortunately, while NOAA was reporting the western edge of the Gulf
Stream ten miles out, that did not appear to be the case. After the turn south we found ourselves
bucking a current of at least three knots. Following an hour of crawling along, sometimes
under five knots of SOG, we hung a hard right, detouring two and half miles to
the west. We began hugging the shoreline
about a thousand meters off the beach and that gained us two more knots of
forward speed for a while. But come night
fall we once again swerved back out to the three mile limit line, mainly for
the traffic avoidance and safety factors near the busy ports….and back into
that nasty current.
Chelle took the helm for the early night
shift (1900 to 2130), then Rick took over for the graveyard shift through 0430,
followed by Chelle again for the final four hours. It was after 0200 on Wednesday, 15-April before we got around Lauderdale and Miami – and
their offshore anchorage fields looked like parking lots. There was a lot of
stranded tonnage there, collectively with enough lights blazing to totally
destroy everyone’s night vision.
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| Radar Screen Capture as We Skirted the Lauderdale Offshore Anchorage Area |
Overall the night running was mostly without
stress, but approaching the Miami area Rick had to hail one cruise ship on the
VHF to clarify safe passing logistics. The
big vessel was lingering about a mile to the east of the offshore anchorage,
but unlike all the others its AIS readout did not reflect an “anchored” status
and it showed a few knots of movement; we did not want to get run over….a
distinct possibility at our reduced ground speed. It turned out he was “drifting in place” and
we agreed on a passing protocol satisfactory to both vessels.
Once south of Miami’s Government Cut
shipping channel we again cut back west and closer to the mainland to join Hawk
Channel and run inside the Keys’ reef tract.
Even there we were still bashing into a current, although one not nearly
as strong as the Gulf Stream’s fire hose.
Throughout the sortie the winds never
let up, and the atmosphere remained warm and muggy all night – temps never
dipped below 82F. So when we reached
Rodriguez Key and tucked in behind it just before 0900 and dropped the hook,
the generator and A/C came online fairly quickly. That anchorage is one of our favorites in the
Keys – good protection, fairly isolated, plenty of swing room, just enough
depth with mild tidal changes, and always clean, clear water. But we had never seen it so empty. We tended to some minor chores, napped, read
and caught up on the news (blech) via
satellite TV, then slept like stones that night.
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| A Shot of the Rodriguez Key Anchorage Near Sunset.....It Was Pretty Empty |
We were not in a big hurry the following
morning, Thursday, 16-April, since
we only had a short six hour sortie down to Marathon in the mid-Keys. It was still warm and muggy outside even at
0830 – temp and humidity both in the mid-80’s – but we had kept the genset and
A/C running all night, so had slept well.
After our coffee, email and news checks we cranked up Ghost Rider’s systems, hoisted the
anchor and were back underway by 0930.
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| Our Track from Rodriguez Key to the Marathon Area |
Hawk Channel waters were docile,
generally about a foot, and since the wind had diminished considerably
overnight to around 10 knots, featured just a light wind chop on top. We had to dodge occasional strings of crab
pots, but otherwise traffic was light apart from the occasional pod of dolphins
that would glide in the boat’s bow wave.
Water quality was as good as we’d ever
seen it inside the reef. No debris, and
bottom features readily visible in varying shades of blue, green and
turquoise. We had read reports the same
was true all along the coasts of Florida following beach and facility closures
that had reduced human activity to nearly nothing. Perhaps a silver lining in the Covid cloud.
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| The Anchorage Near Marathon & Seven Mile Bridge |
But around 1400 the calm of our peaceful
cruise down the spine of the Keys got interrupted by a bright red warning light
on the stabilizer control panel – for “High Temp.” Nuts.
Rick went to the engine room and used the infrared temperature gun to
verify the oil tank temp was high (it was, well above redline), then centered
and pinned the stabilizer fins, and shut the system down. A quick check of the manual revealed it had absolutely
nothing to say about troubleshooting this error, so Rick pinged James Knight
via SMS text for his input. James called back within minutes, and had Rick
check the relative temps for the cooling input and output lines at the
stabilizer’s oil reservoir (both normal), and also verify that the output
line’s thru-hull seacock was open (it was.)
Seas were still quite gentle and forecast to remain that way for the
final leg home, so the absence of stabilization wasn’t a big deal. Conferring with a few other N50 owners gave
us a pretty good idea as to cause (clogging debris in the cooling circuit,
likely from zinc anode shedding); that will require considerable disassembly
and flushing, so we decided to leave the system disabled, and wait to address
once back in port.
We turned the corner at Boot Key and
pulled into a mostly empty anchorage near Marathon around 1530, and had the hook
firmly planted shortly thereafter. Initially
we left the generator off and the boat open for a few hours to let the engine
room cool down a bit, then ran genset and A/C for a spell and recharged the
batts. By late evening the predicted
cold front shifted the winds to a northerly flow bring slightly drier air,
making it comfy enough to shut down and sleep with natural ventilation.
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| Chelle Cooking up a Spicy Taco Dish at the Marathon Anchorage |
By 0800 on the morning of Friday, 17-April the winds had clocked
around to the southeast once again and the breeze helped as it was already quite
humid with a bright tropical sun gradually amping up the heat. We started the generator around 1030 and let
it charge the house batteries and enjoyed some cooling A/C. Our goal was to be underway by 1530 – enough
daylight remaining to pass through some of the more dense crab pot fields
visually, but not so soon as to arrive at the Caloosahatchee River in Fort
Myers before daylight the following morning.
And that’s what we did, weighing anchor at 1515.
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| Our Overnight Track from Marathon to Fort Myers |
Once Chelle had steered Ghost Rider under the Seven Mile Bridge
and into Florida Bay we found smooth water, mainly just a light wind chop, and
we were grateful for that with the stabilizer system shut down. We weaved our way around Red Bay Bank and
then aimed the pointy end north, settling down for the long run up to Fort
Myers. As expected we were dodging the
crab pots in the southern part of Florida Bay, and we managed to pick out most
visually and on radar, although the wind-chopped surface made the latter
erratic at times.
We manned the helm with the same shift
schedule as the previous overnight run, with Chelle driving at the sunset and
sunrise portions, and Rick in between. (His stay-alert technique: two mugs of
coffee and a whole box of Girl Scout cookies.
Thank you Grace and Alice.) It
was a black, moonless night, the proverbial “boating in an ink bottle” run;
looking straight ahead you could see absolutely nothing….not even the Nordhavn
pennant fluttering a short distance away on the bow.
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| Chelle Steers Ghost Rider Towards the Seven Mile Bridge |
Looking up, however, it was a different
story. With zero light pollution that
far out in open water, the night sky was a star-studded palette of brilliant
pinpoint lights. To our west Venus was
initially bright enough to leave a narrow wake of reflective light on the bay,
and nearby Sirius was almost as bright.
To the east Ursa Major stood out, pointing dutifully to Polaris. Rick’s “Star Map” app could be distracting, and
it took some discipline not to continually scan the sky and stare at that
thing. Way off to the northeast distant
flashes of lightning would occasionally strobe out far enough for us to see,
but our XM weather display told us the cluster of storms that spawned them were
at least 75 miles away and moving further east.
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| Duel Radar....Totally Void of Any Traffic |
In the blackness Ghost Rider’s Furuno DRS X-Class radar served as our eyes. As is our habit we ran one radar display at
close-in range and the other looking out a few miles further, with a two mile
Guard Zone set up. This night we also
ran with the autopilot in “Track” mode, also known as “Nav” or “Auto-follow”
mode on some pilots. In open water on
long, nearly straight stretches it’s a no-brainer to let the computers drive
the vessel on its intended course.
We did not see another boat on the water
from Marathon all the way up to Naples, either visually or on radar. Throughout the night our conditions stayed
comfortable, with following seas at about a foot, temps in the low 80’s, and
humidity close to that. The breeze
turned from southeast and around to the northeast just before midnight, which also
helped with better airflow in the pilot house.
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| XM Weather Display Showing the Cluster of TRWs Between Lake O and the East Coast of Florida |
On Saturday,
18-April, we arrived at the Sanibel Causeway around 0730, and at that point
we finally witnessed a normal level of boating activity on up to Fort Myers...plenty
of small leisure craft getting early starts toward the fishing grounds. We coasted upriver on an incoming tide and pulled
into Legacy Harbour Marina at 0915, docking without any drama in mostly calm
conditions. Then we spent two hours hosing off several layers of salt from Ghost Rider, unloaded gear and
food, drove to our condo, and called the journey complete.
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| Sunrise Over Fort Myers Beach as We Approached the Sanibel Causeway |
Overall Ghost Rider had performed very well. Apart from the stabilizer oil temp / cooling
issue, the only other thing to break the entire way was the starboard side
(green) navigation light; we carry spare bulbs so that was an easy fix
(although Rick did cut himself when the old bulb shattered in his hand; nothing
new there.) And our dipstick leak repair
was so far holding up very well. While
it was disappointing to have to skip the planned Bahamas cruising, the
maintenance depot stop at Yacht Tech was satisfying, as was the safe journey
back home.
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| The Repair on the Dipstick Housing Oil Leak Seemed to be Holding Up |
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| Our Complete Return Track -- From Palm Beach to Fort Myers -- as Seen on Google Earth |
