I had long ago noticed that there were two ways to bring the boat to the new house in eastern Cudjoe Key: Break it down and strap it to the roof of the Honda Element (thus requiring an engine cart and two kayak straps for transit), or simply motor it through the ocean, all the way to Cudjoe. The latter hadn't been a particularly favored plan, because it seemed a bit adventurous, compared to the relative safety and security of strapping everything to the Honda and rolling down the highway with it like everything else.
But that was before this day. It was my 32nd birthday, and I was strongly urged to spend it at least partly enjoying the boat. Boat, eh? The engine cart would probably arrive today via UPS, but then again it'd be fun to gas the boat up, and the NOAA predicted sub-1-foot seas for our corner of the ocean, the wind was calm, and there wasn't a storm for a few hundred miles in any direction. And I'd studied the route carefully in the past, I knew it would be relatively simple:
Start at left, exit to the ocean through Sugarloaf Creek, turn left at the open ocean, have fun planing the boat until I see the markers for Bow Channel, then follow them until I could see the far side of Cudjoe, then aim for it. I estimated 3 hours time, and half a tank of gas from my 3-gallon gas tank.
I gassed up the boat's gas tank, left the Honda Element at Grace's workplace, and walked to the ole Bay Point place, where the boat was tied up. Bailed water out of it, sprayed myself down with Skin So Soft, put on my pith helmet, and I was on my way. I pushed off of the seawall at 12:58pm, circled around Bay Point, and aimed out into Lower Sugarloaf Sound for what proved to be a picture-perfect ride. By 1:33pm, I was near the two sticks that show the location of the pass leading to Sugarloaf Creek,
And soon after, I was navigating through the twists and turns of Sugarloaf Creek (Click Here For Video):
Then, I crossed into the open ocean, which was, as the NOAA promised, very calm, even by Lower Keys standards. This was where I cranked the throttle all the way up and the boat planed very quickly. So quickly, that I did not even notice this until reviewing video footage:
The dark, curling object ahead to port, is a nurse shark. Hard to see from this still, but clearly discernable in the few video frames in which he appears. Otherwise, the water is mine:
But soon, Cudjoe Key comes into view, along with the channel markers of Bow Channel, around 2:17pm:
After a quick glance at the waterproof chart I'd brought aboard, I managed to find the entrance to the eastern Cudjoe canal sometime around 2:45pm:
The water going into the canal is very shallow, but I didn't hit:
And from here, just a bit of canal cruising (Click Here For Video):
And like that, the Porta-Bote was tied up at its new port, around 3:10pm, for a total of 2 hours and 12 minutes, and only about 1/3rd of a tank of gas. I got home to find the UPS man had left the engine cart, so now I can pull the engine out and give it a good flush and checkup for more grand voyages.
-Chris