Ready for the Big Time

02/21/2021

Yesterday was gray, choppy and beautiful. It took us awhile to reset our navigation system—couldn’t figure out how to move it back from nighttime lighting to daytime mode. Factory defaults are always nice. We took up anchor and circled about the Biscayne Flats, at one point trimming a sandbar and sending a plume of white sand across the bay. Gulp.

Again, we figured it out. Parts of the Bay are 1 foot deep. Sybaris has a 4’2” draw. We threaded an 8-foot channel to escape the flats, raised the sails and spent the day whipping across the water at 8-10 knots. We sped past the forest of Elliot Key, stopping at one point for some mangrove tourism. We struggled to set anchor in a grassy bottom, and collected as a group to take stock.

Waves were high enough that a dinghy trip to shore would ensure we all got soaked. As it was we are wearing flannel shirts and jackets. I’m entering my second day in my Hempsmith lounge pants—which are heavy, and warm. (That’s “product placement”—not a paid endorsement). There has been talk of photo-shopping Julie’s Patagonia ski jacket out of all regulation photographs from the trip.

We decided to scrap mangrove scoping, pulled up anchor and headed to Pumpkin Key. Sarah had both sails wide open, and started showing off—threading narrow channels between markers at high speed under sail. She and Tyler are the sailing nerds on this boat, and they have figured out how to make it spin like a top.

Julie had a taste of the helm under sail, and has clearly been bit by the sailing bug. She’s gone from our Chief Flemishing Officer to relentless questions about co-ordinates and reaches and winds.

The crew no longer requires my services as Captain, so I have taken over the role of Scribe. We are low on water, out of citrus, ice and beer, which leads to occasional mutinous grumblings in some quarters. I worry that the absence of fruity rum drinks on today’s sail will not be in my favor. Yesterday’s cocktail, the Catamaran Twist, used frozen fruit in lieu of ice.

Last night we drifted at our anchorage. Sarah picked up our movement on her Anchor Lite app., which set off an alarm when we were playing cards. We pulled up anchor, found a new spot, and anchored (again) in the dark in waters that were new to us. That’s a badge we clearly wanted to collect.

Today we will traverse Angelfish Creek, taking us out of Biscayne Bay into the channel of the Straits of Florida, where “the real sailing is done.” Our destination is Christ of the Abyss, a submerged bronze statue on a reef on the ocean side of the channel. There we will collect our first “mooring ball” badge. Everyone is labile when it comes to our plans—one of the helpful aspects of this group.

We do have a fixed challenge, however, which my nephew David issued, and which we accomplished yesterday: a 24-hour period with no interaction with law enforcement.

This will be a big day. Out to snorkel, back to land to re-provision. Key Largo will never be the same.