On A New Tack

 Key West Boat Show and Additional Information on the Vision Yachts 444 Summary We had a great trip down to Key West (okay, actually it was the next island up; Stock Island). The Stock Island Marina Village and adjoining Perry Hotel are absolutely beautiful.  If you are in the area and need a place to stay (and have the means!), it is a great resort.  We were fortunate in that we booked it early for the event and got the room at 1/3 the price it was the week leading up to the boat show.  Admittedly, it was Spring Break, so that may be their peak price for the year for all I know. We had spoken to Tommy and Amy from Sail Away Catamarans a few times before the event and even had a chance to speak with Thomas and Terri, the owners of Kon-Tiki ahead of time too.  What an absolutely great group of people! Additional Information

At 7:45am we woke up to the sounds of voices in the cockpit of the boat.  Voices that we didn't recognize. Long story short, the Captain stayed out very late (4am-ish), eventually walked back to the boat, but "decided" to stop and take a nap on the front lawn of someone's house.  After his nap, we woke up and called an Uber to take him back to the boat, not quite sure of where he was.  It turns out he was only a 5 minute drive to the boat. Oh, and then there was Charles, he was one of the voices we heard in the cockpit, along with two others, all of which returned to the boat at 7:45am.  Charles was probably a little drunk, but his two drinking buddies were pretty well gone. It took some time to get rid of them, but after we did, we had breakfast, had a quick review and then took the final test for ASA 104 (we scored 95 and 99). We were 101, 103, 104 and 114 certified! We cleaned, packed up and said our farewells to the Captain, Charles, Caroline and "A...

Day 6 was the trip back up to Ft. Lauderdale.   We started the day early and were all eating breakfast before 8:00am. After breakfast we performed Engine Checks.  One of "About Time's" engine was new, the other was original.  It was quite easy to tell which was which (both visually and audibly). After the engine checks and topping off the oil in guess-which-engine, we took the ASA 114 test.  I got a respectable 94%. Before leaving the Harbor, we did some close quarter motoring drills and then left the harbor and  turned south to go around the Southern Tip of Key Biscayne. After getting just beyond the bottom of the Key, we turned, raising the sails and headed out to sea for a mile or so, then turned north to head towards Ft. Lauderdale. We had great wind and the benefit of the Gulf Stream, so we were moving along at a very respectable 10 kts! Eventually the wind shifted and weren't getting quite as much speed, but I ended up at the helm fo...

Another strong breeze for another great day of sailing! No test today, so we just had sailing and MOB (Man Over Board) recovery practicing.  We left from our mooring ball with Sue at the Helm and took us expertly out of the narrow channel, especially given the current and wind, which was stronger as we left the protection offered at the mooring ball. Captain Keith gaves just a destination and asked us to come up with the plan and the expected ETA.  We plotted the course, factoring in some tacks we would have to take and gave an estimate of 12:15p. We arrived to what was basically a wide open spot out in Biscayne Bay and we started learning and practicing four methods of MOB recovery: Figure 8 - Good if you are in warm water and are not really in a hurry to get the victim back on board and want to go on a bunch of points of sail. Broad Reach/Close Reach - A lot quicker and involves only two points of sale.   Quick Stop - By far the easiest and quickest wa...

This was a great day to sail.  A nice consistent 20 kt wind and otherwise nice weather in Biscayne Bay! So, I had to get up around 3am and re-apply bug spray because the mosquitos were finding me through the hatches we had opened to get some airflow.  I managed to walk up in time to re-apply before beocming light headed from lack of blood supply. I wake up for good around 6am to a beautiful sunrise above the Atlantic visible from across the small, 200yd wide key.   After breakfast, we walked up to the top of the Boca Chita Lighthouse, which is usually closed.  The view of Miami was pretty amazing! I took the helm to bring us out of the anchorage and into the narrow channel as we headed towards Coconut Grove; our next stop. We continued to take turns at the helm practicing points of sail and taking turns grinding the winches and were averaging around 8kts, which is about top speed for a 37 foot catamaran. Sue taking her turn at the Helm ...