Our two week shakedown to the Dry Tortugas from Fort Lauderdale was a success! Other than being very hot and muggy especially at night in anchorages the weather was actually pretty good. We did encounter one heavy thunderstorm as we approached Government Cut to Miami, we had been watching it for an hour or so and decided it would catch up with us before we could reach a safe anchorage so we put a double reef in the main, rolled up the jib and hove to for half an hour.

One very good thing I like about Malaya is how well she heaves too under main alone. In this storm with winds of F8 or so she found her groove and just sat there. Very comforting!

We spent a night off Virginia Key in off Miami, then sailed or rather motored to Key Largo anchoring off Rodrig Key for a couple of nights. Here we couldn't figure out whether the water or the air was warmer. The air was cooler after getting out of the water but no relief from the heat in the water.

In Miami I started sleeping in the hammock on the foredeck or in the cockpit so that I could have a little breeze. Before we were home everyone except Josh had followed suit. Much nicer on deck at night. That lead to our biggest surprise the lack of bugs everywhere, no no-see-ems, no mosquitoes! Very nice!

After Key Largo we made Marathon for a couple of days, picked up some new belts for the engine and then made for Key West.

We made Key West in good time and then spent a couple of hours looking for someplace to anchor. We found close to town either too shallow, occupied or hard rocky bottom. After hauling in the anchor 3 times I broke out the old Lead Line and tested the bottom in a few more spots before we found a sand patch about a mile north of Key Largo. There was a good tidal current through the area in 20' of water but we got a very good set and were comfortable leaving Malaya during our day trips into Key West.

We spent three days exploring and eating our way thru town with again hot but good weather. Then weighed anchor and went on to the Marquesas Keys for a night. We tried to go ashore here but ran out of water a half mile off the beach in sea grass beds. We didn't want to walk or drag the dink thru the grass beds so returned to Malaya and snorkeled around for a bit.

Next morning under chute and main we made for Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, arriving late afternoon. We found good holding in 10' in sand in a well protected anchorage 100 yards off the beach at Fort Jefferson.

We spent the next 3 days exploring the fort and the surrounding reefs, lots of history and fish. The water on the reefs was a bit cloudy but otherwise some nice coral and fish.

After our 3 day stay we headed home setting a course to take us out into the Gulf Stream in the Straits of Florida where we got a nice 3+ knot boost from the current. The boost was really welcome considering we never saw more than F3 winds for 220miles!. Motor sailing and running with the chute got us home in 40 hours with no seasickness and no fish on the line.

We accomplished all our objectives, found out what works and what doesn't and what needs changing, saw some new places, got some good pic and gave Tristan a nice calm introduction to offshore sailing.