Our days of scheduling our travels based on many daily bridge openings are over - Yay! There were 34 bridges to be opened over the past 4 days. Wow! How quickly will the bridge spans open so we can be sure to get to the next bridge opening on time? Do we have current with or against us? Do we need to throttle up the engine more or slow down to a crawl? At times it was a tad stressful to make the scheduled times of the bridge openings and at other times it was exhilarating.

Gone are the busy waterways with mega-yachts and views of mega-mansions as we traveled thru Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. It was nice to start seeing iguanas in Fort Lauderdale, interesting to see coconuts floating on the water, and it's always peaceful to see ibis perched on mangrove islands.

We've enjoyed some nice anchorages along the way - Peanut Island, Lake Boca Raton, Maule Lake, and now Tarpon Basin. There's a lagoon on Peanut Island, so we went snorkeling for the first time this trip. The water was a little cloudy due to strong winds, so we didn't see many fish, but we certainly enjoyed relaxing and swimming in the warm water!

From our anchorage in Maule Lake, we dinghied to shore and enjoyed a delicious Japanese sushi buffet before stocking up on produce at Laurenzo's Market. Our walk was across a busy highway with lots of people honking their horns, so it was especially nice to get back to the peace and quiet in our anchorage!

Yesterday was a bit interesting after leaving Miami and entering the Florida Keys. While enjoying a wonderful motor sail along Biscayne Bay, our engine started slowing itself down. Being the prudent captain, Tim immediately turned off the engine, checked our fuel bowl, and found water in the fuel. Not good! Fortunately we were able to SAIL while Tim drained the water, replaced the fuel filter, and switched to our other fuel tank. Problem fixed. Whew! Love when we can make emergency repairs while underway! Glad that we didn't have a problem while going thru the many bridges!

After a 10 hour day yesterday, we anchored in Tarpon Basin, a protected harbor surrounded by mangrove islands. The water is crystal clear so it's easy to see the grass along the bottom and watch the beautiful jellyfish swim past our boat! Strong winds and possible storms are in the forecast over the next several days, so our plans are to stay anchored here and enjoy the beauty around Key Largo.

Hope you enjoy the many pictures we recently uploaded to our web album. The above photo was our first sunset in the Florida Keys!