Windy conditions and our first breakdown

The wind continued to blow Saturday and Sunday, up to about 30 mph out of the Northeast which would be considered the first cold front of the year and confirmation that the season is changing to fall. Cindy and I took the day on Saturday to clean up the house and stock with fresh supplies for our last 2 weeks in the Keys. Rode our bikes the entire day, which ended up being quite a workout peddling back a couple miles against that strong gale.

Cindy’s brother Steve arrived on Saturday night and plans on hanging out with us the entire week, which is great timing cause the winds are supposed to ease up for the entire week. We pushed our luck on Sunday by trying to get out on the boat a day earlier while the winds were still howling. The forecast showed a minor drop in the wind speed for the day, so we headed out towards 7 mile bridge to see if we could escape the worst of the gusts.

Started off not being able to find any live bait for cast netting, then decided to drive down around a couple small keys to try to find calmer waters. On the way I ran over one of the lobster trap buoys, but thought I had seen it just soon enough to put the engine in neutral. Verified no damage was caused visually on the lower unit, then continued on our way. Only problem was that we had no thrust over about 2,000 rpm. With the wind and outgoing tide we weren’t gonna be able to make it back home on our own power… Appeared that we had “spun a hub”, which is what occurs when u hit something and a rubber/plastic piece fails on purpose to let the prop spin freely to prevent damaging the drive shaft or propeller itself.

We were close enough to some shallower water and drifting towards it, then threw out the anchor and we proceeded to snorkel around for a bit. Might as well get some fun out of the trip for a little while. Actually almost caught a couple lobsters I came across in the some small holes, but they were too quick and wily.

Got on the radio about an hour later and contacted Sea Tow with our info and location for a tow back to the house. About an hour later, captain Jay showed up and threw a line to tow us back home. Along the way the wind really started cranking and the rain showers started to move through the area. It was a wet, windy and bumpy ride back home, but it makes you really appreciate the calm and sunny days ahead.

First part of the tow was sunny with moderate winds..

Luckily for us we had signed up for a sea tow membership a couple weeks back, otherwise the towing bill would have been almost $700! While Mike and Vicki were here, we had an electrical issue with the engine’s ground wire while abut 10 miles out in the gulf side. Didn’t need to call Sea Tow since Mike was able to call his dealer’s service department and get some tips on things to try which worked. But that was a close call and convinced me to renew the sea tow membership, which paid off this past weekend when needing a tow. Interesting how life events occur, if we had not incurred the electrical issue, then we likely wouldn’t have renewed sea tow and now be out quite a bit of money for our tow this past weekend.

We all made it back safe to the dock, which is the most important thing during each trip out on the ocean.