Sailing to Key West FL USA

As the sun set on Saturday 9 March and BV crossed the drop-off on the western tip of Cuba, we raised a beer in a toast to a wonderful time in Cuba and a promise to return.  But we now we needed to turn our focus to the passage ahead. In a straight-ish line to Key West the direct passage would be about 220nm, nearly 2 full days at sea. However, with the wind forecast to come from the east-northeast through to the southeast we knew that we would end up beating for a significant portion of the trip, so we expected to be at sea for 2-3 nights.

Dawn on Sunday 10 March

One of the new teak plugs fitted to cover a screw.   When
the glue is properly set, I will sand down the slightly
proud plugs so that they are flush with the deck to properly
finish the job

The first night was quite easy. The wind was from the southeast and we were able to remain on starboard tack as we sailed northeast along Cuba’s west coast.  The wind dropped, so we motored, and then filled in again from a more northeasterly direction so we sailed once more, diverging from track.  Between keeping an eye on Georgina, the Hydrovane, we spent our on-watch time on Saturday doing chores.  Nicky gave the galley a good clean whilst I replaced some worn teak plugs in the cockpit and fixed a loose hinge on the toilet seat [Ed: oh, the luxurious life of the long-distance cruiser!]

The effect of the east-bound Gulf Stream on our track.  The red line is straight line to Key West, the purple line our track over the ground. Having tacked to head a bit east of north, when we reached the Gulf Stream we were carried on it so that our course over the ground was much more northeasterly.  A great bonus but the Gulf Stream’s only about 20nm wide here so the lift didn’t last for too long

In the afternoon the wind died again so we motored, heading back towards our planned track.  When we got sailing again, we once more diverged from track. But then we reached the Gulf Stream and were quite suddenly lifted up towards the wind on the 2kt current.  It was great whilst it lasted but the Gulf Stream is surprisingly narrow and within a few hours we had sailed out the other side.  Perhaps we should have tacked to stay in the stream, tacking back again when we reached the southern side one more but there was a lot of large commercial traffic in the area and we didn’t fancy a continual game of Frogger as we beat back and forth in the area of highest shipping density.

The pod of dolphins was at least 30-strong and included
a number of babies

Dawn (0740EDT) on Monday 11 March saw us entering US territorial waters about 30nm south of the Dry Tortugas National Park and with about 60nm (in a direct line) to Key West.  Our arrival was celebrated by the 30-strong ‘Welcome to Florida Dolphin Display Team’ which joined in formation on us and then leapt, whirled and spun in joyous excitement of our arrival.

By midday we were actually in the Florida Keys, somewhat southeast of the Dry Tortugas and about 30nm west of Key West.  The water was a beautiful colour but apart from some lobster pots there was little to see as most of the Keys are under water at this end of the chain and those that aren’t are extremely low-lying and were below our horizon.  Had we pressed on under power we could easily have reached Key West by Monday night but we understood that we needed to take a marina berth to carry out the check-in with Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  We didn’t fancy being charged US$150 for the few hours of a night in a marina whilst we ran around in the small hours doing the arrivals paperwork with the CBP nightshift, so instead we decided to stay out at sea, beating very, very slowly up the coast, to arrive first thing in the morning.  It seemed much better to arrive freshly showered at the beginning of the day to tackle the authorities with the bonus of keeping $150 in our pocket, rather than the marina’s, which we could later divert into our beer and wine fund.

So, we spent the night tacking up and down making slow progress east along the Keys.  Essentially, we were killing time but we were also able to make water and fill up our tanks.  At 3am, when she judged we were close enough to the entrance to Key West, Nicky hove to until 0630hrs which was the right time to start making an approach across the shallows to get into Key West for 0830hrs.  As soon as we got a mobile phone signal, Nicky called in to notify the authorities of our arrival in US waters and intent to complete the check-in at Key West.  Expecting a 15-minute question and answer session (like last time) she was pleasantly surprised by a ‘deal with all of the paperwork when you get into Key West’. The officer also confirmed that we could leave BV at anchor whilst we completed the arrivals process, so there was no requirement to book into a marina; excellent news.

The main entrance channel to Key West with Celebrity Victory in the cruise ship dock

For the latter part of the approach we joined the main channel, passed a couple of cruise ships on the dock and then continued a mile further north to drop anchor in the Fleming Key Cut anchorage. We switched the engine off at 0840hrs, 2½ days and 308 miles (through the water) from Los Morros.  There was no time to relax though because we needed to inflate the dinghy and go ashore to visit the CBP office.

Key West, Florida, USA