Goodbye to the Keys

The time has come for us to leave the Keys. We need to go to Miami to prepare for our next adventure. It takes us two days to make the journey, one day from Marathon Key to Key Largo, the next day from Key Largo to Miami. The boat in general goes about 5 knots, which is about 6 mph—a slow jog for those athletically inclined.

The first day there was no wind at all so we had to motor. We put out two trolling lines and within the first hour we had caught our dinner for the night– a nice Spanish Mackerel.

We still have a lot to learn about fishing. Kim expected me to reach inside that mouth with all those teeth and get the hook out. However even with gloves on I was hesitant. So I carefully used the pliers and just as I grabbed the hook the fish shook its head back and forth. The hook tore an area in the floor of its mouth, and as it shook its head it splattered blood everywhere! We quickly put it in a bucket, dumped some alcohol on its gills and it died. Then spent the next 30 minutes cleaning the blood off the boat, little specks of blood all over me, all over Kim, all over the back of the boat.

We had some extra time in the afternoon so we stopped for lunch and a quick snorkel break.

We finished the day with some fresh fish on the grill, and anchored at Rodriguez Key right off Key Largo.

The next day was a beautiful sailing day, a beam reach (meaning the wind was coming over the side of the boat) for most of the day. We hung out, streamed some church, had a beautiful sail. I love travelling for free.

We had one incident as we were sailing. We needed to jibe and I was working the traveller, holding those lines. The traveller changes the direction of the boom, which swings from one side to the other and turns the boat. I all of a sudden blanked and couldn’t remember which line I needed to tighten and which line I needed to release (don’t tell Capt Jen). I’m standing there thinking “ok so the green line controls the starboard and the red line controls the port and the wind is coming to starboard to port and we want it to go from port to starboard then we want to loosen the red one, no wait the green one, no maybe the red one”. In the meantime we are barreling towards the shallows. I asked Kim, “Which one do I release?”. She hopped down from the helm and quickly opened correct line lock to release the traveller. Unfortunately I was still holding onto the line, without gloves. The line jerked through my hand, causing a pretty nasty rope burn. I yelled, Kim felt terrible even though it wasn’t her fault, kids came running. We put ice on my hand, I got a decent blister. I should have been wearing gloves, or not holding onto the line, I know better. Fortunately it was a minor injury, and a good opportunity for us to work on our communication, a time of tears and forgiveness, and a reminder that I need more practice jibing so it becomes second nature.

This is sailing, this is boat life. Highest of highs, lowest of lows—my opinion a lot more highs than lows. It was good to have two days of reinforcing our favorite parts of being on the boat: beautiful water, nice breeze, sailing, snorkeling, and fishing— with a little fish blood and rope burns mixed in just to keep it real.