Now this is cruising!

We left No Name Harbour at sunrise, hoping for a good run down to Marathon in the Florida Keys. The weather was beautiful, the wind had picked up and  thanks to the new Wind instrument we didn’t have to guess at the speed anymore). We had a 15 knot easterly wind so Roger finally got to sail albeit a little slowly!!!! Thank goodness!!! I

He was getting terribly frustrated at the fact we had not been able to sail (those of you who have sailed with Roger will not be surprised at this) so now perhaps we would get some peace?

But as with all good things, it came to an end all too soon, so it was back to hand steering and engine. It also meant that we would not reach Marathon before nightfall.

Roger had decided to sail into the night, anchor off Marathon and then go in the next morning (oh yes, remember the autohelm? Well although the new belt had been put on it needed more adjustment so it wasn’t too much use. SO, it was back to hand steering. What about the Hydrovane I hear you ask??? Well unfortunately she needs wind to steer….catch my drift???). Anyway, sail into the night was the plan, until we encountered all the crab pots.

The charts/pilot books do advise to watch out for crab pots (lobster pots) between Thanksgiving and March, but what they should have advised was to look out for water in between the crab pots, for there are so many of them you can’t find any water!!!!! So it was we decided to ‘pull over’ at Indian Key, rather than run the risk of fouling the prop or rudder with the crab pot lines (been there, done that)

We picked up a mooring buoy and settled down for the night. When I say settled down, I mean SETTLED DOWN for the night. Beaujolais must have been laying eggs, because as the tide dropped, so did she, further and further into the soft sandy bottom, just like a turtle laying her eggs.

Roger had miscalculated the tides so when we picked up the buoy at a depth of 7’7” (remember we draw 7’) we were not at the top of the tide and so later, with 6’1” we were settled for the night.

Roger later commented that he was surprised we had managed to get so far in as the chart showed the depths a lot shallower than they actually were. Not to worry, the weather was calm but we had to wait until mid-day the next day before we could leave.

But something else far more important happened. In the time we were at Indian Key, I made the mental switch over to cruising mode. Maybe it was the fact that we had to wait for the tide or something else, I don’t know. But I do know I am in cruising mode now (Roger can breathe a sigh of relief as I have put my bitch wings away) and ready for adventure.