Goodbye, Harvey! Welcome, Eva Belle!

Hi, folks!  I just got back from a week in Florida, working on my new (to me) Morgan Out Island 33.  I cleaned about a hundred pounds of stuff out of her, installed a new AM/FM CD player, and took care of some other odds and ends. 

A surprising benefit to this trip was the enjoyment of the cruiser community in the boatyard where Eva Belle is on the hard.  There were a lot of people there doing just what I was--getting their boats ready for the winter cruising season.  It was fun to sit around the clubhouse late afternoons, listening to stories and getting local knowledge from the cruisers who were familiar with the area.

Anyway, this is going to be the last post of Harvey and Elwood's adventures!  I'm attaching a photo of Harvey, leaving Key Largo with his new owner (he'll be a full-time liveaboard in Islamorada) and a photo of Eva Belle's transom and Glen--the sign guy who was doing the work.  I hope to start a new Blog soon--I'll keep you posted.

March

I just returned from another delightful trip to the Keys, where Harvey is in residence in the back yard canal of our friends, Lou & Chase. I spent 6 consecutive days on the water, all day, every day!

My son, Patrick, picked me up at the Miami airport and drove us down to Key Largo with a stop at Alabama Jacks--the ultimate Keys dive bar and grill. The next day we took Harvey out for a daysail with 8 (count em, 8!) persons on board--me, Pat, Lou, Chase, and 4 of their friends. It was a great time, blowing 20+ knots but Harvey handled it well with a reefed main and headsail. We stayed out 2 hours and came back in when one of our passengers started to get sick. The next day was even windier, but Lou was nice enough to take Pat and me out for a snorkeling expedition to Grecian Rocks Reef. It was pretty well protected, but the turbulence reduced the visibility somewhat--still nice, though, and I'm glad we were able to go as Pat had to leave that night.

The next 2 days I sailed down the Keys solo, enjoying the perfect weather and had favorable winds to get me down to Indian Key and then back the next day (that's a first!). My return coincided with my hosts, so the 3 of us went out the next day on Harvey and had the most perfect day imaginable. About 10 knots of breeze, very calm seas, and perfect visibility in the water--you could see forever! We snorkeled off of Pickles Reef, looking at the old wreck there with huge forests of purple fan coral, teeming with brilliantly colored fish. My favorite is one that you often see--a Damselfish--dark electric blue with light electric blue spots.

The following day we took Lou's powerboat, Jubilee, out again to look for lobster. The plan was for Lou & Chase to put on tanks and chase the critters, but I would go over the side first with my snorkel gear to see if there were any there. We went to these giant coral heads that were teeming with fish--I caught myself forgetting my mission, gaping at fish, then saying, "Oh, Yeah--I'm supposed to be looking for lobsters". Actually, I never saw one, but they went in the water anyway at a large, deeper reef and caught only 2. It was the last week of the season and the supply was pretty depleted.

I have 5 photos to post here, if I can. The first is a file photo of the Damselfish, the next is what I'm guessing may be a remora that hung out underneath Harvey all day, then a shot of the Fan Forest at Pickles Reef, a shot of Lou hard at work, and last one of Patrick and myself.

Indian Key

I just got back from another Keys trip, this time I was able to sail down Hawk Channel to Indian Key. This is a very small key that was home to a "wrecker", that is, a person who preyed upon ships that had run aground on Alligator Reef. He wound up building a small town on the Key which thrived until virtually all its inhabitants were killed by an Indian raid in 1840.

The trip down was uneventful--a nice 5 hour sail in warm weather. However, when I got up the next morning a viscous cold front had moved through, bringing with it high Northeast winds and cold temperatures. It blew like crazy for 3 days, leaving me on the hook, tucked in behind the Key while waiting it out. this gave me PLENTY of time to explore the key, and to visit with folks who had come over on an excursion Catamaran from Lower Matacumbe Key. Also, I got to see a Tiger Shark, which surfaced just about 30 feet from Harvey--I at first thought "Hmmm--never saw a striped Dolphin". A pretty animal, certainly.

Also, while I had all this time to think, I came up with another plan on how to proceed with my sailing career. I plan to sell Harvey (Sob!) and buy a larger, more comfortable, and more powerful boat. Stay tuned.

Back in the Keys!

I've been in Key Largo for a week! I had come down with Frank & Krista Pate, with the intention of heading for the boatyard at Lantana on Saturday. However, the steady march of Tropical Storms/Hurricanes, etc. across the Atlantic, plus the advice of the locals make this seem like a bad idea, so I'm going to postpone my boatwork until late October, if not later.

That being said, this has been a delightful trip. We spent 4 days on the water, alternating between taking Lou's powerboat "Jubilee" and my sailboat, "Harvey" on snorkeling excursions. The first day we took the Harvey towards White Bank and places thereabouts. We had to be careful every day about where we went snorkeling, as the Keys are in the worst Jellyfish bloom in anyone's memory. At some places we'd send one brave soul overboard to observe the condition of the water, and they (well, OK, I) would come right back up in a panic as Jellyfish were just everywhere. I got stung twice--not terribly bad, but certainly something you want to avoid.

The most spectacular place we saw was a reef with a wreck on it called "Uncle Tom's Wreck". This is a small reef, with the remains of a good-sized wooden boat covering a good portion of its 150+ foot length. It was absolutely covered with living, brilliantly colored coral, and thousands of fish, with a large portion of them juveniles. We saw huge schools of baby Sergent Majors and all sorts of Angelfish--Grey, Queen, and French. Also Trumpetfish, Puffers, Porkfish, Parrotfish, Barracudas--you name it. Another remarkable thing was that Lou, with his 20 years of living in the keys, had never been there, so it was new for everyone.

Lou and Chase were delightful hosts and showed us all a great time. I'm looking forward to coming back in October with Tracy for an Intro to Scuba course, and to get Harvey in shape for our Bahamas trip.

another try for trumpet and file fish photos

Attempt to post pics.

Key largo and homeward

I got back to Key Largo Monday after an uneventful sail up the North side of the Keys. I thought I was going to have a restful couple of days to put Harvey to bed, etc, but things didn't turn out that way. First, Chase and I took Harvey out Tuesday (Lou was working) and had a delightful sail and a GREAT snorkel at Molasses Reef. I saw two remarkable fish--a Filefish which was just breathtakingly beautiful, and a Trumpetfish, which can change color to blend in with its surroundings. This one had made itself the same yellow as a stand of coral it was in, standing up vertically so as to look just like a stalk of the coral it was hiding in.

Later we heard that the Marine Mammal Conservancy was calling for volunteers to help with 5 pilot whales who had been beached on another Key and moved to Largo for treatment and rehabilitation. The animals were too stressed/injured/sick to take care of themselves, so they had 2 persons holding up each whale, keeping its blowhole above water and keeping them wet in 4 hour shifts. Chase and I took a 4 to 8 AM (yes, AM!) shift and it was really rewarding. Our whale kept squirming, and they were talking to one another with the high pitched whale squeals that you've heard recordings of. The MMC people travel all over for situations like this, and a crew of marine veterinarians from Sea World Orlando were there also. Photos attached, hopefully. Back to Nashville tomorrow.