Tuesday - 10mls out from Marathon

Monday 12.19  / Five AM.    Anchored 16 miles offshore, near Marathon Fl.

I made a very large judgement error yesterday and this may have resulted in our ‘shutdown’ at sea? About 10:30 pm we wrapped a crab pot around our prop?  We were motoring along when a “new sound” started followed by another sicker new sound.  I’m HOPING it’s just a crab pot line wrapped around and not something more sinister.  Regardless of what or why, we are stopped, at anchor, awaiting daylight to figure out our situation and determine the best course of action to move forward.

Yesterday we were SUPPOSED to sail from Marco Island down to Shark River but I didn’t plan well and we got out underway before I determined that we would never reach Shark River before dark.  This prompted us to change our plan – under way – to sail straight through, overnight, to Marathon, Fl.  “Everything is going well, what could possibly go wrong?”  Let’s sail now overnight to Marathon.

In an hour or so when we get first light I’ll know more.  For now we sit and rock, anchored in 23ft, way out at sea.  YESTERDAY was a smooth day for our sail with light winds off the nose.  We made good time till we had to stop.  We ate dinner at the table in the cockpit while underway.  Pork chops, corn on the cob, black eyed peas and corn bread.  Thank goodness we ate before the trouble started.

I’ve heard GOD takes care of Fools and Drunks.  So imagine my surprise today when we discovered multiple ropes wrapped around my prop shaft…  I felt like he was letting down and old buddy.

I don’t have the vocabulary to describe Lynne ‘riding the storm out’ in the dingy while I was underwater cutting crab pot ropes.  She had one hand holding a Crab Pot that kept getting tangled around our air box and the other hand holding the ‘dive rope’ helping me to move underwater.  (“air box” is the milk crate holding the air tank)  The seas picked up to 3-4ft with waves tossing her about.  The dingy was positioned several feet behind Prodigal to be a rescue vehicle should I miss my safety rope while working.  Plus it held the tools we brought.  First we used my little dive knife with a serrated edge.  (invision the knife sheath strapped to my leg ‘ala sea hunt style’ with a short leader tied to the handle and clipped to my shirt.)  But the line just laughed at my knife and I was the only thing risking getting cut.  Then we tried bolt cutters to free the two separate Crab Pots that were wrapped around the propeller shaft.  (I dawn mask, fins, snorkel to swim down to the prop to find 2 floats tangled together and their pots trailing away down into the abyss.)  At first I was holding my breath and swimming down the 4 feet below waterline to investigate.  I cut the trailing pots and then the two floats.  But the ropes were too tightly wound to untangle.  (think spool of thread wound around the shaft)  Next we switched to a short tree limb saw.  But after a few breaths of practice cutting it became clear that I needed to break out the dive gear.  I just couldn’t hold my breath long enough to work and get the ropes cut off. 

New Scene:  the water is clear and cold.  I’m swimming in it.  The boat is bouncing up and down with the increasing waves.  Time is burning and we have to get this done to sail on.  So we take a short break for some lunch….    Lynne makes us a couple of lettuce wraps to get our energy up for the Sea Hunt adventure.  Yummy turkey/ham shredded carrot with mustard rolled in lettuce.  Just what every cold diver craves!  Rejuvenated and revived we decide it’s past time to break out the dive tank.  (learning slowly – this is a tough lesson and I was never a good student.)  We decide to ‘tie the scuba tank into a milk crate’ and lower it over the side of Prodigal down to the correct working depth so I can breathe down there and work on cutting the ropes.  (very great plan in theory)  Just make a macramé hanging basket for the scuba tank.  BUT, the current is so strong it does not ‘hang’ down so much as trail along behind.  This is where Lynne is bouncing around, in the rescue trail position.  (It’s also where the other crab pot float is sitting.  It’s the Bermuda Triangle of operations.)  Soon we have the air crate wrapped around the existing Crab Pot with Lynne bouncing around it all and periodically being bounced up against the ship’s hull.  I’m swimming down below all this with a saw having the ship pummel me with bouncing bucking waves.  To do my part of this Circus I swim out and grab our safety line tied to Prodigal.  I can hold it and relax, catch my breath and fix my gear.  I take my other, free hand, the one holding the razor-sharp saw and pull the Air Crate toward me. (~10ft)  When I get the crate and have the regulator in my mouth breathing air, I take my legs and wrap them around the crate to hold it.  Now I sort of ‘dive bomb float’ below the surface, pulling my self along on the safety rope till I’m just a little upstream of the propeller.  Its at this point things get weird.  I sort of coast, float, and then drop the rope.  I’m falling backwards (laying on my back) and reaching for the Prop shaft or Rudder before the current carries me past all this and into the bouncing dingy above.  Mostly I grab the Rudder because it’s the biggest target and then pull myself down to the Prop Shaft.  I hold the prop shaft with my right hand and cut with my left.  All the while, 4’ waves are causing the boat above me to bounce and buck.  It’s sort of an underwater upside down bronc riding event with my straddling the air crate and holding on for dear life.  As simple as this all sounds, it wasn’t.  Sometimes the air tank would get pulled away during the ramming into the hull, sometimes I would get banged into the hull or shoved by huge water surge and lose my grip.  So it took a long time and several tries to finally get everything cut away.  But eventually we did have the shaft clear and I could spin the prop by hand.

CAN YOU SEE THE CRAB POTS IN THIS ONE?

Unfortunately, it took so long that we only got the anchor pulled about 4pm and didn’t make much distance at all on Monday.  (*that’s why the SPOT didn’t move and the reply was “equipment situation.”)  Now it’s 5am Tuesday and we are anchored again out in the Gulf of Mexico.  The winds are a little stronger and the waves are a little taller but I’m not feeling threatened.  I’m drinking coffee in the salon and trying to catch up on the blog.  I just hit the SPOT and think a second cup of coffee is called for this morning!

I can see the lights of Key West, and Marathon in the distance but will sit tight till I have enough light to dodge the darn old Crab Pots.  I pray that all goes well today and that we make Marathon before dark!

Warmest at this Holiday Season,   xo Skip

PS.  Since we changed plans mid stream, we had to create a Starboard Running Light while underway.  (switching from day sails to Shark River – to overnight)  Our ‘work around’ was to attach two LED lights to a milk crate and bungy chord it on deck.  It worked like a champ as we saw zero boats all night.  (and I assume that zero saw us?)