4:13 am. We depart Key West en route to Marco Island.

We got off to a great start this morning, leaving quietly through the Key West bight under a full moon. Bill and I handled the lines and fenders and managed to keep our voices as low as possible to not wake the neighbors on either side of us.

As we left the sound Captain Bob was focused on the red flashing bouys. Later I realized he was counting the seconds between flashes on each buoy to be sure he was tracking the correct one. Each buoy has a different flashing sequence to help boaters navigate the waters. The sound was well marked and we made it out without any problems. The crab and lobster pots were plentiful though and we all kept a close watch out for those.

We enjoyed watching the moon over the water and bright, bright stars in the sky. The moon began to slowly drop down as the sun was beginning to peek out on the east (starboard) side of the boat. What a way to sail. The scenery was breathtaking and we sat quietly in the cockpit enjoying the moment. The afternoon brought us some excitement as a pod of dolphin decided to race up from behind and jump along both sides of our boat. They can really move. (As my brother Tim would say, they moved faster than we were sailing!) I managed to catch some of it on my iPhone and posted it to FB. We also snapped some shots of a hitchhiker on board. At one point Bob caught something out of the corner of his eye and when he looked up he saw the tail end of a bird sitting on top of the bimini. The visitor was southern seagull (because it didn't look like to big gulls I'm used to on the Jersey shores of Cape May and Wildwood) who was very comfortable with its' perch. I took several photos and even a short video but this bird wasn't going anywhere. Eventually we lost interest and at some point Sally the Seagull flew off into the wind.

Bob and I talked quite a bit before making this trek up the west coast of Florida. Since we weren't able to get over to the Bahamas due to weather we opted to head to Key West and stay the month. We had the option of leaving Key West and heading back up the East Coast to our slip in Maryland or heading up the west coast of Florida to Charlotte Bay near our home. We love the Chesapeake and the idea of cruising through it's tributaries was inviting. But it meant travelling back in March and early April. It meant dealing with the cold weather for a couple more months. And we realized we still had to travel back to Florida where all of Bob's work files and hardware were set up in the office in the carriage house. In the end, we decided to keep the boat in Florida and enjoy our cruising here. This is all new to us and we are looking forward to exploring the waters and nearby islands, hopefully with visiting family and friends.

Our twelve hour sail went by rather quickly, believe it or not. For quite a while you're not seeing anything on the horizon and you trust in your compass and radar. We were traveling almost 90 miles today from Key West to Marco Island which is the first point of land contact that our sailboat can actually touch due to the shallow waters of the Florida west coastline. So it is Marco Island that we chose to use as our staging area to make our way up the Gulf Coast . As we approached Marco Island we followed the charts through several canals (with each home more beautiful than the next). On the approach to the Esplanade Marina, the markers were completely different from the GPS and the charts. Bob matched the land outline to the charts and found our way to the marina with no problem.

The Esplanade is made up of condominiums, shops, restaurants, a salon, and of course, the marina. Everything you may want is within walking distance, including the Publix which was just across the street. We wondered about the snorkeling in the area and soon learned there was none. Oh well. We decided to eat dinner out our first night since we got into our slip in the late afternoon. Before dinner, our friend Mike checked in on us, concerned about the bad weather they were experiencing on the east coast and thinking about our long voyage. Turns out the bad weather (torrential rain) finally hit us in the early evening, but had the decency to hold off until after we finished dinner and returned to our boat.

We all slept soundly and woke to a beautiful morning on Marco Island. Nancy drove over to pick up Bill and we enjoyed lunch at a nearby restaurant.
Bob and I decided to walk to the beach which was about 1.5 miles away through beautiful neighborhoods. I made it as far as the park and the lagoon only to learn that you have to wade through the lagoon to get to the other side where the beach is located. I passed on it. Bob started his trek across (supposedly where the water only goes up to your calf) and before long he was hiking the camera up to his neck to keep it dry. Reminded me of those war movies where the soldiers wade through the water and hold their guns up over their heads to keep them dry. Glad I stayed put because at 5'3" I would have been soaked and it was a bit of a walk to get back to the marina. At least Bob was wearing his sailing shorts and the fabric dries quickly.

We stayed on Marco Island for three nights and managed to catch a couple of movies on dvd through Red Box while we were here. We also reprovisioned the boat for the next two weeks.

Our next stop will be Naples.