Dry Tortugas National Park

Before we owned our boat, we decided it would be great to get to know the boat life somewhere local-ish. We didn't want to go too far away from people and land, so we thought hanging out in the keys would be a good idea. Then we realized there were some national parks we could stop and explore, Dry Tortugas being the main one we wanted to stop and see. This park is only accessible by seaplane or boat, so why not make it part of our journey?

Looking through one of many archways inside of Fort Jefferson.

People in our Facebook Endeavour Owners group have said the ideal crossings from Key West were few and far between. We figured we'd try to go and if it didn't work out, we could try another time. According to our schedule, we were going to try to cross on July 5th, but of course, Elsa was expected that day. The southern end of the storm needed enough time to make its way north and we had to wait for my parents' flight to come in, so the updated itinerary had us crossing on July 9th. Looking at the weather, wind, and waves forecast, it would be a great day for crossing- the first decent day since before Elsa. My parents were hesitant to join us, but as Ben told them, "We are going to the Dry Tortugas tomorrow. You can stay here or you can come with us." Needless to say, they joined us and we all were thankful for the very smooth and uneventful 4.5-hour crossing.

My mom, the kids, and I sat in the beanbags on the foredeck while Ben and my dad sat in the cockpit. Some dolphins were spotted and some people took naps. Out in the distance, off the port side of the boat, we saw what looked like a cell tower or metal lighthouse. Looking at the GPS and with the binoculars, we could see that it was a marker for the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico marker

For most of our 4.5 hours, with the exception of the very first and last moments, there was no land in sight. I did not sleep well the previous night because I was worried my parents wouldn't enjoy their time on the boat. I didn't have to worry about that with Ben's mom because her parents had a sailboat and she has some boating knowledge. My dad has a curse when it comes to boats, so he has sworn them off for as long as I can remember. When people hear I was born in Florida, they assume I have some boat knowledge or experience, when in fact, I didn't have much when we started this boat life just a few weeks ago. As I was trying to sleep I couldn't help but hear the voice inside of me wondering what my parents were thinking and how they were feeling, hoping they could enjoy themselves and that I wasn't making their boat experience worse for them.

We pulled around Garden Key and got a full view of Fort Jefferson. Just knowing that this place has been around since 1845 was pretty cool. Learn more about the park and its history here. Unfortunately, we didn't get a tour, but we were able to read the information that was posted around the fort and get a sense of what it was like to be in the octagonal-shaped fort in years past.

First glances of Fort Jefferson, by boat.

Can you find 4 of our people on the parade grounds?

Moose and Ben walking along the top level of Fort Jefferson.

This is the inside of the cool cylindrical-roofed building. It was used to hold ammo and powder.

Spiral staircases take you to level 2 and the roof.

We found Cartermaran!

After walking around the fort, we decided we'd go for a quick dip in the water and test out our full-face snorkels. Our quick dip lasted somewhere close to 2 hours because the water was the perfect temperature and the sea life was incredible! There were so many different fish in the water around Garden Key- we made up names for a few of them, including the Bee Fish which was a little black and yellow striped fish that reminded us of a bee. The snorkels worked great for everyone except Roo, who may just need a little bigger face for it to work properly. She was busy and content with finding coral in the sand and watching little crabs that colonized on the wall of the moat.

Roo's Coral Collection

SO. MANY. CRABS!

There is a moat that runs around the fort, the outer boundary wall is wide and is like a giant brick path along the perimeter. We walked along that to where it dead ended, exploring the sea life from above. I looked out in the distance and saw 2 fins that looked like all of the dolphins we'd been seeing, but one was dipping down and the other stayed stationary above the water. I asked Ben what it was because it was clearly different. He said, "THAT is a shark." After we alerted the swimmers in the water, who casually asked what kind it was and continued snorkeling, we watched as it swam off in the distance and eventually swam deeper and disappeared. All of us saw it, so it was pretty exciting and put a check on Moose's "Things To See" list.

Thinking we'd explore Loggerhead Key the next day, we headed back to the boat, hung out on the deck, and watched the sunset. Both Ben and I didn't sleep well that night. We were both worried that we didn't have good service and couldn't keep an eye on the weather, wind, and waves, so we decided to leave the next morning, with a quick stop at Loggerhead Key.

Anchoring is prohibited at Loggerhead Key. There are no docks for boats to use. The only option is a mooring ball. This new experience was described to me rather quickly, with Ben telling me I had to use the boat hook to thread our line into the line from the mooring ball. My technical brain was trying to figure out how this all worked and I thought I could do it. I probably could've done it, if the mooring ball line was longer. We almost gave up and left. It took 3 (or more?) times for Ben to float up to the mooring ball before I could grab the line and secure it. Who am I kidding?! Ben had to do it himself once I got the rope on the boat hook. That was super stressful and nearly impossible.

Cartermaran on the mooring ball (white ball floating in front of the bow).

Ben, the kids, and I jumped into the tender (my parents stayed on the boat) and went to Loggerhead Key to quickly explore. Bear was THRILLED to see some sea turtle nests that had been roped off on the beach. We didn't see any turtles, but figured that's how the key got its name. (BTW- Loggerhead Turtles were named by boaters back in the day who, when they were looking out in front of them couldn't decide if what they saw was a log or a head... log-or-head... Loggerhead.) The lighthouse wasn't too far away, and being the only ones on the island, we were able to walk to it quickly, snap some photos, and get back to the tender. 

Sea turtle nest!

The fresh footprints are ours and were the first of the day.

Loggerhead Key Lighthouse in the early morning hours.

We boarded the boat for our cruise home, which lasted a bit longer than the way there. It took us 7.5 hours in 3-5 foot seas. Roo joined the seasick sailors team and Moose added another tally to his title. (And to think- I was worried about the boat experience before we went to the Dry Tortugas!)

4th of July & Elsa in Key West

Our initial plan was to leisurely travel down the keys, stopping along the way when we wanted. Tropical Storm Elsa, then turned Hurricane Elsa, and demoted again to Tropical Storm Elsa (and later a hurricane then tropical storm again!) had other plans.

In June, we decided to have Ben's mom and, later, my parents join us on our journey. We'd drop off Ben's mom and pick up my parents in Key West on July 3. We started looking for marinas to make the airport ground transportation easier, but all of the cheaper marinas were booked and the others were super expensive and not worth it. We nixed the idea and decided we'd make do in an anchorage. Enter Elsa: a cheaper marina opened up some availability because of cancelations due to the storm. We wound up staying there for 8 nights because of the storm and because my parents rescheduled to come join us after Elsa turned away and slammed the door. (You sang that part, didn't you?)

While we were in Key West, we rented a golf cart for 6, went to the beach, and did some sightseeing. We ate some delicious food and had a great time being tourists. What else were we to do with 8 days in a place we thought we'd spend a day or 2?

We rented this golf cart to get us around Key West.

4th of July was Sunday and Elsa was expected to begin overnight, into Monday. We kept wondering if we'd be able to watch fireworks or if the winds would be starting to pick up and cancel the show. Thankfully, Elsa slowed down a bit and the show was still on, so we had to decide how to get to the fireworks, without a golf cart. Walk 1.5 miles to the south side of the island with 3 little people complaining the whole way both directions and in the heat OR take the tender out and around the island a few miles, despite not having adequate lighting. We went back and forth and both settled on walking, but the idea that we'd never watched fireworks from a boat and there would be a lot less complaining wouldn't leave our heads. A few headlamps creatively strapped to the front of the tender and the back of Ben's head became our tender lights, we put on life vests, I grabbed bug spray and our waterbottles, and we were quickly on our way.

Bear, Moose, & Roo enjoying a sunset cruise on the tender on the 4th of July, on our way to the fireworks.

It didn't take long into our tender ride for me to second guess this idea. The waves were rather large for a tender (2-3 ft.) and this was our first real ride on it. We had taken it for a quick spin in Ft. Lauderdale's Lake Sylvia, but it was just a few of us at a time. On the 4th, it was all 5 of us, at dusk, heading to (and eventually in) the open ocean in an 11 ft. tender. Several times I said, "This is my least favorite 4th of July celebration ever," which says a lot. For those of you who don't know, 4th of July is my favorite holiday. Yes, I like it better than Christmas and Thanksgiving. Something about what it represents, the patriotism, how we got there then (and here today), fireworks and the loud booms and sounds that accompany them (I enjoy this more than the visual show itself!), summertime, friends and family, and no expectations of gifts, all mixed in with memories of my grandparents and prior celebrations.

When we decided we had circled around the island far enough to see the show (probably about 4 miles from our marina), Ben threw out the tender's anchor and we bobbed in the water. Looking out toward the ocean, it looked like Christmas! The green, white, and red boat lights lit up the southern horizon. I couldn't believe how many boats were out there for the show.

All of the lights are the boats lined up and ready to watch the show.

One of the many displays we got to see from our tender.

Key West put on a decent show and then we had to go back the 4 miles to the marina. In the dark. With underpowered headlamps. Ben pulled up the anchor as soon as the finale was over, despite a few more fireworks being lit after so we could start back before the larger boats. After a few minutes of riding back on our own, a zillion boats that were much bigger than us started zooming by, leaving us in their spray and bouncing all over their wakes. About halfway through, when a lot more boats caught up to us, Ben laughed and said, "I feel like a frog crossing a highway!" I didn't realize that I was holding Roo so tight she told me she couldn't breathe! At least she wasn't going to fall out!

Monday, we thought, would be a day spent inside, hunkered down, and away from the storm. We prepared for that on Saturday and Sunday, so we didn't have much to do. Ben had tied the lines so that Cartermaran sat in the middle of our slip and made it nearly impossible for anyone to get onto the dock from the boat. Knowing that the winds could pick up at any point, we just hung out inside the boat.

That night, we put the kids to bed early(ish) so we could all fall asleep before the commotion started and hopefully get some sleep. Laying with the kids after tucking them in made me eerily feel like the mom in Titanic who is shown reading a story and tucking her kids in, as the ship is sinking. Creepy.

I slept mostly through the night, waking up a few times and falling back to sleep quickly, until I woke up around 5:45. I laid in bed and felt the boat blow to one side, then get tugged back by the line and repeat, over and over again. I peeked outside expecting not to see anyone and was surprised to see several cars on US-1. Soon after I got up, everyone else started to wake up too. All of us were surprised by the wind and rain- we all were underwhelmed, as what we were experiencing was less than a typical Colorado thunderstorm. Despite that, we couldn't go anywhere, so we watched Luca, ate some Twizzlers, played a few games, and enjoyed some time together as a family while ensuring our family and friends that we were safe and it truly wasn't bad.

This is our view from the port side of Cartermaran- during Tropical Storm Elsa.

When the rain stopped and the winds were dying down, we decided to go for a walk. The temperature was in the low 80s with minimal sun, so a 1.3 mile walk would be tolerable. It helped that our end destination had cupcakes. We brought the cupcakes to Veterans Memorial Garden and ate them at a gazebo there, followed by the kids running off steam in the grass. Our return route brought us zigzagging through the town and back to the marina.

Key West Cakes makes cupcakes as delicious as they look here- back left: Key Lime, back right: Cookies & Cream, front: Coconut Cream

Throughout the day, during the storm, we saw people wearing raincoats and walking or riding their bikes down US-1, the path we took on our walk after the storm. Clearly this wasn't as alarming for the people experiencing the hurricane-turned-tropical-storm as it was for those hearing about it from afar.

Biscayne National Park

On Monday, we traveled south from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. It was a short and easy day. We had to stop in a marina in Miami in order to pick up Ben's mom. The kids didn't know she was coming, so they were completely surprised!

Tuesday morning, we cruised down to Biscayne National Park. This park is the largest marine national park because over 95% of it is underwater. There are a lot of shipwrecks and reefs to dive to and most of those are on the ocean side of the start of the keys. We started off at the visitor center. Took some pictures, watched a movie to learn more, and bought a few souvenirs at the gift shop before heading out to Boca Chita Key.

We took a short ride (~1 hour) across Biscayne Bay and pulled into an empty docking area. Boca Chita Key was previously owned by Mark Honeywell- the thermostat guy. He built the lighthouse and then after his wife somehow died on the island, sold it.

No one was there. Not one person. It was just us and our boat. We couldn't believe we had the whole island to ourselves! The cutest little hermit crabs were one of the critters that inhabit this island. We all enjoyed watching them, which required sneaking up on them so they wouldn't retreat into their shells.

Boca Chita Key is the northernmost of the Florida Keys, so we finally made it to one of our summer destinations.

Not the official park sign, but we didn't want to walk a mile in the heat and this one was unique and got the point across just the same.

Our view coming into Boca Chita Key.

Cartermaran tied up off to the right- we had the whole island to ourselves!

Our little walk around the island path led us to this beautiful little beach. We dipped our feet in before realizing the mosquitos were coming out in full force and we had to make a run back through the wooded area to our boat.

This is disgusting. All this trash is just thrown onto the side of the beach. How can people leave so much behind? What about the animals? Does this look like a trash can? I don't get it. Gross.

Apparently, this is a popular camping spot. All the grassy areas are for camping and group camping. Personally, I liked sleeping in my boat with AC, a comfy mattress, and no mosquitos. (Peep it in the background with the bright blue SUP on the side.)

The Maintenance Guy

Hello all, Ben here... Although Lisa and the kids get to live a relative life of complete leisure, someone has to, as they say.. keep the ship afloat. So, that is me I am the maintenance and improvement guy. The Cartermaran was well-maintained before we bought it, but she was born in 2002. Things need to be replaced and updated periodically, so that is one of my other duties.

Below is a bunch of technical information and IT geek stuff, so enjoy.

IMPROVEMENTS: When we were at survey, I noticed some things that were cutting-edge in 2002. Things like the solar system and onboard ship systems, I wanted to improve.

SOLAR: I am unsure what the 4 panels were originally intended to produce, but I saw a peak output of a minuscule 273 watts.

The new panels were ordered right after we returned from the survey. I ordered 2 residential style panels (LG Solar- LG370N1K-A6) from Eco Direct which produce 370 watts max, each, at a higher voltage. I also ordered a ton of products from Victron Energy- parts to make it all work and integrate all the boat systems. I spent a half day installing the panels while Lisa and the kids were off in North Palm Beach with family and I was waiting for the new turbocharger to arrive from Yanmar. Results were great in partial sunlight. The two panels produced 722 watts at 79v which is a huge improvement. I also took the opportunity to remove the 20 year old obsolete and unused mobile satellite dish.

THE BRAIN: Technology is crazy these days and with us planning on being away from the boat for long stretches, I wanted to be able to monitor everything remotely, so I began installing products from Victron Energy which allow me to wirelessly and remotely monitor: battery voltage, solar output, battery capacity, water tank level, fuel tank level, remotely start the generator, and countless other things. I also installed a system from BRNKL which I have set, not only as a security system which activates all the boats lights and a siren when activated, but also monitors a camera, both bilge pumps, battery voltage, inverter status, and GPS position (and geofence). It gets routed through an internet router that automatically selects the best signal from local WiFi or a mobile hotspot. Both get their signals amplified through an external antenna and signal booster. All these systems and data can be viewed by us any where in the world! Technology is crazy!

Control Panel

THE HEART(S): Anyone that knows me, knows I love engines. I also briefly went to college to be able to work on them. Our dual 240hp YANMAR 4LHA-STP engines have been great and would have been completely reliable without a rag accidently stuffed in one of the intakes (not by me), but we rely on them A LOT (we don't have sails as back up). I wanted to give them the most love possible, so one of the first things I did was give them fresh air by installing blowers into the engine compartments, installing tons of lighting (you used to use a headlamp to see and I check the engines and fluids before running every day), and installing WiFi cameras to see them from the helm while underway. I also installed about 80 sq. ft. of sound/heat insulation around the inside of the engine compartment (the factory barely installed any). This has allowed the kids (they sleep on top of the engine compartments) to continue to sleep, and sometimes Lisa, while underway when I get up early and get going on long travel days.

BLOOD: Filters, filters, filters, and fluids. Being that it's not that easy to get parts or go to the store, the boat came with and I have since acquired tons of spare parts. There is a spare for almost everything: dozens of filters for oil, fuel, water, and the water-maker, 15 gallons of oil, belts, screws, gaskets, pumps, starter, 8 gallons of coolant, and on and on. At first opportunity, I changed both the engines and generator to full synthetic oil. Although more expensive, we rely on them, so they only get the best. I am partial to Rotella and it gets changed every 250 running hours in our Yanmars.

MAINTENANCE: Everything wears out eventually, so a fair bit of time is spent maintaining things before they become problematic, like completely replacing all the seals on our dripping hatches and replacing all our bulbs with LEDs.

SAFETY: Okay, I didn't do this stuff last but it did get done along the way. There were some items to change over to have our information on it, like the AIS transmitter, EPIRB, and other safety equipment. 

KIDS EXTRA SAFETY: Whenever we are out of a marina, the kids are required to wear life vests. We also added a man overboard alarm from ACR. Basically, how it works is the kids wear a little wristband and if they get 50 ft. from the boat (because they fell overboard) it sets off an alarm on our navigation tablet and the electrical panel. It's good peace of mind and seems to function well so far.

Until next time...

Love,

The Maintenance Guy

Black Smoke

On the first day of our journey from Rhode Island, we saw black smoke coming out of the starboard engine if it was running at 2,000 RPM or more. One of the pros of a catamaran is that there are 2 engines, so even though our starboard engine couldn't go full throttle, we still had the port side engine. With only one healthy engine, our max current-dependent speed was around 10.5 knots. It took us 13 days to get from Rhode Island to our dock in Sebastian, Florida. With 2 healthy engines, we likely could've made it in a week, putting in as many hours a day that we did (12-15 hour days).

Ben thought it was smoking because it wasn't getting enough air in the engine, likely because of the turbo. Then he thought it was the fuel filter, then the wastegate of the turbo. At each anchorage, he would check the engines, turbo, filters, oil, diesel... maybe more or less, I'm not sure. I do know that it was messy and called for a lot of gloves, paper towels, and trash bags in a hurry. (That was my job.)

This is a weird perspective, but Ben is working on the starboard engine. To the left of his head, is the step Moose and Roo use to climb up into their bed. The white flat part with wood edging (above that black snake-looking thing) is the platform that their bed rests on when the bed is down.

Bear sleeps over the port engine while Moose and Roo sleep over the starboard one. To access and check the engines, Ben has to lift the kids' beds and that unmakes the beds, ruining my neat bedmaking skills. I quickly had to get over the presentation of their beds once I realized this would be happening daily. Fixing the sheets after lifting the beds for each check was just wasting my time.

Every time Ben lifted the beds and did something on the engine I was ever so grateful for his diesel mechanic training. It gave me peace of mind, but with each f-bomb he dropped, I couldn't help but wonder if our problem was beyond his scope.

When Ben exhausted all options, he searched for someone who could help us once we got to Sebastian. He found a marine diesel engine mechanic who was willing to come take a look for us and then accidentally came across a Yanmar mechanic, which was perfect for our Yanmar engine.

Yanmar guy ordered and replaced our turbo. Four miles into the trip to North Palm Beach, there was black smoke again. The mechanic was on his way to meet Ben at a restaurant's dock and told Ben to dive under the boat and check that there wasn't anything stuck on the propellers. He found nothing.

When the Yanmar guy arrived, he vacuumed out the turbocharger intercooler and found a shop rag in the engine. Someone had serviced the turbo and closed the rag in there limiting the airflow into the engine, which had been the source of our problem.

That black thing was once a blue shop towel. It is solely responsible for freaking us out and slowing us down! (Red and black thing is a flashlight, not found in the turbo.)

Once Ben left the dock, he was able to get up to 17 knots with no black smoke! Problem solved.