Marco Is to Key West
23 February 2014 | Key West
Bob / What can you say, it's Key West
We got underway from Marco Island at 0910 on Saturday morning. The winds were very light but were suppose to increase. Once clear of the channel we set our course for Key West and raised the sails and shut the iron jenny down. We were only making 3 to 4 knots but that was ok, we didn't want to get to Key West before sunrise anyway. Sharon took advantage of the light air to catch up on some laundry. She washes it in her little machine, I rinse it by hand in a bucket and wring it out and she hangs it out to dry. Pretty good system we got going, and it only used about 6 gallons of water for 3 loads. At 3 pm the wind died, I mean gone, none, totally flat seas so we fired up the iron jenny and made turns for 4 knots. We saw lots of dolphins and turtles and right at sunset, Sharon saw a shark. Don't know how big it was, the dorsal fin came up out of the glassy water and then about 5 feet behind it the tail fin came up, definitely not a dolphin. We were in about 40 feet of water most of the way and we had seen an incredible amount of crab traps. When the sun went down I stood watch on the bow with the spotlight and steered Sharon through the buoy mazes when they cropped up. Around 9 pm the wind filled back in and we once again set the sails and stopped the engine. We were able to sail all the way in to Key West. We are getting good at getting set once the anchor splashes. Today we anchored at 1100, got the dinghy re-inflated and launched complete with the outboard and everything and had lunch by 1145. Next, a quick run into town then some rest!