We left Smokehouse Bay Monday morning for Little Shark River. We rolled for a while, then the wind picked up and the swell smoothed out so most of our trip was pretty nice. Sadly, by around 14:00 the wind went away and we didn't get it back till we were only a few miles from the entrance to the river. At the same time we began to see a huge storm building from the East. We were headed right for it. It held off just long enough for me to get outside to anchor. As soon as I was done setting the anchor, the rain and wind stopped and the mosquitoes and no-seems came out in force. We were forced to keep the cockpit and below decks shut up. The engine was still hot so that warmed the cabin up nicely till we were hot and sticky. The only bright note was Jann & Gary on M/V Tie A Knot were anchored right behind us. It's been over a year since we last got together and it was so good to see them again. The rain and bugs kept the visit pretty short. Sleeping wasn't so great and we were really glad to get out of there the next morning. Jann & Gary headed for Marathon and we followed the Everglades National Park boundary to Lignumvitae Key.
A couple of nice things did happen as we moved South to go North. Elaine got a chance to watch dolphins swim along side the boat for a few minutes and one of them looked right at her. She swears it smiled at her. The other great thing was the beautiful West wind at Lignumvitae Key. We were able to open up the boat and enjoy a bug free evening. Wednesday, we'll do the skinny water from Lignumvitae to Blackwater Sound.