Hey Guys!
What a trip!! For those who don't want to read the whole thing, we joined
12 other boats for the cruise to Ft. Jefferson, about 70 miles
off shore west of Key West.
It was quite an adventure, really one small mishap after another, but nothing
that lifetime guarantees, insurance and copious amounts of Ibuprofen won't take
care of! It is something that we will always remember doing and we are
already making plans for next years cruise to the Bahamas!
Here's the rest of the story:
Friday, June 18
We each had made arrangements to get off work early
on Friday and having packed up the boat and loaded most of the stuff in the van
all we really had to do was pack and load the two
coolers and we were off. We got a Coleman 5-day extreme cooler at Sam's
Club...we highly recommend it, even with temperatures well into the 90's, we
still had part of the ice block left on day 6 and the stuff was still
cold. We had made arrangements to travel together with some new friends,
Julie & John DeFino from Stroudsburg, PA and we all decided
that instead of going down I-95 on a Friday evening, we would try going down
I-81. It is just a little longer, physically, but we think it is a
quicker trip. J&J got off a little later than they thought and we
actually ended up about an hour ahead of them all the way down to where we
spent the first night in Rock Hill
SC,
just south of Charlotte,
NC.
Got to bed about 1130.
Sat. June 19th
After topping off at the Comfort Inn's continental
breakfast, we and the DeFino's hit the road enroute to another Comfort Inn at Deerfield Beach, Fl...not too far from Palm Beach. It was a pretty
long day, but it was comforting to actually be traveling with J&J. About 45
minutes from the motel, in the dark and in the rain, we ran over a big piece of
truck tire. It came out of the darkness and we never saw it until the last
minute. All three of the right side tires ran over it and we immediately
picked up this weird vibration that we couldn't really identify. Again,
we got into the motel really late...I think it was between 1230 and 0100 after
driving about 14 hrs. We had a small incident and imagined our room being
sprayed with automatic gunfire at the hands of the Jamaican mob, but,
fortunately it ended up being no problem, mon.
Sunday, June 20th
After another tasty Comfort Inn breakfast, John
helped me identify the problem vibration. When we hit the road debris, we
had caused a steel belt or two to separate in the right rear tire, which
resulted in a pretty good sized bulge. Since we were meeting up with two
other new friends who had spent the night in the area on their ways down, we
had an hour or so, but what to do about the tire! A quick trip to the
desk and a couple of phone calls later, I had unhitched the boat and was headed
to a nearby Pep Boys which had just opened to score a new tire! As fate
would have it, they had an exact replacement Goodyear and about 45 minutes
later I was headed back to the motel with a new tire! By the time I got
back, both of our friends had arrived and were ready to go. We hooked the
trailer back up and hit the road...now a caravan of four,
we hit US Rt.1 south into the Keys. We had heard that everything costs
more in Key West
than further up the Keys, so we had decided to stop in Marathon
to do some final provisioning at the local Publix. After dropping Beth
& Cam off at the door, the only place I could find to park the van/trailer
was in this gravel area under some trees. While we were inside, we got
one of those famous Florida
20-minute rain storms. After a quick bite, we hit the road south. A
little further south, we stopped to fill the boat gas tanks. When I
climbed aboard, I was horrified to find that it looked like someone had dumped
a couple of cases of Coke all over the top of the boat...this after I had
washed and polished Tigger Too up for the trip. She looked like some old
garbage scow. I was heartbroken, but the show had to go on, so we filled
up and headed back down the road. The combination of the 45 MPH speed
limit and the traffic makes the journey from Homestead to Key West the longest
119 miles you'll ever do, and we still had to get there, rig and launch the
boats and get over to the anchorage off Wisteria Island before dark...it was
about 4:30... We four made it to the marina where we were to launch (Oceanside
Marina) only to find another couple of boats already there... The deal that out
"Commodore" had worked out was for a donation to the local High
School, we were able to park our vehicles and trailers over in their athletic
stadium and a coach was "fingered" to provide us shuttle service back
to the marina. We had a ton of stuff to transfer to TT and ended up being
one of the last boats launched. In fact we were in such a hurry that I
forgot to install the windex and the VHF antenna on the mast head, an omission
I didn't realize until TT was already in the water. (calamity
#5). Fortunately John had a small suction cup backup antenna that screwed
into the deck fitting that he loaned us and we were back in business! The
MacGregor 26 is a water ballasted boat, which really works well for trailering,
because you don't have to drag the weight of a lead keel down the road.
When the boat gets into the water, you pull a plug and a separate air vent and
the boat fills with 1200 lbs of water. That's what it is designed to
do anyway... we discovered that with all of the extra weight of about 60
gallons of water, 17 gals. of gas, coolers, food, etc,
that the boat was actually sitting about 2-3 inches lower in the water than she
usually does...or was designed to do. Maybe some of you have figured out
where this is going, but, to make a long story short, since she was sitting so
low in the water, the vent for the ballast tank was a few inches lower with
respect to the water, and we ended up taking on an additional 50-60 gallons of
sea water loose in the bilge! DOH! A lot of stuff in storage below ended
up soaked by this extra water. By the time we were ready to leave the
marina, obviously it was well after dark and we had to negotiate this narrow,
winding channel to get out into deep water, south of KW. A group of three
boats had headed out and were having difficulty finding the 30-ft wide
channel (that you didn't want to venture out of because the water depth
came up to a foot or so real close to the channel.) To add to this
circus, there was a big thunderstorm south off of KW and headed our way!
Fortunately for us, I had plotted and loaded the route from the marina to the
anchorage into our new hand-held color chartplotting GPS (Garmin 76C). We
took the lead right out into the middle of the channel with 3 other boats close
behind us...like a mother duck with her chicks. We were doing fine until
we rounded the SW end of KW and almost ran right into a one of the Disney
Cruise ships that was departing KW! We got close enough to hear the music
they were playing! So as not to upset her captain, we did a smart about
face and motored away from her until she was safely past, then we went on our
way to the anchorage where we spent a noisy, bouncy night rafted up with the
DeFinos.
Monday, June 21
We were awakened bright and early by the water taxi
which had come by to take us ashore to KW Bight marina for the "Skippers'
Meeting". Chip Giles, our fearless leader (and high school principal
in real life) did a superb job of setting the trip up and covering all the
bases. He published a 30+ page skipper's packet about a week before we
left and had it all spelled out. The meeting at the marina was just to
get a final head count and go over the weather and a few other details.
Back at the boats the reluctant crews were getting breakfasted and
dressed. Once back to the boats after the meeting, we got under way about
9 AM.
We were taking the southern route out to the Marquesas, so we motored south out
of KW to pick up the "route" west. Of the 13 boats (we started
with 13, one was to withdraw the next morning), we ended up being the second
from the rear of the fleet when we made the turn to the west and set the sails
up for a great beam to close reach sail on about a 90d course due west
headed for the Marquesas Keys about 23 miles away. We had only sailed TT
once in a nearby lake before taking her on the trip and she seemed to sail
pretty well, but it was hard to say because of the small size of the
lake. Boy, out in the ocean, it was "Go Tigger, GO!" Once we had
her sails set, she accelerated and just seemed to pass one boat after another
without even trying. The winds were not that much...maybe 10 kts or less
and we were making about 4.5 - 5 kts. In about an hour or a little more
we had passed the other 11 boats and were out in front of the fleet!!! We
knew where we were going, but we didn't want to get out too far in front of
everybody else , so on two different occasions we
hove-to and waited 5-10 minutes for the lead boats to catch up with us!
It really was pretty funny (and very gratifying) A day or so later, one of the
guys who races his 26S, a sister ship to
TT, asked us what we had done to our boat to make her go so
well! He said that he tried on a number of occasions to stay with us and
just could not. He said that TT is "an exceptionally fast"
26. We learned a lot about sail trim from our friends Bill Jacobson and
Dan Johnson during last year's Good Old Boat race in our Columbia 36, and I'd
like to think that the speed came from the talent of the skipper, but in reality,
I think it has more to do with the quality of TT's newer sails and the
slickness of her bottom! Somewhere during the morning, we had had an
on-going problem with the cables of the depth sounder popping out of
position... in the frustration of fixing them for about the tenth time and the
movement of the boat, one of the pins got bent over when trying to get the plug
back in and when I tried to straighten it back out, it broke off!! So
here we are at the start of a trip in some of the shallowest water we have ever
sailed in and we are without a depth sounder. This is about calamity #10!
We actually ended up following behind some other boat at various points along
the way. With the swing keel all the way up, we only draw about 15
inches, but nobody wants to hit a coral head at speed, so we chose the
discretion route! Anyway, we finally got to the anchorage at the western
side of the Marquesas Keys about 5
PM or so. We actually were in a pretty bad spot
as far as anchoring goes...mostly grass with some patches of sand which we
aimed the anchor for. TT has an 8 lb Danforth anchor which I guess is
fine for around here, but we had a heck of a time getting it to stick anywhere
in the Keys...it usually took about 5-6 tries (we'll have another kind for the
Bahamas trip), plus here we were in about a 2-3 kt current (!!), so the
anchoring was particularly "trying"; so much so, we decided to toss
out the "backup" anchor (larger Danforth) that we had borrowed for
the trip. That would end up being a good move. I slept in the
cockpit again because of the heat and about Midnight
I was awakened by about a 10d drop in Temp and an increase in winds. I
figured what was up and started shutting hatches and securing
things. About the time I finished, here it came! The winds
picked up to 35-40 kts and I realized we were dragging BOTH anchors! I
started up the engine and just kept Tigger in gear at an idle to take some
pressure off the hooks. It had started to rain as well and there were 2-3
ft whitecaps whizzing by us. We were sailing around the anchors some and
occasionally I would have to steer away from our closest neighbor. It was
pretty intense for about half an hour, then it started
to settle down. By the time it was over, 2 of the 13 boats had been blown
up onto the beach! They were to get themselves situated in the
morning.
Tuesday, June 22
We were to be up and out of the anchorage by 0715,
but because of the storm the night before, the time was
slipped about an hour. Our closest neighbor decided that they were going
to withdraw and go home and we very nearly did the same. We had seriously
underestimated the space that all the provisions, etc would take up
below. We had gotten rocked pretty well during the storm and things were
a mess. We made a last-minute decision to go on anyhow and rushed to pull
up both anchors and rejoin the fleet. It was then we discovered that
during the storm and because of the currents, we had actually wrapped both
anchor rodes around the keel, which was in the down position. I broke out
the snorkeling gear and headed down to clear the mess. It took over 30
minutes to get it all untangled (during which time I lost one of my fins and
swallowed at least a gallon of sea water. I had to take the snorkel out
of my mouth in order to talk with Beth and ever time I did so, a wave would hit
me in the face! Beth got on the radio and hollered for some help. I
was getting tired, and the end was not in sight. Another boat came over
to help and the captain went into the water to lend a hand, leaving the admiral
at the helm. This went ok until she crossed too close to our bow and
caught one of our anchor rodes that I had just freed in their prop!
The skipper worked on his prop and I got the idea of trying the boat hook to
push the wrapped rode down the keel instead of trying to dive it down and off
which wasn't working. The boat hook was the answer and about 15 minutes
later we were underway chasing down the fleet from behind again! By the
time we had worked our way about halfway through the other boats, the commodore
made the decision that since the winds had changed, we weren't making
sufficient way to arrive at the Dry Tortugas
in daylight, so the order was given for all to motor. It is about 50
miles from Marquesas Key to Ft. Jefferson, so sailing at
4 kts just wasn't cutting it. The fleet got pretty spread out during the
day. We were in the middle and the leaders were over the horizon ahead
and the trail was over the horizon behind us. We were about half way
there when we had our first dolphin encounter. Beth spotted a
dorsal fin about 75 yds out at 10
o'clock. When I looked, he was just doing one
of those surfacing maneuvers they do and we got a good look at his body.
Then we got up about even with him and he swam with us a couple of feet under
the surface and about 8 ft off the port beam. Then he accelerated and
swooped under the bow and he was gone. It was so cool! That was our
first ever dolphin. About an hour or two later, we came across a big sea
turtle that was swimming on the surface off our stdb side. We cut the
motor and did a slow circle around him as he slid from the surface. That
was pretty cool, too! We had to do a refueling of the 3-gallon gas tank
shortly after that and we continued on to Garden Key where Beth saw a second
dolphin just outside of the channel to get in around and behind the fort. We
got in the harbor and got settled about 5-6
pm. With 12 boats, we sort of took over the
anchorage! After supper Chip and his wife Kelly dinked over to say that
they had made friends with one of the NPS personnel (a sailor himself who was
impressed that we would make such a trip in such small boats!) and he offered
to take us on a "behind the scenes" private tour of the fort in the
morning!
Wednesday, June 23rd
We spent a pretty good night at anchor, much nicer
that the previous night, and fixed some blueberry pancakes for breakfast, then
it was off to take the tour about 9:30.
We were met by Chuck Pratt, the head maintenance
guy on the island for 10 years! He told us some great stories and showed
us through the maintenance/shop/residential areas where "las touristas" are not
allowed. We saw the water collection/storage cisterns, the generators,
the sewage treatment facility, the "fire department" (a trailer with
a 500 gal water tank and a pump that gets towed by one of their electric
vehicles when needed. Chuck said that he's never seen it used), their
"emergency room", day room, complete with satellite TV and pool table
and some other interesting stuff. After the tour, we went back to TT, got
a bite to eat, then went back over to snorkel off the beach where Beth had her
first encounters with a barracuda, then a nurse shark! If you don't have
your own boat, there are only two ways to reach the Dry
Tortugas: by sea plane and by high-speed catamaran
ferries. Every morning the ferries arrive about 10:30 or so and
disgorge a couple of hundred tourists who tour the fort, do some snorkeling,
then get back on the boats about 3 and head back to Key West, from whence they
came. It was nice after they left. We had dinner on board, and then
dinked back over to the island about sunset for a social get-together.
Someone had remembered to invite Chuck and his wife Eloise to the party and it
was great to spend some casual time talking with them. One of the other
cruisers, Wade Clodfelter, had brought his 14-year old daughter, Kayla, and his
7 year old son, Zach, on the trip and Zach and Campbell hit it off famously
with Kayla in a supervisory role. It really worked out great and Wade
gave the boys a flashlight so we could keep track of them after dark. We
kept listening for the tell-tale kersplash which
would report a fall into the moat that surrounds the fort, but all stayed well
and dry. I think it was this night that we realized why we had made the
effort to get there. There was some moon light and soft tropical breezes
playing through the palm trees. It was really magical. On Chuck's
advice, we decided on a group snorkeling trip over to nearby Loggerhead Key in
the morning, so we gathered our things and headed back out to Tigger. About a
third of the way there we were met by another of out group that reported that
another dinghy in our group had capsized in the rough water in the harbor and
the two guys (one of whom in his 20's has an artificial leg) were in the
water! We hurried back to the boat to grab the searchlight. There
was a huge motor yacht in the harbor and he fired up his really powerful
searchlight and we had a tense few minutes until we heard on the radio that
they were ok and back on board their own boat. Just about this time, here
come the Park Rangers out in their Boston Whaler, flashing blue lights lighting
up the night. We got them on the radio to tell them that all was well
and, rightly so, they wanted to check it out for themselves, so they motored
over to the guys boat to have a chat before returning
to their slip for the night. We turned in and slept pretty well. As it
turned out, the guys’ dinghy just started to take on water from the waves and
they were getting concerned that they would not make it all the way back to
their boat…which they did, so it really ended up being a false alarm, but could
have been much, much worse.
Thursday, June 24th
This was the best day of the trip. We left Ft. Jefferson about 9 AM for the hour trip over
to Loggerhead Key. We actually went to the wreck of the
"Windjammer" Avanti first for some
snorkeling. The Avanti was a great, wooden
sailing ship that went down a long time ago in about 15-20 ft of water. Some of
its wooden superstructure is still visible right above the surface. The
wind was blowing 15+ kts and there were 4-5 ft seas. We anchored for
about an hour. We launched the dinghy (which we have christened
"Piglet" because it is red and goes slow) and Beth used it as a
floating base to explore the wreck from. After that, we motored over to
the leeward side of Loggerhead Key where we pulled up the swing keel and
beached Tigger Too along with about 5-6 other boats! That was so
cool! We carried the anchor about 25 ft. up the beach and dug it
in. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling off the back side of the
island. There is the most exquisite assortment of living coral reefs
there. There are maybe 15 -20 different kinds of coral in a group the
size of a king-size bed; all different colors and textures and full of
beautiful, brightly-colored fish. It really felt as if you were swimming
in someone's aquarium... it was really unbelievable. We saw hundreds of
different species of colorful fish. While
swimming along parallel to the shore, I got into this "vein" of these
tiny 1-1 1/2" silvery fish and there must have been ten thousand of
them in about 6 feet of water! It was amazing! Little
fish as far as I could see in any direction. It was here, also,
that Beth & I had a serious encounter with a swimming shark. Beth saw
it out of the corner of her eye and since we were holding hands, she squeezed
and pointed and what turned out to be a 6-7 ft shark that was slowly swimming
in the other direction about 10 feet to our left. I suppose if he had
evil intensions that we would have never seen him coming, but still it was
pretty un-nerving to swim up on one in the wild. Loggerhead is
pretty deserted, so not too many people make it there to snorkel, so we weren't
sure how used to people this guy was. Anyway, we made a smart about face
and swam as non-threateningly as possible away from him!! We
toured some more of the backside of the Key by dinghy, and then
headed back to the boat to relax. The sun is extremely intense down
there, being so much closer to the Equator and shade is your friend!
Loggerhead is an interesting place. They built a lighthouse on it in 1857
that is still in use today. There are a couple of research buildings on
the island as well. The lighthouse used to me manned and therefore
there are a number of outbuildings still standing from then, but like most
others, the light has been automated and is powered off batteries fed by solar
panels. But the lighthouse looks really neat from Ft. Jefferson at night...it
looks very much light the lighthouse graphic that Castlerock
Entertainment uses. Anyway, I guess we headed back over to Garden Key
about 4pm
or so. I made the mistake of walking up the beach to retrieve the
anchor with bare feet and ended up cutting the bottoms of both feet on the
jagged broken coral beach. That would leave me hobbling around for the
next 3-4 days. We spent the evening getting cleaned up (Steve, TT's
previous owner, was farsighted enough to add a hand-held shower in the
cockpit so when you get back on board from swimming in the salt water or if you
just want to take a shower, you can do so and washing your hair and getting
cleaned up after a long day in the hot sun was indescribably nice) and getting
things put away for our early departure in the morning. We had found a
couple of smallish 13 watt solar panels on eBay. They fit perfectly on
the top of the bimini covering the cockpit and must have been working to
recharge the batteries during the day, because we ran both electric fans and
plenty of lights , the radios and the water pump
a lot and never had any problems with the batteries.
Friday,
June 25th
This was the most "eventful" of all our
days... It started ok, then we got out of
bed. We were to be pulling up the anchor at 0700,
so we got up at 0600, since we had done much of the packaging for the
trip the night before. The only thing was to haul the dinghy on to the
bow. We discovered that it would just fit, inflated, on the bow and since
we wanted to leave the forward hatch open during the night, we waited until
this morning to load her up. The first problem happened as I was
transferring the dinghy motor from Piglet to the bracket on Tigger's stern
rail. I just about had it when a rogue wave hit the dink and it and
my legs moved away from the big boat. I had visions of the motor going for a
swim and I did this remarkable Statue of Liberty imitation where I had
bounced off the stern rail, but was able to catch hold of the bottom of a
stanchion with my left hand. I had a death grip on the motor with my right
hand, holding it up so that it would not lose what meager grip it had on it's mount...and I'm calling, loudly, for assistance!
Beth rescued the motor and I sat in the dinghy recovering my composure
(and hoping that no one had seen that maneuver). That was about the time
when I starting feeling great pain in the muscles of my right chest and
shoulder. I thought at the time that I had torn a pec.
muscle, but now a week or so later, I think I just
pulled something. At any rate, we got the dink up and lashed down to the bow,
hauled the anchor, and headed out of the harbor with the rest of the
fleet. We were really not expecting what happened next...as soon as we
got out from behind the protection of the fort and hit the open ocean waters,
we ran into about a 20-30 kt head wind that was pushing up 7-8 foot seas!
What a ride!!! A couple of the guys had problems with either their
anchors or a loop of chain that came loose and were causing damage to the bows
of their boats. (We think it was during this timeframe that we lost the dinghy
motor off the stern rail. We didn't see it happen and we really didn't notice
that it was missing until the following day as we were approaching Key West. There is a
slight chance that it got "pinched" over night at the Marquesas, but
we're thinking it probably got tossed off the rail.) We were told later
by one of the guys who was slightly ahead of us that
from time to time as we crested a wave he was able to see our keel...from the front!!!
It was so rough that we decided to put Cam's
lifejacket on him...then we decided that we should put our on as well.
About 1 1/2 - 2 hours into this adventure, we got hit and turned a bit sideways
by a particularly large wave and in an effort to get us back on track, I pulled
real hard on the tiller...and our rudder snapped off at the base of the
bracket!! Beth got on the radio to report our predicament and it was
decided that since the conditions were much too rough to effect
a repair that we should just continue on to the Marquesas steering the boat by
the little tiny tiller handle on the outboard! So on we went for over 6
more hours with me steering by the motor. About an hour later, we had gained enough ground on the leaders to notice
that something was amiss with our fearless leader's boat. Some piece of
hardware that connects the forestay to the deck had broken and his mast had
fallen backwards over the cockpit. Chip had duck walked up to the bow and
grabbed something, either the forestay or the spinnaker halyard and had
stabilized the mast, but that was about all he could manage by
himself. Shortly, the skippers of two other boats dove into the
rough water and swam over to Chip's boat to help out. While the rest of
us made slow circles around the stricken vessel, it was maybe 10 minutes or so
for the guys to secure the mast. That done, the
assistants were back into the water back to their own boats and we were off
again to the east. It was incredibly difficult to steer
TT with the motor and to top it off I had to use my aching right arm. I
don't think I have ever been so happy to pull into any anchorage! The
conditions gradually got better through the day, so by the time we got back to
the Marquesas, we were motoring through only about 2 ft swells. We got
back to the Marquesas about 3
pm and found much better anchoring about 300-400
yards south of where we weathered the midnight
storm on our way out and we got set and fixed some supper. About 5 pm Chip Hindes off the
26X "Next Boat" called on the radio to inquire about our
rudder. They were our closest neighbors, so Chip snorkeled over for a
look. We decided that there was a chance he could make a repair, so he
took the two pieces back to his boat where he had a cordless drill, and he
drilled some new holes in the large piece of rudder so that it would go back
into the bracket. He swam back with the drilled piece in about an hour
and we bolted it back on and we were back in business! We spent a quiet
night on the hook.
Saturday, June 26th
The next morning we were again hauling the anchor
at 0700 and hoping for favorable winds for a good sail back to Key West, but it
wasn't meant to be... off we went motoring again, but the rudder fix was
working well enough to put the auto pilot on the tiller for most of the 5-6 hrs
back to civilization. We had been forced to motor against the wind for
much of the trip and many (including us) were starting to have concerns about
having enough gas to get back. About an hour out of KW, the winds had
changed just enough for us to be able to roll some, than all
of the jib out. We picked up about a knot of boat speed with the
addition of the sail and zipped back in to KW harbor. We had a heck of a
time getting the anchor to stick in the Anchorage across from Key West Bight
Marina, and we felt that since we had no motor for the dinghy and it was too
far to row, that with all we had to do, it would take a couple of trips there
and back on the water taxi (to the tune of $5/head/one-way trip), so looking at
a $40-$50 water taxi bill, we instead called the KW Bight Marina to inquire
about a slip. Mercifully, they had a couple spaces left and we claimed
one and headed over. That has to be one of the best $60 we ever
spent...it was incredibly hot that day, and we were able to go ashore, have a
nice lunch, take some wonderfully refreshing showers, we could have done some
laundry, but opted for some ice cream instead! We were able to relax a
bit before heading to Turtle Kraals Restaurant for the "official"
Conch Cruiser's Supper. We had decided that we could not afford two more
nights at the marina and opted to pull the boat out on Sunday, 2 days earlier
than planned, so the dinner was the farewell for us and 2-3 other boats that
had decided to head home as well. We had fun at the dinner and headed for
TT about 9:45 pm.
Sunday, June 27th
We got up and found Hurricane Harry's diner for
breakfast a couple of blocks from the marina. We got a good meal and did
a little walking (in my case, hobbling) tour of the waterfront, checked out of
the marina about 10 am and headed back around to Oceanside Marina where we
would pull the boat out. There was a little bit of gas in our 5-gal can,
but not as much as I expected...maybe 3/4 of a gal. and
I poured that in the 3-gal boat tank and off we went...motoring to Oceanside. I pulled up the
GPS route from the week before and we were following it in reverse, somewhat
concerned about the gas situation and wishing that we had grabbed a gallon at
KW Bight because we were motoring right into some pretty good waves. We
passed the time by watching some parasailers who were playing right beside us
and got back to Oceanside
in a little more than an hour. Beth got on the radio to ask the dock
master where he'd like us sounding like she had been sailing her whole life and
we tied up by the seawall in front of the ramp. We called a taxi to take
me back over to the stadium to get the van and trailer. We found it
easily and since it was becoming another really hot day, I was looking forward
to hopping in the van and cranking on the A/C. Well, sort of typical of
how this trip had gone so far, I hopped in the van ok, then that's as far as I
got...the battery was completely, absolutely kaput. With Beth &
Campbell awaiting my return back at the marina, I really wasn't sure what to
do...the battery cables were still onboard the boat, so I got on the cell phone
and called Boat US Trailering Club HQ. After 3-4 phone calls, we
determined that a tow truck was coming from somewhere about an hour away, so I
began to wait. After about 5 minutes, I figured I couldn't wait for an
hour and I wandered over to the elementary school which was hosting a church
service this Sunday morning. I hung around there for a few minutes until
I found a nice guy with a set of jumper cables. Five minutes later, I was
in the A/C on my way to get my family and our boat. Back at the
marina, I backed the trailer down the ramp and ran over to TT and fired
her up. I made the mistake of pulling the swing keel all the way up in
preparation for "beaching" her on the trailer 75 yards away. The
wind was still blowing pretty well and (with the keel up), I got a bit
sideways and had to back up and try again a time or two. On my final
approach to the trailer, the motor sputtered and died (remember the gas
concern?)... After making it all the way to the Dry
Tortugas and back, seven days on the boat, we'd run out of
gas on the way to the trailer! What a hoot! Anyway, we were able to
enlist the aid of a couple of Cruisers who had pulled out before us and pulled
her onto the trailer using the dock lines. It took forever it seemed to
get her washed off and ready for the road. It was unmercifully hot and
there was no shade. We finally hit the road about 3:30 pm headed for our
friends, Doug & Deb Gurin, some 360 miles away, across the Everglades
and up the west coast at Port Charlotte. True
to form, there had been a bad accident on US Rt 1,
the main way back up to the mainland and after sitting in traffic in Key Largo
for about an hour and a half, we (and everyone else) got detoured onto the
little 2-lane road that serves as the alternate way to the Keys. About
another hour and a half later, we finally hit Miami and headed west across
Alligator Alley. We didn't get to our friend's house until 1 in the
morning! We visited with them for a couple of days, then went to see Beth's mom
up in St. Petersburg,
then two days on the road to get home. Then, we've spent the last two
days completely emptying and scrubbing the boat inside and out. It's good
to be back, but we'd really like to still be sailing somewhere!
Epilogue
I must say that there was some apprehension about
taking a boat we had never really sailed before...a
trailerable, water ballasted 26-foot boat at that, on an extensive 150
mile adventure in the open ocean. Let me say how impressed we were with
the MacGregors in general and Tigger Too in particular. Maybe it was a
function of all the extra weight we were carrying, but TT was as solid as a
rock. We spent 4 days of blue water sailing, two of which we really got
hammered by the weather, and we didn't have a single creak, squeak, groan,
mysterious vibration...nothing...the whole time. We would fall off the
top of one of those 8-ft waves and crash into the trough below and back up the
next wave only to do it again, and again, and again...for most of an entire
day....with not one groan of a complaint from her. She'd hit those waves
as solid as a displacement boat would hit them. I was so pleasantly
surprised with her. Except for the demasting (of the oldest boat in
the fleet) and our rudder's breaking (an aftermarket part) we had 13 Mac 26's
out there and back with no incidents. These are tough little boats.
We feel very comfortable with Tigger now and are hoping to join the Conch
Cruisers on the 2005 cruise (probably) to the Bahamas. BTW, the Conch
Cruisers are made up mostly of MacGregors, but the trip is open to the sailing
public. If you are interested, watch the website for info.
Kip & Beth (&
Campbell)
'92 M26S Tigger Too
Gettysburg,
PA