My Most Recent ICW Experience
More and more lessons to be learned – dinghy towing can be hazardous
A passage from passage from Marathon FL to Fort Pierce
December 2009
I first became aware of Saffanah surfing E Bay and I first saw Saffanah at anchor in Boot Harbor in Marathon FL. She is a 32 Downeast cutter built in the seventies in Costa Mesa CA, and definitely showed her age – weathered and crazed hull, sad canvas, lousy sails, no electronics, a busted motor and grungy water line. But stepping aboard I immediately had the feeling she was a match for the West Sail 32 I had regretfully sold ten years ago. And so once more I re-demonstrated the very first watery lesson learned (or very obviously never learned) – a fool and his money soon part.
A year later after having her hauled and stored at the Marathon Keys Marina and Boat Yard, and a few thousand dollars later, she was functionally ready to begin her trip to Jacksonville FL where I plan to address the cosmetic issues she so sorely needs.
So on the Day after Thanksgiving 2006 we motored out of Marathon circled the point and entered Hawk Channel.
We had planned to leave the Tuesday before Thanksgiving but a cold front blew through the Keys and even the task of provisioning for the trip was difficult with the wind and rain coming down in torrents. I had never actually sailed Saffanah but knew in my heart she would handle as well as my West Sail. But I did have a concern that the old Perkins, although very thoroughly reworked by the great diesel, David Brown, would be reliable. David had cleaned the fuel tanks, replaced all hoses, rebuilt the water pump and […]
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