Pulled anchor at Pumpkin Key at 7:15 am. There were thunderstorms all around us overnight but no direct hit on Troubadour. We dodged that bullet. We did, however, have a little rain and some SW wind last night.

The entrance to Angelfish Creek this morning was a little skinny but we did it. There was a big ketch aground in the creek when we went by. Low tide at the Card Sound entrance and high tide on the Hawk Channel side. Strange. The exit from the creek was OK.

Looks a bit cloudy with glimpses of sun. Maybe we will experience a few showers this morning. SW wind 6.5 knots at 8 am. It's predicted to be westerly between 15 and 18 knots for today.

We put up the jib sail only without the engine and were doing SOG of 5-5.8 knots. Radar on; thunderstorms predicted so we want to keep track of them in order to prepare. There is a thin band moving west to east thru Miaimi that we will probably hit. Wind SW around 13 knots.

10 am: Jib taken down quickly and engine turned on. The apparant wind increased to 20+ knots all of a sudden and the skies got quick dark with light rain. The wind increased, gusting to 28 knots with harder rain and big confused waves with white caps. We motored through the storm and came out the other side around 11 am. Made fresh coffee.

We took the Biscayne Channel into the Miami area for the first time. It's wider and deeper and well-marked. Got a good look at Stiltsville up close. (see pictures)

A tiny bird landed on one of our shrouds and hitchhiked a ride for about an hour. He must've been blown out to sea in the storm and needed to let us take him back. He left us just before we came to No Name Harbor.

Dropped the hook in No Name Harbor at 1:00 pm, among six or seven other anchored boats. It's Friday--hope that it doesn't get too crowded in here.

24 miles