Heading Into Key West from the Marquesas Islands

After leaving the Marquesas Islands, we headed towards Key West. Our sails were in full bloom. It sure was a pretty day to sail. But of course the day didn’t go by without drama. Bryce decided it was time to start the New Little Engine and with in seconds he turned it off. I came back to the cockpit to see what was wrong. The expression on his face was enough for me. I thought not the engine again! Bryce said no there is something wrapped around our prop. Thank goodness he didn’t apply too much throttle; that might have bent things.

Well we had really great winds and with that said, we also had the waves and rollers to match. We needed to anchor so Bryce could unravel the line. So we needed to sail down the 7 mile Northwest channel we know nothing about and back up the channel past Key West to the anchorage. And we needed to do this with the tide; preferably in both directions. We sailed down toward the Atlantic with an outgoing tide and made our turn as the tidal current reversed.

I thank god all the time for our Garmin; she has great maps and tide/current tables on her. We made it into Key West about two hours or so later under sail. After we passed a huge Cruise ship and a lot of boats coming and going we found a place to sail onto the anchor. We practice as often as possible sailing on and off the anchor. In the brisk winds this day, the experience was critical.

Fishing boats were coming into the cannel too. Although it looks like there is all kinds of room the channel is a bit tricky do to the sand bars on each side.

This Island just off Key West is the first land visible in our view as we head into Key West.

Boy these ships are huge. It’s funny they have this are timed right. When one leaves another is soon to arrive. Apparently Key West is a favorite stop.

Bryce handed me the line that was floating off the side of the boat. It was a Polypropylene line that floats on top of the water. I tied it off so Bryce could follow it under. Polypropylene lines are not used on crab pots. Probably fell off a boat somewhere and we caught it while we were sailing. Maybe that is our, “I caught a big one today and it was huge” fishing excursion! LOL

In the top photo you and see the Polypropylene like floating. In the bottom photo you can see the big one we caught! LOL

Okay, after all the commotion was said and done we headed over to the City mooring balls. They told us to just grab a ball then dinghy into the City Marina to pay for it. So we did. It’s funny there are no numbers on the balls to say which one you are on. Just grab one and tie off. We were really disappointed with the unprotected anchorages around Key West. Even the mooring balls were poorly protected.

While we were heading to the mooring field ,we spotted a house way-out in the bay. I wonder if it was blown out there by the hurricane like on the Wizard of Oz.