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Key West Happenings and We're Off

Due to terrible wifi connections i have not been able to successfully upload my blog entries for the last week. It is incredibly frustrating because this past week has been outstanding and quite eventful and there is now only so much time to share with you so i will give a brief account of my favorite things.

As you probably guessed we did in fact make it on shore despite the broken dingy motor. A spot deep enough for a boat with 7ft. draw finally opened up and we taxied our motor over to the yamaha dealer/mechanics shop. After being quoted an end of the week completion Tina (Who had grown rather fed up with all our delays) decided that simply would not do and began strategizing her neotiation tactics and leaving no means out of the equation. After some persuasive pleading our mechanic, Scott, said he could probably take a look at it that day. This was very fortunate indeed asTina was just about ready to offer me over as collateral to sweeten the deal!! "haha That wont be necessary." He chuckled. We left to walk the 2 miles back to the marina as Tina turned to me and very triumphantly reported, "Well Brittany, it looks like we saved you virginity after all!" "Gee, Thanks!!" I replied with mellodramatic playfulness.

Our Spirits were much higher now being docked in this beautiful marina. We had rested up in the sun on the private beach, unwound at the marina's tiki bar with live music, made use of the small weight room and much welcomed showers and were within walking distance of the grocers. Once we all felt a bit more human we made our way out to explore the island a bit.

Throwing on my running shoes and turning up Boston in my ears i took off in an excited sprint out of the marina and into down town. Between all the zig-zagging, double backing, epic tree climbing and circumnavigating that i did  i would say i made it at least 8 miles (For those of you who don't know me well this was quite an accomplishment) before i felt saticfied with my exploration. There were crowds of spring breakers and tourists, old salty sailors and the local few and i loved all the people watching. I got to see the attractions that are obviously more focussed toward the 'cruise-shippers' and vacationing families but what really interested me were the things that typically go unseen. The Docks. This is where i felt drawn.

This island is rich with nautical history and even today its inhabitants have not forgotten to pay a proper homage to that. Huge replica tribute ships port here and gorgeous schooners and tall ships and all kinds of other lovely sailing vessles can be found making there way up and down the coast lines daily. And, I have fallen in LOVE. Haha i found MY ship the one i have dreamed about for years now. She's a fierce beauty and one day she will be mine. Until then though, it is nice to have a clearer image to dream about.
sidenote: I have truely missed the smell of the fishing boats as they come back in after a long day trolling. Watching the mates empty their catch onto the cleaning tables and filet right there and even cleaning out the cooler....i am a bit jealous and miss Nantucket for it. haha I walked past and took in a breath and noticed a gaggle of college girls all holding their noses staring at me with a look of alien disbelief. I tried to not chuckle.  A sailors life isn't for everyone...

The day was cooling off rapidly and the sky started to turn a tint of gold suggesting the sunset would be a uniquely brilliant one. My playlist had now progressed onto Jefferson Starship and my heart nearly lept out of my chest with the thought of running off to race for the coast before the sun had gone. So that's what i did. Dodging through streets and crowds and stores i was getting closer. I had to run -respectfully though quickly- through one last shop to find a backway letting out to the actualy coastal edge of the island but what i saw there was far more than i could have ever expected.

Not only was this the best vantage point to watch the day end but i had also accidentally found the exact location of the SunSet Celebration. An archway over head read "Welcome to Mallory Square" and framed the scene of a concrete board walk strip packed with acrobats, magicians. dog trainors, sword swallowers, fire spiners, jugglers, vendors of art jewelry, delicious foods and tropical drinks, fortune tellers, comedians and hundreds of wide eyed, cheering spectators. Street musicians and show hypers and ooo-ing/ahhh-ing provided the soundtrack for this chaotic festival while fresh bake pretzles and pineapple, and flickers of fire and cracks of sparklers tantalized other senses. Not to mention, my very favorite, the coconut man! Most simple stand: a cart filled with fresh coconuts and a man with a machete. If you havent ever drank coconut water from a freshly whacked coconut, i HIGHLY suggest you add it to your list!! :)
The sun shown it's vibrant pinks and oranges and the colors bounced off of the lingering clouds and sailboats that were now coming in accross the horizon to dock after catching the last bits of light. It was my next moment of devine splendor and i sat there, just me and my glorious creator.

I count myself so blessed to have these oportunities to witness God's magnificence through the beauty of his creativity. I feel the Holy Spirit filling me up each day and i keep praying for ways to pour these blessings and this love out onto others but i have not been able to keep up with HIs measure of supply. Great is our God!

Of course, there has been plenty more going on in this last week but i can wrap it up by saying, "We've seen some of the stuff and done some of the things." But it is already midnight now and we set sail in only 4 hours for a 12 hour day tomorrow. The Dry Tortugas is our next destination. Also, quite unfortunately, it will be our farthest destination.
The decision was made a couple days ago that after we have had our fill of adventure in the Tortugas we will be sailing back to Ft Luaderdale. Ken and Tina have decided to sell the boat. This has not been an easy choice and we are all quite heart broken about it. There are several very good reasons why they have come to this conclusion but i know it is not something they had hoped to do. I, of course am devistated to know that my dream of sailing to a new country will now be postponed and that our adventure will be cut short but more than any of that my heart is heavy for the Duncans. Please be in prayer for Ken and Tina as they let go of this dream and seek to make wise choices in the upcoming process of selling Actric Tern.

Until then though.... It's time to light the fires and kick the tires!! Plenty of adventure to be had in the next month and who knows what could take place. But if anything's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there. ;)
So raise your glass with me now. My friends, Here's to dreams. Keep them fresh, keep them big and keep them coming!!

Up a creek with a broken paddle

Well i suppose it was only a matter of time...

I was marooned yesterday.

 I stood alone, helpless and bleeding on a beach and watched as CaptainK and First Mate Tina drifted away in the dingy....... :'( 

Haha Ok, ok. It was only for about 10 min and i wasn't bleeding that badly. 

You see, yesterday we arrived in Key West. Hooray!! We were all very excited to anchor the boat and then motor on in with the dingy so we could jump into all the fun of the island and even MORE excited to go buy some fresh produce! --i fear i am begining to risk scurvy if i dont get some freshies soon. 

We were all set, crew in dingy zipping along, bouncing across the quick currented channel toward the designated dock about 2 miles out. All of the sudden i hear the buzz the 2stroke outboard quickly hush to a low drone then sputter out completely. "What's wrong?" Tina asked. We both expected that Ken had seen something curious and wanted to take a look or continue cautiously...? "Motor's dead" CaptainK stated in his matter-of-fact tone that i could tell was covering some shot nerves and deep frustration. 'Sigh, stuck in the middle of the channel now like sitting ducks...and me with no hat..' i thought. But in fact we were not "sitting". We were moving, and pretty quickly at that. It took me a moment to realize that our situation was actually far worse than just not having a working motor. We were in the channel's 7knot current, being sucked right into the mega cruise ships' departure path and about to hit a little section of rip tide blocking an entrance -the LAST entrance- to a jet ski dock. "Quick! grab the oars!" CaptainK and I start paddling our way through.

Now, Ken actually happens to be a very experienced kayaker (as well as an all around Adventurer) but even for him it was a struggle to maneuver us through before hitting the sharp,barnacal encrusted dock piles. --Although, my somewhat out of sync strokes were probably not providing much assistance. But, c'mon. When have i ever drilled to be prepared for a random rowing emergency?! (I have since added this to the list of skills i must aquire) Anyway, 'Phew!' Out of the way, but not in a place we could tie off. Just then a jetskier zoomed up to inform us, "Hey dude, uh, you know you can't actually dock here." ..ummm....*face-palm*  :| 'good grief! is he being serious?' i asked myself, not being able to catch myself from a brief moment of cynicism. We explained our situation quickly and he was very kind to tow us back up the channel a short ways so that we could at least pull the boat up onto a small beach patch (even though this wasn't a legal docking point either. but i digress...).

There was a small, algae covered, concrete ramp under the water that we pushed to dingy up on. Ken popped the top cover off the Yamaha engine and began to fiddle. "Sounded like it flooded" He shared. "Was the choke out?" i asked...  After an ameture analysis, and some sufficient fiddling, she started back up again. We decided that it would be best to try running it around a bit right near the coast to make sure it was sound. "Tina, you come with me in case it dies again and we have to row" Ken suggested (obviously he had noticed my lack of proficient rowing skills as well) "And Brittany, you should stay here and watch the stuff."(mate=demoted back to swab)

I hopped to and grabbed the supply bucket in one hand, backpack in the other and went to walk back up out of the water so they could push off. However, I had forgotten about that damned ramp. You rememeber though, the one covered with algae slicker than snot melting down a mexican mudslide during a jello-rain? Yeah, that one. I found it with my bare foot, not but two back-steps away from the boat. Trying to catch myslef from what would have been an incredibly wet landing on my rear, i nearly dropped the supply bucket. Well, 'nearly threw' would be more acurate. The contents- phones, chains, sm anchor, etc.- all bounced up and crashed back into the plastic bucket making an attention grabbing "Clang!!"  Fortunately, i have been blessed with some pretty great balance and cat like reflexes. --I think it was God's way of sustaining me from the dangerous incoordination and clumsiness i have also been blessed with-- I regained my footing but not before slicing my foot up in two places and shaving a decent bit off the top of one toe, in addition to providing a very commical performance for the multitude of on lookers i might add. 

Once i was stable I -very casually- walked up onto the beach. There i stood, watching them ride off in the dingy, leaving me alone and bleeding on a beach full of stunned and oggling KeyWest Vacationers. "Well, um...I'll just wait here then!" I shouted out to my crew, even though they were already out of earshot but not knowing how else to handle the very ridiculous social setting i now found myself in. It was a pretty pathetic 10 mins...

As you imagined, they did come back to get me. We decided it would be foolish to press our luck with the motor now that the sun would soon be setting and it wouldn't be likely that many more Bro-Skiers would be jetting up to tow us out of Carnival Cruise's wake of doom! I jumped in and off we went to get back to our boat. 

It really should come as no surprise to me after 24 years of being a 'Roberts' that i actually have no luck to even try to press.. The engine stalled out again. This time we had nothing around to paddle to except a very small island bit just in the mooring field and oh so close to our boat. The current was hopeless though! No chance of us being able to fight against the STRONG wind and quick current to get back.

Long story short, we were able to flag down another passing dingy and hitch a tow back to the boat. "Which one is yours?!" The kidnly stranger shouted back to us above the wind. "The one without a dingy!!" Tina shouted in response as we all pointed in assistance. I always get a good chuckle out of her morale boosting jokes. "Wow, Ken! It's a good thing you've got us women with you otherwise you'd have been stuck on that island forever trying to catch someone's eye." We all could laugh about it now.

We have been on the boat ever since.... And today stuck inside due to an unrelenting rain.

I tried to make the most of it though... lol

Tomorrow a spot at a marina should open up so we can get our motor to a shop and -for the LOVE of limes!!- finally buy some fresh produce!!!

:) 

Attn. The bottle of rum was a joke by tina to depict how i was "getting through' the storm And not an accurate representation of my current sailor status.

Troubles...

Continued...
We had planned on a relaxing liesurely short day of sailing over to Elliot Key. At nearly 1pm we approached the clearly marked channel that is the only entrance to the island's cove. this channel has to be clearly marked because it is only about 15ft-20ft wide and 9ft-12ft deep, BUT imidiately outside of the marked channel boarder it shoals up to only 1ft of water. Well, the feet was not an impossible one but due to obvious sand shift and uncharectoristicly low tide, it proved to be impassible. Not only could we not make it through the channel, we ran aground.....I will explain this "highlight's of what took place next to save you the absolute exhaustive turmoil that was not spared us.

When you have a 7ft draft with fins and you start to get set in some sandy bottom, toward which the current and tide are now pulling you even farther to, it is a game of Beat the Clock before you are burried DEEP and set. So, Ken jumps right into his plan to set an anchor out as far as possible away from the shoal to tie off to our bow so that we can hand tow ourselves out, or keep ourselves from drifting any farther in. In the back of our minds we know that hightide doesn't come in until 6pm so if we dont get unstuck we wil be at least until then - a 5 hours none of us wanted to spare... We drop the dingy (no time to hook the motor up, best to just use the oars) and load the spare anchor on. Ken tell me that i have to jump in to hold onto the anchor's line while he rows. We throw it overboard and then lost an oar setting (it kept popping out of the boat) so we just let ourselves drift back in the current- the Strong current-.

To make sure we didn't miss it i had to nearly leap out of the dingy to grab hold of the side of the boat. the water was rough nw and slamming us all over the place and slamming me repeatedly into the bow. Ken jumped onboard to tie off the anchor as quickly as possible while i tried to tie the flippin' dingy onto the boat before i got washed away(which of course nearly happened....twice. Scrambling and with knees now bruised and torn up i got it tied off and pulled myself on deck in time to help with the gruling process of towing out. Bassically you're pulling in the HEAVY anchor line and chain bit by bit in hopes that the anchor is set enough to hold you while you inch your way out of the sand. And low and behold, ours was not. I popped my shoulder back into pace and then we repeated this process of going out in the dingy (now with the engine), throwing anchors (we dicided to try two different ones), coming back in, jumping on board, and pulling ourselves to the anchor (or more accurately, pulling the unset anchors to us) about 5 or 6 or a million times.

FINALLY, we got free! With our butt just out of the shoal now we quickly, try to bring up the two anchors. In our jubilation we accidently got the lines crossed and hadnt quite gotten them out of the water before - bump, slosh - we slid into ANOTHER sand bar. My heart sunk.

Now, sunburnt, cut, bleeding, sore, bruised more than a little miffed, and with No tine to spare, we untangle the main anchor, take it out set it again... Thank the Lord, this time first try, it set. Frantically, we start hauling in the anchor -sweat and steam flying. "Hit it!!" ken shouts to Tina back at the controls. She guns the engine to 2000rpms. We're free!!! Wasting NO time now we finish bring up the lines and anchor and Tina drives us out of there...

It was now after 5 and the sun was beginning to set. I was ready to collaps but we still had pounds and pounds of wet rope on deck to rewrap and anchors to put away.I worked on all of that with ken while Tina took us to the first safe spot we could drop anchor and be done.


Looks like this will be more then just sitting on deck after all. I would be lying if i said it wasnt miserable but honestly, i am glad for the experince and the bit of bonding for the crew. I am sore as heck today and have slept a fair deal during our 50mile schedule for today -to make up for missing lastnights planned destination- but all said and done. What a memory.! :)

Sea fairing Men We Be!

Ahoy there!! :D

Well my friends, we are off!! We set sail early monday morning, making this our third day underway. It has been great for the most part. There are, of course, some things that take some getting used to. For example, doing ANYthing down below while heeled hard over or the boat keeps yawing.... At the begining of this trip i had to really focuss to compensate for the shifting horizon and sparatic movements to not get dizzy or fall all over the place but now i hardly even notice it at all. However, I will say that it is still hard to read or write anything, harder to sleep, and cooking is pretty much impossible during the days! Just picture this: Right now Ive got one hand holding a railing to keep from rocking side to side and my legs pressed against the wall in front of me and sitting down to keep from rocking foward and back, phone resting on my knees and one hand typing on a key board on my lap. ... yeah, a challenge Hahaha I am having fun with it though. So, i am sorry if this is more scattered of an entry than usual.

So, our first day was back to Biscayne Bay. Delicious sunny skies, fair windsand some great tanning going on. :) We got the dingy out and motored over to the shore. Great park/trails mostly. Thickly forested but well kept. We walked again (i love how much we walk together!) over to the light house. Then again in the morning we went back over and ran/ leg day for me. SO hot and swaety and gross i was worried i wouldn't have time to shower on board before we set out again so, to save time of course, i just jumped off the deck. I could really get used to this lifestyle!!

Mostly i sit up on deck listening to awesome music and keeping an eye on the sails in case they're needing any trimming. You know, REALLY tough work. I was worried after that first day that i might not actually be doing much as crew other than cleaning and galley work, but yesterday cleared that misconception right out of my mind...

To be continued..

P.s. it was brought to my attention that the verb:"snogging" used in my previous post may not be correctly understood by some americans And may in fact come across as something entirely other than what i meant to refer to.
the correct definition:
"British slang meaning, to kiss and caress amorously." So...just wanted to clear that up.

Blessings!

Hello dear Friends.

I have to apologize to you. I have not kept up very well with my posts and admittedly i have been avoiding it. It is really difficult for me to writing things like, "we have a new delay", "shouldbe leaving in a day" or "change of plans". I have noticed that my pride is being more affected than i had even considered it could be. I hadn't acknowledged it to myself until yesterday but, i think i am embarrassed by our set-backs. once i realized that this was in fact a response i have been feeling i see how wrong of a response it actually is. Essentially, what that means is that i think i deserve better or more from this blessing i have been given. "What an amazing opportunity, and in such wonderful timing! Praise God!" i was saying. But now, now i am dissaticefied??? I am ashamed for being 'fair-weather' now that things arent what i expected.
Time to change my perspective!!

To catch you up, we left Miami to come back up the coast to Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood, FL and here we are getting this blasted generator fixed. We would have had Steve (our mechanic) come instal the new part yesterday but were unable to due to TORRENTIAL rains. Down pour, ALL day long. It actually turned out to be a great day -Playing cards up at the captain's lodge together, reading, watching Grease with Tina.. all in all a good time. :) SO, Steve came by today, has fixed what we belive to be the issue and now "we plan to leave tomorrow".

Yesterday we finished the day off with going out to dinner with our slip-neighbors who we just met. Get this--They also own an Amel (same exact design, different year) and are from --wait for it-- Fort Collins, CO!! What a small world right? It has been great getting to know them and discussing all things Colorado and sharing our joy about missing the cold and snow (No offense meant to all you Coloradans...sorry) Today, passing by on the dock, Joe and Tracy asked if id like to hop on and go sail the coast for the day. After checking in with Ken and Tina i extactically uncleated the sternline and jumped on board.

What a fun time! I could instantly tell we'd get on well when they started throwing Captain Ron quotes around. :) Our fourth member for the day was a Kiwi (from New Zealand) named Richard. He's a care taker of the boat just across the dock from us. Undoubtedly being the most knowledgable and experienced out of the four of us, i pelted him with questions of this and that all day long. Mostly about sail strategy and vocabulary but also about the Captain's licensing procces differences between the US and Australia/NewZealand/England. He was very helpful.

The HIGHLIGHT of my trip thus far:
Today while sailing back from the outing  with joe, tracy, and richard, we were headed into the sun with the wind in our faces. I got to climb out onto the Bow-head railing (the very very front of the boat) and sit with my legs hanging through the rungs. The waves breaking against the bow, the salty splashes hitting my toes and- what's that? dolphins?? Yes it is! 2, no 4, 5--> 6 dolphins?!  They leapt out of the foamy break just feet away from my legs and some within a foot of the boat. I dont know if i could describe a more delightful display of God's splendor than that moment of happiness. Believe me, it couldn't have been more exhilarating than if Leo DiCaprio had come up behind me and started snogging me during the sunset While My Heart Will Go On played in the background...

So, It's been a good day; A very good day.! Despite the difficulties and the lack of expectations being met, leading me to being a doubter of God's goodness and provision, He is STILL chosing to show Himself to me through beauty, blessing and patiences.
What an Awesome Creator and Savior i serve!

Have a good Sunday everyone!! I'll catch you on the flipside.