Everglades National Park

The Everglades

Great sailing and fishing

 

Here are two charts/maps of the Everglades National Park system. The one map showing the Butternut Keys is right in our backyard, our sailing and fishing grounds.

 

 

You can see from the maps the size of our sailing area, the Florida Bay



Another visit to Nest Key

A Meeting Place In The Everglades National Park

 

Each winter, either by myself or with other sail boaters, I sail out to Nest Key to appreciate the natural beauty of the Florida Bay and the Everglades National Park. Since this is one of the only Keys in the Park that you can actually walk on, it is a popular destination. During the summer months you can find large numbers of boaters anchoring and enjoying the warm water and sandy beach, during the winter months, however, there is not much in the way of visitors as you can see by my photos.

 

The sail out from my community harbor is about six miles, taking any where from an hour and a half to two hours, depending upon the wind and water conditions. Today, with the wind blowing between 15 and 20 Kts, with two reefs we made it in an hour and a half. The trip back, a bit more challenging, presented us with winds reaching upwards of 25Kts. with seas running about one to two feet.

 

Making the sail today was Roland Barth, aboard his Marshall Sanderling Ibis, Mary Cahill and Rick Beeman aboard their Sandpiper Seabean and me sailing my Sanderling Puffin.

 

Puffin

Sea bean



Ibis

Ibis, Puffin and Sea bean

Fiftieth Anniversary flag of the Catboat Association, on a Pig Stick at the top of my mast



Restoration Of A Marshall Sanderling Catboat

Restoration of a Marshall Sanderling

 

A syndicate of some sort has taken on the project of restoring a Marshall Sanderling here in the Keys. The four owners found a Sanderling in need of some TLC and after some fine negotiations, were able to acquire the boat in "as is" condition. The next step was to find a shop here in the Keys that was up to the task of restoring a 1980 Catboat, built in South Dartmouth, Mass. Well, as luck would have it,  there happens to be just the right Yacht yard here in Tavernier, the deal was made and reconstruction began in earnest a few months ago. Today, myself and two other Sanderling owners visited the project and found some amazing work had been accomplished, new rub rails and handrails, new cockpit sole, transom replaced, bottom paint removed, hull and deck painted with Awlgrip and the port lights replaced.

 

The boat will sport the new name, "Usual Suspects", a ceremony un-naming the boat will be preformed then a boat naming ceremony will follow. This will be the second time I have been to such a ceremony, I guess it's a Keys thing. No matter,  the little vessel looks great and I'm sure that the new owners will have many great hours sailing on the Florida Bay.

 

Pictures anyone?

 

New Transom

Teak work and new cockpit sole

Fresh coat of  Awlgrip paint and teak rub rails

View from aft, in the cockpit

New handrails and teak cabin trim

 

Changing Winds for a couple of day's then back to normal

West, Northwest, then Northerly for a couple of day's

 

GMZ031-061530- FLORIDA BAY INCLUDING BLACKWATER AND BUTTONWOOD SOUNDS- 426 AM EST WED MAR 6 2013 ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FOR INCREASING WINDS... .TODAY...WEST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS EARLY...INCREASING TO NEAR 15 KNOTS BY NOON. WINDS SHIFTING TO NORTHWEST AND INCREASING TO NEAR 20 KNOTS AND GUSTY IN THE AFTERNOON. BAY WATERS BECOMING A MODERATE CHOP...THEN ROUGH. ISOLATED SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON. .TONIGHT...NORTHWEST TO NORTH WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS. BAY WATERS VERY ROUGH. .THURSDAY...NORTHWEST TO NORTH WINDS NEAR 20 KNOTS AND GUSTY EARLY...DECREASING TO 10 TO 15 KNOTS IN THE AFTERNOON. BAY WATERS ROUGH...BECOMING A LIGHT TO MODERATE CHOP. .THURSDAY NIGHT...NORTH WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT TO MODERATE CHOP. .FRIDAY...NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT TO MODERATE CHOP. .FRIDAY NIGHT...NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT TO MODERATE CHOP. .SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT...EAST TO SOUTHEAST WINDS NEAR 15 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.

 

It looks like we are in Port until Thursday afternoon, fair winds for the end of the week and he weekend, hooray!  Maybe an overnight is in our future.

March Maddness

A chance meeting

Spring is coming to the Keys and with it brings some of the best weather to sail on Florida Bay. Yesterday on the Bay it looked like a scene from Martha's Vineyard, four Catboats out for a day sail, not planned but yet somehow we all managed to come together for a picture OP.

Catboats on the Bay, a spontaneous meeting

Charlie and Salee aboard "A-Lee"

Roland was out with our friend and Catboat owner, Davy, Charlie and Salee were out in their Menger, I was sailing my "Puffin" and Rick Beeman and Mary Cahill  were cruising around in their Sandpiper, "Sea Bean". It was a perfect breeze, twelve Kts. from the SE, earlier predictions had called for light and variable winds. In an environment like this, to see all these Gaff Rigs and not another sailboat in sight is truly amazing.

Roland and Davy, Roland is checking out my rig

"Ibis" approaching to Starboard

With the fair conditions  I was able to go fishing in the morning, sail in he afternoon and then do the Canals in our neighborhood at sunset, in my Flats Boat. Great sunset to end an awesome day on the water.

Next on the list of sails are a couple of overnights to the Back country, hopefully we'll have about four boats participating in this activity.

A Bonnet Head AKA Shovelhead Shark and other assorted fish

My friend Paul and I went out Back country yesterday and had some luck catching a variety of fish. The first was a Bonnet Shark, not being targeted but just happened to hit the lure Paul was casting, then several large Lady fish weighing in excess of two pounds. Next to be boated were a few very nice Spanish Mackerel, three Bluefish and last but not least about forty Sea Trout, of which all but one were released.

Netted, so as not to harm the Shark, Paul prepares to remove the hook

Boga grip didn't work well on the Shark

Say hell to my little friend

Bonnet Shark is also known as a Shovelhead

One of the large Lady fish in these waters

This year the Sea Trout are here in great numbers as are the Redfish and Mackerel, so much so that the Trout season was kept open all year, normally it is closed for a month.

Plenty Of Fish After The Front Moved Through

My friend Paul, from NJ and me went out fishing the past two days and were greeted with mixed results. The first day we caught several Trout, kept only two for dinner, large Jacks, Lady Fish and a Spinner Shark.

Paul and two Sea trout that we kept for dinner

Yesterday,another good day for Trout,  Mackerel, Jacks, Lady Fish, two nice Spinner Sharks, a Bluefish  and the irresistible Lizard Fish.  Paul comes down each year in February looking to go fishing or sailing, it doesn't matter, he enjoys both,  plus the warm weather speaks for itself.

Paul and his Spinner Shark, caught on a Lizard Fish

We did not take either shark out of the water, just a quick picture and released

My Spinner Shark, it was a nice size Shark, especially on light tackle

Paul's Shark


 

Nest Key movie

Narrated Upper Keys Sailing Club Cat Boat slideshow

More Pictures From The Upper Keys Sailing club, . Storm moves in sailors move out.

Solo Cat boater with an angry sky ahead!

This photo was captured on the way back from Nest Key, the dark sky that developed during the afternoon caused the Cat Boats to tie in reefs and head for home.

With reefs tied in the sailors sailed or motored, in some cases , back to the UKSC.