Above is one of several Manatees that we saw while doing a dinghy tour.

I also thought that I'd share a couple of lessons:

Hello Texas has no windlass. So we pull the anchors by hand. And, we got tired of dealing with rusted anchor chain staining the deck and our hands. So this season, we splurged on stainless steel anchor chain. Its pretty. It stains-less. You would never guess. It hurts your hands to pull on wet stainless steel chain. Because it lacks rust or any rough texture, you have to grip it much harder when wet, so it hurts. So, now we have to wear gloves to pull up the anchor or just tough it out.

We all know that it is unwise to go into an unknown harbor after dark. And, in general, sailing after dark is has risks. But, after years of experience, sometimes you feel confident enough to go into certain harbors after dark. Well, Marathon is one of those places for me. I can easily navigate to the anchorage at Marathon's west end in the dark, no problem. Except lobster pots are an unseen problem at night. Most of the time, when we hit one with the propeller, the foam ball explodes, we whisper a silent apology to the fisherman who laid it, followed by a curse for the fisherman who laid it, and we almost never get our propeller tangled. Except at night...

Yeah, we caught one while motor sailing and found ourselves dragging the ball and the entire lobster cage from our propeller. Doing the normal tricks, like putting the engine in reverse didn't release the mess. So, we fished out what ever line we could grab with our boat hook and cut it. We were still left with a mess wrapped around our propeller. So, no more motoring until we can clear the line. We're a sailboat, no problem.

But, it did mean that we had to spend the night anchored in open water, rather than a sheltered harbor. That's because I won't sail my boat under a bridge with current in the dark without having a trusted engine. And, I chose not to dive under the boat in the dark to cut away the rope in pitch black water.

We had a rough night at anchor and I cut away the line in the daylight. No harm was done, there was very little drama because we knew what had to be done. But, the story could have ended differently.

The moral to the story is: bad stuff always seems to happen at night... avoid sailing at night. And, avoid landfall at night.