Glassy seas were the order of the day as we left Dry Tortugas and rounded Garden Key to pick up the Southeast Channel. We haven’t been in these waters before, and it is a lovely area. The wind was 3 knots, mostly behind us so the good old engine was doing its work again. If we had to rely on sails alone, we wouldn’t even have gotten out of the anchorage.

We determined that we would not be able to get to Key West before dark so we decided to mosey along to the Marquesas, another group of keys about 40 nautical miles away. After almost no wind all day, it picked up and veered around to the North about a half hour from our destination. The direction changed, the velocity popped up to 12-14 knots and the temperature took a nose dive. It is so interesting to experience such dramatic changes. We pulled in as close as we could to the southeast side and dropped the anchor in about 10 feet of water. We watched 5 commercial fishing boats come chugging in to anchor closer to the shoreline, and I took this picture as one of them crossed the gorgeous sunset. (I just wish he had been a little faster – when the sun was a little higher!)