Everglades Challenge 2014: Day 6

Day 6: Flamingo to Key Largo, 35 miles

I was roused before dawn by AlexO packing up his gear. I brought up the marine forecast for Florida Bay on the iphone. Southwest wind 15-20 knots, showers and thunderstorms likely in the afternoon, wind increasing with a smallcraft advisory beginning in the evening. 

I showed the forecast to Alex, both to warn him and to gage his response in order to inform my own decision. He replied (again, imagine the stoic Romanian accent), "I have seen this before. The only thing that concerns me is the lightning". I rationalized that we could take shelter by a mangrove island if necessary, and went with the momentum of the moment. 

We began frantically packing. I took the time to boil one pot of water to fill the coffee mocha thermos, but the thermos meal before Whitewater Bay would be our last hot meal. I recalled the story of the Red Scamp that had been stranded on a mud flat in Florida Bay for four days in the 2011 EC, and filled all our water containers including my belly. If we decided to take shelter by a mangrove island, we might be there for a while. Floriday Bay is extremely shallow. It's necessary to follow channels gouged our by motor boat traffic to avoid being stranded on a mud flat.

We portaged the boat to the saltwater side. AlexO was ready before us. He wished us luck, and said that we would likely pass him on the way with our bigger sail. Deke was ready to go at the same time, and we wished him luck. 

We left the dock at 7:30 AM, just behind two catamarans. The wind was from the south at 10-15 knots. We paddled into the headwind until we could make the turn into Tin Can channel, with two Hobie cats and an Adventure Island tacking up the channel ahead of us. 

Once we turned east, we sailed fast on a beam reach. We enjoyed some breakfast and mocha from the thermos, knowing we would need the strength and sustenance later. Somehow, I managed to knock the left lens out of my sunglasses. I saw it floating away, but by the time I stopped the boat, it was gone. Fortunately, the wind was coming from the right side.

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We sped over the turtle grass at 4-5 mph. The water was strangely glassy in spite of the wind. We could see horseshoe crabs and starfish passing by below. The depth was only about 12 inches, in the channel.

Sharknado was just ahead as we passed Buoy Key.

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We paddled hard and got to Dump Keys just ahead of Sharknado. We explained that we were racing the storm, not him. He asked when the storm was coming. I did not know, some time in the afternoon. We later learned that Sharknado's son worked in Plant Pathology at Ohio State and knew my Dad.

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The wind was gradually increasing. As we rounded End Key, we had to work our way upwind to the entrance of Twisty Mile Channel. 

We trimmed the sail in tight and paddled hard.

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AlexO and Sharknado were downwind of us. We were not sure if they could work their way upwind to make the entrance to twisty mile, lacking leeboards. Once we were in twisty mile, we were able to head off and sail through.

We did not know it, but MicroTom and WaterLilly were about 8 miles ahead of us, just past Manatee Key.

    Posted by Ben Algera on Facebook

The wind continued to build, and by the time we reached the end of Twisty Mile, we had way too much sail up. We paddled out into the deeper water, deployed the sea anchor, and put both reefs in the sail. The wind was now about 20 kt with gusts to 25 or so. 

Here, I was feeling a little anxious. We needed to work our way upwind about 3.5 miles to Jimmy Channel. We did not know how much more the wind would build or whether a storm was coming. It was still about 20 miles to Key Largo. We retrieved the sea anchor and trimmed the double-reefed sail. At first we were being tossed about by the breaking chop, and did not appear to be getting anywhere. 

These were the "Gray Elephants" that Toby had warned us of. The shallow water over turtle grass gave way to deeper water over white sand. The bigger waves in the deeper water were colored milky gray by the white sand suspended in the turbulent water. 

Finally, the sail started working. We were paddling and sailing close-hauled on a line to Jimmy Channel. Sometimes, in the chaos of wind and waves it seemed like we were not moving at all, but the GPS said we were making a little over 3 mph. I reassured Lauren by reporting this progress, and that we would be at Jimmy Channel in 40 minutes or so. After that, we would head off and have better sailing. Things were starting to look more optimistic.

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We paddled hard to make Jimmy Channel, then headed off on a better sailing angle. We dropped the sail and ran through Manatee Pass under bare poles. It was a pretty place with little mangrove seedlings sprouting out of white sand. It looked like a nice place for a swim on a calmer day.

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We took a short break on the sea anchor in the lee of Manatee Key. Ahead would be two wet and wild beam reaches of about four miles each, broken up by Bottle Key, then we would be in the lee of Key Largo!

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The double-reefed sail provided plenty of power on a beam reach. I had to stay alert to keep the boat speed under six mph. The leeward ama periodically took a dive, and I did not want to rip it off by going too fast.

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I was getting drowsy, but I had to stay alert to avoid ripping off an ama. In the lee of Bottle Key, Lauren steered while I chugged the rest of the coffee mocha in the thermos and chewed up a Bonine tablet.

It was about 1:30 PM. If we had looked at the weather radar, it would have looked something like this:

Posted on Facebook by Rod Hodinott

The sky was darkening in the north, but otherwise it looked like a beautiful day, if a bit windy. The coffee kicked in, and I felt much more alert on the second four miles of the beam reach. Lauren felt like an extra in a swashbucking film with buckets of water being thrown at her.

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Finally, our fetch decreased as our path converged on Key Largo. The seas flattened as we came into the channel.

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As we entered the channel, we headed off on a dead run. With the wind behind us, we were surfing down waves at 7-9 mph. I eased the sheet to spill wind out of the double-reefed sail until it was twisted off and hitting Lauren in the side, but we were still going very fast.  Again, not wanting to rip off an ama,  I dropped the sail and we paddled, still going fast with the wind behind us. 

The sky was gradually darkening in the north, but did not seem immediately threatening. Lauren said that we should raise the sail again when we got close to the finish to make our arrival more dramatic. Little did we know that our finish would be plenty dramatic without any further enhancement required.

At Baker Cut, the final turn to the finish, four jet skis came speeding toward us. They split just ahead of us and two zoomed right across our bow. One of them yelled, "Ha Ha, you'd better hurry!", sounding exactly like Nelson Muntz, the bully from the Simpsons.  I looked behind us, and it appeared that Nelson was right. I could see the wavy bottom of the black cloud as it spread out into the stratosphere above us.  

We turned the corner and raised the sail again, recognizing the need to hurry. With the sail pulling mightily and paddling at sprint speed, we were going fast, but the GPS still indicated it would take us 16 minutes to finish. Not fast enough. 

I kept turning back looking for an approaching squall line. After a few minutes, I saw the whitewater behind us. We quickly headed up, dropped the sail, and continued our paddling sprint. Now we headed straight for the nearest land as the cold blast of wind hit us.

Surprisingly, I took a few pictures and a video after securing the sail. I guess I figured we were not going to die because there was no thunder and lightning.

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We still had not visually identified the finish, but were steering for a GPS waypoint. Now, Lauren pointed out a bunch of people cheering from a dock, and some with bright green shirts were especially visible. Since it appeared that we would not die immediately, I steered away from the nearest land and back toward the finish. The canoe actually handled quite well in the cross-wind and waves with the rudder and leeboard.

Photo credit: Bob Hillestad

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Video taken by Sharknado's son

We came around the dock and spotted the landing beach between rocky sea walls. I put on the brakes to avoid crashing into the rocky beach. We jumped out as six Watertribers and Dad Fry gathered around in the pouring rain, and picked up our 300+ lb loaded boat and deposited it on dry land.

Photo credit: Bob Hillestad

It was all over! Since Dad Fry was already wet, I convinced him to take this picture.

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The rain felt so good, washing 300 miles of salt out of our clothes.

Link to Epilogue

http://lmsmallcraft.blogspot.com/2014/03/everglades-challenge-2014-epilogue.html