Cruising in Marathon is dominated by two kinds of crossings.
The first kind is very dangerous. It is the crossing of the Overseas Highway (US 1), a full on 4 lane freeway. The harbor is on the Atlantic side. Mercifully so is the Publix grocery store, the library, 3 liquor stores, Home Depot and West Marine. But on the Gulf side is Stuffed Pig (like Price's Chef), Overseas Lounge (like Knuckle Heads only worse), Aoinettt's (surf and turf), Chevron (propane), and the sushi place (average).The nearest traffic light is 1/2 mile away so running for it is the best option. During the day traffic is heavy as this is the only access to Key West and all of the Keys. In the day light a certain nimbleness and timing is important. At night the targets are fewer, well lighted, but almost certainly intoxicated as are you--a very dicey situation.
Crossing the Gulf Steam to the Bahamas is a subject of constant concern in Marathon. The danger is much less than crossing the Overseas Highway, but the discomfort is infinitely greater. All of the concern is about the 'weather window' what ever that is!! Any north wind is completely out of the question although I doubt that the 0-5 knots N. winds of Christmas Day could hurt anybody. Eventually we hit upon a forecast of 10-15 E to SE dropping to 5-10. We should have left Wed., but were not ready until Thursday 12-28-07. We had a weather keyhole, not a window.
My game plan was three fold: first was a reach SE to cross the reef and access the Gulf Stream, then use the current to sling shot us to the NE, finally there would be a close reach in the eastern straits of Florida using the S. flowing counter current as a 'current wind.' Only the last part worked out.
The first stage was foiled by motor problems. There were 3 emergery trips into the lazerette the address concerns. One was a plugged up strainer. Twice the fuel filter had to be changed. We must have gotten into some bad fuel. Actually I suspect we got some "good" fuel in Florida with biocide added. My long standing practice is to ignore bacteria in the fuel. They build up a thick biofilm on the lining of the fuel tank that is like a rind and never causes a problem--even during the violent shaking of our storm. The small amount of biocide has killed the bacteria and now the biofilm is dissolving. I used 4 of my 5 filters and I suspect that this will be a problem for months to come.
By the time we finally got into the Gulf Stream it was just bashing with the motor into a SE headwind. The compass heading was 115, but the course made good only 75. It was a miserable slog with lumpy seas and spray for at least 18 hours. But by noon Friday 12-29-07 things were looking up enough to bring out a few smiles.
We entered the Banks at Riding Rocks. These are the southern entrance onto the Bahamas Banks and are absolutely deserted. I doubt that the light even works. By this time it was so late that we motored all the way across the Banks. This is not as dangerous as it sounds if you stick to well described routes. We cleared the North West channel light at dawn. After a stiff motor sail into head winds we docked at Chub Key exhausted at 10:45 am
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