Bahia Honda

4.4.10

This is a good one, albiet lengthy...
So we left Marathon on Saturday afternoon, just to travel 5miles. We went on the Bayside of Bahia Honda State Park. It's supposed to have some of the best beaches and snorkeling in the keys, so we anchored on the backside of the island with big plans to dinghy into the park the following day.
So Sunday morning, Brad's birthday!, it was a gorgeous day and I finally got around to hooking up the fishing poles! So we drank a few beers and fished for about 2hours. After having caught nothing, we decided we should consult some fishermen at the next port to see what we were doing wrong. We called it a day, packed some beers in a cooler and loaded them and Koa into the dinghy. It was our dinghy debut ride!
It was a wet ride into the park marina, but we made it in without complications. We hung out on the beach for awhile, talking to a friendly family down from up north on spring break. We eventually got chased off the beach by a fun-sucker park ranger - apparently dogs aren't allowed in state parks. Stupid rule.
So we loaded ourselves back into the dinghy to head back to the mothership for some tacos for Brad's birthday dinner. :)
Everything went wonderfully, not as wet of a ride this go-round. We pulled up next to the boat and Brad cut the engine so I could reach out to grab the line we left hanging off the back of the boat. What we didn't account for was the current. It quickly swept us backwards, away from the boat, before I had time to reach out and grab the line. So Brad fired up the dinghy again. It started ok, but suddenly and without warning, wouldn't go into forward! He stalled it out and started it again, but there was the same problem. By this time, we were at least 50yards away from the boat and quickly getting farther. We broke out the oars and started rowing - you can imagine how much fun that was!
Unfortunately, we were no match for the current and soon realized that we were not making it back to the boat under oar. We sought out our other options. We decided to head back to shore and walk/swim the dinghy around the island to the beach near our boat. There was a family there that we had met the day before that was fishing off the beach in their boat, so we were hoping they would be able to tow us back to the mothership.
We rowed over to land and I jumped out when we were close and swam us into shallower water. Of course, as if things weren't stressful enough, when we go to shallow water, Koa got excited and jumped out. Brad had to immediately bailout and run after him - chasing him through the water with his leash. Had we not been so tired, it probably would have been funny...
We leashed Koa and Brad walked with him and I towed the dinghy. We made good time around to the point and then the water was too deep and we had to swim. I don't know if any of you have had the pleasure of swimming in strong current around the point of land, but let me tell you - the water RUSHES around that point. I was swimming as hard as I could and was literally going nowhere. So Brad swam over to shallower water (still too deep for me) and I threw him the line for the dinghy and he pulled us around the point. Once around that, we could see the beach and the boat that we prayed would tow us out to our sailboat. The water was very rocky and the bottom was full of dead sea grass - not a pleasant walk on bare feet. I could feel the rocks and dead grass cutting into my feet, but we had to keep going - it was almost dark and we knew that boat would head back for home soon.
We rounded the corner and were on the long stretch to head over to the beach towards that boat when I heard their engine turn over. I started screaming and jumping around like a mad woman. Brad and I were splashing and screaming and waving our arms like crazy to get their attention. They were our last hope of getting back to our boat before dark. The irony of the situation is that, although he couldn't hear us or see us over by the shore, he motored all the way out to our sailboat and honked his horn - he was checking on us to make sure we were ok. BUT WE WEREN'T ON THE BOAT!!! HOW FRUSTRATING!!
At this point, it was past sunset and I was starting to consider the option of sleeping in the dinghy until morning. Suddenly we heard this lady calling to us from the shore. Right behind the trees we were wading in front of was her house. She was a park ranger and so was one of the few people who actually lived on the island and we were screaming right in front of her house. So she ran out to see if she could help. She was our guardian angel!
We were able to use her phone to call Tow Boat US. They were there within about 2hours. We were tired, cold, covered in bug bites and our feet were throbbing by the time the boat showed up to tow us back. He looped our dinghy onto the back of his boat and headed out to our sailboat slowly, with us riding along behind in the dinghy. As if the day hadn't been comical (in a sick and twisted sort of way) enough, there were hundreds of flying fish out that night. They were jumping out of the water and running into us, landing on our boat. Koa was going nuts!! Brad was laying on him to keep him from jumping out of the boat after them!
We finally made it back to the boat - at 9:45pm, where we had Chef Boyardee Ravioli and fell into bed.

We later found out that the motor was an easy fix - a sheer pin, which breaks all the time and which we actually had a spare of on the boat. Now everytime we go out, we take cell phones and basic tools so we can fix problems as they arise and still get home before dark.