As winds abated on Saturday, we left Key Largo at 8:40 AM for Boca Raton, 82 nautical miles away. Largo's canals, cut from coral years ago, are about 16 feet deep but the depths in the Atlantic Ocean's entrance channel are considerably shallower. Once past the Largo jetty, the channel's depths were between 5.5 and 6 feet and remained that shallow until passing marker Red 2 about a half mile away. Throttling up to 16 knots of speed, in open water, we turned northwest into the Hawk Channel intending to head past Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton.
For the first hour, winds were on the bow at 10 knots. Then, they shifted to the east, strengthened and increased the wave heights. Three hours later, south of Miami in bouncing beam seas, there was a loud bang, and a severe vibration aft. I chopped the throttle, slowed and then slowly sped up. The vibration returned, shaking the stern violently. I backed up, thinking that I could dislodge whatever was fouling the prop. NO SUCH LUCK!! So we turned for the Miami breakwater at slow speed and limped into Miami Marina. A diver found about 15 feet of knotted 1 1/2 inch poly hawser wrapped around the five bladed prop. Luckily, nothing was damaged and 45 minutes later we were outbound from Miami at 16.5 vibration-free knots.
At 3:45 we passed through Boca Inlet, ran a few miles up the ICW to our friend's private marina where we will stay until continuing our trip northward on Tuesday.
Ebb Tide II underway
