CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO: TURTLE LOVE AND MIAMI ROCK AND ROLL

CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO: TURTLE LOVE AND MIAMI ROCK AND ROLL

Carefree waterway, let me slip away, slip away, on you! We blew our little pop stand in Key Largo this morning at 6:50 a.m. That’s right – before dawn. And we’re on the water highway again. But this time it’s a huge ocean, not the narrow meandering ICW. We sweated out two extra days in Key Largo, as the Admiral read every NOAA report every hour to find out when the winds would die down enough to make it to Miami in one piece. We were heading up Hawk Channel, inside the reef, but open ocean nonetheless. And the winds of 20 knots had created waves of 6 to 12 feet on Tuesday and Wednesday. This morning we were not going to be denied. The winds were forecast around 10 to 15 knots today, and there was supposed to be a “chop” – not huge waves – in the channel. Trusting in NOAA, we cruised out of our slip and glided down the dive-boat littered canal ahead of all the commercial travelers out to the Atlantic. Turns out “The Soz”, a fishing boat, eased out right in front of us, but other than the two of us, we had the canal to ourselves, a small wonder. There was NO ONE at “crash corner” to bump into. The sun was peeking out between the mansions that rim the canal. All in all, it looked like a propitious day to travel.

And we were uber-ready to get on the move again after docking at Key Largo Resorts since early March. It had been a very relaxing stay, except for the occasional hordes of loud teenagers bussed in from the North to the Marriott Courtyard, which was essentially right next to the dock. And it had been a successful time for boat improvements as well. The Admiral tackled the flying bridge floor, with its rust, mold and chipped paint and the once white metal strip that went down to meet the floor. He found the right “boat paint” at, where else, West Marine – don’t even ask the price per quart. He painted the floor a sparkling ivory white. It looks great. Then we splurged on a bright blue 4 x 6 rug and two smaller foot rugs at K Mart. And voila, our worn out looking flying bridge is ready for the next issue of Yachting with the 99%. It’s amazing what a little paint and an inexpensive rug can do to raise your spirits. When you come to visit, and you must come, I bet you’ll want to live on the flying bridge and sleep on the new rug. But you won’t have to – we still have the bunk bed cabin and the queen bed cabin in the bow for our guests.

Back to our adventure at sea. As we were poking along at 7.2 knots an hour, being gently rocked by the northeastern winds, the Admiral noticed something yellow in the water – an animal of some kind. As we came closer, we both looked over portside and saw the most amazing event occurring right before our eyes. Two yellow/brown sea turtles were embraced in each other’s “arms”, heads out of the water, and the rest of their bodies wrapped around each other – hard when you’re both in a cumbersome shell – making love. Yes, that’s correct. When is the last time anyone ever saw two turtles making love in the ocean in the early morning hours? When is the next time that we will see this? We expect this is a rare sight, and we felt kind of blessed to have been  momentary witnesses to this frolicsome expression of turtle love. What athletes they both were! Bobbing up and down in the waves, still maintaining full body contact, and clearly enjoying themselves immensely. We captured all of this in the five seconds we were able to watch them. They ignored us completely. That’s the true rapture of terrapin mating. April 25, 2013 goes down in our personal history as the day the turtles made love, and the earth and the ocean moved for them – and for us.

But enough about love. We had a mission to complete – cruise on the ocean at 7 plus knots an hour for 8 to 9 hours to arrive at the Bill Bird Marina in North Miami. By 11 a.m. we were half way there. And we were feeling pretty good about the journey at that point. Sure, the Admiral had mentioned feeling a little seasick at the start, when we first started rolling back and forth with the push of the wind on the waves. But he overcame that and we both grew accustomed to the rolling for the next few hours. However, we were not prepared for the much stronger winds that came along, which created even bigger waves, which rocked Slow Motion even more, to the point where we were rolling back and forth, side to side, like we were going to tip over. No, we were not in danger of tipping over, but sometimes it felt like it. I kept revisiting my raft trips down the Colorado River, when we entered giant rapids and held on for dear life, as the raft plummeted down into the bottom of the rapids and then was spewed out as the next rapid approached. I kept telling myself, “this is fun, this is fun”. But my stomach and my head kept tensing up, and I started to feel queasy. For all of the hours I have spent cruising on Slow Motion in the last year, I had never had that feeling. “Seasick? What’s that?”, I scoffed. No more scoffing. I quickly realized that sitting was not a good position, and standing was out of the question, as Slow Motion’s rocking and rolling tended to throw my body around like a rag doll's. The Admiral suggested lying down in the salon. Except for the smell of diesel, this was a good idea, because we had just printed a photo of Zorro, our blue heeler, looking very relaxed lying on a cushion. I had posted it in the salon. So to take my mind off my stomach, I just zoned with Zorro for a while and felt much better. Then I returned to the fresh air of the flying bridge and kept zoning with Zorro, until we hit smoother waters. The Admiral was having a tough time too, but he stayed at the helm, turning somewhat green at the gills. What a champ!

Speaking of green, the ocean between Key Largo and Miami was every shade of green and blue/green today. There was a lot of turquoise. In many spots there were at least five different shades of green and blue, teal and turquoise. It was magnificent. This was something we noticed and enjoyed before the rocking and rolling took its toll on sightseeing.

Now for the most dramatic part. We contacted Bill Bird Marina to advise them that, yes, we were actually arriving today (as opposed to our cancellations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). They told us that we would be in Slip D-2. The Admiral was put out by this news, to say it mildly, because this marina has a wonderful face dock, and he thought we had been promised a space alongside. These face dock spaces are soooo much easier to manage than tiny little slips at the end of a harrowing day of cruising. The Admiral checked his aerial views of the marina, it looked like the slip they told us to go to was very, very small and narrow. The Admiral said: “This looks like Soverel”. That was our first ever docking experience, north of Ft. Lauderdale last year. And the slip was nightmarishly small. We had a terrible time getting between the pilings. Oh God, not another Soverel! Trooper that he is, the Admiral resigned himself to a challenging docking experience. And boy, was it a challenge! We pulled into the marina, wended our way past boats in tiny slips and headed straight to the seawall next to the marina office. We were in the last slip, between a boat and the seawall. The dock assistant asked: “What’s the beam on your boat?” I told him “Sixteen feet”. He said, “Great. This slip is a little more than 16 feet wide.” Jesus! We’re used to slips that are at least 18 feet wide. And did I tell you that we were going to have to back into the slip? This meant pulling forward, while at the same time not hitting the seawall or the boat in the slip directly across from us. And it also meant not hitting the boat in the slip right next to us. Somehow, and I still don’t know how, the Admiral manipulated the engines of Slow Motion to pull off the miracle of backing into this tiny slip without hitting, or even kissing, anything. The dock master was watching, and even she couldn’t believe it. We all gave the Admiral kudos for his masterful work. Naturally, in his aw shucks manner, he said “And this is my first day at trying something like this.” Everyone had a hearty laugh, as we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

It’s time to make our fresh vegetable salads – the treat of the day (along with the mini Kit Kat bars). Then it’s off to induct Slow Motion into the cruisers’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the wild ride she took us on today. And tomorrow? More ocean, more wind – more of that supine position zoning with Zorro. Wish us luck!