Three's Company

Three might be a magical number. The Three Wise Men, The Three Musketeers,... The Three Stooges!

There is a well known quote by an unknown author that says, "Three on watch means peace of mind; two means exhaustion, and one means disaster."

What a difference it makes to have a third crewmember on board! I am so glad our son, Matthew, could come down and make this trip from Key West to Isla Mujeres with us on LaurAlee!

This was a first for us; it was a trip of many firsts. Not only was it our first time with an extra hand aboard, but it was also our first time out of the country on our sailboat, and our first time catching a fish while sailing!

Other than the trolling line my husband would occasionally set up we didn’t make much of an effort to catch fish. But before leaving Florida we made sure to pick up a working outdoor grill and some lures.

Unfortunately, the water between Key West and Mexico was full of sargassum. It floated around in clumps, streams and sometimes blankets. Trolling was out of the question. The only way to fish was to cast out the line, reel it in a few minutes later, remove a clump of sargassum, then cast it out again. We tried using a heavier weight to keep the lure below the floating seaweed, but it would catch on the line traveling down it until it was hooked on the lure. The guys tired of this annoyance pretty quickly, but I found the continuous action of casting out and reeling in to be a good distraction from the heat, that is the only reason I persisted. I surely didn’t imagine I would catch this guy!

Barracuda is great for ceviche or panfried fish fingers. Honestly! But you can get very sick from eating it if the fish has built up a high level of ciguatoxins, which they get from eating reef fish; the reef fish get it from eating marine algae found on coral reefs. Stomach issues from contaminated fish generally clear up after a few days but neurological issues can last weeks, months and sometimes years. Before eating Barracuda, locals (in towns we would visit later in our journey) advised us to toss a piece of the fish onto an ant pile to see if they eat it. Presumably if they do (and they survive) it’s safe to eat. Yeah, not sure about that! For us, this was a catch and release, lucky barracuda!

Our first stop after Key West was the Marquesas Keys. These little islands surround a shallow lagoon. We arrived not too long before sunset, so we anchored out overnight and went for a stroll along the beach, looking at shells. Just a quick stop on our way to the Dry Tortugas National Park.

We have a lot of favorite stops since reaching Florida, and the Dry Tortugas might be the best so far. I really enjoyed our too short time here. I always like it when we can anchor out and swim off the boat.

Had to laugh when I saw these two pictures together, taken 6 years apart! The one on the left (or above if you are reading this on your cell phone) was taken at the lake in Colorado City, TX in June of 2020.

At one point, while the guys were back on the boat, but I was still in the water on my float, my husband calls out to me, “Did you see that huge fish that just swam under you?”

“No, you mean like a big tuna?”

“I think it might have been a bull shark,” he replied in all seriousness.

I had just lectured him on what you are supposed to do if you meet a shark in the water. According to what I read you should stay calm, maintain eye contact and move away slowly without splashing around. “Above all”, I said, “you should never panic.”

I completely panicked! I splashed my way back to the boat and and shimmied up that ladder so fast, you’d think I was racing my way to the buffet line! My husband was trying to calm me by following up his shark remark with, “It might be a manatee?”

It had decided to hang out under our boat and a quick trip down the swim ladder verified that it was it was neither a bull shark nor a manatee, just a very big fish! Bigger than my husband! I’d never seen a fish that size before and as soon as it started to swim towards me, I was the up the ladder again. Chris went down to look and that's how I learned it was a Goliath Grouper.

If I had an underwater camera, I would have taken a picture of this Goliath Grouper hanging out next to our keel so you could see how enormous it is! This picture from the back of the boat doesn't do it justice.

We also toured Fort Jefferson during our stay at the Dry Tortugas National Park. It was interesting and worth the stop on its own, but while there you shouldn't miss snorkeling over by the lighthouse. Again, I wish I had an underwater camera so you could see the sights we saw!

Our son was with us for such a short time that we decided to head on to Mexico after two nights, but this place is somewhere I would love to visit again.

The trip to Mexico was unremarkable other than the heat. We had to douse ourselves with the outdoor shower along the way to stay cool, being mindful of how much fresh water we were using. I finally found a somewhat shady retreat from the heat, when the water was calm enough, by sitting in the same spot my son is in the picture above, on the transom underneath the shadow of the dinghy. I dangled my feet in the sea briefly when a pod of dolphins began to play around our boat to see if they would come close, but they didn’t. As nice as the clear, cool water felt on my toes I feared that something lured from the depths might try and snatch them up as if they were bait, so I kept them tucked under me most of the time!

It was such a relief when the sun went down in the evening as we sailed past Cuba. We would have loved to have been able to stop and visit. Someday. Hopefully.

Our usual routine for overnight passages has Chris taking the helm the first part of the night, until our 2am shift change. But my worry over him being in the cockpit alone always made it a restless slumber. With Matthew onboard I slept peacefully, glad that he was there to keep his dad company and to help with the sailing. I'm spoiled now and don't want to go back to a two-person rotation for multi-night sailing. It is so exhausting. Having an extra person onboard, especially our son, made it a fun trip to our next stop: Isla Mujeres, Mexico!

Chris verified that the fish we saw was a Goliath Grouper.