Fleming Key Cut

Yesterday we cut short a visit to Mallory Square, just before the performances began, because we could see Ashling was dragging slowly. When we got back aboard, we set a second anchor and thought "Good! That should work."

But you know, Key West has locally developed squalls that are not predicted. When these hit , you can have winds of 25 knots, gusting 30-35. Combine that with poor holding, and you cannot afford inattention. We awoke at 6:30am to rapidly rising winds, and the anchor chain dragging around to meet the new E wind. So we closed all hatches and closely watched the anchor alarm. When the wind got up to 25, we started the engines. We had swung from 18 ft depth to 6-7 ft (on the charts) but the depth sensor said "---", which usually means you're aground. Funny, we didn't act aground, still swinging.

When the squall passed, we decided to move to the City Marina moorings, and went around Flemming Key to get there. But as we approached, a second squall arrived, with rain and 22knots. We tried to approach a ball, but all the empty ones had no pendant, just an iron ring the you must reach down almost 4 feet to pass a line through. At the same time, the stb propeller stopped working in forward, which meant we could not hold steady long enough to get that ball. So we dropped back and anchored. It dragged at 1 kn, so we dropped a second one and got down to a few tenths of a knot

When it passed, we finally picked up an empty ball. Sheesh. I still have to dive the prop and figure out what is wrong.Read more