The Keys

Marathon Florida
January 4, 2006

We got hear ahead of schedule. Amazingly, the wind continued to veer
all the way so that we never had to adjust the sails or to tack.
Libby and I started doing 2.5 hour watches. She took 0400 to 0630 and I
expeted to arrive here at 0830. When I awoke at 0630 we were already
here.

We motored in the list couple of miles. The engine cooling problem is
even more severe. We could only do 1100 RPM. It's clear that as the
water gets warmer the engine cooling gets worse.

We snagged a lobster trap on the way in. First time we actually snagged
on. The line trailed off to port and the buoy was wedged in the rudder
to starboard and our speed went down to 1 knot. I had to cut the line
to get rid of it.

The harbor here is big and very very crowded. I estimate 200 sailboats
in here. Fortunately though, we found a nice spot to anchor and we
don't have to pay for a marina. I am paying for WI FI Internet
though. It is harbor-wide.

What nice weather. Today the air was 81 degrees (27C), the water was
75 degrees (24C), the wind 10 knots and the sky clear and blue. It's
easy to understand how the weather can be addictive. It appears that
many of the boats in the harbor have been here for months or years.
There is a live aboard (at the dock) life style as distinct from the
cruising life style. Now I learned there's a live aboard (at anchor)
variant too.

I found a local mechanic who seems to know what he's talking about. I
described the overheating symptoms to him and my conclusion that it must
be the primary side. He disagreed, and said that in these Perkins
engines the heat exchangers just get old and tired. One either boils
them in nitric acid or buys a new heat exchanger. I'm going to try the
latter. We'll order it tomorrow and it will be here in a few days.
Guess that means we'll have to live in this harbor a few more days.
Poor us.

In reality I wanted to stay until Sunday anyhow. There is nasty weather
coming in Thursday night through Saturday. They say the night
temperature may sink as low as the 30s. Ha! We're used to that and we
have a cabin heater.