1/6
Had a nice sail down to Islamarada in the keys. We pulled into Smugglers Cove. We plan to be here for a couple of days because of a large cold front coming thru with high winds. Took a nice walk and went to a State Park and learned about Henry Flagler's quest to build a road road all the way out to Key West. He quarried the fill for the bridges from the islands. Many people died to build the bridges and worked in clouds of mosquitos. Had some great conch fritters at Iisland Beach resturant.
1/7-1/9
The cold front came thru with great vigor. It only rained a short time but very heavy. Temperatures got down to 55°F. Winds 30-35K. Sea 8-11 feet and 18 ft in the Gulf Stream. I am glad we are in a safe cove. We did some serious biking up and down US 1. I fixed my flat front tire and we put our new old people seats on the bikes that we got for Xmas. We also broke in our new bike helmets. The weather is relentless. We went to Church to thanks God for safe journey so far. We also went to the Dolfin show and saw sea lions, turtles, croc's, alligators and of course the doling. All great fun. It's starting to get old at Smugglers Cove it's not the best marina in the world. So we took a chance and departed for Marathon via the Florida Bay side. It was rough and way to shallow for my liking. At least we had a following wind. Finisterre did great however the crew was exhausted when we got to Marathon. When we crossed from Florida Bay to the ocean side via Moser Channel a storm came thru winds got up to about 27K. Iam glad we went under the bridge at the channel before that hit. We pulled into Marathon Marina and RV resort about 3P. It was a tit squeeze and just as we were doc king the wind picked up pushed us into another sail boat. We quezzed in and the world was good. The Marina is very nice. We will be here for a week. Bob and Ruth will be visiting while we are here, should be great fun.