Well Sonja and I made it to Marathon the 19th after departing Panama City December 16th. It was a hard sail for the first 24 hours across the "Middle Ground" but at least we did not have to play tag with the fishing fleet at the Appalachia sea buoy like we have in the past.
Lucky for me I have a first mate that can cook at sea and we enjoyed our regular hot meals, snacks and hot coffee through the entire trip. What could be better than hot meals at sea. The next 24 hours found us hard on the wind enroute to Venice where we planned our first stop. Venice is a delightful stop with a first class Marina just passed the inlet entrance. I timed our arrival so we would be the first boat on the fuel dock when it opened at 08:00. The friendly service at Crow's Nest Marina always makes for a welcomed stop and their long lay-a-long dock makes for easy overnight dockage for an exhausted crew.
A quick three hour for the Captain and off to the Crow's Nest Marina restaurant for a great seafood lunch. The Marina offers free bicycles for hearty souls to cruise the main streets of Venice, but the crew decided they wanted to walk and stretch their leg muscles after sitting for two days straight. From the Marina it's a short walk to the Inlet Park where their is a jetty extending out into the Gulf about 150 yards. The top of the jetty is paved so people can walk the entire length and fish from either side. When we were there the bait fish were coming in on an in-coming tide and the Mango Snapper and Lady fish were being caught left and right.
The next morning the crew was up early preparing breakfast and tiding up the ship for another 24 hours at sea enroute to Marathon, Florida. I wanted to arrive in the Florida Bay at dawn in order to navigate around all the crab traps. The wind was light out of the east and we brought out the jenny knowing full well the wind will fade the further out to sea we went. After a couple of hours under the motor and jenny as predicted the wind fell to 5 kts. The day was beautiful with a rosy red sky for a sunset and it looked like we were right on schedule. Latter that evening the wind piped up to 10 kts and again the jenny went out until around 4:00 AM when I saw that we were going to be too early in the Florida Bay so back came the jenny and we slowed to 6 kts.
Day break found us right on the edge of the shallow water (10 ') and the beginning of the constant lookout for crab and lobster traps. All went well for the first two hours then all of a sudden I felt a thud and my speed through the water starting decreasing. I knew instantly we had snagged a crab trap. I cut the throttle and we slow to a stop and dropped the anchor. The crew fished the remnants of a line floating to lee and gave it a yank. Nothing, so I slowly put it in gear to see if we ad the line wrapped around the shaft and sure enough the line lurked out of the crew's hands, so I took it out of gear and shut down the engine.
The first mate was the first to volunteer to dive down and cut the line. What a girl, she cooks, she dives, she catches fish for dinner, what more could I ever ask for in a first mate. I help Sonja get her diving gear on and outfit her with a sharp knife. Over the side she goes and makes a valiant attempt to cut us free. Unfortunately she is not able to hold her breather long enough to cut the line wrap. i summoned her back into the boat and called Tow Boat US. Two hours latter the diver on Boat US had us free of the tangle and we were on our way to complete the final 8 miles to our destination, Boot Harbor Key in Marathon.
Arrived in the Harbor around 2:00 PM and received our mooring ball assignment from the friendly staff at the Boot Key Marina since I had filled out the arrival forms on the Internet prior to departing Venice and emailed the forms. We grabbed a ball, got Conch Clipper bedded down and grabbed some shut eye. All is well in Marathon, Florida.
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