Passage - Bayside Marina, Islamorada, FL to Alligator Reef anchorage back to Bayside Marina
11:25 AM Underway
1:05 PM Moored Alligator Reef
3:36 Underway
4:57 Docked Bayside Marina, Islamorada, FL
3.9 engine hours 17 miles

Yea! A brief weather break today. 5-10 kts for about 12 hours and no rain. Not much direct sunshine either. But a day for Jonathan, Eric and the dogs to come to the boat and head out into the Atlantic to Alligator Reef ( http://www.tropicalsnorkeling.com/snorkeling-alligator-reef.html ) for some snorkeling. The weather has been so unsettled there was much grass chopped in the water. ( Note to self to clean the engine strainer tomorrow. )

We left the slip with only 1-2 feet of water under us. This is NORMAL in LITTLE BASIN where the marina is located. I did have to negotiate some un-channeled mangrove islands to get to the main channel out to the Atlantic. I ran aground in the marked channel on the chart plotter! I noticed boats about 50 yards out running parallel to the channel. Thanks to a boat wake rocking Liquid Therapy we backed off. The tide was coming in anyhow and that's how I like working in shallow waters. If you get stuck at least the rising tide will help. After checking the water flow out of the exhaust and the temperature gauge, I determined we hadn’t sucked too much sand into the system. Again, note to self to check the engine strainer tomorrow.

We proceed down the local knowledge channel without any more groundings. The saying abut running aground is there are two types of boaters:
1 those that have
2 those that will.
No one that operates a boat escapes running aground. The trick is to be be moving slowly when it might happen and be able to retrace your path to where there was safe water before venturing forward.

The Atlantic was not exactly calm but it was ok. After picking up a mooring at Alligator Reef 4+ miles out we decided to eat lunch. Changed our minds about eating on the flybridge as it was pretty rollin’ up there. Sun refused to stay out and only Jonathan snorkeled. I launched the dingy that had a 4’ barracuda curiously hanging in the dingy’s shadow. I wanted a few pictures of the boat on the mooring and the Alligator Lighthouse in the background.

We stayed about 2.5 hrs and as clouds were building to the south, and we knew a front was on the way, we dropped the mooring and had a nice ride back to the marina.

Susan and I are pretty good at docking. Also, our present tie up is an easy one, along our port side to the dock. We left our lines all adjusted for our return so that there would not be an issue. However, the boat does not respond with rudder or engine thrusts in shallow water as it does with just a few feet more in depth. I had a very difficult time turning the 180° with all the room in the world. Eventually we got the bow around about 90° and picked up the bow line. Then with full right rudder easing forward made the stern come on around to the dock.

It started raining as Jonathan and Eric loaded the car. It rained off and on all night turning into gale conditions early in the morning. The boat was really rocking.
Tomorrow is supposed to be really windy all day 30-45MPH. Thanks for the 12 hours of good weather today.

Today’s picture is Jonathan boarding after his swim.