Thurs March 5
Happy 21st birthday to our granddaughter, Jordan!
This photo is from our visit with her last fall at UNC.
We left Key Biscayne at 7:30 AM
It was a quiet and peaceful cruise to Key Largo
Bella has done a wonderful job of getting her "sea legs" back and has been a great cruiser! BUT, we haven't really gone off shore yet.
We anchored at 1:00 in Blackwater Sound close (about 1-1/2 miles by dinghy) to Gilbert's Tiki Bar, which we had been to on prior Key Largo visits by car. We were planning on going over there but later decided to stay in.
We are expecting W and NW squalls to come early tomorrow morning from that horrible line of storms that has been going across the country.
We had a nice sunset on the aft deck, grilling burgers.
Then the bugs came!
Miles 44
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Friday March 6
We looked at the radar on the weather channel and several of the weather apps that we use while cruising and it said that the rain front was spotty in the Keys and would miss us. So we decided to go on to our next location further down the chain and in preparation for another wind direction change. So, anchor up at 9:50
A strong and gusty rain squall hit us at 10 just as we got the anchor up. We had to turn the radar on as it was a white out. It moved fast and we had a big water area to cross so we just moved on slowly. The line passed us by the time we got to the narrow channel into Tarpon Bay.
The calm and clear water in the back bays of the Keys.
On the inside ICW route through Florida Bay in the keys, the channel is pretty shallow. The "book" says if you draw more than 4' 5", do not go that route and we must travel outside. We draw 4' 7". We are doing 1/2 inside and 1/2 ish on the outside. Other cruisers have done it and left their comments. There is a section of the channel that is extremely shallow and they say to go only at high tide.
Well, high tide was just not convenient today for us so off we go, at mid tide but low by the time we got to that section. We never hit bottom that we felt though we did lose the reading from our depth sounder, meaning that it was in the sand, mud or silt. We left tracks behind us.
The real skinny part was obvious (good sunlight) as to where the shoal was. We were able to skirt around it as it was shoaled in right in the middle of the channel.
Our next anchorage is behind Islamorada and close to some areas where we can get off and have fun.
This is one of the shoals we had to get around to get to our anchorage. It looks like the Bahamas water!
We were anchored again by 1:00 at Islamorada NE in Barley Basin. The winds had kicked up into high gear after the rain front passed us and it was way too windy to take Jasmine down. We had hoped up go to West Marine (need parts to work on the port engine shutdown button) and to the restaurant, Lorelei on the beach and Publix.
Didn’t happen. So we are still self quarantined on the boat!
We are needing to go to some stores but like the fact that we haven't been in physical contact with many others recently.
Sunset off the port side of Summer Breeze.
Those waves just look cute, don't they? Let me tell you, they are NOT cute!
Very deceiving!
Miles 26
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Saturday March 7
Sunrise through the galley window.
Winds blew heavily all night and were to shift from the East which is why we moved here. Sorry to say that by 3:00 Saturday afternoon, they are just staring to shift. It was a bumpy night as well as a sleepless one checking on the anchor alarm about every 20 minutes.
Winds still blowing heavily. The anchor is pulling and digging in hard, we hope. Captain Bruce is feeling happy about replacing the chain recently.
We stayed put all day. Still too windy to get Jasmine down. Maybe Sunday. We've been trying to get a mooring ball in Marathon but they are all booked. We hope to move over there after these winds abide on Monday or Tuesday and hope to get lucky in Boot Key Harbor. We were finally able to secure a slip at Key West for the following week but only for a few days.
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