I spent ten days aboard Bill’s Tartan 37 sailboat, bringing the boat from West Palm Beach to Miami and then sailing to some of the Upper Keys of Florida, a cruiser’s paradise with hundreds of tropical islands. We both improved our sailing skills and had some exiting moments going through rainstorms, narrow channels and dealing with very gusty winds.
It was the first time on a monohull for me. In comparison to the catamaran I was used to, a monohull sailboat reacts very differently under sail. Depending on the course towards the wind the whole boat can heel very heavily towards the one or the other side which made me feel a little bit nervous the first time I experienced it. But it didn’t take long for me to get used to the feeling of leaning over and even though it was some excitement every time so far, I wasn’t scared anymore. Very new to me were also the strong currents in the channels, bays and sounds that require a lot of planning for the navigation as well as anchoring. Furthermore we had to cross a lot of bridges. Some of them open every half an hour or on an hourly basis, some open on demand. Another new experience was that we’ve been sailing almost entirely in water depths of not more than 15 foot deep, in comparison to the sailing in the Gulf of California and the Pacific where I sailed in water depths of a few hundred, sometimes thousand foot most of the time. For Bill for example, dealing with tides was a new topic as he had just been sailing in Lake Erie before. I considered the tides that varied only about one to two foot as ridiculously low in comparison to the tides I had experienced elsewhere.
We furthermore made some errors which made us learn to plan better each day. The first day we went out for a quick sailing trip just up and down the coast of West Palm Beach for an hour was a very spontaneous decision. Actually we just wanted to anchor as we had to leave the marina. On the way we changed our mind and went out through the outlet into the Atlantic as the wind seemed to be good for trying out the sails. Unfortunately we didn’t tie up the dinghy on the front deck of the boat and it was bouncing back and forth hanging down from the stern. Additionally we didn’t store away all the things inside which could fall and after heeling over a little more than expected we had a big mess. We even lost control over the boat for a few seconds as we were heeling too much. The reason was that we had too much of sails out and we didn’t expect wind gusts that high. As we were both not experienced enough to instinctively reduce the power in the sails and change the course we were both scared for a few seconds before we got the boat back under control and handled the situation. We had many more moments of experimenting with the sails and learning to use them more effectively as well as safely.
I enjoyed every day on the boat, trying to be in the water as much as possible without getting sunburned. The temperature was almost constant at about 30°C day and night, the water temperature about the same, maybe a few degrees less, making it an absolute paradise to swim even before sunrise and after sunset.
I was doing the cooking and created some meals with fresh ingredients all along our journey. Thereby I tried to do my best using as little energy as possible, heating up varies different kinds of vegetables, quinoa, pasta and sauces in the same pan, adding one ingredient after the other so that nothing ended up neither over nor under cooked. Whilst we were under way, snacks like fruits, carrots with hummus or peanut butter, my absolute American favourite ingredient, served as reliable sources of energy.
What are “The Keys”? The Florida Keys are a string of tropical islands stretching off Miami south-eastwards for approximately 120 miles into the ocean. They separate the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. All these islands are connected by the US1 highway making it possible to drive down all the way to Key West, the southernmost city of the Keys. On a boat you can either go along the coast on “the outside”, in the open Atlantic or, if the draft of your boat allows it, go inside the bays and channels off the coast of Florida. This area is especially known as a cruiser’s paradise for activities like fishing and snorkeling.
The season here in South Florida and especially the Keys begins officially on the first of November. That’s why we didn’t have any problems finding free anchorage spots. Many cruisers start making their way down the east coast in November as October is still considered part of the hurricane season. During the winter months it also cools down to more comfortable temperatures which attracts many U.S. citizens who have a second home here to come down to enjoy half a year in a moderate warm climate at the sea, these people are called “Snowbirds”. I met one of these snowbirds who came down already in October and he was complaining a lot about the hot temperatures and the failure he made coming down that early this year. First world problems.
You can find out more about our whole journey by watching the video I created about the whole journey.
Oh, and yeah, by the way: We were not only busy with sailing, anchoring and snorkeling, but also had some shore excursions. One thing we did was visiting an art gallery opening in West Palm Beach or going to the movies.
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