After enjoying a beautiful sunrise in Little Torch Key, we pulled up anchor at 9:30am excited to sail our last leg of this journey into Key West. Moving slowly out of the anchorage meant our radar was unable to register our movement and that meant we could not "see" the channel leading out. Within a few minutes we felt a bump, then we stopped altogether. We began moving the wheel back and forth while slowly increasing our speed to get some momentum going. No go. Unfortunately we dug our keel in harder because the boat was hard aground. Bob began setting the jib sail because fortunately the wind was coming across our starboard mid-ship and we hoped the lift would help us off the shoal. We were dug in pretty hard and the wind alone was not making a difference. Fortunately a Nordic tug named Mercy was crossing nearby in the channel and stopped about 50 feet ahead of our bow. That's how close we were to the channel. Ugh! We caught the edge of the shoal and it wasn't letting us go. The Tug captain tried to help us out by circling the area and running up the channel at a brisk rate to create a wake thus putting more water under our keel. Bob began a zigzag motion in the shoal and gunned the engine....we moved about an inch. We called Tow Boat US as a last resort and would need to wait an hour -- and the tide was running out. An hour didn't sound so bad but we were anxious to get to Key West and this wasn't the kind of start we envisioned. The wind picked up so Bob decided to raise the mainsail to give us maximum sail area and the captain of the Tug gave it another hard run. This time, between the lift from the wake and the lift from the wind and Bob maxing out the engine we cleared the shoal and got back into the channel. Bob called the Tug Captain and thanked her over and over for her help. By 9:45am we were underway again and this time we followed the tug out of the anchorage. Mercy was our angel this day!

We sailed into Key West averaging about 5.5 knots and enjoying every minute.
Along the way we passed one of the racing boats out practicing for the Quantum Sail Week scheduled to start next Sunday in Key West. Once tied up in our slip, we celebrated with a bottle of chilled champagne! After 3 months on the boat we have arrived at our destination: the Southernmost point of the U.S. .............. We are living the dream!

We plan on spending one month here and can't wait to explore the entire island.