Spent April 29th off Rodriguez Key doing nothing. On the 30th moved 3 miles to the John Pennekamp State Park Marina on Key Largo. $30 a night dock with water and power. Got a rental car and went home.

Karen was beautiful as usual and truly love that woman. One the first I got my shots and left without the new autopilot. My buddies at West Marine didn't check to see if my order went through and it didn't. Then an emergency order, next day delivery didn't get shipped since Raymarine does not ship on the last day of the month. So hopefully I will pick it up from a store in North Miami next week. Sometimes things just don't work out.

Drove like mad back to return the rental in 24 hours and did some more work on the rudder post. Should be good as new. We are stocked up on food and have clean laundry. Ready to move again.
April 28th, Uppa da Keys is right, between yesterday and today we made too good time. Got to Key Largo a full day early. Should have stopped in Marathon yesterday but been there done that.

Had a great day sailing up Hawk Channel at 4.5 to 5 knots under full sail. Otto kept to his course except during a couple of strong blows. Started out early trying to beat the wind. At anchor we only had 5-10 knots. Once in the channel the winds picked up and we were sailing at a 25 degree heel but fairly smoothly. By noon the winds dropped and swung more from the south so the last hour was perfect. Even had a large turtle wave as we went by.

Rodriguez Key is just a mangrove island off lower Key Largo. Nothing on it and nothing around it. However, depending on winds, it does give shelter from anything but East winds. You might just have to up anchor and move to the other side if the winds change. There were three other boats anchored when we arrived at 13:00. Now at 17:30 there are eight. Even able to borrow some wifi from Rock Harbor about 1 ½ miles away. Lets see if the signal is good enough to update photo albums.

27 April, the trip from Ramrod Key to Channel 5 Bridge at Long Key was supposed to be an easy 37 miles of light winds. We were underway at 7:30 to run the two miles out to the Hawk Channel that runs up the outside of the Keys. By the time we got turned East on a course of 89 degrees, the wind was blowing from 115 degrees at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20. There were 2-3 ft waves so motoring into wind and waves yielded 3.5 knots at 2/3 throttle.

So we tacked out 2.5 miles into the ocean and then could run with the jib out and the engine running to get 5 knots. So the 37 miles ended up being 45 miles and the boat had a real workout. The waves got to 3-4 ft and Serenity went up and down almost as much as forward. The whole boat is a salt lick.

But the good thing was that Otto worked fine with only light moaning. The repair to the rudder post housing didn't leak, and my bunk is dry despite waves slapping up over the deck. Ended up with about a pint of water in the bilge and who knows where it came from. The ole boat dun good.

Tomorrow same weather and waves and about 30 miles to Rodriguez Key south of Key Largo.

The 26th we arrived at Ramrod Key channel at 17:15 after a slow half day sail and a half day under power. My temporary fix to the autopilot is doing well but it didn't have to work hard with no waves and light winds.

No fish traps to speak of so I emptied the aft end of the boat of things like beer, soda, bicycle, books, documents, etc. to see if I could find a persistent leak that only has been active under power. My fear was a leak from the bolts that hold the propeller shaft in place. But, I had fixed that three years ago and that was still holding. The leak was from the rudder shaft housing.

After an hour of sanding and grinding, I think I cleaned the fiberglass housing well enough to make repairs. I had everything I needed and put two layers of fiberglass cloth over the leaks. One was a crack and two were low spots in the original fiberglass. I'll let it all dry and will leak test it tomorrow. If I stopped the leaks permanently, I'll get some more cloth and resin to reinforce the repairs. If not, that is an other story.

Leaving Key West was fun as I almost shared the channel with the Disney Wonder. One beautiful ship. The 27th I'll try to make Long Key which is 38 miles. Hope I have some wind.