With The Grace of the Sea

The long way to Key West - dan

To say that we took the road less traveled to Key West is an understatement. We haven’t met anyone who has returned to the states the way we did. That’s nothing new for us. We were the only ones we know who traveled to the Bahamas via Bermuda and the Dominican Republic. Most people heading for the Bahamas from New England, do so by coastal hopping or taking the intercostal waterway, all the way to Florida and then making the 60-mile hop to the Bahamas. That route usually involves a lot of motoring and being sailors, who love to sail, motoring is something we like to avoid. The method to our madness is trade wind sailing; taking advantage of prevailing winds rather than straight-line travel to reach one’s destination.

Our route to Key West took us north from Warderick Wells, skimming the southwest coast of New Providence, then just south of the Berry Islands, over the top of Andros Island then south (staying just below the Gulf Steam) to a position southwest of Water Cay, just off the coast of Cuba where we encountered a Coast Guard Cutter, then we turned north, headed for Key West and crossed the Gulf Stream. It took us four days to travel 380 miles. One good day of sailing, two hard days and one of the most amazing and enchanting days I’ve ever spent on the water. But I’m ahead of my tale, let me back up and give a more thorough account of our trip.

At Warderick Wells we said our good-byes to Darcie the wonderful fulltime volunteer that serves as mission-control for the park and to Andrew the head warden. Darcie joked that they were about to put our boat name on our mooring ball, we’d been there so long. And Andrew, the spinner of tails and doer of things told one last story before we left. Andrew is an amazing guy who somehow manages to make sure that everything that needs to get done is done and he does it all humbly, with a beautiful smile on his face. Park patrols are made, power is generated, fresh water produced, trails cleared, poachers caught, supplies ordered, scientists accommodated and VIPs catered to, all in a days work. One day we watched as he dawned scuba gear and inspected all of the moorings in our harbor. Another day he led us in repairing the parks rain catchment system. And always with an interesting story or antidote. He told us tales of drug busts in the park, Haitian refugees washed ashore, poachers and rich island owners (some of the islands in the park are privately owned).

The last story Andrew told us was how the park happened to get the only toothless Sperm Whale display in existence. It was an antidote explaining how things got done in the Bahamas. It seems that the unfortunate whale in question washed up in the park and started to rot. One of the wardens came upon a boater with a chain saw who was in the process of removing the jaws from the rest of the mess when he was interrupted. The warden told the boater that he couldn’t take the jaws containing the coveted teeth as everything in the park was protected. The boater complained that the whale was already dead so what did it matter? The warden explained that everything in the park was protected, living and dead. The only problem was the warden didn’t have his own chain saw so he made the boater a deal; you can keep half the teeth if you’ll cut them all out and give me the rest.

The next day we left that enchanted park. Usually we leave port at first light but we waited a bit to leave Warderick Wells in order to have a high tide and enough light to see our way past the shallows. You see, Warderick Wells is what is quaintly referred to as a “sung harbor”. The reality is that one would do well to grease your hull before entering, as it’s a tight-arce place with zero room for piloting error. It has a very high “pucker factor” for the helmsman. We watched two boats run aground while we were there and heard gripping radio traffic as other boaters rallied to heave another unfortunate boat off a nearby reef.

The weather forecast wasn’t the best we could have wished for but it was doable and since we had well overstayed our planned visit we were ready to move on. Our first day was comprised of beautiful light air sailing in 6-10 nmp of wind. Conditions that Gypsy does well in. The wind was out of the north but backed around throughout the day to allow us to make our course without tacking. Sweet! Later that day we were joined by two dolphins who brought us joy by riding our bow wave. They were the first dolphins we had seen since George Town. The skies also continued to provide us with hours of entertainment as they spread their cloud poetry across the heavens.

At dusk we discovered that our masthead tricolor light was out so we then tried our deck level navigation lights, no go either. Bummer, double bummer as we were headed for the busy shipping lanes into and out of Nassau harbor without any navigation lights. We turned on our anchor light and I began trouble shooting the system. Turned out that the breaker for the masthead light had gone bad so I just switched it with the anchor light breaker and we were back in business.

It was the first night of our passage and neither Susan nor I felt like sleeping so we stayed up keeping each other company through most of the evening. As we passed the coast of New Providence we could see a huge fire shining through the darkness. Later we were treated with a terrific fireworks display. Lots of shipping traffic passed close-by. Finally, well past midnight, we settled into our normal watch-keeping schedule.

The next dawn found us gliding northwards in light winds. We had just passed Chub Cay and had started our transit of the Great Bahama Bank when we saw a familiar looking catamaran. A hail on the VHF radio confirmed it was Amazing Grace, a dock mate of ours from Mystic. She’s a charter boat and we hadn’t seen her or her captain Craig since Bermuda. In the meantime they had traveled to the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Florida. On the way he had damaged and replaced his rudders, got engaged and almost bought a house in Rhode Island. Busy guy and talk about a small world.

We sailed onward in 4-5 nmp of wind until we lost even that. Once the wind dropped below 2 nmp we started the motor and began one of the most ethereally beautiful days I’ve ever enjoyed on the water. We were crossing 60 nm of the Great Bahama Bank. Gliding along in crystal clear, dead-calm water that was only 10’ to 15’ deep. From Gypsy’s deck we could clearly see starfish and even sand dollars on the bottom. It was amazing.

We were also mesmerized as the turquoise ocean glassed over and melded with the light blue of the sky. We know the ocean to so be full of energy and usually in what seems like a state of perpetual motion. So seeing it dead calm for miles around was astonishing to behold. All this tranquility was apparently too much for our autopilot who after thousand of miles and several strong storms decided to pack it in. Susan took the helm and I started to trouble shoot the system but was unable to determine the problem. So began our long arduous task of hand steering, 24-7, for the remainder of the trip. Things were starting to feel a little glum aboard Gypsy then the dolphins arrived and raised our spirits back up to the heavens.

First one zipped by and took up station on our bow. Soon he was joined by a second, a third, a fourth and finally we had five dolphins playing on our bow wave. What Joy! Dolphins are like those charismatic people whose presence liven up even the dullest day.

By the end of the day we were headed into the sunset when the wind started to gradually pickup. We passed a lot of helium balloons floating in the water. Perhaps it was because of the calm conditions that we noticed so many. We saw one that was probably a birthday balloon; it was all black and had a large number 21 on it. Is 21 the new 40 of grim birthdays?

We saw a total of seven balloons floating in the water that day. After seeing the skeleton of the poor whale who ingested too much plastic I’d be happy if they banned all such things, as they are almost guaranteed to become airborne litter that can be so lethal to marine wildlife.

By dusk we were cracking along with a reefed main in 20 nmh of wind. Conditions started to get rough and we had a long night of hand steering. Around midnight we left the Bank just south of Riding Rocks. It was a relief to be past the rocks, reefs and shoals into deeper water. We were intentionally running south of the Gulf Stream to a point just north of Cuba where the Stream was forecast to be at its weakest. Strong wind against the Gulf Stream is a proven recipe for trouble so our plan was to continue to travel west until the wind either died down or came from a favorable direction. The wind and waves continued to build thoughout the night until it was blowing in the low thirties.

The wind was still strong the next morning when a Coast Guard Cutter paid us a visit. We were about thirty miles north of Cuba when our AIS reported that the 150’ long Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant was 14 miles away, headed directly towards us at a speed of 14 nmh. An hour later they were a couple hundred yards away when we were hailed on the radio and told to go to Ch 12. I expected us to be boarded but also knew that would be a tricky thing to do in these conditions. The cutter asked us the usual questions; What country were we from? (I guess they couldn’t make out the large US flag on our stern or read their own AIS data about us.) Who was the greatest batter of all time? What is the capital of Nebraska? Who was the 23 president? And then they asked us what I was sure was a trick question, the answer of which would determine whether we were going to be boarded, or not; Why were we stopping at Key West? My mind raced. Should I be honest and tell them we were just looking for a good time? No, no that answer was sure to guarantee a boarding and a thorough search. What to say, what to say? How does one explain why you’d want to visit Key West to the government? My mind cleared and one word popped into my head that might just work: provisions. So I told them we were stopping to re-provision at Key West. They told me to stand by and they would get back to us. I figured that they were doing some kind of background check; boat records, criminal background check and such. After a half-hour of standing by I figured they must be checking our college transcripts. After another half-hour I figured they much be into our grammar school and possibly kindergarten records when I got a call releasing us from suspension. We were free to go but not completely. They would call us on Ch 16 if they wanted to contact us again.

While we were waiting for the Coast Guard to release us an F22 Raptor fighter jet screamed by. Just past us it climbed straight up, executing an unbelievably tight turn and wiggled it wings (probably at the cutter). It was a thrilling and awesome sight to see. Although I had worked on the development of those engines, I’d never seen the plane fly. It made me proud and also reminded me of all my friends back at Pratt & Whitney who are working on the engines for the next fighter, the JSF F35 Lightning II.

As the day wore on the wind lightened and backed to the east. When it came down to the 12-14 nmh range we figured conditions were good enough to start our transit of the Gulf Stream so we changed course and headed NW to Key West. Seven miles out I contacted Key West municipal marina to arrange for a mooring. John the harbormaster was friendly and accommodating but we had one last obstacle to overcome before our passage was through. Five miles from Key West we came across a Navy research vessel that was circling ahead of us. As we got close the ship started to turn to starboard so we turned to port intending to pass them with good margin. They soon cut back to port so we turned hard to starboard. Next the bridge officer radioed us and advised that he had a “vehicle” in the water and that we could pass him on either side but to keep an eye out for their “vehicle”? That sounded odd but I thanked him and started our pass. As soon as we passed the ship we could see what appeared to be an unmanned, submersed vessel. There wasn’t much but a small stack and some short bulbous things sticking out of the water. It appeared to be just floating there but as soon we passed it started to pick up speed and headed directly at us. Strange. Fortunately that game didn’t last long and we quickly made our way through the reef and into the channel to Key West, our mooring, our new short-term home, the end of our passage, the beginning of our first long hot shower in months and rendezvous with my older brother and his family.