Thursday, January 21, 2016

Lantana at Loggerhead Marina - Avoiding Storms

At last, a good sunrise
We had a beautiful sunrise this morning at our Hobe anchorage. It's a good site for sunrises with a flat horizon and usual, high clouds. Unfortunately I did not have good luck with the outboard motor, a 6 hp Mercury. In all fairness, it has performed flawlessly since we bought it in 2008 and used it 9 months of the year. Last night and again this morning, it decided to quit, it had enough! I had intended trying my usual debugging but then the outboard is so vital to us given our required trips to shore with Hoolie three times a day that we decided not to take a chance and have it professionally serviced. The symptoms were a refusal to start after motoring to shore and again this morning, not good. 

The weather has taken yet another turn for the worse. Friday and Saturday are forecast with a 100% chance of rain with thunderstorms on Friday followed by 29 mph winds on Saturday. Going south is not advised with 8 to 10 ft seas off shore so we're now aiming for Monday for a trip down the coast, the days keep slipping by. So far we're still looking at a 1/28 arrival date in Key West but that requires a straight shot from Miami to Caesar's Creek to Marathon to Key West and of course the cooperation of the weather - all it has to do is to just perform as predicted, something the weather somehow finds hard to do (tell us which way your want to go so we can turn the wind into your face!)

Typical Florida fixed docks here
We're at Loggerhead marina just above Lantana tonight for the next few days to wait out the storms and while we're at it, have the outboard repaired too. Sunday appears to be okay for going south but who knows, the weather has been very variable this year! 

2 comments:

TT said...

We are anchored in Lake Sylvia and the wind is howling around us but the lake has barely a ripple. Not going ashore today and maybe not tomorrow. Our trawler is swinging very little and not rolling at all. Thankful to have made it to this very safe anchorage. Good luck fixing you motor.

Bob423 said...

We love Hoolie but we have to get him ashore three times a day. We've done that in wind and rain at times but not without a motor. Can't row against 20 it winds. The motor's in the shop not, hopefully being fixed.