Key Largo Marina - Fleetwing in slings, a wild night

 

We were all over the anchorage, very disorienting in the dark

We had backed our anchor in at Caesar’s Creek and felt secure for the night and went to bed. Little did we know of the “excitement” ahead. The fun started when the tide turned and we had wind against tide. Normally that’s not so bad except it was a 20 kt wind against a 3 kt current. The boat danced around the anchor, turning circles. 

Damage to the aft section

After an hour of this, I noticed the boat wasn’t returning to its previous location. In fact, it was slipping and we were dragging - with the area right next to us being very shallow. In addition to the wind and current, we had wrapped the anchor line around the keel which prevented us from turning the bow to leave the shallow water, leaving the only option left of trying to back out - which didn’t work very well. 

Anchor line rubbed one side

We alternated skidding through water about as deep as our keel and occasionally getting into deeper water only to return to the shallow. It was pitch black outside, no moon. Opinion all the commotion, we hit the tug that was parked that was in the work detail repairing the Adams Key docks.

We’ll never know we wound up here - pure chance, secure for the rest of the night

After what seemed forever, we found ourselves next to the ranger station docks, purely by accident. Seeing the piling next to Fleetwing, we quickly threw lines and secured Fleetwing. But the adventure wasn’t over yet! In the morning after testing the prop for damage (none) we decided to continue west towards Key West. About a hour after leaving Adams Key, I noticed water in the bilge - where was that coming from?

The bilge pump was having trouble keeping up so I called SeaTow for help. Between us, we secured a haul out at Key Largo but we had to travel two hours to get there - with a leaky boat. Ann was at the wheel while I manned the pumps below. With the help of the one built in manual bilge pump in the cockpit, we stayed abreast of the incoming water while SeaTow paced us, high volume water pump at the ready.

Fleetwing us now in slings, awaiting repair of the leak, hopefully by tomorrow. Fleetwing is otherwise undamaged and we’re both safe and sound.

Oh the adventures of boat - more details to follow at a later time. I have photos to show but my WiFi connection will not work, later.